Fear effect

Fear effects are a form of crowd control that makes a victim to run in random directions, unable to perform most actions for a period of time. Feared creatures have a chance to break Fear when damaged. Any Fear, no matter the duration listed, will last a maximum of 8 seconds when used against players in PvP, and fear is affected by diminishing returns.

Undead and Mechanical monsters are generally immune to Fear. Boss monsters, including lesser bosses of pre-70 instances, and some elite monsters are immune to Fear and other crowd control effects.

Fear, among all crowd control types, is unique in that the victim runs around, sometimes quite a distance before the effect ends. Players affected by it may run into awkward areas (though they will not fall off cliffs) or into more enemy monsters or players that may attack. Monsters affected by Fear may also run into groups of monsters, alerting their friends which then come running into the fight. This often makes fear effects dangerous at best in PvE, especially when used in crowded areas. However, most player fear effects can be modified with glyphs to instead cause their targets to tremble in place, making them viable for use in PvE.

Fear effects have a damage limit, which appears to be based on level. Once the target takes a certain amount of damage, the fear effect will be broken, regardless of any remaining duration. This can allow you to deal a fair amount of damage to the target before it does so. Melee targets will also have to run back to the caster in order to resume attacking them, allowing ranged classes more time to deal damage. Ranged types may therefore wish to decide how far to allow melee targets to run before attacking, ideally leaving them with a long run back.

All Fear effects also increase the afflicted target's run speed by 25%, making it harder to catch feared targets. When using Fear effects on flag carriers in battlegrounds such as Warsong Gulch, this can occasionally have the effect of accelerating their progress across the field. Fear effects do not inherently dismount players, meaning mounted players can ride a long way while feared.

Many Fear effects are magical and can be dispelled or reflected; many are Shadow and are affected by Shadow Resistance.

Some raid bosses cause Fear to the entire raid. Losing your fear before the tank does can be hazardous to your health as you may be acquired as the mob's target.

Player abilities that cause the fear effect

 * The hunter's Scare Beast (only usable against beasts)
 * The priest's Psychic Scream and their Psyfiend (priest talent)'s Psychic Terror
 * The warlock's Fear and Howl of Terror
 * The warrior's Intimidating Shout

The paladins's Turn Evil functions very similarly to fear effects, but is considered a "turn" effect for the purpose of immunities, etc.

Counters
Ways to remove Fear effects:
 * The PvP trinkets
 * The human Racial trait Every Man for Himself
 * The Forsaken Racial trait Will of the Forsaken
 * The death knight's Lichborne (removes and makes the death knight immune for 10 seconds)
 * The mage's Ice Block
 * The paladin's Divine Shield
 * The priest's Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel (neither ability can be cast by the Priest themself while feared)
 * The shaman's Tremor Totem
 * The warrior's Berserker Rage (removes and makes the warrior immune for 10 seconds)

Hostile counters:
 * Sufficient damage taken by the feared target will break the effect.

Fear prevention
Some abilities that help prevent or make you immune to Fear:
 * The death knight's Anti-Magic Shell
 * The death knight's Lichborne (removes and makes the death knight immune for 10 seconds)
 * The priest's Fear Ward (absorbs 1 fear effect)
 * The shaman's Grounding Totem (absorbs 1 harmful spell, however will not work with AoE fear effects)
 * The warrior's Berserker Rage (removes and makes the warrior immune for 10 seconds)
 * The Glimmering Mithril Insignia below level 60

Silences, stuns and interrupts
Another method of preventing Fear would be preventing the caster from using a Fear through your own crowd control or anti-spellcasting abilities. Some examples are listed below. For fuller listings and discussion see interrupt, silence effect and crowd control.


 * The blood elf's Arcane Torrent
 * The tauren's War Stomp
 * The death knight's Strangulate
 * The hunter's Silencing Shot, Intimidation and Counter Shot
 * The mage's Counterspell
 * The paladin's Hammer of Justice and Repentance
 * The rogue's Cloak of Shadows, Kick, and any stun or blind
 * The priest's Psychic Scream
 * The shaman's Wind Shear
 * The warlock's Howl of Terror, the Felhunter's Spell Lock, and the Felguard's Intercept (felguard ability)
 * The warrior's Pummel
 * The druid's Feral Charge and Skull Bash

Also dealing fatal damage, a high shadow resistance, or avoiding the range or area the user can hit with fear are all viable ways to stop the Fear from happening.