Crowd control skills are not affected by equipment

[pcguy]

I have done some testing revolving around the skill Witch Doctor skill Hex.

We know that the effectiveness of a Witch Doctor's spells increases with intelligence, weapon damage, and attack speed.

However, none of these stats make crowd control and buff spells more effective.

For instance, while playing Witch Doctor:

Splinters will do more damage and shoot faster with all of my equipment on.

Hex will always keep the same 8 second duration and 12% additional damage no matter what I'm wearing.

Currently, damaging skills such as Poison Dart scale better with equipment than crowd control skills such as Hex.

I'd like to start seeing some equipment choices that will boost the effectiveness of my crowd control.

I believe that crowd control skills not scaling with gear in the Beta provides evidence, justification, and incentive for the inclusion of gear which offers specific bonuses to skills. To raise the effectiveness of only the attack skills in the game would be ridiculous.

However, what this means in terms of gear choices in late and mid-game is unclear. I'd like to know your thoughts.

[HardRock]

12% additional damage will mean more with better gear, so Hex does scale. As for the duration of CC skills, for balance reasons, I don't think they should scale at all. Hex is already powerful in PvP. Just ask people who had the opportunity to try it a year ago at BlizzCon.

[cacophony]

Of course they scale w/ better gear. If two people stun someone for 3 seconds, the guy w/ better gear will do a lot more damage in that 3 seconds than someone w/ inferior gear. You don't need the stun to be longer, the snare to be worse, etc. A crowd control skill is naturally scaled w/ your gear/damage. You gain an advantage when your control is in play, and that advantage is magnified when you get better gear. No extra scaling necessary.

[Hurtz]

Keep in mind that, even if the game is PvE focused, CC can be way too effective if it scalles with gear.

If its balanced to scale with gear, you could possibly trivialize some content if you can keep stuff CC'd for too long. Besides, you are usually using CC for what it's meant to be used for: control the field. The advantage of the skill is removing enemies from the field, that's already powerful! The damage debuff is even a plus (that scales with gear).

But as a general rule, you shouldn't be getting CC skills if all you wanna do is damage. I think it shouldn't scale with gear.

[konfeta]

Non-Attack skills are generally force multipliers for attack skills, so scaling them when they scale an already scaling set of skills... scaleception?

[Abomb]

Non-Attack skills are generally force multipliers for attack skills, so scaling them when they scale an already scaling set of skills... scaleception?

A scale within a scale within a scale? We must go deeper!

Seriously though, I don't think Frost Nova with a 10 second duration would be very good for balance. I agree with above posters too, that better gear makes you more effective during that CC duration.

[pcguy]

First, I would like to concede that the previous posts are all valid arguments. Crowd Control will always be effective as long as the power of your other skills continues to grow.

Perhaps I am writing this out of the fear that enemies in Inferno will be too numerous or strong to be controlled as easily as the enemies in the lesser difficulties. Perhaps I just want to see progression in all of my skills, not just my damage-dealers.

A scale within a scale within a scale? We must go deeper!

Seriously though, I don't think Frost Nova with a 10 second duration would be very good for balance. I agree with above posters too, that better gear makes you more effective during that CC duration.

Well, what about Frost Nova with a larger radius, or a shorter cooldown, or a some other enhancement? Shouldn't we be able to distinguish between a level 10 character's Frost Nova and an epic, level 60 character's Frost Nova? Sure, three seconds crowd control with a twelve second cool down might be enough ... for normal and nightmare difficulty. When things start ramping up in the later difficulties, won't you need a little extra power to your Frost Nova? Monsters will become more difficult to manage, and a more effective Frost Nova will need to be implemented to keep them at bay.

So, let's say Crowd Control skills aren't affected by gear that gives +damage, why not have gear that enhances rune effects? ... There is some evidence of equipment in the game that enhances the effects to be like the level 5-7 effects that seem to have gone missing in the newest patch:

[Legendary_Skill_Wizard_FrostNova] on Wand, Source, Wizard Hat
Frost Nova Increased by 3-5 (Wizard only)

Why can't Hex's variation, Jinx, do more than 24% additional damage? Why not 25%? Why not 30% at max level? Wouldn't increased effects at later levels support Blizzard's strategy of making characters feel epic? Where are our epic end-game crowd control skills!?

[Ixnatifual]

Of course they scale w/ better gear. If two people stun someone for 3 seconds, the guy w/ better gear will do a lot more damage in that 3 seconds than someone w/ inferior gear. You don't need the stun to be longer, the snare to be worse, etc. A crowd control skill is naturally scaled w/ your gear/damage. You gain an advantage when your control is in play, and that advantage is magnified when you get better gear. No extra scaling necessary.

I completely agree with this.

[Hurtz]

Why can't Hex's variation, Jinx, do more than 24% additional damage? Why not 25%? Why not 30% at max level? Wouldn't increased effects at later levels support Blizzard's strategy of making characters feel epic? Where are our epic end-game crowd control skills!?

As I see it, CCs improve in value rather than effect. The better your gear AND the stronger the enemy (assuming it's affected by the CC), the better your CC is.
Monsters in Inferno are way too tough, so the 'power' of your CC is increased compared to normal for example. OK, you have a pack of 15 rather than 5 now, but if the enemy rly is that tough, taking 1 of them out is a HUGE bonus.

Again, I don't think it should scale in any other ways (as it will also affect PvP and ppl will whine about it [don't care that much myself]), since it's more and more valuable when you approach the higher difficulties.

[pcguy]

Again, I don't think it should scale in any other ways (as it will also affect PvP and ppl will whine about it [don't care that much myself]), since it's more and more valuable when you approach the higher difficulties.

That PvP line is a good point, but it assumes that there are no effective counters to CC skills. As I understand it, there will be ways for each class to break out of or resist certain effects by using a movement skill, using a defensive skill, or by wearing equipment with certain affixes.