Role of a Sorcerer in PvE

[Kuraia]

Alright. I'm seeing too many Sorcerers slacking or completely neglecting their CC role in PvE, so here is a little guide for those who would like to learn because they're new to the class, or would like to learn more about our CC role so they can stop being bad.



Your class and you: a PvE point of view

When a group invites you to do a dungeon or a outdoor grind area (i.e. Blackclaw/Taran's Cavern/Training Camp/Iceclaw/Mistmane/Lepharist Citadel/Steelrake/etc, sorry Elyos, don't know your zone grind areas) the vast majority of the time you are being recruited to CC and DPS. Right? Well there seems to be a problem here. Because I'm seeing way too much DPSing and half-assed or even non-existent CCing.

This is a BIG problem, because that is what one or your PRIMARY class roles is regardless of where you're grouping. Even in PvP CCing healers is one of our big jobs in groups. So I ask you, why is this so hard? Why am I seeing so many sorcerers nearing that level 40 turning mark that do not seem to understand the concept of CC?

Whenever you're in the group, when you're given a CC target, you keep that target CCed until the tank picks it up. I'm seeing one CC and Sorcerers never looking at the mob again. So while they're mashing out their DPS rotation with their mouse or keyboard on Mob #1, Mob #2 wakes up/de-trees and starts beating the hell out of the cleric. And sometimes they might re-CC it - but usually only if they're standing close to the healer and actually notice the mob beating the cleric into the ground. Is this because I keep seeing posts on the forums about "I picked sorcerer because I like to see big numbers!"?? We were given a CC target to keep that target CC-LOCKED until the first mob is dead. Not so the Sorcerer could roll their eyes, throw a CC at the beginning of the pull and then go PEWPEW and ignore all further responsibility as a CC class.

Chain CCing (CC-Locking)

This is an amazingly easy concept, but I'm still going to walk everyone through it.

When the pull is started, it will usually start TWO ways:
1.)Tank will pull and you immediately cast your CC on your target.
2.) You will begin casting your CC and the tank will time his/her pull with your CC. (Many tanks are doing this now as we near the level 40 mark)

Your job kiddo, is to WATCH YOUR COOLDOWN TIMERS! If you have slept a target, just as soon as Sleep finishes its cooldown, you should be recasting IMMEDIATELY. I don't care if you want to get that last DPS spell off, jump/hit escape/move, but cancel that cast and RE-CC your mob! Unless your DPS target has 1% life left, you should be re-CCing. Or if you know your tank is slow on picking up the next mob, then still re-CC if the first mob is almost dead. (We'll cover this a little more further down)

Your mob should not move from where it is standing unless you get a resist. (Besides the glitch where sometimes the mobs will still move even with chain-CCing) But your follow-up CC should be landing BEFORE the first CC wears off. This gives you time to alert the party through vent/chat that the mob may get loose. It might be a little time-frame but just a quick "RESIST" or "RESISTED" in chat is very well understood.

My CC got resisted, what do I do?

So your CC was resisted. This is a quick section, because there isn't a whole lot that can be done in this situation. Your best options are to do one of the following:

1) Cast Curse of Roots on the mob immediately. If you're fast enough(or just practice enough to become fast enough), when sleep is resisted, you can land CoR before it wakes or right as it wakes up.

2) If you don't have CoR, then simply cast Root on the mob. If it is not ranged, it will hold it long enough for your Sleep cooldown to refresh, so you can then re-sleep it.

3) If all options are unavailable (this really shouldn't happen unless you are multi-CCing) Then right as you're advising your group of the resist, nail the mob with an Icechain, so it will be slowed, thus giving the tank more time to taunt it before it reaches the healer. (if your Frozen Shock is up, use it as well, even elites can get knocked back, thus buying even more time for either the tank to pick it up, or for your CC cooldowns to refresh)

We're not in Kansas anymore Dodo, so pay attention to your surroundings.

Yes, I know the dog's name was Toto, but I intentionally used "Dodo". Anyways, moving on.

When in an unfamiliar area, you should be CONSTANTLY rotating your camera around and watching for patrols near your group or other situations that can turn your grinding group into a feather graveyard. (i.e. Group nearby wiping and a player running at your group, training mobs behind them) This allows you to either advise the tank to move the mob being tanked if at all possible or just to ready the group for a rough few minutes.

1.) "Oh look! A Pat!" - Most of you should know by now what "pat", "PAT" and "PAT!!!!!" means. If you don't, time to leave the safety of your rock and crawl into the light. A "Pat" is a Patrol or a Pathing mob. This is a mob, or group of mobs that move along a set path back and forth until killed by a group of players. All areas have pats, these pats never change and are always there (unless you're in an outdoor area and a group ahead of you has already cleared the pat). Being a CC-class means you have to be more alert than anyone else in the group. I've had the pleasure of running with tanks who are watching for pats as much as I do and they make groups go by a lot smoother. But anyways, you should be the first to notice a pat coming near your group, whether it be from behind, front or the sides. Immediately alert the group so either they can adjust where they are standing and avoid the pat, or be ready to CC the pat as it reaches the aggro range of a group member and immediately CC it if able.

Edit: If you are in an outdoor area and notice a group ahead of you, you must be especially wary of your surroundings. Because you never know when the mobs the other group killed will respawn. They often tend to respawn right on top of your group during a pull, so this is definitely something you need to watch for.

2.) "Hey, that mob yelled and its friends are coming to play!" - Ahhh the lovely mobs that yell for help. Gotta hate these guys with a passion. They can turn a single mob pull into a "umm what happened? can anybody rez?" moment. How do you know which mobs do this? The only way anyone does - you learn after the first time you pull one that yells and either die, or CC like a pro and barely pull your group's butt out of the fire. Just don't forget to remember that mobs name, you'll need to know it later to either prepare for adds, or advise the tank to move it further away from any nearby mobs.

What I hate seeing is a mob yell for help, more mobs are aggroed, the group wipes and the sorcerer (or other sorcerer in my case) says:
"Where did they come from?" "What happened?" "I didn't see those until it was too late." Yeah, congratulations, you just called yourself out as a bad sorcerer. Seeing how this has happened in groups before, here was what I've replied "The Guardian yelled, we were too close to that standing group and it chained the pat with the tayga." I was paying attention and CCed 2 out of 4 adds. The other TWO sorcerers were too busy DPSing to CC the remaining 2 adds in the 6-8 seconds it took them to kill our cleric. Then the cleric died AGAIN after I rezzed her because STILL the other 2 sorcerers didn't CC. One died running away and the other managed to get away undamaged, I got away with about 400 HP by gliding down a hill.

Even if you are sharing a group with another sorcerer, you should be watching for pats and ready for adds if the current kill target yells for help. Resists happen and if you're watching adds/CC targets, the little animation for a resist is easy to spot. Or hey, if the mob is moving and your fellow sorcerer isn't glowing purple in a mid-cast CC, then you need to step up and use your own to get the situation under control. Rolling with another sorcerer doesn't mean you can let your guard down.

On a final note for this section, if you pay attention enough as you run these dungeons/grind areas, you will learn where every single pat is by heart. I can mentally run the speed-route through FT in my head, to all boss spawn points and tell you where every single patrolling mob is that needs to be killed or watched for. Not saying everyone will be able to do this, but if you just keep paying attention regardless of how many times you've been there, you won't need to memorize the patrol routes.

Your Group and You: A Love and Hate Relationship

I'm going to go over the "relationships" I generally develop with different classes/roles in a group. A lot of you may have the same with your groups. This section will generally give you an idea of what kind of communication/ readjustments/ problems you are going to have with these classes/roles in a group. If you think this section has no relevance to the overall thread, you're sadly mistaken. Learning what to expect from your fellow group members and readjusting your tactics to work around them, not only makes you a more flexible and better sorcerer, but it leads to fewer group conflicts, thus keeping the group moving.

Tank(Templar/Gladiator): Templars first, these should be the person you communicate with the most, clerics being second. Also, learning how fast they pick up the CCed mob after the first mob is dead will help you decide whether or not you need to re-CC when the first target is low on health to allow the tank to switch targets to pick it up. Doing this will help keep you and your cleric from taking a beating. Anyways, these are the ones who either are going to save your butt when a mob gets loose too early and comes for you when you can't re-CC, or you'll be coordinating pulls with them for smoother runs. The more you run with familiar tanks, the less communication will be needed because you will both have adjusted to each others tactics and play off of one another and know whats going on. (i.e. kiting a mob while CC is on cooldown or pulling a CC target to the back to avoid AoE breaking without the tank totally freaking out and chasing after you and the mob).

Now Gladiators are definitely the love/hate relationship Sorcerers seem to talk about most. Having a Gladiator tank, however, is something I can live with. Most Gladiators at my level will tank with polearms, which is their choice, they play the class, I don't. I've had several good runs with a Gladiator tanking FT. These runs were nice because all I had to do was watch for pats or pull a 3rd mob off to be CCed in 3 mob groups while the Glad AoE tanked the other two.

Healer(Cleric/Chanter): I recommend making these your best friends in a group. These are the guys and gals who are going to keep you alive should things go horribly wrong. Want to know a good way to make friends with them? Keep adds off of them. Simple as that. Let them heal in peace without a mob breathing down their neck and they'll love you forever. Not that hard.

DPS(Gladiator/Assassin/Ranger/Sorcerer/Spiritmaster/Chanter): Gladiators again, but this time in a their DPS role. What's our biggest problem? AoE breaking CC. We've all had it happen, more times than we'd like to remember. But I did some reading on the Gladiator forums a while back, and Glads often mentioned how their AoE was part of their DPS rotation, so I started thinking: If I can CC and still allow them to use their AoE, that gives them a higher damage output, which will not only keep me and the healer from being beat to death by broken CC, but the group runs will go faster. So I recommend either getting with the tank and doing CC pulls (where you CC and the tank pulls the other mob off) or starting the pull with an attack (I recommend Icechains with the Frozen Shock) and pull the mob to the back to CC it.

Assassins/Rangers don't give me many problems unless they aren't paying attention and attack a broken CC, thus resulting in more broken CC, but this happens very rarely.

Sorcerers/Spiritmasters only give me trouble when they DoT an add I'm trying to CC. Don't be a moron and DoT adds.

Chanters just give me buffs and do their DPS thing and haven't given me any problems. At 37 when they give me Word of Quickness on big boss fights, they could take my first-born for all I care <3.

Multi-CCing: Not as Hard as You Might Think

How many of you reading and learning from this post have ever done successful multiple-CC pulls? That's a trick question, if you're learning from this, then I don't expect you to very good at CCing. But then again, you are here to learn.

"What is multi-CCing and when do I use it?" This tactic is used for pulling groups of 3 or more mobs or for containing adds.

Pulling with Multi-CC: Remember earlier when we talked about CC-pulling? Well the "advanced" version of that is the Multi-CC pull. Some of you might think this is simple, you just throw a CC on two mobs and let the tank take the remaining mobs. Well, that is the general concept, but there is a little more thought to be put into this situation.

Before the pull is started, the mobs need to be marked accordingly. For this example I'm going to use the Kagolem bosses in FT, since this is where I currently use this tactic the most often.

Mob group make-up: 1 Boss in the center, with a non-ranged add on each side. Due to the fact you can CC the mini-bosses in FT, the boss is CCed and left for last. So you start by marking the mobs. You can use whatever marks you or the tank prefers, but I'll use mine for this example:
1st Add - "1"
2nd Add - "2"
Boss - "Zzz"
When everyone is ready, stand next to the tank with the boss targeted first and begin casting Sleep, as the cast begins, immediately switch your target to "2" and be ready to cast Curse of Roots right after the sleep cast goes off. On multi-CC pulls you won't be doing a lot of DPS until after "1" is down and the tank has picked up the "2". So get one or two short cast spells off and Re-sleep "Zzz".

Now you might be wondering, "What about the CoR mob? CoR has a longer cooldown than its spell duration!" That's fine, just throw Root on the mob to hold it in place and re-cast CoR when the cooldown refreshes (though by then, your group should more than likely be finished with the first mob and the tank should be picking up "2"). Just remember to keep your Sleep target chain-slept until the tank is ready to pick it up. And presto! you've just done a multi-CC pull!

Note: If you're worried about resists, go look for Magical Accuracy jewelry or replace some of your current manastones with MA stones. Or just bring along some MA food. Or if you have a Chanter in the group, ask him/her to use their MA mantra for the multi-CC pulls. Its not that hard and you have plenty of options.

"Wait a minute, some pulls have one or more RANGED mobs!" Yes, they do. And guess what? That means you have to think and plan the pull a little bit more, but its still not hard! Let's set up an example for this situation:

2 Ranged mobs
1 Melee mob

Marks:
Ranged Mob One - "Zzz"
Ranged Mob Two - "1"
Melee Mob - "2"

Now as I forgot to mention in the first example, using "Zzz" is not just because you're CCing it. This also works as a larger visual for the group to know that mob is being SLEPT. Since the Sleep spell doesn't have a very big visual and is easily missed with other spell animations going off.

Again, start the pull by standing next to the tank (this is always recommended because if you get a resist, the tank is always right there to taunt/pull the mob off you until you can re-cast the CC.) Target "Zzz" and start casting sleep, as the cast begins immediately change to "2" and be ready to cast CoR.

Now if you haven't already caught on, You NEVER, EVER use CoR on a ranged mob unless you have no other choice and/or the tank can pick the mob up before CoR expires or else the mob will be free to start casting ranged attacks on the group. CoR/Root combos are for melee only, for what should be an obvious reason. Root only holds a mob in place, it will not stop a ranged mob from attacking from range and still possibly kill you or another member of your group.

Additional Hints, Tricks and Tweaks for CCing

Healer Mobs - Everyone seems to live on the PvP tactic "KILL THE HEALER FIRST" In PvE, this really isn't your best option when you have to CC another mob. Healing mobs tend to dispel CC effects on their friends (i.e. the Cure spell) So keep these slept until the other mobs are dead.


Interrupting Skills(Suggested by Shoseijutsu)- Whenever you're fighting elites, you will often come across not only healers (priest type) but also seemingly "normal" mobs that have healing abilities. Most of these mobs will begin casting a heal at a certain HP percentage range (i.e. Grapplers/Guardians in MM will usually try to heal in the 30-40% range) If you have the available CC ability, you can often anticipate and cast your CC on the mob as they are trying to cast their heal. This will of course, not keep the mob CCed with the group beating on it, but it will provide an interrupt that will stop the heal and allow your group to kill the mob faster. (this helps my MM farming groups mostly because we run 3-4 man groups and a 16k heal can really drag the fight out when you have only 1-2 dps)

CoR/Root Combo Tweak - What can help a lot with multi-CC pulls once you've learned to pay attention to the spell expiration timers (target the mob and mouse over the icon for the CC, it will tell you the remaining time) Is to simply do the following:
Stand next to the tank, target "Zzz" and begin casting Sleep. Once the cast begins, switch your target to "2" to immediately cast Root once Sleep has gone off. Again, only use CoR/Root combos on melee mobs, not ranged. Just keep an eye on the expiration timer on Root and simply cast CoR when the timer gets down to around 2 or 3 seconds, depending on your usual latency.

Switch CC Targets While Casting (Suggested by Ooby)- As I mentioned twice above, but did not go too in-depth, you can begin casting a CC on one target and switch to a new target while the spell is casting. This helps you greatly with Multi-CCs because you lose zero time in switching targets after your first spell has been cast. This concept can also be used in solo grinding with the Ice Chain skills(Icechains and Frozen Shock). (i.e. You cast Delayed Blast on a mob and a 2nd mob aggros. Cast Icechains on the first mob you were targeting and switch to the add during the cast and you can hit the 2nd mob with Frozen Shock, knocking them back and giving you time to CC them and focus back on the 1st mob that was slowed by Icechains)

Chain CCing and Enmity (Aggro)

When chain CCing, if you've done it once, you know that after 2-3 Sleeps or CoR/Root/CoR the mob is really not happy with you. Even with a good tank who will throw a taunt at the CCed mob every chance they can, mobs often will still charge at the Healer until the tank can taunt and start a damage/threat rotation on them. I'm seeing too many sorcerers getting punched in the face by mobs because they think they can just open fire on the mob at this point because they see someone else has more aggro at the moment than they do.

Even with Boon of Peace*, you are still dangerously high on the mobs threat list after 2-3 CCs. I recommend waiting for 4-5 seconds and then starting a Delayed Blast cast and a Flame Cage to ease into DPS and give your tank a little more time to grab the mobs full attention before entering the heavier damage phase of your normal rotations. No point in ending a good Multi-CC pull with a death because you opened the DPS dam and overdid it, getting yourself killed. If you still want to play with fire and open up on the mob, please do so within 5m of the tank so he doesn't have to chase the mob when it comes after you. (Just be mindful of Frontal AoEs and AoE stun/knockbacks)

MP Management and CCing Successfully

This is a simple section as I come to a close with this post. You are given many natural MP restoring abilities as a Sorcerer, that if used correctly, you don't need to even use Mana Potions. When you are CCing frequently or in an area with a lot of patrols or a high concentration of possible adds, keep your mana up. Being OOM when your group needs your CC the most is a situation that can be easily avoided with one statement to sum it all up "Use all your MP restoration abilities as their cooldowns refresh when you're below 90-95% MP".

Using Absorb Energy/Lumiel's Wisdom/Mana Treatment/Robe of Earth/Gain Mana/Soul Absorption every time they're available and you aren't at full MP keeps your MP bar well over 50% even on a speed run. If you get into a really bad CC situation that requires a lot of attention to CC (i.e. Winter Binding, Kiting, Multi-CCing or the occasional Tranquilizing Cloud) Just stop DPSing, at this point, keeping your group alive with your CC to either recover or run is your priority. Just make sure you have the MP to do it.

AoE CCing (Suggested by Phinyx and Shoseijutsu)

By the time we hit that long anticipated level 50, we can have up to three AoE CC abilities in our arsenal. For the most part, I would have to declare AoE CCing mostly an emergency situational tactic given the cooldowns on the spells we can access. . .

Winter Binding I, II, III(WB)- At level 16 we got the spell "Winter Binding I" (II at 28, III at 40) and most of us have probably learned by horrible trial and error how careful you have to be with this spell in high-density mob areas and dungeons. If you haven't, that 15m in all directions is often a larger radius than you might think. Due to this, I usually consider CCing a group of mobs using this ability a bit more "advanced" mostly because I don't recommend it unless you've learned to keep watch of your surroundings very well. Throwing down a Winter Binding in the wrong spot can turn what may have already been a bad pull into guaranteed death.

However, WB can be used a little more often as a non-emergency spell once you've gotten used to the size of its effect:

Example: You need to pull a group of mobs a greater distance due to a pat (don't want to get CC aggro). Since you can't start the pull with CC (and then just have to pick up one running mob), you can wait until the mob has entered the cleared area you and your group have designated to kill the mobs in and cast WB, freezing them in place for at least 10 seconds (rank I is 10 secs, II is 12 secs, III is 14 secs) which gives you the time you need to now CC your mobs and begin the fight. Can also be used to keep a CoR/Root comboed mob immobilized a bit longer while waiting for CoR to come back off of cooldown. (Did not mention this earlier because, again, I consider using WB as a CC a little more "advanced")

Another good trick for regular WB use, is if you know there is a hidden mob close enough you can cast WB to not only bring them out of hide but also freeze them in place so your tank can pick them up before they express their "gratitude" for revealing them. I have used this tactic in Iceclaw, Mist Mane and Wonshikutz Laboratory with great success.

Tranquilizing Cloud(TC)- Our 3000 DP ability that sleeps a target and an unlimited number of enemies within a 5m radius without boosting their elemental defenses - on a 30 minute cooldown timer. Other than for our DP test in the late 30s, most Sorcerers will probably not use this often other than maybe an "oh nyerk!" button. Mostly because of its limited AoE range (5m) you will often not be able to get a full group of mobs CCed. This isn't for lack of trying, but usually when you accumulate adds or an overpull occurs, the healer goes nuts on heals and thus the mobs will split off the tank and rush at the healer or any DPS that may have blasted one of them. I personally am not very impressed with TC (other than its unlimited target effect), yet I still hold onto my DP in dungeons and elite grinding areas just in case. (I won't unload any DPS DP spells until a final boss). Used correctly with Winter Binding (and possibly Sleeping Storm later on) you can still get great utility from this spell given the right situation.

Sleeping Storm(SS)- This is an advanced stigma stone for level 50. 522 MP, 1 second cast, 3 minute cooldown. Unlike its "little brother" TC, SS has a 12m radius around the spells target, but only can affect six additional targets and unlike TC, it does boost their elemental defenses just like our regular Sleep spell. I can not give any personal insight on this spell because, well I'm not 50 yet. But I definitely see a lot more utility in this spell just by its shorter cooldown and working off MP instead of DP. When I hit 50 (and if I follow the stigma tree to get SS) I will try to post something a bit more in-depth, though I doubt it would be much different from using TC.



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If anyone has anything helpful they'd like to suggest for addition, please feel free to let me know and I'll add it. Otherwise this was all I could think of for a basic PvE CCing tutorial. Hope this helps the new sorcerers adjust to their roles and teaches some of the bad sorcerers what they're slacking off on. . . .



*edit: Meant Boon of Peace, hehe thanks Lorraine <3

edit: Was being an idiot and calling "Tranquilizing Cloud" "Illusion Storm" which is a DPS spell, this has been fixed. /facepalm

[Socio]

Good guide.

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by Kuraia

Even with Boon of Clairvoyance, you are still dangerously high on the mobs threat list after 2-3 CCs.

I think you meant Boon of Peace.

Anyway good guide, even if most of it is common sense and you shouldn't have major probelms after a few instance runs, it's true most sorcs just plain don't understand their role in PvE.

Unfortunately I don't think this will reach the people you stated on the first parragraph since this kind of player doesn't seem to care much even after being told the correct way of approaching an encounter, plus many of them don't even visit the forums or read the guides in them. Still, this should prove useful for any new player that isn't familiar with the mage-archetype classes and CC roles in general, or any aspiring Sorcerer without much knowledge of the general game mechanics.

And I love your new avatar.

[PIRO]

nice guide but the macho noob sorc will never read this

[Daemian]

Wow that's a lot of green words.

So what you're saying is sorcerers should know how to use their skills? If someone has played a class enough to reach 40 and hasn't figured that out, they picked the wrong class. Possibly even the wrong game.

[Kaffen]

I agree, it's a nice and thorough guide but the ppl who are at this lvl should know this or they probably never will

[lucifear]

agree and good guide

i do think that the primary job of a sorc is to CC in a party, DPS when you have the time, why?
because you can do it, you cant ask the tank to hold the agro of everything when **** hits the fan
you cant ask the other classes save for SM to lockdown the adds away from the party, they just cant do it, not for long enough anyway, so when people invite you to a group its because they were looking for CC, not DPS, thats easy to get and anyone can do it honestly

so if ever see agro going everywhere in a party, instead of blaming the tank for not holding 5 mobs on him, ask yourself what you could have done instead to help everyone, including yourself

[chenchen]

Good guide~~
btw one thing about standing close to tank...
i just hate the indratu mobs insta firing range aoe atk at you...

[Tekki]

When fighting many at once, assuming the area is cleared and the monsters aren't ranged, I sometimes throw a Winter Binding in the middle to root a few mobs. This just might give enough time for your sleep/CoR/Root to come off cooldown.

[LaJolla]

Wow, this took a lot of time, I can tell, to write and compose. And it's a great guide.

Since I basically do pick-up groups (my clan is mostly higher levels and I'm on my own a lot) I don't have the advantage of partying with the same people over and over and I also solo a lot, so I haven't really understood my true role. Now that I'm hitting the level where most of the quests are Group oriented, I need to know this stuff. So I really appreciate the work you have put into this.

I guess I feel like I'm not doing my job if I'm not adding damage, but from what I'm reading here, it's okay if I just stand and watch and monitor my CCs? Because that is fine with me!

My biggest problem so far is that too many melees are hitting my slept mobs. When I re-sleep them, they still hit them... and maybe the problem is the automatic AoE these guys are doing, that u mention here. I have found I almost prefer CoR because at least they SEE that that mob is CCed and they dont hit. They seem to ignore the ZZZZZs coming off the mob's head.

[Kuraia]

You're right, by now most Sorcerers should know this. . . . .but from what I've seen in the past few weeks this isn't the case. . . At least maybe this will help the newer Sorcerers so they don't follow the same path. . . .I think it might be tied to other MMOs and their "OMG LOOK AT MY DAMAGE" mindset. . . .Though you never know, there might be a few out there who have never played a CC class and might just not know, doesn't seem like a lot of people will offer advice in-game even when you ask. . . .(i.e. /4 questions when I'm busy and can't answer, will go unanswered unless a certain 3-4 others like myself are online/not busy)



And yeah about the standing close to the tank, thats only for when the pull is initiated or when a mob is aggroed on you (like after a CC is broken by the tank) the AoEs suck but can't really avoid them until the mob focuses on the tank so we can slip away to the back again. . . .The damned Mistmane Stalkers AoE can 2 shot me through my Stoneskin with roughly 3k HP right now . . . .really hating the Mau villages. . . .



Thanks Lorraine, I thought it'd be a neat avatar when I took the SS ^-^

[karn09]

Thank you for this great guide.

If you think you know what your doing you should still read this through. Like many, I'd like to think I know what I'm doing, but still everyone can learn from what other people do.

I certainly picked up a few good strategies I was not properly utilizing. I only just start sleeping right at CD a few levels ago and boy does that make life easier.

Also, maybe you should mention why not to use CoR on ranged. Newbs might go huhwtf? Obviously rooted mobs can still attack, but if you tree then Cool-Down is 10s longer than the duration. Not so good when you need someone locked down.

PS. You should write a guide for PvP strategies too =)

[Phinyx]

Excellent guide, covers most of the staples of CC in a nutshell, and even goes through some of the advanced topics. I like!

Just a couple of minor notes I felt were pertinent:

- Illusion Storm is unreliable at best, since it seems that elites have super-duper high stun resistance (the same applies for Frozen Shock too, which you may have noticed when the stagger doesn't show up most of the time when you use it). I prefer not to use it in PvE except against regular trash mobs.

- Winter Binding is your best friend on a pull of 4 or more, at least until you get to level 50 (at which point your new best friend is Sleep Storm). Even a 4 pull should be extremely manageable unless your party is made up of nothing but you, a Glad tank, healers and Sins - you simply need to keep CC up on 2 targets while the 3rd is tanked and the 4th is offtanked or kited.

- It really does help to pound in the Permasleep/ Tree-Root combo until you've mastered it. This applies to PvP situations too, btw.

[Ooby]

I agree very good guide. I'll toss in a few tips from my experience as well.

We all love those glads/***'s (hehe see what I did there?) who just can't seem to understand that they don't need to offtank adds or that AOE's are bad when mobs are slept. If you find yourself in a group like this, root the mob as soon as the tank pulls. The root is quick, holds the mob away from the group, and allows you to sleep it away from all the idiot aoe's. BEWARE doing this in tight places though. Roamers will agro the group if they path by a mezzed mob. But it's a great trick for those pita PUG's.

But don't root the mob near players... especially the cleric. Although it is a fun way to kill botters

Another thing I've found useful is that the game considers the spell cast on the mob you have targeted when you BEGIN casting the spell. This was mentioned in the OP but wasn't given enough attention. You can begin casting Sleep on a mob, and immediately change targets to mob you want to cast your next spell on. I use it when I have to hold a mob mezzed for more than one or two rotations and it allows you to keep up a constant stream of DPS, instead of waiting for the spell to land, and THEN switching targets.

[bleudeciel16]

good read up, and I completely agree