How to prevent being stunned by the first form of Vol Opt?

Question

(PSO Episode I & II on GameCube, offline multiplayer)

When fighting the first form of Vol Opt (boss of the Mine), we often get paralyzed/stunned by some kind of lightning (Gizonde?). This effect can’t be removed with Antiparalysis, so we have to wait until it’s over. Unfortunately, it seems that this can happen several times in a row: while still being stunned, another lightning seems to extend the effect, or often there is only a small time frame where we can place one attack at most until we get stunned again. The last two times we fought this first form, we were so often stunned that it was really annoying.

I wonder what to do about it? What exactly is triggering this lightning, and how can we prevent it?

Maybe it has to do with the order in which to attack the various parts?

• The screens (which can be destroyed while the boss is showing up)
• The thing hanging from the ceiling (which can be shot until it falls down)
• The pillars that sometimes show up, one of them glowing red

Answer 1

The screens are more of a distraction (yes, it's true that it damages Vol Opt, but it's less efficient imo), so you should focus on the pillars.

Your priority should be attacking the pillar nodes that are glowing red (will attack), rather than blue ones (will do nothing). Even if you don't destroy the red pillar, attacking it should only cause Vol Opt to cast it's Zonde (prob Gizonde) once instead of thrice.

For Normal to Very Hard, you should destroy the antenna thing on the ceiling (it will fall down). If you do this, it seems to delay the casting of it's Zonde attack (I'm not sure on this) and will cause Vol Opt to zap itself as well when it casts it's Zonde, temporarily shorting all the pillars giving to time to attack/heal (this is a good time to spam Razonde). Note that if you do this, your team will still get hit by Zonde (but only once).

Note that there's no antenna thing in Ultimate. These pillars launch attack at later difficulties as well (Foie/Gibarta, I believe).

Answer 2

As you suspected, the electric attack by Vol Opt is caused by the pillars that rise out of the ground. To prevent the attack, you must attack the pillar that is glowing red. However, it takes a certain amount of damage before the attack is prevented, so you actually have to focus it instead of just attack it once.

Rangers are very helpful for this fight since they can attack the correct screen and pillar without having to move around too much.

Source: Phantasy Star Online Wiki