Based on ongoing feedback from players concerning crowd control abilities, and the impact of these abilities specifically in PvP scenarios, a number of improvements have been made to how crowd control behaves in Age of Conan. These are changes which have generally been evaluated and considered for some time, and we feel 1.06 is the right update to deliver these to players, due to other CC changes also going in the same update.

The changes outlined below will generally improve game-play by reducing the total time a character may exist in a continuously controlled state, and thus address what is known to players as “cc-locks.” This behavior can be seen in certain PvP situations, but also in PvE where mobs in some areas may chain crowd control the player. The following changes do not preclude future adjustments to crowd control.

For organizational purposes, we have thematically grouped crowd control into two divisions. Major Crowd Control, where the character is completely incapacitated, and Minor Crowd Control where only some aspects of character control is impacted. These two groups will now follow slightly different rules for immunities and cc-breaks.

  • Major Crowd Control – Stun, Fear, Charm, Knockback
  • Minor Crowd Control – Root, Snare, Silence



Major Crowd Control Rules

As the crowd control in this category include the more powerful varieties, after any player is affected by a Stun, Fear, Charm there will be applied to the player a 3 second global immunity to all forms of Major Crowd Control (Stun, Fear, Charm or Knockback). After Knockback this will be 5 seconds from when the animation starts, because Knockback cannot be broken by anti-cc (so after the animation ends it will be roughly 3 seconds). With the exception of knockback, this 3 second immunity takes affect after the crowd control effect ends, regardless of the means by which the it does so (naturally expires, via cc-break, etc). This 3 second global immunity will be in addition to other type-specific immunities which may possibly be conferred.

In addition, the Major Crowd Control affects have been made mutually exclusive with each other, so that a player cannot be affected by one Major Crowd Control while he is under the influence of another. Note this does not apply to Minor Crowd Control effects.

So for example, a player may be Feared, Rooted and Snared. But he cannot be Stunned until after the Fear has ended (since both Stun and Fear are Major Crowd Control), and of course also until after the 3 second Major Crowd Control global immunity has worn off. But during any of this time, a Silence may be applied, since Silence is not a Major Crowd Control ability.

Before when a player used a CC break which breaks multiple crowd control types, the player lost all immunities he might have had running for any of those types. For example, if a player was feared after the fear expired he had a long term fear immunity. If the player was then charmed, using Agile Mind would cause the player to lose his long term fear immunity. So one other change we have made is that when a combination CC break is used, other immunities than the type which is actively broken will no longer be removed. Thus, under the new system, if a player is hit with a fear and it naturally expires so that the player receives a long term fear immunity, and is subsequently charmed, using Agile Mind will not remove the fear immunity as it currently does now on Live.


Minor Crowd Control Rules

As currently exists, snare, root and silence can always be cross-stacked with each other. This will continue to remain true, as Minor Crowd Control are the less potent varieties and no combination of them will completely incapacitate the character.

The former behavior was that after a cc-break was applied, the subsequent immunity granted to that type was substantially less than what it would be if the cc wore off naturally. Moving forward, abilities that break Minor Crowd Control have had their cc-specific immunity extended to greater than what they were, but still less than the immunity which would be granted if the cc wore off naturally. Note that unlike Major Crowd Control, an effect in the Minor Crowd Control category confers no global immunity, and only confers an immunity to its own type, as what existed before. Other than this, abilities that break Minor Crowd Control such as Escape Artist will continue to function as they do on Live.

Also note that while currently there is no silence break, we have the option of adding one in the future, and such an ability would follow the rules for Minor Crowd Control.


Other Changes

The following changes have been made to class abilities, in addition to the global changes above:

Overwhelming Shout - cool-down reduced to 3m, stun reduced to 5s, fear to 8s, stun and fear now follow normal cc breaking rules. (% of health rather than % chance to break when taking damage).
Condemn – is now instant cast.
Exorcism - cooldown reduced to 1 minute, cast time made instant
Agile Mind – stun break has been added to the other crowd control break functions of fear and charm.


An Extended Example

Note that abilities such as Avatar of Death, Lotus Overdose, and Excellent Balance which confer long duration immunities may "stack" with the global immunity mentioned in the above sections.

So for example, consider a player who activates Avatar of Death (using the revamped Assassin) and is therefore immune to charm, knockback, root and snare for 15 seconds. He may be subsequently stunned, and then activate Agile Mind for the stun break. For three seconds after stun has ended, the player is additionally immune to fear, stun, charm and knockback from the global immunity (although the knockback and charm immunities are already conferred by Avatar of Death), on top of the immunities he already has. Note that obtaining this global immunity does not impact the duration of the immunities conferred by Avatar of Death. Also, the Assassin could technically be silenced at any point (just as an illustration of how immunities work), and the resultant immunity would be in addition to any other immunities the Assassin already has running.