XYZ-999L is a really interesting monster in its design. The moveset is incredible then the passives hold it back. You can use it with a stun counter to get rid of the stun absorber downside. However, ion field is always a huge issue.
They buffed it a little while ago so it stuns by even more. Now it’s a big risk with a big payoff. I think that’s the whole point of ion field. Without the downside(s) the monster would be incredibly powerful.
I think it’s fine how it is. XYZ works brilliantly in PvE and you can risk using it in PvP if you want. Running it in the end-game is maybe less risky. If it backfires then you may be losing anyway and at the front of a team it can be hard to remove stun counters from the enemy team.
For the sake of theory…
If it were to be changed, I would do the following:
- Keep stun absorber
- Change ion field (all versions) so when it stuns an enemy it pushes XYZ back by the same amount. However, if it grants a turn to a monster (a stun converter entering or a stun counter on the field) then it also grants a turn to XYZ, 1TU behind that monster.
This way it will typically get stunned far out of the match if it is successfully stunning the enemy team / your team is getting stunned. Then as soon as it backfires then it comes back into play and can time’s up the enemy, after they get a turn (a chance to deal with XYZ). However, it’s worth noting that this turns it into a powerful counter to stun counters/converters so maybe a slightly more toned down version of this would work or time’s up is changed into a different skill (since it’s kind of meant to be countered by these monsters despite having time’s up).
Note: XYZ-999L gets “pushed back” rather than stunned by its own ion field to prevent ridiculous combos with your own stun counter.