Hi y’all

I wanted to discuss something here because I feel as though it’s something the game could use for improvement. I wanted to discuss crowd control or CC’s for short. I am personally finding that CC’s are or should be beneficial, but tent not to be. I am a little confused by this, because in other games (I know this is not another game  ) CC’s had a fundamental role in helping keep a part alive and defending people in your team. This is true about most game out there. However controls in this game seem somewhat non important as we strive to either nuke everything or focus on DPS. Killing something is mitigation, I agree with that, but holds in the game seem limited to the occasional Holy Poop button.

It could be that I am not using them right. That’s possible, although my Sorceress uses Binding of Ateron often to halt the charge attacks of bigger enemies. But I think part of the issue is that those of us who love control type powers are very weak against super villains. In another game with a similar theme, I could eventually stack enough holding power to overcome their defenses, however I am not sure that is possible in CO. I don’t think I have ever been able to Tazer Arrow, Bind of Ateron, Ego Sleep or Mind Lock a super villain. And while this does make some sense to allow them to be challenging, I often wonder then the purpose of holds or such.

Much like the healing people want to heal, I would like to control crowds or have some heavy CC’s in my arsenal. It just seems as though it’s more of a DPS race. Kill the mobs with your higher numbers to defeat theirs. The finesse of applying a hold to slow down strikes seems lost now.

I am not sure if others feel this way as well. But I personally loved setting the playing field up, so that my teammates could cream the enemy. Sure it never put me in the spot light, but I could at least take the mobs off of a friend, by ensuring that the thing killing them was held or charmed or….anything.

I feel as though it’s one of the main things lacking. I would like to see that improved.

I very much like (and use) CCs, I view them as the ultimate active defense because the stopp 100% of the incoming damage from the affected target.

I think many people are disappointed in how easily they break on damage, that combined with the populatiry of AoE attacks means that you're breaking your own CCs on your next attack so they end up being worthless for you. Well, that and the fact that the people you most want to use them against are imune to them :)

CCs are a great way to control the crowd that you're not killing, they're not so good at controlling the crowd you are killing. So a good AoE CC followed up with strong single target attacks will feel like an amazing combination.

Unless you're CCs are roots. Unfortunately since we can potentially all make and use flying ranged attack using kiting heroes of doom the devs have given every mob ranged attack capabilities. Rooting a mob with ranged attack capabilities is like trying to stun the mobs you just defeated... worthless (well, ok, in some very specific circumstances it's handy, but not often).

Agreed 100% with what you said here. My Claws toon uses CC's because she can safely wade through the sleeping folks and not wake them up because they are single target attacks. I can definately use Binding of Ateron to hold the biggest guy in the mob which helps.

I just want to love CC's a touch more than I do right now. I believe that immunity should not exist, but it should be hard to snag a CC on a master villain. Like having to build up the power of the CC's

They just seem a little lack lustre. I guess it truely depends on the build you use how effective it would be

CC does have a strong place in mitigating alphas and assisting people in very difficult places. There just aren't many difficult places to assist people in as of yet.

The times I've run Andrith I've explicitly used major amounts of CC support at times and other times I just don't use it at all. It makes a huge difference in spawn survival. You also have to have a deep understanding of how CC functions in this game and what the ins and outs of each particular CC power are.

That being said, CC is mostly useless against SVs, unless they spawn pets or call lesser minions out to attack you. Against large, TOUGH, spawns in instances, though, it's very useful in my eyes.

Granted, it's not the mechanic's fault that it's almost as quick to DPS-Death-Revive-Zerg as it is to plan real tactics in the instances right now :/

Yup. CC in Champions is pretty weak. The things that are easy to control could just as easily been killed in the two seconds it took someone to charge a hold power. For those things that you REALLY don't want to keep coming at you, your CC is likely useless unless it stacks.

Mechanically, the CC in Champions isn't straight up bad. It works correctly. It just feels like there is rarely a situation where you need it. With all the no-cooldown attacks out there, you could just obliterate the mob headed at you instead of waste a 20-second cooldown power to hold them. Some of the holds do nice damage, like Heat Wave, but I rarely use it for the actual hold aspect. I'd rather have it up more often, do less damage, and actually have a reason to use it.

However, I DO love the KB in the game. It's actually useful and damaging in Champions. Definitely a plus. And of course, all the previous comments are in regard to PvE. Holds are plenty handy in PvP.

I wish you wouldn't talk about me as if I'm not here... :(

Ego storm is great CC for both solo and team situations. I'll use an ego hold and ego storm any time they're not on cd. Some other forms of CC aren't great because the provide protection to the person held or break on dmg.

CC has a place in game but it's not that important because dps is so powerful atm.

Ok. My main CC right now is Sonic Arrow or Tazer Arrow which does the trick and it's great. I think the hard CC's are almost outshined by the soft CC's (Not CeeCee...nothing out shines him *Hugs*) Knockback, holds and such are often times advantages of another power. Like Elderitch bolts having a root and an Ateron advantage. Or Ego Blast offering a hold if charged.

I know they are working right and are situational and can be life savers, but it seems that the "Destroy" mentality is effective in cases more than a more subtle approach. This depends on builds of course. My Skunk uses sleep powers to gain ground on her opponent. So it does have it's place, but It just feels lacking to me. Like there is a better option or higher damage option that is more solid than a CC in my power picks.

It will be in all situations except the hardest of them, of which there's only a few right now.

I'll run andrith or mandraglore with someone if they want over the weekend to show how CC can be used effectively. L41+ TOUGH enemies just don't go down quickly enough for DPS to overwhelm in most situations.

The same applies for most MMOs, though. People don't need healers or tanks until you get into instanced or extremely difficult content. CO just doesn't have much of that type of content at all.

Compared to CoX, which is the only other game with a large amount of hold/stun type CC. CoX also doesn't have content that requires it unless you specifically ask for it by jacking everything up to 8 man invincible and fight a decent enemy group. At that point CC can be really useful as compared to just more dps.

I think holds are extremely effective in PvP usage, as I always seem to get a hold thrown on me that leaves me unable to do jack squat. Then again, I don't make PvP builds, and I don't PvP often, so it's probably I just suck at PvP. Oh well.