Hatcher

Hey guys.. I keep seeing people refer to "chain stunning" a mob in certain threads and wanted to know how this was possible.

I'm only level 42 and if I recall correctly I only have my single mob stun and my group stun and due to the long recast on the group stun I can't seem to keep them strung together.. What am I missing?

Thanks

destriel

you get another stun at 50 (blue ae), but it is still not possible to keep a mob totally stunned 100% of the time, there will be some down time.. but thats what root/mez is for..

chain stunning basically means stunning the mob, waiting for the stun to almost wear off, casting another stun, waiting, rinse and repeat till you're out of stuns...

Hatcher

Ok gotcha.. just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I must have missed that new stun at level 50 when I was reading up on the spell list.

Thanks

Sonorod

There is also mindbend at 55. it can minimize the downtime between the other stuns quite a bit.

Hatcher

That's the ancient teachings spell right?

I just got done watching that vid that Fnar posted and realized how little I actually know..

I just started really looking for named mobs on a regular basis and I die a whole lot more then I win so I was just trying to get all the tips I could and when someone in his thread mentioned "chain stunning" I thought I better ask..

Harowen

Here's the stuff I use when chain-stunning :
18% reuse from items (1/1.18 = 0.85 x base reuse)
Relic legs: Pantaloons of the Meridian 3s reuse off Deep Focus
Enhance: Deep Focus 5 aa's
Enhance: Shock Wave 5 aa's
Enhance: Dysphoria 5 aa's
Enhance: Ego Melt 5 aa's

Spells and short info
Deep Focus (t7 vs t8 for focus item effect on reuse)
- single target stun
- 8.0s stun
- 17.4s reuse (0.85 x 30s reuse -5sec aa bonus -3sec leg's focus)

Dysphoria
- encounter stun
- 6.4s stun
- 30.6s reuse (0.85 x 45s reuse - 7.5sec aa bonus)

Shock Wave
- pbae stun
- 5.0s stun
- 30.6s reuse (0.85 x 45s reuse - 7.5sec aa bonus)

Ego Melt
- encounter daze (no auto attacks)
- 9.0s daze
- 30.6s reuse (0.85 x 45s reuse - 7.5sec aa bonus)

Absolute Silence
- single target stifle (no spells / combat arts)
- 16.0s stifle
- 21.2s reuse (0.85 x 25s reuse)

Mindbend
- single target reactive stun
- 4.0s stun on any successful attack (spell/ca/melee)
- 3 charges (increasable to 5 from aa's but nobody does)
- duration 1m12s and reuse 30s base so will normally be able to recast prior to it wearing out

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So you got yourself an 8.0s stun, followed by a 6.4s stun and a 5.0s stun and now your 8.0s stun recycled so you cast it again, this gets you to 27.4s worth of stun. You're going to have some overlap so call it 25.0s worth. You also threw mindbend on the mob during some point so if it does anything hostile you got 4s more breathing room.

Now most things are grayed, so after you throw the last stun you silence the mob, then daze when the stun is about to end. This gets you to around 33.0s worth, still accounting for some overlap. You'll likely get one action out of the mob at this point and mindbend carries you through to about 36.0s when you cast deep focus again.

Now your stunlock will reach 44.0s but you get your 6.4s and 5.0s stuns back before it runs out so that's gonna get you to 54.0s or so and oh hey! deep focus cycled again so now you're at about a minute and you still got your daze, another mind bend fire and deep focus again.

So depending on how well it gets timed, you're sitting at a 75s of time where the mob has gotten 1, possibly 2 hostlie actions in.

As long as you're post 50, 52's better for mind bend, you can do this. You'll have larger gaps earlier on due to less (if any) reuse haste and shorter duration stun length.

Revel

Edit: I started writing this earlier and then forgot to hit post. I started this before Aule's explanation, so I didn't get to read his. It looks like he has some good info in there, and mine now looks kind of duplicative but I'm just going to keep my post in here too since I'm lazy!

Stun duration also increases every upgrade (though it's just a little bit, really). Like it was stated, the bigger difference is having more stuns.

For your main stuns, Intrepid Focus (single target stun) at level 79 lasts 8.5 seconds, for example. At your level, Eerie Focus is only 7.0 seconds. Dysphoria (group stun) is 6.4 seconds. Shock Wave is 5.0 seconds.

Inbetween this time, you can add Mindbend (3 triggers of 4.0 seconds) and Ego Melt/Absolute Silence, which is 9 and 16 respectively. Basically the mob cannot attack but can move around. And of course there was the mentioned Root and/or Mez.

Recasts for each of these spells are 35 seconds with aa (25 seconds for single target stun with aa). Even without Mindbend, high reuse or Root/Mez, with really good timing, you can have 2 full rotations of chain stun, assuming no resists and some aa. But even with good equipment, 3 rotations is pretty much the practical maximum, especially since varying reuse timers.

When you do get around to doing it, basically you want to prioritize your stuns in order of reuse (which would usually be focus unless you have your aa spread out) then longest duration first, so you can reuse these stuns first. This means Focus goes on first, then daze/stifle (takes longer to cast, but duration is longer), then group stun, then Shock Wave. This gets you the safest stun rotation, also since Shock Wave has a bit worse resist than the others. In the next rotation, Focus should be up before Shockwave and you can save it for later.

Anyway, all this really only comes into play at the highest levels, so not much you can do to practice this.

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Harowen

It does come in useful for single mob named fights in instancing. Leading to the counter-intuitive factor that when grouping with a coercer, the named fights are often easier than the lead up to get to them.

Pett

It's all about practicing and just knowing the strengths of the class, which is complete lockdown of a mob with very little effort. Now you have some DPS to back that up as well. Lol it's really not difficult and doesn't require the rocket science from above.

Mindbend, once you get it, makes up for fuck ups, bad luck, and spells still on recast.

Hatcher

Wow.. that's some seriously good information. Thanks a ton guys. I figured I was missing a few things in the equation. At this point with the two stuns I do have I've been sticking to the root and nuke with a ranged pet and using the stuns for when the root breaks.

It sounds like once I get all the above mentioned spells things will become a bit easier and from the sound of it the root/nuke technique is not the preffered soloing strat and that you guys go the chain stun route.

Thanks again for the information guys, very much appreciated!