How does this happen?

ThatNeonZebraAgain

Stopped PvPing around last September when life got busy, etc. Last week or so I started PvPing more and was on the receiving end of some attacks that left me scratching my head. I was playing a 7 Light Armor magicka NB with ~300CP.

First, insta-killed several times in a row by a couple gankers from stealth. Death recaps showed this:





My guess is sneak up to melee range, draw bow heavy attack, then click ability button (Surprise Attack, which gives armor debuff) = both hit from stealth instantly, with the Heavy Attack being buffed by the SA's armor debuff. I tried messaging these two PC NA EP players, but they were in anon mode (can't private message), of course. Is this correct?


Same players, this time I survived the initial onslaught only to get hit by 4 attacks in 2 seconds (note timestamps in chat window):



However, I exacted my revenge soon after, killing the ganker 1v1 after popping him from stealth. Extremely satisfying


Also, I thought Dawn Breaker hitting multiple times got fixed..? Again, multiple attacks within 2 seconds.


All this happened on weekend afternoons with only minor lag. So tell me PvPers, is this just how it is and I need to adjust my build/playstyle, or was something up (bugs, macros, etc) about these encounters?

kadar

1) Don't need Macros to do this (or anything really).

2) How much Impenetrable do you run? Those are heavy hits.

3) 2 Ticks from Dawnbreaker because it's a DoT.

4) The 4 attacks in 2 seconds thing-- It's really just 2 attacks in 2 seconds. Lethal Arrow + Weap proc + 1st Silver Leash are instantanious, last 2 silver Leashes in the 2 seconds of Combat.
EDIT: You actually could have died a lot faster. For some reason this guy didn't weave Light Attacks between Silver Leashes...

5) Heavy Attacks from Stealth hit really hard. Possibly buffed with Stealthy racial passive + being a NB.

Xvorg

Any cp in the lady constelation? Hardy maybe?

7 light with impenetrable trait?

It seems the problem is physical attacks

ThatNeonZebraAgain

Thanks for the tips @The_Outsider and @Xvorg. I currently have 2 pieces of Impen gear, and 35 points (12% mitigation) each into Hardy and Elemental Defender. I thought Dawnbreaker was just a flat damage, not a DoT, so my bad there.

I'm currently not a vamp or WW (though considering picking up vampirism), so it's satisfying when people use Fighters Guild abilities on me, but they still seem to hit rather hard.

I remember it being a thing thought sometime last year where you could load up a bow heavy attack then hit Poison Arrow to release the Heavy Attack, causing both the Heavy Attack and Poison Arrow to received the from stealth damage bonus. Is that bug still around? Just trying to understand why they'd use a bow heavy attack from melee range.

kadar

You're welcome! That's a decent amount of impen. Could be that those 2 are just specced for pure damage.

I'm not sure if that bug is still around or not. I'd guess yes though. Especially if the 2 attacks are hitting in the same millisecond. I'm not sure to what small degree the system tracks which ability hit first and SHOULD receive the stealth bonus. If it clocks them at exactly the same time, then it may be granting the damage buff to both. Idk for sure.

As for the heavy attack, don't all weapon attacks have the same Icon in Death Recap? And are just called "Light Attack" in the log? Are you sure they were using a bow for those first screen shots?