Introduction
This guide will teach you all about crowd control effects (CC) and how to effectively use them in PVP combos. You will learn how to recognise different crowd controls (CC effects), protections against CC, how resistances work, and special damage types. We will then go over how to make your own PVP Combos.
Crowd Control
Effects
There are 10 different crowd control effects that are added to skills and applied when you use the skill. It’s important to learn the animations of each so you can change your combos based on the initial CC effect.
Stiffness: Duration 1.5 sec
The character remains standing but is unable to move or perform any actions for the duration of the Stiffness (shorter duration than stun)
Stun: Duration 3 sec
The character remains standing but is unable to move or perform any actions for the duration of the Stun (longer duration than stiffness).
Knockdown: Duration 4 sec
The character is knocked onto the floor and is unable to move for the duration, then rolls to get back up
Bound: Duration 2 sec
The character is instantly knocked onto the floor but stands up instead of rolling
Floating: Duration 3 sec
Character is launched into the air and then put onto the floor into a Bound CC
Freezing
The character is put into an ice cube and unable to move or perform any actions for the duration of the Freeze. Frozen enemies take reduced damage. Once the freeze ends the character is put into a Bound CC
Knockback: Duration 2 sec
Character is pushed backward with a Stiffness CC also applied at the end
Grab/Grapple
Character is picked up and put into a Bound, Float, or Knockdown (depending on the skill)
CC Extenders
Down Smash: Duration 2 sec
Must be used when a character is already in the downed state and reapplies Bound CC.
Can only be used if:
- The CC count has been reached (more information about CC count later on)
- The skill doesn’t have any other CC effects
- The CC effect on the skill was resisted
- The skill has a Stiffness/Stun/Knockback CC effect
Down Smashes have a 30% chance to succeed and this can be increased using skill add-ons on some skills.
Air Smash
Must be used when a character is already in the floating state and reapplies Floating CC. Air smashes have a 100% chance of success.
Protections against CC
CC Protection is added to certain skills to completely block a CC effect when used at the correct time:
Invincibility
- blocks incoming damage and CC from all angles
Super Armor (SA)
- blocks incoming CC from all angles (vulnerable to grab/grapple)
Forward Guard (FG)
- blocks incoming damage and CC in front of you in a 180-degree angle (vulnerable to grab/grapple)
- When using forward guard, a blue shield icon will indicate the percentage (%) of block you have left and will decrease each time you are hit by incoming damage. Once your block reaches zero it will no longer be effective and you must wait for it to regenerate.
- some classes have a forward guard when walking backward, known as S Block
Resistances
CC Resistances are split into four categories:
- Stun/Stiffness/Freezing
- Grapple
- Knockdown/Bound
- Knockback Floating
You can view your resistances by going to your character information (P) and the information is shown in the Battle Stat section.
All characters have a base 20% resistance to all CC, meaning that if you are hit by a CC effect you have a 20% chance of not being affected by it.
You can use gear and buffs to increase your resistance. For example, you can use Red Battlefield Crystal – Adamantine to increase your Knockdown/Bound Resistance by +25% and Stun/Stiffness/Freezing Resistance by +5%.
The maximum applicable Resistance in PvP is 80%. So, even if your target has 100% resistance on their character, your attack with base Ignore Resistance will be calculated from 80%.
Ignore Resistances
Ignore Resistances is a stat that you can gain with gear and buffs to lower the enemy resistances to CC.
For example:
- Your enemy has 100% Knockdown/Bound Resistance and you have Ignore Resistance +15%
- 100% – 15% = 85%
- Max Resistance in PVP is hard capped at 60% so your enemy has a 60% resistance to Knockdown/Bound CC you inflict
Another example:
- Your enemy has 40% Grapple Resistance and you have Ignore Resistance +10%
- 40% – 10% = 30%
- Your enemy has a 30% resistance to any Grapple CC you inflict
Special Damage
There are special types of damages that can deal additional damage to targets on certain CC effects. You can use skills with these special damage types to maximize your damage.
| Types | Descriptions |
|---|---|
| Critical Hit | Deal 200% damage according to the critical hit chance based on the character stats and skill effects (same in PvP and PvE). |
| Back Attack | Deal 150% damage (120% in PvP) when attacking the target from behind. |
| Down Attack | Deal 150% damage (120% in PvP) when attacking the target prone on the ground. |
| Air Attack | Deal 200% damage (170% in PvP) when attacking the target in the air. |
| Speed Attack | Deal 150% damage when attacking the target while moving quickly. (Only applied in PvE) |
| Counter Attack | Deal 200% damage when counter-attacking an attack by the target. (Only applied in PvE) |
PVP Combos (CC Count)
Each CC effect has a “CC Count”.
- Every time you successfully CC a target, the CC Count is increased.
- If a CC is blocked, either with resistances or super armor/frontal guard/invincibility then it is not included in the CC Count
- If the target is not affected by CC for 5 seconds, the count is reset to 0.
- However, if your target gains a CC Count of 2 or higher, they are given a 5-second immunity to all CC effects, from the start (end if you use grapple) of the last CC.
Things to remember when creating CC Combos
- Stiffness, Stun, and Knockback CC cannot be used if the target is on the ground, recovering, or floating. This means you can use skills with these CC effects whilst the target is on the ground for extra damage and it doesn’t increase the CC count. It also means you should usually start your combo with these skills if possible since once the target is on the floor you can’t go back to them.
- Air Smash can only be used if the target is floating
- Down Smash can only be used if the target is already on the floor and has other conditions as well as a 30% success chance so you should avoid using them regularly in combos.
- All other CC can be used at any time (other than when the target is grappled).
- Stiffness, Stun, and Knockback can be repeated one after the other
- If you use 2 of the same CC effect, the second CC will not apply (apart from Down/Air Smash)
- Due to stiffness and knockbacks having a 0.7 CC Count, you can have a total of 3 CC effects (not including Air/Down smash) before the CC immunity is applied
- Knockdowns have a long duration (4 seconds) which means if you use it at the end of the combo and then there is only 1 second left until the 5-second CC immunity has ended
- Always try to end your combo with the target on the ground, this means higher damage due to down attacks, and also a slower recovery if they survive
- Grabs can go through frontal guards and super armor, so it’s good to memorize a few combos that start with a grab CC.
Below is a flow chart showing the order in which you can use CC effects (click image to view full size)
Make sure to use the CC Count when creating combos and do not use two of the same effect in a row (other than down smash which can be used on repeat but has a 30% of success, so it’s not advised to spam). The order that you use the CC effects depends on the initial CC effect you land.
Example Combo Variations:
(You can check the class discords for specific skill combos for your class)
- Knockback > Stiffness > Floating > Air Smash
- Stiffness > Knockdown > Grab > Down Smash
- Stiffness > Bound > Grab > Down Smash
- Stun > Stiffness > Floating > Air Smash
- Grab > Floating > Air Smash > Down Smash
- Stiffness > Bound > Floating > Air Smash > Down Smash
