Crowd Control (CC)

Crowd Control, often shortened to just CC, is a broad term encompassing all of the disabling effects in Elder Scrolls Online. The reason it’s called Crowd Control is because it can be used to control groups of enemies in order to survive.

There are two main types of Crowd Control called soft CC and hard CC.

Soft Crowd Control

Soft CC includes all of the controlling effects which don’t inhibit the targets function of using abilities.

Snare

A snare reduces the targets movement speed by a certain percentage amount. A weaker snare is generally a 30% reduction. A powerful snare is normally a 70% reduction. There are some snares in between these amounts as well.

To force remove a snare the only option is to use a purge Skill like Purge (Alliance War) or the synergy called Purify from the Skill Purifying Ritual (Templar).

There are a number of different Skills which add snares to a target.

You can tell if you have been snared by the cloudy particle effects at your feet and your slower movement speed.

Immobilize / Root

An immobilize, sometimes called a root, freezes the target on the spot for a duration. The target can still cast abilities and perform other functions.

To force remove an immobilize the target can roll dodge in any direction or use a purging Skill like Purge (Alliance War) or the synergy called Purify from the Skill Purifying Ritual (Templar).

There are many Skills which cause immobilize like Dark Talons (Dragonknight) and Encase (Sorcerer).

Silence

A silence is a bit of mix of hard and soft CC. It completely removes functionality to cast abilities but the target can still move.

To force remove a silence the target must Break Free, costing Stamina.

There is not a lot of silencing abilities, the most common example is the Ultimate Negate Magic (Sorcerer).

Hard Crowd Control

Hard CC includes all of the controlling or disabling effects which remove all functionality from a target.

Stun

A stun completely disables the target – they can do nothing except Break Free or wait for the stun to finish. Generally, stuns are short, lasting between 1 and 3 seconds.

To force remove a stun the only option available to Break Free, costing Stamina.

There are many Skills which cause a stun like Shield Charge (One Hand and Shield) and Toppling Charge (Templar).

A short stun will apply if you complete a successful sneak attack.

Knock Back / Knock Down

A knock back or knock down forces the target to fall back to the ground for a short duration. Similar to a stun, the target is completely disabled during this time.

To force remove a knock back the only option is to Break Free, costing Stamina.

There are lots of Skills which cause knock downs like Crystal Shard (Sorcerer), Stonefist (Dragonknight) and Piercing Javelin (Templar).

You can also knock down enemies with a Heavy Attack if they are off-balance (spinning circles above head). This situation arises in PVE quite a lot if you block an enemies Heavy Attacks.

Off-Balance

If a target is forced off-balance it is disabled for a short duration, during which it is susceptible to a Heavy Attack knock down. If a target is off-balance spinning circles will appear above their head.

To force remove the off-balance effect you must Break Free, costing Stamina.

The most common off-balance situation is when an NPC attempts a Heavy Attack but the target successfully blocks the attack. In this case the NPC will be set off-balance. This can also happen in PVP, but it is much less common.

Disorient

A disorient is generally a longer disable which completely removes all functionality from a target, however, a disorient will remove itself if the target takes any damage.

To force remove a disorient the only option is to Break Free, costing Stamina.

There are several Skills causing disorients like Rune Prison (Sorcerer) and Power Bash (One Hand and Shield).

Fear

Fear causes a target to lose control of themselves and flee in a random direction. It removes all functionality from the target.

To force remove a fear effect the only option is to Break Free, costing Stamina.

There are not many Skills causing fear effects. Some notable ones include Aspect of Terror (Nightblade) and Roar (Werewolf).

Pull

The pull effect is when a target is forcibly moved from one location to another during which the target can’t do anything.

To force remove a pull effect the only option is Break Free.

There are not a lot of Skills which cause pull effects though notable ones include Fiery Grip (Dragonknight) and Silver Leash (Fighter’s Guild). A number of NPCs use pull effects, mostly in Group Dungeons and Trials. The Strangler NPCs also use the pull effect.