Some folks on the forums have mentioned that the targets that Holds can work on are so easy to kill that Hold powers are unnecessary and you're better off building for DPS which can easily take out trash mobs and be effective against Hold immune bosses, which is true. I'm proposing a few changes that could make control powers more effective in team content.
I. Crowd Control Changes - Scaling Hold HP and Hold AoE Damage Resistance
I would recommend both of these changes being implemented in a balanced way between the two, though either change could benefit Crowd Control.
I would make Holds (plus Roots and Confuses) partially resistant to AoE damage. The background of AoE damage in team content contributes to Holds being destroyed so quickly they seem insignificant. A balanced amount of AoE damage resistance for Holds would allow Holds to persist longer while single target attacks against a Held target would damage the Hold as it does now. If Crowd Control improves, teams should recognize a held target and choose to single target attack it or not. AoE powers are too indiscriminate for that kind of strategy.
I would re-institute scaling Hold HP to scale off of Intelligence. Some folks may disagree but I see Controllers as Debuffers vs Healers being Buffers. Using Intelligence to scale Hold HP would allow Controllers to specialize in stronger Holds and reduce their cooldowns while Healers continue to use Presence to focus on stronger heals. Using Presence for both Hold HP and healing purposes is just going to lead to strong Healers with stronger Holds. People could still make Controller/Healer builds but using Intelligence for scaling Hold HP would help enable separate Controller focused builds and limit non-Controller builds from receiving the same level of benefit.
II. Crowd Control Changes - Changes to Alerts and other Team Content
Currently team content, like Alerts, have fairly fixed pockets of "trash" mobs (3-5) that doesn't involve much strategy to defeat. Usually, it's just DPS for the win. Occasionally, you'll have a newb (accidentally) or a high level toon (purposely) aggro more than one group of mobs but it's not all that common. This setup works against Crowd Controllers because there really isn't much of a crowd to control.
There are a number of options that may increase the challenge level and strategy needed by increasing the number of mobs and increasing the ways that additional mobs can be aggroed. These changes would help open the door for Crowd Control powers to be relevant and increase the need for strategy in events with no Controllers. I was in a TA event (when it first came out) and our team leader called for "pulling" a group of mobs. Needless to say, he was being overly cautious and we really didn't need to use pulling. I haven't really run into a team needing to pull anything in CO, except for one of the Burst alerts and most people just rush in without bothering anyway.
1) Allow some mobs to call in the troops.
Security drones, like the one's in the Canadian Viper base, could fetch additional troops. Similarly, some of the other faction mobs could be runners that fetch additional mobs.
2) Increase the number of Summons
For Alerts with Viper allow Viper Commanders to call in one or two Viper helicopters (like the ones in the Serpent Lantern adventure pack) along with their support drones.
For Alerts with DEMON allow the Maleficia that summon 1 demonling to summon 4.
Allow the Inner Circle Sorceresses that can summon 1 fire demon to summon 2-3 fire demons.
For Alerts with bosses like Nocturne, allow her to summon something more like 6-8 Shadows.
3) Increase the number of mobs
In some Alerts, there's usually a pair of mobs walking the perimeter. I'd increase them to 5 and make some of them fliers. I'd consider adding additional packs of roamers as all fliers and consider stealthed groups.
In the Bank alerts put 8-10 mobs behind each door in the boss fight.
In some Alerts, there are areas the team doesn't often go (across the street from the bank, alleys in the Vibora Bay Mall, etc...) that could have additional mobs. If mobs are allowed to call in allies, these could be them and it's also more mobs that could be aggroed if the team isn't careful.
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Comments
The easiest way to fix holds would be adding AoE to most of them.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Crowd Control in PvP:
Holds have Static Hold HP values when used against other players.
OR
Players have a new innate statistic that greatly reduces hold HP.
OR
Player Breakfree damage now scales with Super Stats. Breakfree damage scaling values have been greatly increased.
Basically any of these will make holds in PvP as useless as they are now while allowing for holds to be 100X more valuable in PvE.
So unfortunately if we want Crowd Control to actually be viable we have to make it so that Crowd Control remains utterly worthless in PvP.
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The fundamental problem has always been that CCing a player is about as valuable as CCing a Legendary, and the game is balanced as if it's as valuable as CCing a Villain.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
These events seem like a good opportunity for Controllers to shine, since there are a high volume of mobs, but how easily Holds break makes them ineffective.