Lirix

It's my day off, and the servers are currently down. So I'm typing...

After you engage the creeps(because you can't fight just one), the party will have to decide how to handle the crowd. The best method is reduction of numbers, but killing them might be a little slower than the tank can handle. There are spells and abilities that can be used to instantly remove creeps from the fight temporarily, however. Those spells and abilities have their own limitations, so we'll list all the ones I know about.

Polymorph

• single target only
• humanoids and beasts only
• breaks on damage
• creep wanders

Banish

• single target only
• demons and elementals only
• breaks on damage

Hibernate

• single target only
• beasts and dragonkin only
• breaks on damage

Shackle Undead

• single target only
• undead only
• breaks on damage

Sap

• single target only
• humanoids only
• breaks on damage
• rogue must be stealthed to use

Freezing Trap

• single target only
• breaks on damage
• trap cannot be placed while in combat

Fear

• single target only
• makes target run away
• damage may break

Howl of Terror

• up to 5 targets
• makes targets run away
• damage may break

Psychic Scream

• up to 5 targets
• makes targets run away
• short duration

Intimidating Shout

• Target stays
• Non-targets near warrior run away

Seduction

• single target only
• humanoids only
• succubus can't do anything else while using

Entangling Roots

• single target only
• outdoors only
• damage may break

The above list has a couple of common themes, so let's look at those for a moment. Breaks on damage means that if you damage the creep, it gets back in the fight immediately. Damage over time effects will trigger this, melee blows will trigger this, area of effect abilities that do 1 damage will trigger this. Debuffs that do not do damage will not trigger this. The other common theme is the running away effects. Calling these crowd control may be a stretch, but in certain situations they can be used. The majority of the time, however, you'll want to avoid these like the plague as a social creep will grab friends as it runs away. This makes the mass fear effects especially frightening, and best used as "holy crap, let's get out of here" abilities.

Mages may be able to use some of their frost spells as minor crowd control as well, but I'll have to defer to Medaros on that score as I've never played a mage high enough to find out.

Because almost all crowd control breaks on damage, area of effect abilities are the bane of a crowd controlling party. Party members who consistently break crowd control abilities are also greatly frowned upon. Boss mobs are often resistant to crowd control, if not outright immune, and thus become the first target of a crowd controlling party while they remove his help from the fight. Due to the amount of coordination required to maintain crowd control, I don't recommend this style of play when working with players who aren't using voice communication.

I thought the other posts I've made were big... Off-tanking should be downright tiny compared to this.

[edit]Not used to vbcode.[/edit]

Lirix

Got so used to typing break on damage that I goofed on banish. It actually dulls out the demon/elemental that it is cast on, preventing them from doing anything but also preventing anyone from doing anything to them. Now, if we only fought these things more often...

LordGrumple

I've been playing a mage for some time now, and I've found a few decent crowd control tactics. There's the typical mage frost AOE which will freeze enemies' feet to the ground for a few seconds. Damage delt will sometimes break this spell, but i've done 300+ damage on something without the spell breaking right away. The mage also has an instant "CONE" spell, which will slow down any enemies in front of him. This cone spell is more for escaping a rampaging group of enemies than normal crowd control. Most mage ice spells will slow the movement speed of enemies, and again...are best used for escaping or putting distance between you and the baddie. The only true mage crowd control spell would be to sheepify them.