Instance grouping guide for a crowd controller Back to the Instance grouping guide Basics of Crowd Control in instances . In most encounters where a group of players faces multiple elite mobs , the basic strategy is to have the tank hold the attention ( aggro ) of an enemy target while the DPS classes kill it and the healing classes keep the tank alive . Additional enemies who are active may be crowd controlled in some way to keep them from attacking the non - tanking classes , or overwhelming the tank . In a certain sense , the tank is exercising a form of crowd control itself : it ' s keeping a mob occupied so that it cannot attack party members with less health and armor . However , while tanks , backed up with a good healer , can often ' survive ' the attacks of more than one monster , it gets increasingly difficult to keep additional mobs focused on the tank while the rest of the party is building threat with all other monsters . There ' s a plethora of crowd control abilities in the game which vary wildly in effectiveness and duration . The key to good crowd control is to time when the ability " breaks " ( meaning the monster is then free to charge and attack a member of the party ) so that it can either be crowd controlled again , or the tank can pick it up and gain aggro . It is also very important for party members not to use abilities that break crowd control effects before the natural end of their duration : generally this means not to use any AoE attacks in the proximity of CC ' d mobs , targeting them directly ( and causing damage ) , or putting a DoT on them . There are a number of abilities that can be used on CC ' d mobs without breaking the effect . It is usually the tank that ' starts ' a pull that uses crowd control . The Crowd Controller . Primary classes : Hunter , Mage , Rogue , Warlock Secondary classes : Druid , Priest , Paladin , Shaman , Warrior Summary of common primary CC types : Summary of common secondary CC types : Preferred general crowd controllers . Hunter . Advantages : Mage . Advantages : Rogue . Advantages : Preferred additional or situational crowd controllers . Druid vs . beasts , dragonkin and outside . Advantages : Priests vs . humanoids and undead . Advantages : Warlocks vs . demons , elementals , and humanoids . Advantages : A Crowd Control Example . The tank marks a mob to be sapped , one to be hexed , and one to be polymorphed . Some of these mobs are casters and will be difficult to move on the pull . The tank also marks a melee unit with skull , and another melee unit with X . The rogue can sap as soon as they have their mark , and the shaman and the mage wait for the tank to attack . A Warrior tank may throw at X and then start backing up so that the CCed mobs are left in place for the most part , as the CCs goes out once it is clear the tank has attacked . Skull and X are running to the tank . The tank charges skull and now has threat on the two melee mobs . A Warrior tank may Rend and then Thunderclap now as the active mobs have been moved away from the CCed ones . The tank is now trying to out threat the healer on all mobs and the dps on skull . Patience from the dps during the pull helps , especially if there are more active mobs when less CC is available . The tank is trying to tag each active mob at least once , and then keeps adding threat to them , while putting sufficient threat on skull which is generally being single target dpsed . Depending on how the pull is set up , attacks that hit more than one mob may have to be removed from ones dps rotation . Skull dies . Dps switches to X . The tank watches the CCed mobs for loose ones , and the CCers also watch their mobs for possible reapplication of their CC . If CCers can keep the tank between themselves and their mob , this help the tank pick it up if needed . Once X is down . That tank picks the next target to die , and generally single target attacks it until it ' s dead . Then they pick the next target to die . When CC works , it can make the run better . It makes them easier to heal . It is generally required when the healer is spam healing the tank and out of mana after pulls . It ' s required when tanks are using most of their cooldowns for trash . Lower gear levels may lead to having to use it . The tank is looking to control the pull , especially its start . Unexpected ' sheep pulls ' make this difficult . As does high dps on skull early in the pull . The tank and the dps should work together .