BW - Why on earth would you design a game with so much CC?

Man I guess you never played WoW for its first couple of years. The balance of CCs to CC breakers was truly awful. You could get stunlocked from full health to zero by Rogues with nothing at all to do about it. Numerous other classes could CC to the point the fight was almost over. Add that to the fact that PvP fights in WoW lasted a fraction of the time they do in this game and you had an infinitely worse and more frustrating situation.

At least in this game fights last a LOT longer, making CC less of an issue. On top of that most classes have a few ways to either completely remove or minimize the effects of CCs through talents etc. At any rate, I find myself MUCH less often incapacitated for major lengths of time, and have never once experienced the sheer frustration of watching my health go from full to zero while be completely helpless.

There is also a handy resolve bar in this game which is a visual indicator of when you gain immunity to CC and how long that lasts. So all in all this game is FAR from having the most CC of any game...in fact so far I think it is fairly well balanced, where even in a mass of players throwing stuns out, you will USUALLY not suffer a perma stun condition.

my shadow can:

Silence
Knockback
Knockdown
Ranged stun
Slow
Hold/root (force lift)
Pull
AOE slow

I've never played a MMO where a single class could do so many CC's. But obviously I haven't played them all, so if characters in Rift had as many problems, then so be it.

We all know there are many... questionable... design decisions in this game, but the one thing that stands out these days is that this game seems to have more CC than any other MMO. As a melee class, I am stunned, slowed, pushed back, pulled, or rooted all the time. Why would anyone consider this a good thing? It's just frustrating, even though, on my shadow, I do these things as often as everyone else.

We all know there are many... questionable... design decisions in this game, but the one thing that stands out these days is that this game seems to have more CC than any other MMO. As a melee class, I am stunned, slowed, pushed back, pulled, or rooted all the time. Why would anyone consider this a good thing? It's just frustrating, even though, on my shadow, I do these things as often as everyone else.

It doesn't matter what other MMOs did right or wrong.

What matters is that hard CC takes the fun out of PvP.
Being unable to do anything for even up to 5 seconds is extremely anti fun.

It may be fine and balanced, but losing control of one's character is still not fun.

my shadow can:

Silence
Knockback
Knockdown
Ranged stun
Slow
Hold/root (force lift)
Pull
AOE slow

I've never played a MMO where a single class could do so many CC's. But obviously I haven't played them all, so if characters in Rift had as many problems, then so be it.

It doesn't matter what other MMOs did right or wrong.

What matters is that hard CC takes the fun out of PvP.
Being unable to do anything for even up to 5 seconds is extremely anti fun.

It may be fine and balanced, but losing control of one's character is still not fun.

First, your definition of CC is off. CC's completely disable a target or impair movement. Snares (slows), knockdowns and stuns, or mezzes count as CC. So (for Shadows):

• Mind Snap (Silence) stops a cast and adds a longer cooldown to that one skill. It does not disable the target, and it does not impair movement in anyway. It also does not stop the target from casting other skills and only works on skills with a cast time. It is not a CC.
  
• Force Wave is a fairly weak AoE knockback that only knocks down standard and weak enemies. For players and tough or higher mobs, it doesn't snare (slow), root, or disable the affected targets in any way. It is not truly a CC.
  
• Pull is only accessible high in the Kinetic tree, so unless you are a Kinetic Shadow, you don't have it. Either way, Pull doesn't slow or otherwise disable the target. It is simply a distance closer the way Force Speed is. It is not truly a CC.

Mind Maze, Slow, Lift, and the knockdown are forms of CC. However:

• Mind Maze is castable only in stealth and only out of combat. While using it does not initiate combat and it can be recast (provided you have the force to cast it), casting it on a second target removes the effect from the previous target.
  
• Knockdown only occurs with Spinkick, which only works outside of stealth if you are spec'd for it high in the Kinetic tree.
  
• As a Shadow, Lift only lasts for 8 seconds, and it heals strong or higher mobs when you cast it. It takes two points midway up the the Balance tree to remove its two second cast time, meaning you root yourself for two seconds without that skill.
  
• The AoE slow is a secondary effect on the highest level skill in the Kinetic tree, so it is only available to full (31) Kinetic builds.

By contrast, my EQ2 Illusionist had (using your definition of CC):

• A main mez that was instant cast with a short cooldown and long duration. This meant that it could be cast repeatedly on the same target, keeping it locked down indefinitely. It could be cast in or out of combat, and, being instant cast, it could be cast on the move. The effect on one target was not removed by casting in on another, and because of the duration of the mez and the short cooldown, you could keep two targets mezzed. If I recall correctly, you could keep three locked down with a second or two of one getting free between cycles.
  
• There was also a shorter duration "emergency" mez. It was on a different timer and cooldown, so it could be used in conjunction with the main mez.
  
• There was also a group mez. That one hit a single target plus any mobs linked to it (i.e., ones that attacked as a group every time). It has a fairly long duration, but it could affect up to 5 linked targets. Again, it is on a different timer than the other two, so it can be used in conjunction with them.
  
• There was another group mez that was more of a stun duration as well that works like the other group mez (i.e., on linked targets).
  
• There is a single target stun.
  
• There is a group stun (same effect as the two group mezzes, works on linked mobs).
  
• There is a Stifle (Silence).
  
• There is a Root (that also Stifled/Silenced).

On top of all that, Mezzes in EQ2 did not break on indirect AoE damage, meaning a single Illusionist could keep multiple targets mezzed while his group indiscriminately used AoE on other targets.

The idea that Shadows (a member of the Consular class which is advertised as the CC class) has more CC than CC classes in other games is simply untrue. In fact, I wish I had the CC capabilities of my Illusionist in this game.

We all know there are many... questionable... design decisions in this game, but the one thing that stands out these days is that this game seems to have more CC than any other MMO. As a melee class, I am stunned, slowed, pushed back, pulled, or rooted all the time. Why would anyone consider this a good thing? It's just frustrating, even though, on my shadow, I do these things as often as everyone else.