How I use the Succubus as CC in 5 mans

[clavarnway]

Any person who's played a Warlock knows using the succy as cc SUCKS if you don't know what you are doing. So I found this macro online that helps a ton.

First off, put the Succubus on Passive, otherwise she will just stop the Seduction spell to attack.

/clearfocus [modifier:alt]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]; [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,help]
/cast [pet:succubus,target=focus,exists,harm] Seduction; Seduction

What this does is when I hit it, it has the Succubus cast Seduction on the targeted mob, while also setting the mob as my focus. Then when I hit that button again (no need to target the mob again, or click on your succubus), it has her cast the Seduction again on the mob. If the mob is dead or if hold Alt, the focus is wiped and I can manually target the Seduction.

Here is how I do the pull.

I lead with either Shadow Bolt (SB) or Searing Pain (SP) to gain high aggro on the mob I'm going to cc - this does two things..

1.) Ensures I have aggro on the mob over healers from heal aggro or the tank from a Thunderclap or the like.

2.) Ensures that the mob heads towards me so I can safely CC the target away from AOE effects that the tank uses to build threat/mitigate damage like Thunderclap or whatever.

Once the SB/SP has landed and the mob is peeling off heading for me, I put up Curse of Shadows on the mob. This reduces the chance the Seduction will fail, it also reduces the chance it will break mid-Seduce - I can't remember the last time I've had a Seduction break mid-Seduce for awhile now.

While I'm doing the Curse of Shadows, I'm hitting my button bound to the macro above, so that the mob is set and the focus and she starts casting Seduction.

Once the mob is CC'd, I move away from the mob to an area far enough so that when the mob breaks from the CC, I have enough time to stay alive while the Succubus re-casts Seduction. See, unlike Polymorph, Seduction is a channeled spell, which means she can't re-cast it until the prior one is done - that means there's always a window where the mob won't be Seduced. Thus it's very important that YOU have the aggro of the mob (thus the high threat at the beginning of the pull) and not a healer, so that he doesn't run after a healer and one shot them. If you have the aggro, it's very predictable that he will run after you, so you can position so you don't get hit by the mob.

Of course this happens pretty fast, which means I can still dps - I just do it out of habit, then get to dotting/SB'ing. It may take awhile to get used to doing it this way, but it has worked very well for me.

You still need to know about mobs that Silence or do AOE damage - Succubus is VERY fragile, so AOE damage destroys her, and since Seduction is a channeled spell, any Silence effect ceases Seduction right away.

In closing, I have no qualms that the Succubus is very poor CC compared to Polymorph and the like, but I think if a Warlock takes the time to learn how to use it to the best of his/her abilities, it fulfills the role of CC admirably.

PS: Did you know a Warlock can stop a Fear'd mob that looks like it's running into another pack of mobs by casting Curse of Recklessness on the mob? Recklessness causes the mob, among other things, to ignore Fear effects - Makes Fear somewhat usuable as CC in areas that it otherwise would not be, or when the Succubus gets killed and you HAVE to Fear.

What's very fun is Fear'ing the mob, then putting Curse of Recklessness when it runs towards mobs it can pull - Then putting another Curse on the mob, like Curse of Shadows, when it's headed back towards you (since it's ignoring Fear). When you put Curse of Shadows on, it takes Curse of Recklessness off, and the mob is affected by the Fear again. Using this you can "ping pong" a mob by simply switching out between Curse of Recklessness and any other curse.

[Theleb]

Its very similar to what I do but put rather succinctly which helps an awful lot - nice post :D

[pgintx]

I have added this line as the first line to my seduce macro to help remind others not to break the seduce. So far it has helped when others don't know that they can break seduce and loss crowd control.

/party Seducing %T - Don't attack the mob with the hearts!

[Zels]

I did not know about the fear and CoR, thank you.

I use my Succy a lot in five mans for CC, and my macros are similar to yours. Though I like to also have a /focus macro on the bar. I use Xperl and when I focus the target the portrait comes up. This helps me with making sure I have the target maked for seduction focused.

I also recommend Dottimer or something similar so that you can see when your seduction runs out.

I generally just cast CoS on the mob I am seducing, though I like the thought of using a SP to get ag. It is my understanding that with CoS the mob has a lower chance of resisting the seduction so it is very important to at least cast that.

[clavarnway]

Originally Posted by Zels

I did not know about the fear and CoR, thank you.

I use my Succy a lot in five mans for CC, and my macros are similar to yours. Though I like to also have a /focus macro on the bar. I use Xperl and when I focus the target the portrait comes up. This helps me with making sure I have the target maked for seduction focused.

I also recommend Dottimer or something similar so that you can see when your seduction runs out.

I generally just cast CoS on the mob I am seducing, though I like the thought of using a SP to get ag. It is my understanding that with CoS the mob has a lower chance of resisting the seduction so it is very important to at least cast that.

That's a very good point about DoTimer, I'm so used to it I forgot to mention it!! But it's VERY important to have a timer to tell you when Seduction is going to end, you can plan for it!

I've heard of the frames that let you see the focus, that's very handy to see if somebody broke the Seduction with damage or something, since you won't see the Seduction symbol anymore!

[Theleb]

Aye, Pitbull and AG also have focus/focus target frames so they're incredibly helpful.

[Corpboy]

Originally Posted by clavarnway

Here is how I do the pull.

I lead with either Shadow Bolt (SB) or Searing Pain (SP) to gain high aggro on the mob I'm going to cc - this does two things..

1.) Ensures I have aggro on the mob over healers from heal aggro or the tank from a Thunderclap or the like.

2.) Ensures that the mob heads towards me so I can safely CC the target away from AOE effects that the tank uses to build threat/mitigate damage like Thunderclap or whatever.

Once the SB/SP has landed and the mob is peeling off heading for me, I put up Curse of Shadows on the mob. This reduces the chance the Seduction will fail, it also reduces the chance it will break mid-Seduce - I can't remember the last time I've had a Seduction break mid-Seduce for awhile now.

I thought this was going to be just another seduce macro post, but the above is some real value-added content for me. Especially considering my biggest issue with seduce is the mob beign caught in an AoE while being seduced.

Sometimes the easiest solutions (Searing Pain to peeel it away from the tank) just don't occur to me.

Excellent post!

[ceales]

I have the the following macro bound to a key (not sure this is eactly right as I am not in front of my home computer)

/castsequence [target=focus] Curse Of Weakness, Curse Of Recklesness

This allows me to ping pong the feared mob (focus) by just mashing one key

[WoWlock]

How do you target/focus an entire mob? Notice the level 32 to the left.

[Jeeper44]

Originally Posted by WoWlock

How do you target/focus an entire mob? Notice the level 32 to the left.

"Mob" refers to a single enemy. I was confused by the term when I started too, as I think of a mob as a group of people. In here and in the game you will see people say things like "I can take on 2 or 3 mobs at once" meaning they can fight 2 or 3 enemies at the same time, not 2 or 3 groups.