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Crowd Control
'''Crowd Control''' refers to abilities used to temporarily disable, restrict or disrupt enemies.
Crowd control is especially useful in difficult Dungeon and Raid encounters where fighting every enemy at once would overwhelm the group.
On the Shadowmourne Realm, both human players and Playerbots may use crowd-control abilities.
Purpose
Crowd control reduces the number of enemies actively fighting the group.
This can help:
- reduce incoming damage
- protect the healer
- make difficult pulls safer
- isolate priority targets
- prevent dangerous spellcasting
- control adds during boss encounters
Common Crowd-Control Effects
Crowd-control effects may include:
- Polymorph
- Fear
- Root
- Stun
- Shackle
- Sap
- Freeze
- Silence
- Interrupt
- Disorient
Different classes have access to different types of control.
Polymorph
Mage characters can use Polymorph to temporarily transform certain enemies and prevent them from fighting.
Polymorphed enemies should not be attacked unless the group intends to break the effect.
Sap
Rogue characters may use Sap on appropriate targets before combat.
This can remove one enemy from the initial pull.
Fear
Several classes can use fear effects.
Fear can be powerful but dangerous because feared enemies may run into additional groups.
Use fear carefully in enclosed dungeons.
Roots
Root effects prevent movement while often allowing the enemy to continue attacking or casting.
Roots are useful when controlling melee enemies at range.
Stuns
Stuns temporarily stop most enemy actions.
They are useful for:
- dangerous enemies
- interrupting attacks
- reducing incoming damage
- controlling adds
Interrupts
Interrupts stop spellcasting.
Some enemy spells are dangerous enough that interrupting them is more important than raw damage.
Priority casts may include:
- heals
- crowd control
- heavy damage spells
- buffs
- summons
Playerbot Crowd Control
Playerbots can use class-specific control abilities depending on their AI, class, specialization and active strategies.
Strategy settings may influence whether a bot prioritizes control.
See Playerbot Strategies.
Crowd Control and AoE
Area-of-effect damage can accidentally break crowd control.
Before using strong AoE:
- identify controlled targets
- verify tank threat
- make sure controlled enemies are far enough away
- avoid unnecessary splash damage
Dungeon Use
Crowd control is especially useful when:
- the tank is undergeared
- the healer is struggling
- enemies use dangerous abilities
- several elite enemies are grouped together
Example pull:
- mark one enemy for crowd control
- control that enemy
- tank pulls remaining enemies
- group kills active targets
- controlled enemy is killed last
Raid Use
Raid encounters may require crowd control for:
- adds
- dangerous casters
- waves of enemies
- encounter-specific targets
See Playerbot Raid Guide.
Threat and Crowd Control
A controlled enemy may still become dangerous when the effect ends.
The tank should be prepared to gain control immediately.
See Threat.
Troubleshooting
Crowd control breaks immediately
Possible causes:
- AoE damage
- another bot attacked the target
- damage-over-time effects
- incorrect target selection
Fear pulls extra enemies
Avoid fear effects near unengaged groups.
Bot ignores crowd control
Check:
- class
- available abilities
- combat strategy
- selected target