I think that stun immunity on most bosses in the game should be changed. Instead of complete immunity to stun effects, bosses should instead have limits on how many times they can be stunned. One option would be a hard cap such as making it so that a boss-rank creature can only be stunned X number of times in a duel. This would occur in addition to getting the stun blocks that players and regular enemies get after being stunned. Another option would be a soft cap where boss rank creatures could gain stun shields equal to the number of times they have been stunned in a duel. Because stun blocks are unaffected by ward removal effects this would similarly prevent bosses from being "stun-locked" by groups of players.
A change like this would help improve a lot of mid-rank spells in PvE content that have a stun as a secondary effect like Frost Giant, Storm Lord, Medusa, Basilisk, Woolly Mammoth, and King Artorius (Fire). These spells are primarily used against bosses because their pip cost and damage tends to be overkill for the average street enemies. However, these spells do still sacrifice damage-per-pip to compensate for their secondary effect. But in a situation where an enemy is completely immune to stuns these spells are losing damage no benefit.
Now, I did say most bosses should no longer be stun immune. I'm fine with cheating bosses, side content bosses, and a world's final boss (or bosses) retaining stun immunity. These kinds of encounters are designed to be especially challenging and are usually tackled by full groups of players. And in the case of cheating bosses they are often have "immunity" to other types of secondary effects such as charms, wards, or global spells by removing them with cheats. For other bosses, however, I think this change would improve the questing and leveling experience for schools with stunning spells.
There is an easy solution. You simply add the stat of stun pierce. This had been proposed by many people over the years. However kingsisle have never actually listening to this good idea.
I suspect they fear we will be able to stun lock bosses to skip cheats altogether. Which is a good and valid concern. So instead of say, amount of times you can stun a boss, you can create a stun meter.
Like other mmos, if you want to say, knock down a boss etc. You need multiple players to do it at once. Or within a short time frame (say 1-2 rounds)
So let’s say your about to die to storm titan you need just 1 or 2 extra turns. So that the trident does not rise. Each round each player uses a stun- 8 stuns in 2 turns. Because the team can’t find the right cards. That one extra turn can save a run.
This in fact would enable more destructive cheats. Like the devourer. Maybe you then can create instant whipe entire party cheats. Where you need 4-5 stuns to prevent a cheat that only happens on X round.
This can open an entire new dimension to combat, it’s something that I think should be looked into
Eh, that sounds like it's more complicated than it needs to be. We really don't need another new stat, let alone one
that could affect PvP. The nice thing about changing stun immunity on bosses is that it would only affect PvE. If this is something KI wants to look into for side content or cheating bosses, sure, but those aren't really the bosses I'm talking about changing.
My main concern is with boss monsters that aren't necessarily made to be fought in groups. Think non-major story bosses like the Harlequin Knight in Avalon or Skurkis Screaming Moon in Azteca. I really don't think that relatively inconsequential boss creatures like these need to have stun immunity anymore. They would already get normal stun shields after being stunned which cannot be removed by normal ward-removing effects. It's pretty unlikely that you're ever going to have a group of 3-4 wizards get together and deliberately stun lock bosses like these. I feel like KI really could just do away with the stun immunity on them without implementing either of my suggestions, but if they were really paranoid about these bosses getting stun-locked then I offered up a few ideas to make stun-locking less practical.
What's also strange to me is there are bosses that aren't stun immune who you think would be. Nearly all the bosses in Aquila including side bosses like Gladiator Dimacherus can be stunned. Hades is one of (or possibly the only) exception, and even Zeus and Poseidon can still be stunned in that fight. So why give relatively inconsequential quest bosses full stun immunity but leave farmed group bosses like these stunnable? And for what it's worth I've never seen or heard of anyone utilizing stun-locking strategies against Aquila bosses either. So I do think KI is being a bit paranoid when it comes to giving out stun immunity, especially after the addition of stun blocks.
