Comparison of Crowd Control Capabilities

Ah, don’t you just love the smell of a good alliteration first thing in the morning?

We’ve spent a lot of time lately looking at hunter crowd control and the ways it can be utilized, and how useful hunters can be in instances as a result. What we haven’t talked much about, however, are the other types of crowd control available to the various classes in the game, and I’d like to take this opportunity to cover some of our other cc options now. Up till now, I’ve focused mainly on hunter crowd control for two reasons: one, this is a hunter-centric blog, and as a result, hunter abilities are what my readers can relate to most specifically; and two, it’s what I know the most about as far as crowd control in general goes. But, I feel that as conscientious players, we should have at least a brief understanding of what other classes are capable of and as such, I thought it’d be a good idea to take a look at what other crowd control options are out there. This will help us in not only understanding what our best options in certain situations are, but also will help us understand the potential roles our fellow party members might fill. So, without further ado, lets take a look at what our peers bring to the table for crowd control.

Mages

Mages are the classic kings (and queens) of crowd control. It’s been no secret from day one, and they’ve been, by and large, the most common and reliable providers of crowd control through the use of their Polymorph spell. Nine times out of ten, when a group is looking for solid crowd control, they’ll be spamming the Looking For Group channel for a mage. However, Polymorph does have its limitations. Let’s take a look at the tooltip for Polymorph:

Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander around for up to 20 seconds. While wandering, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be polymorphed at a time. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.

As you can see, the primary limitations of Polymorph are the types of targets to which it can be applied and the amount of time it remains active. However, the great thing about Polymorph is that it has no cooldown and can be reapplied at any time, even during combat, which is what makes this spell so sought-after in groups. And, as the vast majority of mobs in instances are either Beasts or Humanoids, this is an irreplaceable form of crowd control to most parties.

Druids

Druids seem to be one of the Forgotten providers of crowd control, as few people seem to even know that druids are capable of it. This is understandable, of course, because druid crowd control has severe limitations in its usefulness. As you can see, Hibernate can only be used against Beasts and Dragonkin. Very few instances feature these types of mobs primarily (with a few exceptions), and so typically parties will choose to utilize more common forms of crowd control. One instance that springs immediately to mind where druid crowd control could prove extremely useful, however: Black Morass. This instances features exclusively beast and dragonkin mobs, and as a result, a druid in your party may prove particularly useful. Unfortunately, the pace of Black Morass is such that most parties opt not to use crowd control at all, and instead prefer to just burn all mobs as quickly as possible. But, druid cc is definitely worth keeping in mind there.

Also, with the advent of The Burning Crusade, druids now have the Cyclone spell available to them, which may be used for crowd control as well. Lets take a look at the Cyclone tooltip:

Tosses the enemy target into the air, preventing all action but making them invulnerable for up to 6 seconds. Only one target can be affected by Cyclone at a time.

As you can see, Cyclone doesn’t have a long effect time, which is probably why this spell isn’t utilized much as a primary (or even secondary) form of crowd control in parties. However, with no cooldown, Cyclone can be reapplied at any time. Having a druid chain Cyclone a mob, however, could take the druid out of the fight for the most part, due to Cyclone’s brief effectiveness, so it’s not a generally recommended form of primary or secondary crowd control. But, it does bear mentioning.

Rogues

Rogues are a common choice among parties for crowd control, however their usefulness as a reliable crowd control class is hindered by the limitations of the abilities they utilize to keep mobs incapacitated. While rogues have several lesser crowd control options (i.e., “stun locking”), their most useful crowd control ability is Sap. Lets take a look at the Sap tooltip:

Incapacitates the target for up to 45 seconds. Must be stealthed. Only works on Humanoids that are not in combat. Any damage caused will revive the target. Only 1 target may be sapped at a time.

The tooltip explains the crux of why Sap isn’t the most versatile form of crowd control: the rogue must be stealthed in order to apply Sap (which isn’t a big problem, really) and it can only be applied to Humanoids that are not in combat. The major limitation here being that the ability cannot be reapplied in combat and thus, if the Sap breaks, it’s irreversible, meaning that either another form of crowd control must be applied to the target, or the tank needs to pick it up. However, despite these limitations, Sap is a widely accepted form of secondary crowd control among parties and can typically be used to great effect.

Warlocks

Warlocks, like druids, are one of the neglected crowd control classes. Few people seem to remember that warlocks are capable of providing a few different forms of crowd control to parties. The major forms of crowd control that warlocks can provide include Enslave Demon, Banish, and through the use of their Succubus pets, Seduce.

First, lets take a look at the tooltip for Enslave Demon:

Enslaves a demon up to level 62, causing it to do the warlock’s bidding for up to 5 minutes. The demon’s attack and casting speed are slowed by 40%. Each successive cast makes it harder to enslave the same demon.

Don’t let the tooltip fool you, though. I’ve seen level 70 warlocks keep mobs in many level 70 instances (most specifically, The Mechanar) enslaved with little difficulty.

Basically what all this means is that a warlock is capable of keeping a selected demon from dealing damage to party members for up to 5 minutes. That’s a long time. And, Enslave can be reapplied, although it has diminishing effectiveness. The major limitation of the usefulness of Enslave, however, is that it only works on demons.

Lets take a look at the Banish tooltip:

Banishes the enemy target, preventing all action but making it invulnerable for up to 30 seconds. Only one target can be banished at a time. Only works on Demons and Elementals.

Right away, the obvious limitations are the mobs to which Banish can be applied. It only works on Demons and Elementals. On the bright side, however, Banish is probably the only form of crowd control in the game that isn’t interrupted by damage being dealt to the target, so it’s probably one of the most reliable forms of crowd control available. Also, Banish has no cooldown and can be reapplied. I guess you could probably think of Banish as the warlock equivalent of Polymorph, only the targets are different and Banish is a bit more robust.

Finally, lets look at the Seduce tooltip:

Seduces the target, preventing all actions for up to 15 seconds. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Only works against Humanoids.

While Seduce is one of the shorter forms of crowd control, because it’s provided by a pet (which you can have set to auto-proc the spell) you aren’t losing a party member’s DPS to keep the effect applied, and also, if the spell breaks, a pet will be the one taking damage so no party member will really be harmed, and the effect can either be reapplied, or the mob can be dealt with some other way. However, it does bear mentioning that if something happens to the pet, the spell will be interrupted as it’s a channeled spell.

Also worth mentioning is a warlock’s ability to chain fear several mobs at a time. Chain fearing can be tricky business, though, and a delicate process (as feared mobs could come back with friends, for example), so it’s not something I would suggest as a solid method of crowd control. However, I have seen chain fearing put to devastating effect in instances before, so I did feel it was worth at least a mention.

Priests

Priests really only have two forms of crowd control: Shackle Undead and Mind Control. However, because most groups think of priests as their primary source of healing, they are only rarely looked to as a source of primary or secondary crowd control. Priests are typically only used for crowd control in instances with primarily undead targets, for obvious reasons, and in such situations will actually be used as primary crowd control providers, whether they are the main healers or not. Mind Control, on the other hand, is seldom used.

Lets look at the Shackle Undead tooltip:

Shackles the target undead enemy for up to 50 seconds. The shackled unit is unable to move, attack or cast spells. Any damage caused will release the target. Only one target can be shackled at a time.

After reading the tooltip, Shackle is used as primary cc in undead-rich instances for obvious reasons: it lasts the longest. However, it should be mentioned that Shackle as a source of primary crowd control potentially puts your healer at great risk (if it’s a Holy priest, that is) and Shackled targets should still be paid attention to throughout combat. Typically, a priest can get a re-Shackle off before anything catastrophic happens, but it should be noted that Shackles can be resisted, and also requires a 1.5 second cast time that could be interrupted if the priest is taking damage.

Now let’s look at the Mind Control tooltip:

Controls a humanoid mind up to level 62, but increases the time between attacks by 25%. Lasts up to 1 minute.

Essentially, Mind Control is a lot like a warlock’s Enslave. The major differences between the two spells is that Mind Control works on Humanoid targets (instead of demons), and only lasts for 1 minute (as opposed to 5 minutes). Otherwise, the spells are extremely similar. Mind Control is seldom used as a primary (or even secondary) method of crowd control in groups, though, as there are several other abilities from other classes that are capable of controlling Humanoid targets, and as priests are commonly healers, few groups opt to have their healers also provide consistent crowd control.

And last, but certainly not least…

Hunters

As I’ve already covered trapping fairly extensively elsewhere, I’ll touch on it only briefly here.

Traps are quickly becoming a common form of reliable crowd control within groups as more and more hunters become accustomed to the ability to lay traps in combat (which was instituted in the 2.0 patch). Traps can be applied to any form of mob, provided that mob doesn’t have a specified immunity to traps, and can be reapplied in combat. The only major drawback to traps as a reliable form of crowd control is the cooldown. Traps have a 30 second cooldown without the benefit of set bonuses or talents, and as a result, timing is everything, which is why few groups look to traps as their primary source of crowd control. The other major drawback to the use of traps as a primary source of crowd control is the fact that traps are not applied to specific targets, but are instead locational, so trap placement (and potentially wandering mobs) also have an impact on the success of the trap as a form of crowd control.

For Survival hunters, however, there is an additional method of crowd control available: Wyvern Sting.

Let’s look at the Wyvern Sting tooltip:

A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 420 Nature damage over 12 seconds. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.

The main reason why Wyvern Sting is seldom used as a method of crowd control is that there are very few hunters that will go deep enough into the Survival tree to pick up this ability. Aside from that, Wyvern Sting can actually be a useful method of crowd control in instances. For hunters, Wyvern Sting is probably the most reliable method of crowd control as it’s not location-sensitive, but can be applied directly to a specific mob. However, the draw back to Wyvern Sting is, again, the cooldown. Hunters are the only crowd control class in the game that are saddled with such cumbersome cooldowns for their abilities. Traps, as we all know, have a 30 second cooldown, and Wyvern Sting has a 2 minute cooldown, making it almost impossible to reapply during combat (which is another reason why traps are almost always used instead of the Sting).

Now that you’re more aware of the different crowd control capabilities that the various classes have to offer, you’ll hopefully have a better understanding of the options available to your group in different circumstances. Of course, there are probably other options out there for keeping mobs in check (pet off-tanking springs immediately to mind, for example), but the methods listed above are what is considered the most conventional methods classes have for providing crowd control. Being a “good” player not only means knowing what your class is capable of, but also understanding what other players can bring to the table as well. Hopefully this little run-down has helped with that.