DE bouts can be more difficult to win than pool bouts, you should do everything possible to make it as easy as possible. One way to do this is to get the highest seed you can. The higher your seed, the lower the seeds of the opponents you will face. This means that with a much higher seed, you have a good chance of surviving one or two rounds longer before you end up against someone whom you have little chance of beating. In the pool, everything contributes to your seed.
Victories are of course the most important thing.
The first criterion for ranking fencers based on pool performance is the ratio of victories to bouts fenced. Conversely, by losing all your pool bouts, you guarantee a seed near the bottom of the field. However, even each touch can have some effect on your seed, because it's likely that you will be ranked against other fencers in the tournament who have the same ratio of victories to bouts fenced. This is especially important if not all of the fencers will be promoted from this round of pools. I have made it to the second round of a tournament based solely on indicators, making the cut by only a couple of touches.