How to deal with stunning and confusion

[Grey]

Some people have issues with stunning and confusion in the game. Whilst there may be some validity to this, I think it's worth remembering that there are a range of ways of preparing for this, and full resistance is not necessarily vital. Here are some general tactics one can use (I'm sure others can add more):

1. Have stun resistance (duh) - not always easy early in the game, but there are quite a lot of items that grant it now, especially for melee types. Having even a small to medium amount can easily save your life, as it reduces stun from a no-action effect to a slow effect, the latter of which can be cured with wild infusions or at least reacted to with shield and regen inscriptions. Confusion resistance is much harder to find though, and it doesn't benefit in small amounts like stun - perhaps something to be looked at.

2. Have high saves. Physical saves especially, as this is where most stuns arise from. Alas not as many equipment items affect saves as one might like.

3. Use a shielding rune or regen infusion before engaging with a monster that can stun. At least then if you get stunlocked a good proportion of the damage will be cancelled out. A good wild infusion with a long duration can help as well, especially if you have high resistances already.

4. Stun them first. Most classes have a stunning or disabling attack. If the first stun doesn't work, run away till the cooldown wears off and try again. Almost any attack that stuns will increase in stun duration as you put more points in it - usually when maxed they let you keep any enemy permanently stunned.

5. Keep your distance. Every class can get archery, and it doesn't hurt to keep a missile weapon in the off slot and a pair of boots of movement in your pack. Keep running round and shooting till it's dead, never giving it a chance to touch you.

6. Have high armour. It's easy to want to choose equipment items that improve your damage output and stats, but ultimately armour should provide its primary purpose. If you do get stunned high armour will significantly reduce the chance of getting slaughtered in your immobile turns.

7. Have high defence. This works in two ways - stops stunning blows from hitting you, and helps avoid attacks whilst stunned.

8. Have high HP. Pump Con a *lot* and get the Health talents. They make a big difference to survivability, especially at times like when you get stunned and must survive several turns of onslaught. This is a hard choice, since obviously one wants to invest heavily in the class stats, but ultimately you can't enjoy the class features if you don't have enough Life to live on. Ignoring HP and maximising attack is the Lehman Brothers approach to battle tactics.

[darkgod]

/me bows, great post!

[Postman]

For confusion high willpower and high mental save help a lot in my experience

[edge2054]

Also wild infusions can be used while confused.

[Postman]

There is some bug or unclear description in the Wild inf. Not all Wilds which list "mental" actually cure confusion.

[Grey]

Not all confusions come from mental sources - some come from magic instead, and you need a wild that covers that as well to be sure of clearing it.

I personally think that should be changed though, as it isn't particularly clear. Confusion should be considered a mental effect even if it's from a magical or physical source.

[Charlatan73]

alternately - have the wild infusion focus on physical remedies and have a new separate infusion focus on elemental/mental remedies
(so would end acid splash, burning, etc.)

[greycat]

Who would use an infusion slot for that? Not I. It would just be another useless junk item.