Stun

Stun is a common status effect that can prevent affected characters from taking most actions, including the ability to block or tag; it is perhaps the deadliest effect in the game when fully exploited, as it leaves the affected character vulnerable to the full damage of ALL forms of attacks, such as hits with critical attacks, and most importantly the enormous damage bonus from the Cloak of Destiny and Nekron's Scythe against stunned opponents.

Stun always last for a set duration of time (usually 5 seconds) or until an attack or attacks-sequence is completed on the stunned character beforehand. Thus it's more volatile than other effects that tend to last for a set amount of time absent tag-out.

AI difference[]

Stuns used by the AI can sometimes last for an unusually long amount of time, persisting even after multiple basic combos, even if the stun animation has already disappeared. Additionally, even while stunned, the AI can block while being fired on by The Master's Death Cart if you use a special at the same time.

Stun Chance[]

Most stun specials that has a "chance to stun" stuns about 70% of the time if not blocked. Static's Taser Trap and Batgirl/Arkham Knight's Try to Keep Up are exceptions, as they always stun when unblocked, and additionally, the latter's passive gives it a chance to break block.

Most stun effects cannot trigger on blocking characters. A few passives have a chance of unblockable stun, like the aforementioned Batgirl/Arkham Knight, as well as Bane/Luchador (stun chance on tag in). Batman/Blackest Night and Batman/Red Son give their Teams a chance to break block (all attacks and SP1 only respectively), which also give them the chance to perform unblockable stun on their own SP1.

Gear may also have a chance to stun, albeit much lower, up to when max upgraded.

Stun Duration[]

As described above, stun usually lasts for around 5 seconds, unless they are hit. If that attack has the capability to stun, the stun condition can be renewed (for example, if Hawkgirl/Prime is equipped with the Cloak of Destiny, upon tag in, she has a chance to stun due to the gear's effect, then she can use her SP1 to stun the opponent again).

A light combo or a heavy combo will count as a sequence for the purpose of stun duration. It is not possible, however, to deal Combo Ender on a stunned opponent, with the odd exception of Static.

Characters and Effects That Employ Stun[]

Stun chance can be found on different move sets from different characters, on different characters' passives, and on various gear, including the aforementioned Cloak of Destiny. Deadshot is very unique in that he has a small chance to stun on his combo ender, despite the fact that this is not mentioned in his passive. Green Lantern/Jessica Cruz Rebirth also has a chance to stun on her combo ender, but unlike Deadshot her stun chance is unblockable.

Characters With Built-in Stun on Special Attacks[]

When a stun is found built-in on a character's special attack, there is usually an associated 50% damage penalty, meaning that if the move an SP1 does 10%~20% of the character's damage stat (prior to upgrades) as a base, and, if an SP2, 30%~60%.

Batgirl: Their SP1 are the only few ones with a 100% intra-special stun (unless blocked, but Batgirl/Arkham Knight has an unblockable chance). An intra-special stun would be ineffective otherwise as hits occurring after the stun within the special will remove the stun, but for the purposes of the Cloak of Destiny the bonus damage greatly magnifies the damage of the more-powerful rest of special. If she achieves stun on tag-in, the first hit will receive the bonus damage as well.
Batgirl/Arkham Knight's SP2 always stuns if unblocked, and with a chance to break block.
Batman: Their SP1, Explosive Batarangs behaves differently between versions, despite the description saying they do 10%-18% damage (base) for all:
- For those with 1 or 2 hits, they actually do 10%-20% as normal.
- For those with 7 hits, they do 20%-34% damage.
Batman/Batman Ninja's SP2, similar to Batgirl's SP1.
Black Adam/New 52's SP2, similar to Batgirl's SP1.
Static's SP1: Static's SP1 attack will always stun the target when it goes unblocked. Moreover, this attack has no associated damage penalty.
Cyborg's SP1.
Hawkgirls' SP1.
Batman/Flashpoint's SP2.
Solomon Grundy/Prime's SP2.
Green Lantern/New 52's SP2.
The Flash/New 52's SP2.
The Joker/The Killing Joke's SP2.
Green Lantern/Regime's SP2.
Solomon Grundy/Red Son's SP2 (no damage penalty)..

Characters With Built-in Stun on Combo-ender[]

Deadshot/Suicide Squad, estimated at ~10% chance.

Characters With Passives that Could Stun[]

Bane/Luchador: ~70% chance on tag-in.
Batgirl/Arkham Knight: on rescue.
Batman/Dawn of Justice: counter attack after evaded specials.
Hawkgirl/Earth 2: combo ender and specials.
Jessica Cruz/Rebirth: Kilowog has ~30% chance to stun on combo ender.
Martian Manhunter/Prime: one of 3 possible effects on combo ender.
The Batman Who Laughs/Metal: one of the tarot cards on specials.
Zatanna/Prime: one of the cards on SP2 (self-stun only)
The Flash/Earth 2: ~40% chance on tag-in.

Gears That Grant Stun Chance[]

Stun on Tag In[]

Uses[]

Stun would be a useful effect even if not there were no effects that referenced it, as it can set up unblocked special attacks for great damage, especially with teamwork between characters. With the Cloak of Destiny, however, a tagged-out character with enough readied power has the chance to set-up a devastating blow just tagging in.

Gear and Abilities that Offensively Reference Stun[]

Cloak of Destiny: It's 200% damage bonus against stunned characters is enormous. The gear also gives crit damage boost. With the chance to stun on tag in, almost any tagged out character with this gear and power bars is a huge looming threat. The Cloak of Destiny is often paired with the League of Assassins Adept Knives, creating the ability to level an opponent's entire team with just one SP1 from a tagging-in character.
Nekron's Scythe: similar to Cloak of Destiny, but without the chance to stun on tag-in.
Batman/Insurgency: His basic attacks will do +200% more damage against stunned opponents (It deals 300% damage, opposed to the +300% stated in his passive). This doesn't usually translate into that much damage as stun can only last for one basic attack sequence, and a character with the Cloak of Destiny can replicate this effect easily enough on a basic attack sequence or a special.
Hawkgirl/Earth 2: Her attacks will do +100% more damage against stunned opponents and an additional +25% for each Earth 2 teammate.
The Flash/Earth 2: All of his attacks Crit against stunned enemies.

Defending Against Stun[]

As stun is one of the deadliest status effects in the game and inflicting it at a timely moment can be absolutely pivotal in a battle, the ability to prepare for it and to handle it when it occurs can be paramount.

Immunity against Stun[]

Green Lantern/Red Son: Green Lantern provides crit and stun immunity to every Red Son member of his team, in addition to reducing all special attack and super move damage they take by 20%. However, if unblocked Batgirls' SP1 and Batman/Batman Ninja's SP2 intra-special stuns will still work.
Batman/Beyond: Batman's passive provides immunity to stun, including stuns caused by the passives of Martian Manhunter/Prime and Luchador Bane. Previously these stuns would ignore his immunity, but this was fixed in an update. He is also vulnerable to intra-special stuns similar to Green Lantern/Red Son, stated above.
Shazam/New 52: He is temporary immune to stun when his Powers of the Gods are active. However, since he is also protected by KO immunity during that time, stun immunity isn't that impactful beside allowing him to act and protecting his teammates from Area Effect stun nuke specials (Bane/Luchador's SP1 with Cloak of Destiny and League of Assassins Adept Knives for example).

Other Defenses[]

There are a few informal defenses against stun if its mechanics or how it is employed are understood. Always blocking at the right moment and preventing the opponent from tagging in with a character on tag-in are the two ultimate tricks that will prevent Stun in nearly all cases.

Hawkgirl/Prime: By employing snares at the right moment, characters that can only stun on tag-in will be effectively neutralized.
Invulnerability: Invulnerable characters will be immune to hits and effects that can cause stuns. While the potentially granted invulnerability of Green Lantern/Jon Stewart is unreliable (as that effect requires vulnerability and a character with the Cloak of Destiny may be able to cleanly knock him out while avoiding that threshold), the invulnerability granted by the Militarized Batmobile can be useful in many ways. As Batman receives it after nuking an opponent, he can immunize himself to a character who can only stun on tag in that comes in after what is hopefully knockout, and if so reduce the number of spare characters on the opponent's team to boot (once the opponent's team has only one character, stun on tag in is useless).
Blink from Riddler's Staff and Mother Box still have a chance to activate even when the user is stunned. However, Rebirth Wally West and Batman/Dawn of Justice cannot evade while stunned.
Raven/Prime: Raven can trigger a health swap under the right conditions in the face of even a full-on Cloak-boosted attack.
Reverse Flash: Reverse Flash can reverse the effect of an entire special sequence even if the whole sequence did not engage against him.
Superman/Injustice 2: Superman 2 can mitigate one entire unblocked special attack sequence and almost any following effect if his own passive's shield effect is active. He can tag out and in to recharge the shield. If he is stunned, he is by definition unblocking.

Trivia[]

It is possible for a freeze special to apply stun through stun gear; there seem to be two outcomes when this happens: both "Stunned" and "Frozen" appears, and the freeze animation is played, or only "Stunned" appears and the stun animation is played. The bonus damage only applies in the latter case.