The Sorceress has a lot of crowd control options, and while there's a lot of discussion about what CC options are best, there is not a lot of talk about when people use their CC options.
So, what I would like people to do here is list what they use, and when. Include staff abilities and what staff you tend to use with your build.
I use a lightning staff, and here are how I use my basic abilities:
d+O: Any creature that is more than a character length away and can be stunned. I will use this to CC that creature for my teammates, and I will then go do other things.
O: Snipe low health creatures from afar.
up+O: to stun aerial creatures and stun creatures within teleport range; teleport in, stun, then move on to another creature
jump+O: to stun large groups; I rarely do this since hitting inferno because enemies are resistant to stun now, and it tends to only stun a few
Curse: Any time I see a single Elite or a group of Elites, I pop Curse. At least, unless...
Petrification: If the enemies pop onto the screen and there are either casters or 6+ enemies that just came on, I immediately use Petrification. It makes the fight move on faster, and contrary to popular belief, I have never seen it "resisted". Now, I am just beginning Inferno, so maybe I need to get to the point where that happens, but right now Petrification is pretty fantastic in my opinion. It allows my partners to attack without fear of retaliation. Yes, Elites break out faster than non-elites, but by the time they do, everything that is non-elite is usually dead. Elites usually aren't very scary alone. Sometimes I will still Curse them after they break out if I have a disorganized team.
Blizzard: I save this for either when a battle has gotten out of hand and players are dying, when the screen is dark, when there is a mob generator plus lots of mobs, or on boss fights with adds. It wipes the screen clear, so I use it sparingly.
Rock Press: It kills nearly everything and stuns the whole screen; I basically use it as a miniature Blizzard. I am more likely to use this when fights are getting out of control than on boss fights since the casting animation cannot be teleport-canceled, making it risky. There are a few boss fights where a lot of adds come onto the screen (Reaper), and this tends to get used there. Sometimes I just use it as a "I want this damn fight to end" ability.
I am especially interested in hearing what enemies people use Ice Prison and Gravity against. I decided against Gravity after I used it on an Orc elite and the Orc was immune to the vacuum effect, and casters/archers can still fire away while in the Gravity well. Ice Prison just never struck me as particularly useful. Too many enemies can jump over the ice or teleport through it. I am not saying these abilities are bad, and actually I am hoping I can hear some good stories to convince me to change my skill set around.
