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How to: Utility
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Post by
Stigoz
Introduction:
Alot of people are having trouble in the new dungeons. Most of this is mainly due to people not being used to the new way in which dungeons should be approached now.
Everybody in a group now needs to work together to make it a smooth run, as opposed to the WotLK approach, where the tank spammed his/her favorite AoE, the DPS spammed theirs and the healer just spammed his/her favorite heal.
But not anymore - in early Cataclysm you have to be more than just a tank/DPS/healer, you also have to bring your utility to the table. Especially DPS have to keep this in their mind, nobody cares about your 20k DPS if you wipe, and on the contrary, nobody will care about your 4k DPS if you saved the day.
This might seem daunting at first, but I hope this guide will shed some more light on the subject, and hopefully allow you and your party to sweep through heroics in no time.
Crowd Control
By now, it should be pretty clear to most people what CC (Crowd Control) is. However, it can be harder to apply this in reality. This section will help you understand how to apply crowd control the right way.
List of crowd control abilities:
Mage -
Polymorph
Usable on beasts and humanoid. Will break on damage. 50 second duration. Can be
glyphed
to remove all damage over time effects on the target when cast.
Druid -
Hibernate
Usable on beasts and dragonkin. Will break on damage. 40 second duration.
Druid -
Entangling Roots
While this is not a typical crowd control, it can be used on the meelee mobs to remove them from the battle if used correctly. Usable on all mob types. Can sustain minor damage before breaking. 30 second duration.
Shaman -
Hex
Usable on beasts and humanoids. Can sustain minor damage before breaking. 60 second duration. 45 second cooldown (30 if
glyphed
).
Shaman -
Bind Elemental
Usable on elementals. Will break on damage. 50 second duration.
Rogue -
Sap
Usable on humanoids, beasts, dragonkin and demons. Cannot be applied in combat - but will, however, not aggro the mobs, allowing you to CC without pulling. Will break on damage. 60 second duration (280 if
glyphed
).
Warlock -
Fear
Usable on humanoids, beasts, dragonkin, elementals, demons and giants. Can sustain minor damage before breaking. 20 second duration. Do NOT use this spell in dungeons without the
glyph
.
Warlock -
Banish
Usable on elementals and demons. Will make the mob invulnerable to damage. 30 second duration. If cast twice on the same target, it will remove the effect.
Warlock -
Seduction
A
Succubus
ability. Usable on humanoids. Will break on damage. 30 second duration. Can be
glyphed
to remove all damage over time effects on the target when cast.
Hunter -
Freezing Trap
Usable on all mob types. Will break on damage. If used in combination with
Trap Launcher
, it will allow you to CC a mob without pulling. 60 second duration (78 if
talented
).
Marksman Hunter -
Wyvern Sting
Usable on all mob types (except undead). Will break on damage. Upon breaking, it will leave a DoT on the target, making it hard to control it again, unless someone in your group have glyphed their CC to counter this. 30 second duration. 60 second cooldown (54 if
glyphed
).
Retribution Paladin -
Repentance
Usable on demons, dragonkins, giants, humanoids and undead. Will break on damage. 60 second duration. 60 second cooldown.
Priest -
Shackle Undead
Usable on undead. Will break on damage. 50 second duration.
Priest -
Mind Control
Usable on humanoids. This is a channeled spell and takes you out of the battle untill it is canceled or its duration has run out. 30 second duration.
How to apply and sustain crowd control:
1. Use your crowd control away from the mob(s) being killed right now.
This can be achieved in two ways. The first is by CC'ing the marked targets, thereby initiating the pull (unless you're using
Sap
or
Freezing Trap
, as mentioned earlier). After this, the tank will pick up the remaining active mobs. It is recomended that you CC ranged mobs, as this will make it easier to seperate the CC'ed mobs from the active ones.
If you for some reason have to leave ranged mobs active,
Death Grip
, interrupts and silence effects can be used to bring them to the tank. This is a good approach, if you have time to prepare, setting up targets and appropriate non-combat CC (
Sap
and
Freezing Trap
)
The second way to seperate the active from the CC'ed mobs. This is achieved in various ways; a hunter can set a
Freezing Trap
at his/her feet and use
Distracting Shot
to taunt the mob to him/her, a paladin can use
Hand of Reckoning
to remove a mob from the main group, and then use
Repentance
on it, a druid can perfom the same trick with
Growl
and
Hibernate
or
Entangling Roots
.
The list goes on, and the key is creativity and teamwork. You can even co-operate with your partymembers and use
Death Grip
and
Polymorph
in a nice combo. However, this can be hard in PuGs without voice communication.
This approach is good if you didn't have time to mark targets and set up proper assignments (streaming adds, ninjapulls etc.)
More to come Soon™
Post by
Stigoz
Reserved
Post by
Stigoz
Reserved (just in case, probably not gonna need it)
Post by
HoleofArt
Freezing Trap in combination with Trap Launcher will initiate the pull.
At least, it was for me earlier today.
Post by
341987
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
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