Is it just me, or does STUN never work?

[Wandering I]

Everytime I stun an enemy, they seem to have the ability to shrug it off if/whenever they want. It never lasts.

[Arghaab]

Stuns only last 1 turn, wether it being affecting your characters or the enemies.

[Wandering I]

Sometimes it doesn't last that one turn, I swear. Ok, good to know, thanks.

[Haggis]

Originally posted by Magus:

Sometimes it doesn't last that one turn, I swear. Ok, good to know, thanks.

Sometimes enemies got two attacks in a row. I still don't fully understand how the speed works or why that happens, stun will always last for one turn assuming it succeeds though.

Lots of enemies have high stun resists in the higher level dungeons, using trinkets with +%stun chance will help a lot. With the plague doctor the trinkets are so good that even with the 'stun resistance' buff units get after being stunned, it can often stun for a second turn.

[Madmax]

Originally posted by Haggis:

Originally posted by Magus:

Sometimes it doesn't last that one turn, I swear. Ok, good to know, thanks.

Sometimes enemies got two attacks in a row.

Only (some) bosses get two attacks per round.

Originally posted by Haggis:

I still don't fully understand how the speed works or why that happens, stun will always last for one turn assuming it succeeds though.

At the beginning of every round, heroes and monsters roll a random number between 1 and 8. This number is added to their base speed for the round, and the total determines the turn order. Also, you can tell who is yet to go in a round because they have a gold mark next to their HP bar.

Originally posted by Haggis:

Lots of enemies have high stun resists in the higher level dungeons, using trinkets with +%stun chance will help a lot. With the plague doctor the trinkets are so good that even with the 'stun resistance' buff units get after being stunned, it can often stun for a second turn.

This. Also keep in mind that if you stun a monster (or hero), they will get a +40% stun resist buff until their next turn. If you stun them again while they have the buff on, then they'll get a +80% stun resist buff. And so on, and so forth. Also, these buffs are bugged, so sometimes you might get a monster which gets +80% or +120% stun resistance after the first stun wears out, particularly if you've used stuns on the previous fight.

[Haggis]

I have definitely seen normal enemies get two attacks in a row several times. The pigs that vomit, the undead with chalices, the bandits with daggers and the melee cultists. It may have been removed recently, or maybe my game is just bugged. It happens pretty rarely but I've seen it several times.

Thanks for telling me how speed works though. Always wondered why it was so random.

[Wandering I]

Thanks for your responses, it makes a lot more sense now. Still frustrating, but knowing there is a reason/mechanism behind it helps. And I seem to get the two attack thing most frequently with the pigs and undead.

[Madmax]

Originally posted by Haggis:

I have definitely seen normal enemies get two attacks in a row several times. The pigs that vomit, the undead with chalices, the bandits with daggers and the melee cultists. It may have been removed recently, or maybe my game is just bugged. It happens pretty rarely but I've seen it several times.

I highly doubt that. Note, however, that none of the monsters you listed are slow ones. It is possible (particularly if you surprise the monsters) that a monster will go last in one round, and then be the first one in the next round, which looks like they get two attacks in a row.

Could it be a bug? It's possible, but if so, it's not one I've seen in over 400 hours of gameplay. And given how easy it is to miss the round counter changing, I find the "last one round, first the next round" explanation to fit most instances of people complaining about double turns.

[aardvarkpepper]

Originally posted by Haggis:

I have definitely seen normal enemies get two attacks in a row several times..

if you have an enemy roll low on initiative maybe it acts last on a given round. then maybe next round it rolls high so it goes first. then it "goes twice in a row"

Originally posted by Magus:

Everytime I stun an enemy, they seem to have the ability to shrug it off if/whenever they want. It never lasts.

u need to check out your stun percentages and subtract enemy stun resistance; after enemy procs a stun they get +40 stun resistance cumulative, so you can't literally permastun (though basically you neuter that enemy)

if you're trying to stun stuff with stun skills but don't have stun trinkets then your chances of stun are gonna be low.

[teslamatic]

Stun has been a relatively reliable ability for me, one which I tend to reinforce with trinkets. For example, I tend to prefer stun over a heal, as it usually stops more damage in effect.

All enemies shrug off stun as one action. If they get two actions in a row - which is very rare - they shrug your stun off and then attack. Remeber all stunned enemies get a buff which makes them nearly impossible to stun again right away.

[wckowalski]

If you surprise enemies who have high speed, they go last in the first round, but then go first in the second round, thus acting twice in a row.

[Superfluous J]

It is CRITICAL in this game to understand the turn counter, speed roll, and tradeoff beteen stun/blight/bleed/debuff CHANCES and RESISTANCES. Traps too, for that last one, but that's outside combat.

At the start of each turn, everybody (but bosses) gets one move. This is represented on the screen with a yellow vertical line next to the character's health bar. The turn counter is at the top of the screen, right in the middle where the torch is. Bosses can get more moves, and if so they get more bars. Therefore, you can ALWAYS know who has moved already in the current turn, who has yet to move, and whose current turn it is to move. This is CRITICAL information that you should be taking in to account during all 4 of your chances to move every turn.

Speed on people is a raw number. You can see the speed of each of your characters and of each monster in the battle. Generally the numbers are between 0-10 but they can go higher or lower. This is akin to "initiative" in Dungeons&Dragons. At the start of each TURN (not each COMBAT like in D&D) all characters roll a D8 and this gets added to their speed value, and then they are placed in turn order based on how high they rolled. While you CAN see characters' speed values, you can NOT see turn order. You can only guess what it is likely to be based on the numbers. Like above, knowing this information is CRITICAL to success, especially in champion dungeons. It's also critical to seeing why monsters can go twice in a row - they low roll speed in round 1 and high roll in round 2. Or, they are inherently fast but got surprised in round 1. It's common for new players (I did it myself) to get wrecked because they surprised the enemy and farted around in turn 1 thinking they were going to totally own the battle, only to be hit 8 times in a row at the end of turn 1 and beginning of turn 2.

When you hover your mouse over a skill, it gives a base percentage for that skill. When you hover over a trinket, it will tell you what it adds to that skill. If you have a 159% chance to stun and a trinket that adds 30%, then you have a 189% chance to stun. Hovering over the monster shows their resistance. If (in the example here) they have less than 90% resistance, then you WILL stun if the shot lands. If they have between 90-190% resistance, then you have a (lessening as it rises) chance to land the stun if your shot lands. If it's 190 or more, then you have a 0% chance to stun. It's that simple, and like before, it's CRITICAL that you take it into account when making your decisions on who to stun, who to use to stun, and when to try to stun.

Whew. Sorry for the block of text. But as I said in what became the first of a 5-paragraph essay on the subject, the knowledge of these three things is CRITICAL to combat success. Without that knowledge you will falter, and with it (and a good party for the situation) you will thrive.

[distantlight]

Thanks for that great explanation. I think part of the reason people find this game so infuriating is that a lot of nuances of the gameplay are VERY important but also VERY easy to overlook. I think I played 30+ hours before I even noticed the turn indicator marks. Or the fact that buffs and debuffs stack. Or any number of other tiny details that can make or break success...

[Wandering I]

Well put, yeah thank you for the explanations, my gameplay has already improved. For today anyway