crowd control

Crowd control (CC) is always a highly discussed topic in MMORPGs. Crowd control means that certain classes or roles have the opportunity to hinder enemies in their actions to get a strategic advantage over them for a limited amount of time. It is usually annoying for the affected, but simultaneously an opportunity to change the outcome of a fight. It thus increases the fun for all involved players, because it makes overall combat more spicy for all involved players... if done right.

I'd suggest the following approach: give all classes CC according to their role to allow every player to perform according to / consistent with their role.

Thus, we 1st have to determine what exactly the different roles' job is. In MMORPGs, we usually differentiate between Tanks, Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, and Healers. The later can be distinguished in ranged healers and melee healers which should greatly affect their overall playstyle.

Tanks are heavily armored melee fighters. Their main purpose is to protect allies by soaking up and/or reducing overall damage. This can be accomplished by two means: single target protection and general protection. Single target protection is achieved by selecting an ally that is in need of protection (e.g. she is taking a heavy blow from enemies) and then performing actions that reduce the damage dealt to her by transfering it to the tank. General protection means giving enemies incentives to focus their attacks on the tank (of which the tank then mitigates a considerable amount through high armor / avoidance). Thus, concerning crowd control, a tank should be able to generally annoy enemies to turn their hatred towards him. How do you generally annoy enemies? 1St, they have to be annoyed, not taken out of combat. They have to actually be able to turn their hatred towards the tank. Consequently, a tank should slow down enemies, reduce damage afflicted to allies, block ranged attacks, and reduce overall enemy stats. This would lead to the following crowd control abilities:

• PBAE and/or cone snare („Come to me!“)
  
• PBAE and/or cone damage reduction to other targets than the tank („Hit me!“)
• interception of ranged attacks („I'm your target!“)
• interception of melee attackers („Stay with me!“)
• damage transfer from a single ally to the tank („I'll take that punch!“)

Melee DPS classes are medium-armored melee fighters. Their main purpose is to inflict high damage to single targets in a short amount of time, close combat. They have to be very agile and able to close distances to enemy targets. When they are close to their target, they also have to be able to stay close to that target until their task is accomplished. For crowd control, that would lead to the following abilities:

• anti-CC abilities to stay agile (desnare, break root) („You'll pay for that!“)
  
• sprint to close distance gaps („Here I come!“)
• short-time knockdowns, stuns („Hold still while I punch you!“)
• interrupts („Don't do that, my turn!“)

Ranged DPS classes are fragile ranged damage dealers. Their role is to inflict high damage to multiple targets from a distance. While performing attacks, they usually have to stay in their current position. Due to their very low armor and fragility, they should try to stay away from enemies and continuously readjust their range. To stay away from threats, they have to be able to readjust the correct distance to them. If they fail to do that, they will die. Thus, the crowd control abilities should be as follows:

• short-time single target root („Stay away from me!“)
  
• short-time single target snare („Slow down there, let me finish that!“)

Healers are different. Their job is to keep allies alive by all means. Because of that ability, they are often the primary target for all enemies. If they are given direct crowd control abilities that put enemies out of combat, they would be too strong since they would have two means to greatly reduce damage: through healing allies and through taking enemies out of combat action. Thus, their crowd control abilities should be focussed on self-protection and recovery. To keep that consistent with their role, we should differentiate between melee healers and ranged healers here.

For ranged healers, the general class mechanics for ranged DPS apply: they need to stay away from enemies to fulfill their job. Concerning crowd control, they would then need the following:

• pushbacks („Back to where you came from!“)
  
• quick recovery from knockdowns, stuns, silence, and interrupts („Let me do my job!“)
• emergency self-heals / self-protection („I'm not done yet!“)

Melee healers are designed for healing in the thick of things. They should not have to flee to stay effective. In general, they need a base mitigation that is similar to the base (!) mitigation of tanks. Similar to them, they need to be able to take a punch or two. This is because they are subject to several kinds of attacks at the same time: ranged and melee DPS focus damage, enemy tank annoyance, general ranged DPS AE damage. In comparison to melee DPS classes, they cannot be as mobile as them since they need to stay in range to many allies to get their heals through. Thus, they need a wide range of self-protection (because, again, direct crowd control would be too overpowered):

• high mitigation / armor („I can take a few!“)
• short-term damage immunity („Not now! Go to that other guy (tank)!“)
• quick recovery from knockdowns, stuns, silence, and interrupts („Let me do my job!“)
• high interruption resistance („That doesn't disturb me.“)
• emergency self-heals / self-protection („I'm not done yet!“)