My static's monk used to use it for stun on dreadknights in T5 when there was a Twister along with dreadknight, but other than that, yeah, he just uses it as a gap closer.
Personally I don't like how they put Stuns on gap-closers or how it cancels when an enemy walks to close when you're casting it. The stun really pisses me off sometimes especially on stuff that needs to be chain stunned by the Paladin. If you need to get to something and stun it you can always Shoulder Tackle into Steel Peak/Spineshatter Dive into Leg Sweep. As for PVP they could always just leave it on for that like how some skills don't work in PVP etc.
..............TLDR
Most Stuff That Matters is immune to stun, and stunning trash shouldn't ruin the game for anybody. If an add needs to be stunned for some reason, find another way to maintain your combo without depending on Shoulder Tackle: eg. anticipate which side the add will appear on Levi and engage Levi on that side until it pops.
I like the stun. You can interrupt annoying spells or abilities at range or pin a moving target to finish a waning combo. It serves a purpose; you just have to ask yourself or your tank if stun will be an issue and change your approach. Don't tackle Diabolos (you don't need to). Don't tackle Captain Piss Crystals (you don't need to). Don't tackle dungeon boss X with stunnable mechanic Y - you don't need to and if you really gotta stun something, stun the adds that pop later.
Why would a monk take a lot of damage from attacking the head of Leviathan? If they sit on the flank they shouldn't take any damage at all unless the tank is bad and aiming Dread Tide at you. Melee can attack the head or tail without worry of damage reflect. The only concern here is losing the ability to do rear positionals, but if you're just one the head for a short time while waiting for the add it's not a big deal.
I agree but disagree because some tanks don't know that, nearly most runs I've been in have had me die generally because I'm doing my gyme murdering job and dread tide comes in like a wrecking ball. A few tanks do do it, and always remind, I go a different rotation on them now but yeah. Happens more then you think, though, shoulder barging the head's never been an issue as I've seen.
Also, SB stuns are something I don't mind as long as they aren't just spammed constantly on the wrong MOB. I think it's fine, as there are only specific situations in which you have to NOT use it. Levi mobs, ifrit for null stuns past 3 consecutive hits. Honestly, it's also very useful in those instances in used correctly or asked for.
Well Dread Tide is a line AOE so unless the tank is standing on the flank facing the inside the platform you shouldn't get hit by it ever while attacking the head on the flank. Even in the worst runs I've been in I've never been hit by Dread Tide by attacking the head on the flank. Now I do agree that there's a lot of tanks that are bad and face it the wrong way and hit people over by the tail from facing it in that direction instead of aiming it to shoot out of the back of the platform.
Aww man, so lucky then. I've had MT's run over and try to help with the fear monger and just wipe the group with dread tide. Good intentions, bad results and all that. Pretty grim tales.:c
You're mainly right, if you have a solid tank, that'll be the situation, but that RARELY happens for me in that run, and when it does I thank them, because other people have told me it's partially the same deal.
But I'll stop side tracking now.:p