Maintenance for the week of December 2:
• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 2, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 4, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
idk about 50% .... that seems wack. But Minor Mangle according to UESP reduces target's max health by 10% and is from Pulsar, Hemorrhaging status caused by bleed damage.
Alternatively, look into major/minor defile which is less healing done, and minor lifesteal, maybe?
PC/NA
GM of "Kilts for Sale"
twitch.tv/thekiltmaster
He/Him
No, it's a large amount of maxHP debuff.
My otherwise around 20k HP gets reduced to about 10k.
It's more than 50%.
The wide bar becomes narrow for about 3 seconds, which is a long time in PvP.
Seems to be some weapon skill or vampire or werewolf.
I've seen a warden, sorcerer and what's the archetype with the light spear do it to me.
I've also been 1shot or rather cleaved by a 2hander who pulled many of us in 1 spot then cleaved and killed like 5 6 of us in 1 swing.
I've also been killed just standing there in a fort on a wall not thinking about anything bad, no one far and wide, suddenly a nightblade running at me in such speed, using the ultimate, hitting for 17k and a 3.7k light swing killing me and running away like he was the personified Flash from the Marvel comics. He was gone before I even hit the ground lol.
That was on my fresh 50 with 64 points in stamina.
PvP is broken.
So I want to "git gud" and use that maxHP reduction debuff too. The one that reduces my 20k to 9.7k
I know, I know 20k? But that's not the point.
Is it maybe a proc? Or set thing? Orange item?
BTW I've seen it in Battlegrounds and Cyrodiil, below and at 50.
I returned to the game about 2 weeks ago after about 9 years of absence so idk jack ***, but I know what I have seen. Will have to stream my game play so actually show proof of it existing.
Well, your health bar shrinking and your health draining rapidly by players with such high damage are two different things.
As answered above, the only debuff that shrinks your health bar because it has actively reduced your total health is Mangle. It reduces your total health by 10%. And only has two sources in game. Pulsar from the destro staff skill line and Hemorrhaging status caused by bleed damage.
"Pulsar: Release a surge of elemental energy, dealing 4765 Magic Damage to nearby enemies and afflicting them with Minor Mangle, reducing their Max Health by 10% for [7 / 8 / 9 / 10] seconds.
...
The Pulsar morph reduces your targets' Maximum Health, which limits the amount of health they can restore,..."
Which I don't think this tool tip is entirely accurate. I use flame pulsar simply for aoe flame damage, and I've never seen Mangle last 10 seconds nor does it proc all the time. There's a cool down / immunity in there somewhere that's not expressly stated in the tool tip.
Your health draining so rapidly before you can react is typically caused by players who have built into such high damage and have mastered their rotation.
Your 2 examples of the 2 hander and the nb, that had nothing to do with Mangle. Those are the results of 2 prevalent meta setups in game right now that do high levels of damage. The 2 hander example was so high because that setup scales per how many ppl it hits.
Also, yes there are times when we do get desynced and our bars drain before we ever know what hit us.
But, no. There isn't a 50% health reduction debuff in-game.
I'm not trying to be crude or mean but ... is it possible you're just getting your cheeks clapped, really quickly? 20k health is quite low for PVP unless you're trying to be a ganker or a bomber build.
You said you've been away from the game for a long while. If you're not using one of the aforementioned ganker or bomber style of play, you really should shoot for 35k health. 30k as a minimum.
I always tell new or returning PVPers to build tanky til you feel more comfortable. Then as you get more comfortable, build more into damage. Try not to get below that 30k minimum health threshold.
Also don't forget armor traits - go for impen on all body pieces.
PC/NA
GM of "Kilts for Sale"
twitch.tv/thekiltmaster
He/Him
the health bar "shrinking" in size is when you get the mangle debuff on you, which is -10% max hp
if you had 20k max hp, that would reduce it to only about 18k, but as others noted having less than 30k max hp in pvp is very risky and susceptible to being ganked
i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (in progress being filled out), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them