Blind

Description
Blind makes the target receive the Blind combat flag, which in turn will give the target a small penalty to accuracy. This penalty lasts until the victim next performs an attack, and then it disappears.

This effect is commonly used in attacks such as Photon Pistols or other attacks implementing bright flashes of light, as well as attacks that use sonic or electrical energy to temporarily disrupt systems.

Blind does not mean that your optical sensors are broken for the rest of the fight, or even that your eyes were attacked directly at all. It could be as simple as that there is a sandstorm blocking your view, or an EMP is interfering with your radar, or someone just clocked you upside the dome with a giant glowing morning star, and you can't see straight for a little while.

Strategy
Since Accuracy is so important in a battle, decreasing your opponent's ability to hit is very helpful. In addition to lowering the likelihood of a hit, if someone is blind, they may be less likely to use a powerful attack, and may shift into a Fearless or Aggressive stance, lowering their chance to dodge.

Blinding someone who is taking the time to Aim with Crackshot can partially negate the Aim bonus.

Blinding someone who is Confused is generally counter-productive. When someone is Confused, you usually want him to attack (and hopefully for him to hit one of your enemies while Confused).

Area-attack Blinds can be very useful as a 'team support' attack, and make a nice way of offering "suppressive fire" to make the enemy keep their heads down (since they don't want to waste energon by missing with big attacks, and they might not want to go Fearless either lest they get punished by the counterattack).

Related Effects

 * Blind2
 * Cripple
 * Volatile