Mind Control

Mind Control
Mind Control (3 ranks) Priest ability 20 yd range 750 Mana 3 sec cast Controls a humanoid mind up to {caster's level + X}, but increases the time between its attacks by 25%. Lasts up to 1 min.
Properties
Class	Priest
School	Shadow
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Related debuff
Magic Mind Control Charmed. Time between attacks increased by 25%. Duration: 1 minute

[[Category:priest abilities]][[Category:priest abilities]]

"Why should I shed my own blood?"

Mind Control is a shadow spell that allows a unit to temporarily take control of an enemy target for up to one minute and use it to attack other enemies. Mind control serves as a unique form of crowd control in that not only is the target removed from the fight temporarily but the target's powers can be directed against other enemies. However, unlike the Rogue's [Sap] or the Mage's [Polymorph] powers, when the priest is mind controlling a target the priest himself is essentially removed from battle and cannot cast any heals or attacks until Mind Control is broken. However if you Mind Control a healer mob you may use that mob's powers to heal your own party. If you Mind Control another player in PvP combat you are limited to melee attacks.

Functionality

On a successful cast of Mind Control, the priest's viewpoint will shift to the controlled player or mob and the priest's movement keys will move this unit. The pet bar appears and allows the unit's special abilities to be used. Elite mobs (but not bosses) are generally able to be MCed. It forms a general-purpose crowd control similar to saping and sheeping.

If the MCed unit is moved too far from the controlling priest, the spell will be disrupted. The spell is channeled so hitting the priest will not break their control of the target, although each hit the priest takes will decrease the ultimate duration of the spell. Death (of the priest or the MCed target), silences and some other abilities will entirely disrupt the spell.

When the spell ends, the MCed unit (if not a player) will have a large amount of threat on the priest who controlled it. To this date it is not clear precisely how much threat Mind Control causes, but it is very substantial – a priest who is releasing the mob for it to be killed in an instance is well advised to do no threat-causing activities until aggro has been rock-solidly established by a tanking character. Apparently, mobs don't like having their free will stripped away by someone they can kill in two hits.

When learned, Mind Control actually lets a priest usurp the will of a player or mob higher the priest's level. It is not known if Rank 4 is harder to resist than Ranks 1 through 3, so it could be worth using the lower ranks to save mana if the target unit is within the priest's range. In general, however, MC is seldom used until endgame or PvP situations.

If you control an enemy mob or player next to a hostile (to the casting priest) mob, that mob will attack the mind controlled enemy. If a MCed mob dies while MCed, it is not lootable, but if the MC is removed before death it will be lootable.

The signature usage of MC in PvP is to MC an enemy player atop a tower or other high place and then run that player off the edge, causing a large amount of falling damage (if not death).

The WoW Priest forums have a stickied thread with a variety of uses for Mind Control. [1]

Rank table

Rank	Level	Mana Cost	+Level	Cost
1	30	350	2	90
2	44	550	3	2 16
3	58	750	4	3 96

Mind controllable mobs

Main article: List of mind controllable mobs

The following mobs can provide useful buffs to your group or raid when Mind Controlled:

• Scarshield Spellbinder (Lower Blackrock Spire): "Fire Resistance" gives up to +83 resistance for 60 minutes.
• Scarlet Medic (Felstone Field in Western Plaguelands): "Arcane Resistance" gives +70 to +82 resistance for 60 minutes.
• Crimson Initiates (Stratholme): "Shadow Resistance" decreases shadow damage taken by 87.
• Twilight Emissaries (Blackrock Depths): "Fury of Ragnaros" gives +25 magical damage for 30 minutes.
• Vile Tutor (Eastern Plaguelands): "Dark Whispers" gives +35 shadow spell damage for 10 minutes.

Some spellcaster mobs can provide with powerful AoE spells when Mind Controlled. A few examples:

• Whelp Handlers (Scholomance): [Cone of Cold], [Blast Wave]
• Bloodaxe Evokers (Lower Blackrock Spire): Flamecrack, [Fire Nova]
• Various warlock type mobs can cast a Shadow Bolt Volley.

Mind Control FAQ v1.3

Mind control is obtainable at level 30 by priests, and can be used to crowd control, use an enemies' abilities against them, and lots of other creative stuff that are towards the end of this FAQ.

Why don't priests use Mind Control in instances very often?

A couple of reasons:

• The 20yard range means that quite often you won't be able to cast the spell without getting in aggro range.
• Even if you do get the Mind Control off, it is very unpredictable. I've seen mind control last the full 60 seconds, and I've seen it break in less than a second, and if it does break early, your tank will have a hell of a time getting the mob off you, as it causes a tremendous amount of aggro.
• Finally, Mind control is a channeled spell, so the priest can not heal the group while Mind controlling something.

And why not in PvP?

Again, the range is a factor, generally if you're within 20 yards of something you probably don't want to take 3 seconds to cast mind control. However, there are certain situations where this spell shines. If the priest is smart enough to approach the target unnoticed (generally in the middle of a fight where some other friendly players are involved), enemies may have some unpleasant surprises: many players have died after jumping off the bridge to Dun Baldar in Alterac Valley or the lumber mill in Arathi Basin involuntarily.

What are the "Mind control buffs"?

Mind control buffs are buffs that are obtained by casting Mind control on a mob, and getting that mob to cast the buff on you or your party. We've got a nice looking list of them a little further down.

So what can you do with mind control?

Mind control is by no means "useless", but it is very situational. More often than not, it's used, simply because it's a damn fun ability to use, which is what this thread is all about.

I heard that some of the Mind Control buffs are considered exploits, is this true?

Nope, it's been confirmed by Caydiem that using these buffs is creative use of game mechanics and not exploiting at all.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-dungeons&T=269773&P=1

How do you find Mind Control buffs?

By luck, mainly. Go out and mind control something and see if you can cast any of its abilities on yourself. If you find one, be sure to report it here, and we'll hopefully see this thread get longer and longer with more buffs and ideas.

Tips, Hints and Info about Mind Control

1. Mind control duration is partly controlled by distance. The farther your 'pet' is from you, the higher the chance of breaking. Solution : Park it on top of yourself unless you have other plans in mind for it OR if the NPC you are fighting has some sort of stun/cc (Shield bash/gouge/polymorph etc).
2. Mind control a healer if it's available. Why spend your own mana and get possible aggro when you can easily mind control that medic and use it's prayer of healing which heals for 2k+ AND uses only 400 mana over your own? Don't forget that the medic has 8k mana meaning it can chain cast it for a while, and if it gets aggro and dies...just remember that it wasn't you who just died. :P
3. Mind controlled NPCs have their own aggro, spells cast by an NPC do not get 'added' to your current aggro.
4. You can mind control something and let the surrounding 'linked' NPCs kill it. Then fade aggro to zero in order to dump the NPCs onto your group/tank. Ghetto crowd control. Why fight 3 when you can fight 2. Leading to the next note
5. Mind soothe is VERY useful in getting close to humanoid NPCs without them jumping you due to the 20 yard range of mind control. If you want them to focus on pet and not on you first (Remember aggro rules) use mind soothe.
6. Mind control damage is not counted as 'player damage'. Meaning if a mind controlled pet kills something entirely by itself, you get no loot. But if a person in your group hits it for even 1 dmg it is counted as a player kill and you can loot it as normal.
7. You can mind control something and have it die, but you will receive no loot for it. Instead let other NPCs beat it up to 5% or so, then break mind control and one shot it to gain access to its body.
8. Shadow Affinity and Shadow Focus affect the duration and aggro gained from mind control. If your into heavy controlling both are highly suggested to make your life and group's life easier.
9. Mind control can break early even if channeled bar is still somewhat full. A break is checked vs level/distance/resistances of target every x amount of seconds.