Tree's guide to the main forms of Crowd Control (CC)

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Tree's Basic Guide to the main forms of Crowd Control (CC)

Crowd Control or 'CC' is the collective name for class skills that are used to temporarily remove a mob from a fight, usually before it starts.

Throughout Wrath of the Lich King dungeons were made greatly under levelled for player's gear and people didn't need to bother with CC, just ignored it in favour of AoE (Area of Effect) spells. With the advent of Cataclysm, new dungeon content has been deliberately set much higher, along with Healer and tank-threat nerfing in order to make CC far more necessary. Unfortunately the pre-80 dungeons haven't been ramped up in difficulty so the game is seeing a lot of people reaching the new, more difficult content without having any great experience of using CC, not being aware of the available types, their limitations or how best to use them.

This guide hopes to address that and inform people of the most basic information on the subject to give players a head start on using their abilities to the best they can.

First of all we must understand that there are several different forms of CC, including Stuns, Rooting effects and 'full' CC. This guide is going to concentrate on the main used 'full' CCs, the ones that stop a mob completely ('rooting' only keeps a mob in place), and that can be repeated (Stuns such as a Rogue's 'Sap' can only be used out of combat and can't be reapplied during the fight).

At the time of writing there are 8 forms of 'full' CC, each is unique to it's class and vary in what types of mobs they will affect (Versatility) and how long the CC lasts (Duration). These are:

Hunter : Freezing Trap;
Anything, lasts for 1 min; Cooldown 30 sec

Paladin (Retri) : Repentance;
Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, lasts for 1 min; Cooldown 1 min

Shaman : Hex;
Humanoids and Beasts, lasts for 60 secs; Cooldown 45 sec

Shaman : Bind Elemental;
Elementals, lasts for 50 secs; Cooldown Global

Mage : Polymorph;
Beasts, Humanoids and Critters, lasts for 50 secs; Cooldown Global

Priest : Shackle Undead;
Undead, lasts for 50 secs; Cooldown Global

Druid : Hibernate;
Beasts, Dragonkin, lasts for 40 secs; Cooldown Global

Warlock : Banish;
Demons and Elementals, lasts for 30 secs; Cooldown Global

All Tanks/Pullers should be aware of each of these forms of crowd control, their limitations and so how best to use them.

Most of these CC forms are fairly straightforward to apply. The Hunter's Traps are not so we'll deal with these separately.


Which Mob is Mine?
Before you begin, the Tank/Puller should mark up each of the mobs likely to be involved in the fight. They should've already explained which mark refers to what in regard to kill order and CC.



If the Tank/Puller marks a mob for you to CC, the first and main thing is: Don't Panic.


Applying your CC (Non-Hunters)

Target your mob, get yourself (safely) in range, ensure that you have Line of Sight on the target, make the target your 'Focus' (For easy reapplication in combat) Watch your Tank/Puller

Sometimes the Tank/Puller will ask you (or one of the other CC-ers) to initiate the pull, but more often they will pull and expect you to be on the ball to CC your mob quickly thereafter. Usually the Tank/Puller will have a 'tell' that they are about to pull, particularly Tanks. A Warrior might Roar or Change Stance, a Bear Druid might Enrage, a Death Knight might Put down Death & Decay and/or Blow their Horn of Winter. Learn what these look like early on in an instance and you'll have a better idea when to time your initial casts.

If the Tank/Puller does ask you to initiate the pull; Stand BEHIND the Tank (or, if range doesn't allow, be ready to move behind the Tank fast), ensure everyone is ready, let any rogues sap any targets they need to, let any Hunter's place any traps they need to and cast your CC. Being behind the Tank means that all the CCd mob's friends will have to go through the Tank to get to you.

Once the fight is underway; position yourself away from the fight at an angle that if your CCd mob 'pops' early and heads for you it won't do so THROUGH the fight.

Watch your CC timer, know when you need to start reapplying the CC, do so in best time to keep the mob as close to it's original position as possible.

If the CC 'pops' early and heads for you, check your cooldown, if you can, reapply the CC. If you cannot, move to place the Tank between you and the incoming mob so they can pull them off you. NEVER, EVER run away from your Tank as you run from the loose mob, always run towards them.

If you made 'your' mob your 'Focus' it's much easier to see how long the CC will last and you can more easily select the mob, even allowing you to cast on the 'Focus' without deselecting your current target. This is also useful for setting up macros.




Applying your CC (Hunters)

The Hunter's Freezing Trap is the most Versatile CC currently available. It can CC any type of mob, it is the ONLY CC that can CC Mechanoids and Slimes and now (Patch 4.0) has one of the longest durations.

Because of this it is the most awkward, pernickety, and downright tricky to use.

The Hunter's Freezing Trap: is placed at the Hunter's feet (or with Trap Launcher anywhere in a 40yd radius), it exists for one minute, after 2 secs it 'arms' itself and IF a mob stands on it after that then that mob will be encased in ice for up to 20 secs. Let me rephrase that; if ANY mob stands on it after that time...

Positioning and timing of the placing of your trap is absolutely crucial to the successful CC-ing of your mob.

In order to place your trap correctly; you need to...

Psychically know if the Tank intends to pull the mobs to them or charge in, you need to psychically know when the Tank is going to pull approximately 20 seconds before they do so, if you've been given a Caster or Ranged mob then you also need to be able to find a convenient wall to duck behind to break Line of Sight. You also need to be aware of the range of any AoE of the others in your group.

OR

Be with a Tank that will TELL you if they're pulling or charging, will see you place your trap and wait approximately 20 secs to pull and who wont give you caster/ranged mobs to CC. (You still need to know the ranges of your companion's AoE.) Unfortunately this kind of Tank is extremely rare, they tend to prefer to shout "Huntard" at you instead.

OR

Be the Puller. (Like that's EVER going to happen. Imagine, the class originally specifically Created and Designed for pulling being allowed to pull, hahaha-hahahaa-hahahaha! Sorry, I'll put that one away with the one with the Minogue sisters.)

Placing your Trap

Assuming that you have somehow established where the main fight is going to happen you should be placing your trap off to the side as much as possible, preferably creating a triangle between the Tank, the Mob and the Trap 40 yds on each side.

If you have been given a caster/ranged mob to trap place your trap on the apex of the wall you are going to duck behind to break LoS, so that as the mob rounds the wall they are trapped. (Make sure this isn't the wall the Tank is planning to LoS pull the other casters around.)

Target your mob, position yourself (safely) to place the trap AND be in range of the mob, ensure that you have Line of Sight on the target, make the target your 'Focus' (For easy reapplication in combat)

PUT YOUR PET ON 'PASSIVE'

Place your trap 20 seconds before the pull, so that your cooldown only has 10 seconds left to go.

When the Pull starts shoot the mob with ONE shot (NOT Serpent Sting or Black Arrow or the DoT will break the CC), the least threatening shot necessary to pull aggro on the mob is best. If the mob is a Caster/Ranged duck behind the wall, if it's melee stand behind your trap.

If your tank was a little over enthusiastic with his pull and has aggro on your mob, hit it with your hardest shot, if that still doesn't work, forget the CC and switch to DPS, the mob is now the tank's problem, when they cry about it later point out that they pulled aggro from you, they'll try not to do it again.

If the mob resists your trap DO NOT FEIGN DEATH, the mob will likely head straight for the healer. Instead either kite the mob until your Trap is ready again and retry or run to the Tank, let them hit it and THEN FD, back off and apologise.

But, if the pull went to plan, 'your' mob should now have run straight into your trap and become a mob popsicle.

Move to place yourself between 'your' mob and the HEALER (When the Trap 'pops' it's going to head for either you or the healer). When your Trap is off Cooldown, immediately place another trap between you and the mob. (Beware, if you place it too close it will instantly trigger and be wasted.)

Rinse and repeat.

When your current Trap 'pops' before the next is off cooldown, kite the mob until the Trap is ready (THIS is why you get to wear Mail) or lead it to the Tank to take it off you, again, don't just Feign Death.




Some other things to know about CC

There is another form of CC that is widely used but doesn't make it into the above list because as mentioned it cannot be reapplied in combat:
Rogue : Sap
Humanoids, Beasts, Demons and Dragonkin that are not in combat lasts for 1 min; Cooldown Global.

Sap is still widely used because with a 1 min duration it often lasts long enough that it doesn't need to be reapplied. Sap cannot be reapplied once combat commences, target the Sapped mob for death before other CCd mobs (if overall the fight is likely to last more than 1 min). Some Beasts can see through a rogue's Stealth so try not to mark mobs near beasts for Sap. If Sap wears off before combat commences it will NOT put the mob in combat and therefore can be reapplied.

A Warlock using a Succubus pet can also have her cast:
Warlock (Succubus) : Seduction
Humanoids lasts for 15 Sec; Cooldown Global.

This is rather tricky to control with a1.5 sec cast time, the pet cannot do anything else while Channeling the spell for the duration and if either the pet or the mob take damage the spell is broken. Using this in a group situation isn't usually worth the 15 secs, but there are times.

Don't hit a CC'd mob
With the exception of Warlock's 'Banish', all CC will break if the mob takes damage, make sure you CC your mob away from the fight, Tanks should move the fight away from any CCd mobs. Do not use Damage over Time attacks on mobs marked for CC as the 'tick' of the DoT will break the CC.

Be ready to catch
CC can be resisted, CC is OFTEN resisted and all decent Tanks will be ready for this. CC is resisted based upon the same principles as any other attack Missing, this is mainly dependant on the caster's Hit Rating, the higher your hit rating the less likely your CC will be resisted. CC 'ticks' every second, it can be resisted at any of those seconds and can therefore break early.

Tip: Healers don't stack Hit Rating, they don't need to. Avoid giving your healer a target to CC, it will likely resist or break early. You also want your healer focussed on healing your backside, not watching a CCd mob.

It's probably a good idea to mention here that ALL bosses are immune to ALL CC, as are a number of mobs, especially 'Berserkers'.