The lost art of crowd control
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 12th 2009 at 5:00PM
The emblems changes are driving traffic back to the Heroics, and I love it -- 5-mans are my favorite thing to do in the game, and there's nothing more fun to me than sitting down with a group and trouncing a Heroic, reeling in all of the gold and loot we can carry. But there's something missing, still, even in these glory days of achievements and Stone Keeper's Shards and Emblems of Conquest. Yes, it's crowd control. Groups are still gung-ho on AoEing everything in their way, and Blizzard hasn't shown any indication, even in the design of the new instances, that crowd control is anything they want to keep around. I can't remember the last time I trapped something in a group on my Hunter, and I'm sure that the last time I did, some Death Knight broke it right open, Death Grip-ped it back into the group, and then AoE'd it down to nothing.Bornakk actually replies in the thread that we're just being nostalgic for nostalgia's sake, and that even when CC was required, people whined that they needed to have certain classes in their groups. But what class doesn't have CC these days? Even Shamans got their CC, just as it wasn't actually needed any more. Crowd control added some semi-serious strategy even to trash fights in instances, and while we originally heard that it would come back at some point, Blizzard certainly seems to be done with it.
But we can be patient. The new instances in 3.2 are light to completely empty on trash, so maybe they're waiting for Icecrown to really put our CC skills and coordination to the test. I play a Hunter at endgame currently, so I might be biased, but I do love 5-mans, and I do miss the extra coordination and teamwork that a big CC-required pull provided. Hopefully they can find a way to mix that back in without requiring certain specs or classes to be along for the ride.
Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
zenmastermets Aug 12th 2009 5:06PM
I "sapped" a mob in H UK about 6 months ago. It was so unusual for me, I forgot to get in stealth.
Chris A Aug 12th 2009 7:01PM
LOL
Gothia Aug 13th 2009 2:48AM
Actually, I had a nice hunter save my butt with a ice block because I was generating too much healing aggro. So thank you ranged dps that have and still do save their heals from an untimely death.
Gareth Aug 13th 2009 5:07AM
I'd be very surprised if Blizzard brought back crowd control into instances or even aggro control for tanks now, because their design philosophy is to make all content playable by everyone, not make content for every type of player.
fatal Aug 13th 2009 10:46AM
As a hunter i'm using freezing trap a lot more since the patch.
Now that it isn't linked with black arrow anymore, you can use it to save healers, proc Lock 'n load and still keep black arrow up.
win-win!
BioHazard Aug 12th 2009 5:07PM
I don't know about your groups, but I've never been in an Uld-25 (or 10 for that matter) that hasn't had to have stuff CCed for multiple trash pulls (especially those couple pulls in the Antechamber). The stuff in there just hits way too hard to AoE tank.
Everything else though, meh. I really didn't enjoy spending 1-3 minutes on every trash pull before a boss back in BC. That's just my opinion though.
Jay Aug 12th 2009 5:19PM
I'm always on sheep duty in the Antechamber as well; that entry chamber is so small that the guys who cast Chain Lightning are brutal on healers.
I also use Counterspell to shut down the Dark Rune casters in the Razorscale encounter -- again, that Chain Lightning hurts -- but when Razorscale goes down, everyone forgets about the casters. We try to do a good job of planning the pull so we don't bring her down right as a new wave comes in, but I've seen people turn away from the caster they've almost DPSed down and rushes to mob the drake.
chipersoft Aug 12th 2009 8:31PM
I'll also chime in on the need for CC on the antechamber casters. They tear the raid up if you don't keep them poly'd.
Those three pulls just before Vezax are also especially brutal, we try to use every CC we have on those things.
Microtonal Aug 12th 2009 9:58PM
If you're not using CC on the Vezax trash, you're dead. Hell, we had the first pull (the one out in the hall) go pear-shaped last night, and I got to toss out an impromptu Freezing Arrow on one of those cheatinous shadow-stepping rogues.
Wyred Aug 13th 2009 4:25AM
@Jay. On Razorscale that's exactly what they should be doing (unless you mean when Razorscale comes down permanently). When Razor is harpooned dowm, the worst of the raid dmg stops, and you get your only opportunity to dps her. Chain lightnings should be healed through, *all* dps should be on the boss, no exceptions. Doesn't matter how close the mob is to death. I'm saying this as a healer.
wizcressida Aug 14th 2009 3:02PM
Yeah, I hear CC is used in Ulduar. (Not that I ever expect to actually get to Ulduar.) The OP was focusing more on 5-man instances, though.
ramivore Aug 16th 2009 4:21PM
Bring back my cc!
Ugh, am I going to have to take on the role of the elitist here? Thats not me.
The most fun I've had in WoW was probably running H-SH with a good group. Sure, it took a long time to beat, but IMO the value of your play is how much fun you had, not your emblems/hour rate. That 5 minutes negotiating CC before a tough trash pull required some nice improvisational strategy and was just as fun as making the pretty lights go. CC is now unused to the point where it has crossed some social threshold where it has become disruptive to other people's game if you try to use it. Heroics are too easy. I'm glad I'm playing a healing class, because the 5-man dps game is now just as boring as raid dpsing.
Look, I'm not saying some aspects of the old system sucked. The thing is that Blizz fixed the worst problems with instances - the runs are now shorter and all classes have good cc. I don't see why it was necessary to make them so easy mode on top of that. What does it say that no-one runs the lvl 80 regular dungeons? Blizz has wasted a lot game development hours here. It's not like making heroics a challenge would put content out of reach in this case. The 5-man achievements have replaced the old system somewhat, unfortunately most players don't really care about 5-man achievements.
The 5-man content is the best part of WoW, requiring teamwork as opposed to grinding or social engineering. I salute the effort to make content more accessible, but Blizz has over-corrected.
Boydboyd Aug 12th 2009 5:07PM
A competent CC'er was invaluable in the old days. It was a test of ability; if you could CC your designated target correctly, you were likely to keep receiving group invites. If you were incompetent with your class' abilities (here, CC), then you were not likely to receive as many call-back invites.
If there were a petition to bring CC back, I would be first in line to sign up.
gundamxzero Aug 12th 2009 5:17PM
Therein lies the problem, while ccing isnt too hard there were people that just didnt want to or pay attention to it. So you had a harder time making groups spent more time building specific classes so that you had the right CC for the right mob and if it didnt work out you had to get another person to replace bad person spending more time trying to get through a simple heroic? Thats the reason 50% of the people couldnt beat MgT because the second to last fight was all based on cc.
Time and frustration is all it added to the game.
Nick S Aug 12th 2009 7:05PM
My Mage used to have a nice focus Polymorph macro, which I used on 75% of trash pulls in instances. Now, the only time I trap on my Hunter or Repent on my Paladin is in PvP.
kabshiel Aug 12th 2009 8:12PM
Needing some CC in raids is fine. Needing it in 5-mans sucks, especially on the level that some of the BC heroics (Shattered Halls, I'm looking at you) required.
MazokuRanma Aug 12th 2009 9:10PM
While CC is virtually useless in PvE now, you're failing to account for the fact that it can be invaluable in a PvP setting if used properly. I for one don't at all miss having to focus on a polymorphed mob all the time anymore.
One think I wouldn't mind though is another boss fight in a 5 man similar to Priestess Delrissa in Magister's Terrace. A boss fight that requires strategic use of multiple class abilities is something I wouldn't mind going back to on occasion.
Evelinda Aug 13th 2009 2:29AM
totally... i actually started raiding in bc as a survival hunter, and i loved being the one who got to chain trap mobs during pulls... those were good days.
kabshiel makes a good point though... some of the bc 5 mans with their cc requirements were a little bit nuts... needing a sheep and a sap and a trap all in one pull for a 5 man is... over the top
gundamxzero Aug 12th 2009 5:07PM
Theres nothing fun about CC, sure it makes things just a little more complex and sensitive. Leave it out of 5 mans, they take long enough as is. Leave it in the harder instances like uld, you have to CC almost every pull on the way to gen V.
And CC really does not take a whole lot of skill its just re-ccing a target every 20 seconds.
Dharmabhum Aug 12th 2009 5:14PM
Heroics take too long? Sure, we're overgeared for the content, but I can push through most any heroic in a 30 minute window, if not less. I agree with you that I'd rather steamroll heroics than worry about CC on every other pull though, but I'd do that even if Blizz put in some "CC is required here" pulls but that goes back to being overgeared.
I do however like that the toughest raids employ CC because I think it does take a little extra focus to keep CC going, but also to not break CC as you're keeping aggro or dps-ing the other mobs in the pull. Sure, the attention paid might be minimal, but I can appreciate it nonetheless.