Chainspell stun advice (overlapping stun issue)

[lorcas]

Hi,

Our linkshell have been using a lot of chainspell stun a lot recently and there is one thing bugging me. I seem to recast stun before it wears off resulting in a "no effect" situation. For DL it ain't that much of a problem because we go 2 rdm at a time to make sure no TP goes off, but in a BCNM environment we can't just throw 4 rdm as DD are needed to kill it fast. So you can understand that having a "no effect" stun really cripples our chances of winning if a nasty TP goes off (say gigaflair/teraflair).

I expect an answer along the lines of "dude the stun lenght is variable, it's pretty much luck" but just to be on the safe side I've decided to ask here:
Is there a way to reduce/nullify the chances of casting on an ongoing stun therefore reducing the "no effect" possibilities?
I'm sure there are programs that search in the memory for the "Stun wears off" to cast again, but I would like to not depend on a 3rd party program for such things. And if the answer is "watch the log"... well that's a nono, even with filters up the lag will kill us all.

Anyway, thanks for any sort of answer even if it's the one I expect.
Lorcas

[theo]

Generally speaking I think there are two schools of thought on chain-stun. For one you can just mash it, which tends to get the job done on most mobs although you can get unlucky with overlaps as you have pointed out.

The other method is to watch the mob itself, not the chat log, to see when stun wears off. Basically every mob has a "stunned" position, and as soon as it moves back into "fighting" position I hit another stun. Its easier to see on some mobs than it is on others.

In this way I avoid overlapped stuns, but then I run the risk of a late stun so pick your poison. Neither method is fool-proof.

[lorcas]

Ah, thanks for the reply, never really gave much attention to animation. Guess i'll have to check that out, only problem is finding something that spams TP and see if it works (maybe next sky "gods").

Thanks a lot for your input.
Lorcas

[souleman]

Personally, I've noticed that using a macro for stun tends to get more overlapped stuns. Mashing the enter key on the menu (magic - stun - target) results in a lot less overlaps, though they do still happen when you get a good stun proc.

Watching animations is the best, but if your in a high lag situation, it can also get you killed.

[Hanyoko]

A lot of factors can go into it.

Generally for something like DL the chat log lags behind a lot hence why overlapping of CSS spam works well, there are narrow margins where things can happen but proper layering can ensure those are very unlikely.

In general its best to use the magic menu, 3 enter clicks are easily spammed and always seemed to be more reliable then macros... Never tried, but a G15 keyboard macro might also work well.

Depending on what mob your needing to CSS it may be best to watch the log or the monster itself. Generally the model changes position when stunned/not stunned. Some people can manage to use the logs but I never could.

[Ciaran]

With chainstun, you have to be careful even if you do have 2 RDM/DRKs going at once. I've seen two RDM/DRKs become synchronized with their spamming, so one would always get the "No Effect" message. At DL, it allowed for numerous abilities to go off that, honestly, shouldn't have.

Anyhow, in a solo chainstun situation. What I myself normally do, and have had fairly good success with, is hitting my macro when my hands drop down. This allows for all but the longest stuns to wear, but is still short enough that the next stun locks it down before it can use any moves. When you do this, also watch your chat log, in case you do get a good duration stun and receive a "no effect." If that happens, spam the hell out of your macro, and most of the time you'll get your stun off before it can get it's move off.

But this is my personal philosophy, and it's worked well for me. Also, if you know the other person is a spammer, using this same strategy with stuns helps prevent you two from going at the same time and nerfing each other's stuns.

Oh, and I do use a G15 Keyboard Macro for Stuns, if that makes a difference. Doubt it does, though.

[rrynn]

when i'm not chainspelling stun, or when i'm stunning something like DL that might resist me, i wear as much Dark skill gear as i can get my hands on and my jupiter's staff.

when i'm chainspelling, i dont wear my dark skill gear. stun seems to have a longer duration more often when stacked with extra skill, so by not wearing any i seem to get less of the longer stuns, and less of the "no effects".

[Jeryhn]

Pretty simple solution.

If you are solo chainstunning, use a Jupiter's Staff to increase your lightning accuracy, potentially increasing stun duration so that the mob is effectively locked by your own round of stunning.

If you are chainstunning with multiple people, use a Terra's Staff to reduce your lightning elemental accuracy. Stun will still land and proc, but the duration will be next to nothing, allowing for a greater chance for your co-stunners to land important stuns as well.

Using a Terra's Staff will be tricky, because theoretically it should reduce the chance of landing Stun entirely despite its high accuracy rate. In my experience, I've only ever had one Stun resisted on a mob that didn't put up Magic Shield, and that was Cerberus (which you should be using Jupiter's and maybe some dark skill gear for anyway... if it's going to resist your Stun, it's going to resist anyway).

Using opposite elemental staffs for certain spells this way can help immensely in certain situations. One example I can think of is casting Dia1 using a Pluto's Staff to reduce it's inital damage down to zero (and therefore canceelling mob TP gain), while still adding the DoT effect. Good for soloing things like Cactrot Rapido or Bune.

[lorcas]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try all those tips out see what works best for me. The animation watching and the terra staff tips are very interesting.

[chapstick]

What I do is make my filters so basically all I can see is me stunning, and stun wearing off. (And in Bahamut's case, him talking in /say chat). Personally I find mashing macro to be pretty inconsistent.

So, basically right when I see in the log that stun wears off my macro is being hit again. This has worked for me on everything I've chain-stunned. I'm usually solo chain stunning, though. Oh, and when I do this, i target the mob and then face away from it and go in first person. Don't know how much it helps, but that's what I do.

And I liked that Terra's staff idea. I'll have to remember to try that.