Is instant-cast crowd control too ubiquitous?
First, no, Polymorph isn't an instant-cast spell. Second, onwards! Blizzard Community Manager Nakatoir has posted this morning about Blizzard's current thinking on instant cast CC.
To make this clear right off the bat: This shift of instant casts back to cast times is not just targeted at crowd control. We also wish to start moving some heals back to having a cast time rather than being instant. That said, we're not necessarily planning on overhauling many of the spells and abilities that have been instant for a long time now, such as Hand of Justice. We're looking at some of the big outliers that we see brought up a lot, which are instant-cast, area-of-effect abilities like Blinding Light, or Presence of Mind in combination with Ring of Frost.
We think that there are too many of these AoE CC spells at this time, especially instant AoE CC, which can create some frustrating gameplay experiences. Some other particular crowd-control effects that are on our radar are abilities like Blood Fear, which we're considering redesigning altogether, and Predatory Swiftness in combination with Cyclone, which feels virtually impossible to counter.
While we are talking about cc what about having some more spells share DR with each other. A pala can repentance/blinding light/ hammer. No Dr at all. Why is it that fear and blind share a DR and polly/fear and cycone dont? and many more examples like this.
We're looking at diminishing returns for CC right now as a possible way to help with CC in PvP combat, but it's the type of gameplay overhaul that can be risky to implement in the middle of an expansion cycle if the change is too drastic. We are, however, taking a look right now at the DRs within particular classes, as well as special snowflakes like Cyclone. Either way, the design discussion will undoubtedly continue! ^^
Nakatoir touches upon one CC which seems particularly frustrating, even though it has been in the game forever. Cyclone, with Predatory Swiftness, is an instant cast, as well as being one of the most frustrating CCs to counter, simply because it can't be dispelled. The buff, Predatory Swiftness, can be dispelled, but short of spamming an offensive dispel on the druid target, it's relatively hard to catch before it's used. As it can't be dispelled, the only way out of it is to either use a PvP trinket, or wait.
And any instant AoE CC is definitely suboptimal, as Nakatoir rightly points out. CC, it seems, should have a greater risk attached to it than simply losing a global cooldown, particularly if used to control more than one player.
But, conversely, not all instant-cast CC ought to be removed. For melee classes, it's often vital as a gap-closer, or a way to unleash damage. For ranged classes, it's useful to keep melee away. CC in response to CC! This is how the game works, and has worked for some time, but as Nakatoir says, it seems that instant casts may have got a bit out of control, especially when it comes to crowd control.
What's your take on this? Is Nakatoir right? Is instant-cast crowd control too ubiquitous?
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