Stun, Gravity and Binds!

Mastering in Stun, Gravity and Binds!

“You must not fight with the same enemy for too long, or you’ll teach him everything about the art of PvP”

One of the most exciting thing about WoW is the World PvP. You aren’t fighting AI’s, but real people. AI’s are program by human, and can only be as smart as the person who programmed it. Human is different, because we are dynamic and can think. We don’t follow a set of rules. (Such as start cast Meteor when you get within range of players).

There’s numerous skills I’ve learn about utilizing spell, not exactly from FFXI, but DotA (a brach of mini-games from Warcraft III). In that game, you control a character (a hero), and you kill your enemy just like you do in FFXi or PvP by utilizing weapons and specialized spells. Because you play Warcraft III in a “Commander Mode”, meaning your camera angle is from the sky, so the game doesn’t focus a lot on moving in a 3D environment, but how you utilize your spells. Bringing what I learn from DotA into the World of Warcraft, I’ve found it’d help me a lot in winning tough battles and enemies that’s higher level than myself, so here it is.

Stunning Enemies

Like most games, Stun is a spell to absolutely disable enemy’s activities or interrupt a spell or ability for a very short period of time. In DotA, it ranges from 2-4 sec, in FFXI, its around 2 sec, and in WoW its roughly 3-6sec. We all know what its for and roughly how to use it, but the question is, what’s the best time to use it!

When we PvP, most of us just “Spam” all abilities when available, and that’s a big mistake. The person who can utilize it to the fullest usually wins out. I’m going to try and explain my experience here.

What’s a best usage for Stun?

“Prevent you from taking any damage / big damage”

Stun before Engaging the enemy. (#1 in red brackets)

Lets assume the enemy does not know your existence (you’re stealth in dota or back of the enemy if your in FFXi / WoW). Assuming both are melee class, you are able to sneak behind the enemy, never stun before you even engage. By doing so, he will simply be using his time while he’s stunned to spin his angle, find out where you are and target you / have their finger ready on the keyboard to engage you). You didn’t buy yourself anytime at all, because they would have to do that anyway. You gave him a warning and say “I’m here, hello!”

Stun right after you land first hit (#2 in red brackets)

Not the brightest idea, but acceptable. That’s because human have response time. We are assuming the enemies had no idea of your existence (you have Stealth ability, or rushing behind an enemy etc). You would have taken no damage anyway because he was still trying to spin his camera angle, and target you with a mouse.

Stun during the fight (#3 in red brackets)

Best usage of Stun. That’s because you are utilizing the stun to its full potential. The enemy on the other side of the keyboard, is “sitting there” waiting to get un-stunned. You can save Stun while he channels some high damage spell (Blizzard 4 / Channeling-type spell)

Stun when enemies attempt to run (#4 in red brackets)

Best usage of Stun too. The enemy is trying to run away, no doubt that’s the best stun because it allows you to kill him off =P

In general, if you have stealth ability, you are earning the 1-2 seconds of “response time” as your advantage. The green bar.

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Assuming Enemies see each other.

Then lets use another table.

If both of you are melees, you shouldn’t be stunning while you two run up to each other. Lets assume you did stun at #1, it stops the enemy but lets you walk to him. You didn’t really buy any time because he would have ran up to you anyway. Absolutely waste of a Stun. Stun during the fight and when he attempts to run.

Stun anywhere within #2 or #3 would be the best use imo. Of course, other circumstances apply, such as if enemy starts channeling Ancient Magic 2 on you, then it would be even better to stun.

In my opinion, the best stun is a stun that “makes a player sit in-front of his computer doing nothing, while waiting for stun to wear off”! Best Stun is a Stun that Stuns the enemy players in real-life =P!

The point is, take human’s response time into consideration. Those are free time-gains for yourself. We aren’t robots and takes time to respond, and those seconds can be used to your advantage.

Gravity vs Bind

Both of these spells are similar in both games. Gravity is a spell which greatly slows down enemy movement, but during that time you can attack them and the effect will stay on. Bind on the other hand, will break when damage is inflicted to enemy.

I didn’t realize the importance until I fight Fenrir Prime. I took 3 tries to win that fight, but I did learn that Bind buys a lot more time than Gravity. Lets give it a little bit more thought.

Gravity greatly lowers movement speed (say 50%), so every 2 step you walk, the monster walks one step. Which means every 10 seconds you spend walking, your enemy needs 20 seconds to move to the same spot. Bind is different, the duration is the amount of time you gain. If it binds for 20 seconds, you gain the full 20 seconds to yourself. This is of course, that nobody breaks bind.

In a PvE setting, since bind “can” break when any damage was inflected to the enemy, so its effectiveness is greatly reduced. Gravity on the other hand, won’t break until effect wears off. People can inflict damage while Gravity is on, so generally speaking, Gravity is much better!

But if you’re in a PvP setting, say 1v1, Bind is a much more appealing spell, because if such spell landed on a melee class, you completely render them useless. If the bind also disables enemy’s ability to react (Sleep), then you can even use this time to heal and buff up yourself.

After realizing the significant difference between Bind and Gravity in a PvP (or solo setting), I removed all my Wind merits for Ice merits. The time gain from Bind outweights Gravity by a lot. Your time-gain from Bind is instant (when enemy are binded, you can start doing other stuff), whereas Gravity, you must run a bit to buy some time.

I hope this little post helped you in utilizing Stuns, and choosing between Bind and Gravity-type spells ;)