Skills Becoming Unresponsive During Combat

jwboudreau1b16_ESO

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

Sky Chancellor

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

I had the same issues on my templar as well. During battle my abilities wouldn't work. My character could move around, but my abilities didn't work for a few seconds. Obviously, that is something you don't want to happen. Thought that perhaps I was the only. Thanks for the post.

Vandril

This could actually be lag. Internet lag, that is.

One time, I disconnected from the server completely. My internet went out without my knowing. I was still in the game and still able to move around, and enemy animations were still able to finish up (any previously queued animations, I mean), but my skills and attacks were completely unresponsive. I could still open all sorts of UI windows and the like. It FELT as though the game was running normally, except I couldn't use skills, crouch, or anything else of that nature.

It took me a good 3 minutes to realize that the internet was down and it wasn't just a client issue. The entire time, all of what I described above was experienced.

Since people notice a few seconds mid-combat where skills can't be used, as described in this thread, it may very well be a short connection hiccup which is causing that problem.

danovic

I think some mobs are silencing us but since the UI doesn't show buffs or de-buffs we just left guessing it usually wears off after about 6 seconds. But have had total blackout of skill often especially at dolmans. That's why I think it some form of silence. Lots could be fixed with a proper user interface that actually shows whats happening to us. This one is just to minimalist.

Vandril

@danovic - I've had this happen to me while using nothing but instant cast melee stamina abilities.

Unless this supposed silence mechanic stops even stamina skills and can be used when the player is not actively charging/casting/channeling a skill, then I highly doubt it.

That said, I haven't experienced this bug in many months. I didn't even know it was still around until this thread. So, maybe what I was experiencing and what users in this thread are experiencing aren't even the same thing.

AaronMB

When this happens to me or my wife, we can use healing skills but not offensive skills; all skills are "lighted" like they can be used but they just won't work. The random monsters that this has happened with should not have any silence abilities and there is nothing on screen to suggest anything other than physical attacks from them. Sometimes it fixes itself and sometimes it does not. When it stays, no amount of time clears it, leaving combat, dying, nor simply logging out to character screen. One of us is usually playing normally while this happens to the other; we're on the same high-speed network and our rigs show good latency and FPS.

Rune_Relic

Vandril wrote: »

@danovic - I've had this happen to me while using nothing but instant cast melee stamina abilities.

Unless this supposed silence mechanic stops even stamina skills and can be used when the player is not actively charging/casting/channeling a skill, then I highly doubt it.

That said, I haven't experienced this bug in many months. I didn't even know it was still around until this thread. So, maybe what I was experiencing and what users in this thread are experiencing aren't even the same thing.

Stamina build here with the same issue but worse.
in cyrodiil I was completely locked...couldn't even move/dodge/break/skill. Nothing.
BUT....latency which you can enable in the settings showed 70.
This is not the usual server latency.....this is some kind of lock up.

This was after a 12+ man bat train spamming lasers and comets.

jwboudreau1b16_ESO

Ya, I don't expect that it's lag on my end, either. The rest of the game runs fine. It actually happened tonight, so I thought I'd test the theory, and the internet was still going strong.

This happens on my Nightblade, too, however, it triggers randomly when I use the Flurry ability. I haven't found a trigger for the Templar, yet.

Hopefully ZOS takes note! It's an annoying issue and likely one that would be hard to pin down and fix.

rosarose

It has happened to me as well, but for me it doen't matter what I play, nightblade or templar, I can move around but not do any damage. But I always asumed it was lag from the server in my case ( don't know if it''s the same for you ) usually it goes away after a few seconds and I can keep on fighting.

Sotha_Sil

I had the same issue while doing VR Darkshade caverns yesterday on my templar. All skills were lightened, I wasn't stunned - I automtically tried to break free but it didn't work as I wasn't cc'ed in any kind - but I couldn't do anything for 1-2s. It happened a few times.

technohic

Did you templars have eclipse or one of its morphs slotted?

danovic

Just guessing about the silence because its worse at the dolman with big boss spawn. Do know it almost always happens to me from dolmans even if i'm not close to it the second the dolman drops my abilities get blacked out magic and stamina. They could just be creating zone wide lag doing it too.

Vizier

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

I've had the same issue. I've noticed it mostly happens after escaping a root or snare for me. People talking about lag don't know what they are talking about. It's definitely a bug. Can move, switch weapons but not attack or cast spells. I have had some limited success with this by hitting esc but only like 2/10 of the time and it's problematic to hit esc while in combat if you know what I mean.

Rokal

This is a really infuriating bug in part because it's been around and more importantly REPORTED several times since Beta, and ZOS obviously either can't or won't fix it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, to quickly get out of it, just go into a menu and escape out of it.

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

Oh and the fact that jumping in and out of a menu leads me to believe that this is not a silence spell used on our character but a definite bug.

I_killed_Vivec

Rokal wrote: »

This is a really infuriating bug in part because it's been around and more importantly REPORTED several times since Beta, and ZOS obviously either can't or won't fix it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, to quickly get out of it, just go into a menu and escape out of it.

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

Oh and the fact that jumping in and out of a menu leads me to believe that this is not a silence spell used on our character but a definite bug.

Oooo... that's interesting.

I hit Esc, which does nothing the first time, then hit it again, which works, then Resume. Sometimes it works and I can carry on.

Gilvoth

i am having the same problem with "un-responsiveness" and "in-ability" to use skills Including even light atacks -
the skill menu last night was even "greyed out" while i was in pvp with my faction during a castle seige atack we were attacked by the enemy and i noticed my entire skill bar (all 5 slots including ultimate) were grey and had zero responce when clik them, i then moved away from the fight in sneak and went invisible backing away as to try to not be killed and within about 15 foot away from the fight all my skills again lit back up and were usable, so i raced forward to try and fight but when i got close to the enemy i saw the entire skill bar yet again go grey and i even could not switch weapons.

Gilvoth

oh, and btw, im not a templar. im a NB

glak

Was happening to me after using eclipse on a monster until eclipse ended.

Rune_Relic

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

oh, and btw, im not a templar. im a NB

as am i

jwboudreau1b16_ESO

Rokal wrote: »

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

That's great to know! I didn't know that.

It's great to see that I'm not the only one experiencing these issues... I'm really hoping that ZOS takes note and is able to fix this issue. It's super annoying as I'm sure you all know.

jelliedsoup

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

NO but you will be pleased to hear this will not cost you extra.

Vandril

Vizier wrote: »

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

People talking about lag don't know what they are talking about.

Pardon, but I'm quite sure I do know what I'm talking about. Even disregarding my fair experience with network and client-server technologies and action prediction methods used in online action games, I can still say that I have experienced the skill-lock problem before, as well as the intriguing server disconnect I mentioned in my previous post which I mentioned felt similar to the issue. I said it could be lag, and that much is true.

Likewise, it could very well be a bug.

Rokal wrote: »

This is a really infuriating bug in part because it's been around and more importantly REPORTED several times since Beta, and ZOS obviously either can't or won't fix it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, to quickly get out of it, just go into a menu and escape out of it.

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

Oh and the fact that jumping in and out of a menu leads me to believe that this is not a silence spell used on our character but a definite bug.

I had forgotten about how the menu-spamming tended to fix the issue. I also recall a lot of people early on after the game's release suffering from the problem when using certain channel abilities, such as Flurry from the DW weapon skill line.

I know this game uses animation lock and priority... I wonder if animations of certain skills or actions sometimes fail to register as complete, and the animation lock stays in place. It's possible that, at the same time, the game is unable to cancel the animation either due to or despite its priority. I mean, many people suffer this problem from skills with high animation priority, such as channel skills (consider: you can't block during channels/cast times, can you? And block has an extremely high priority) and animated actions such as mounting (which also takes priority over even blocking - I recently had the issue after mounting, myself).

Vizier

Vandril wrote: »

Vizier wrote: »

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

People talking about lag don't know what they are talking about.

Pardon, but I'm quite sure I do know what I'm talking about. Even disregarding my fair experience with network and client-server technologies and action prediction methods used in online action games, I can still say that I have experienced the skill-lock problem before, as well as the intriguing server disconnect I mentioned in my previous post which I mentioned felt similar to the issue. I said it could be lag, and that much is true.

Likewise, it could very well be a bug.

Rokal wrote: »

This is a really infuriating bug in part because it's been around and more importantly REPORTED several times since Beta, and ZOS obviously either can't or won't fix it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, to quickly get out of it, just go into a menu and escape out of it.

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

Oh and the fact that jumping in and out of a menu leads me to believe that this is not a silence spell used on our character but a definite bug.

I had forgotten about how the menu-spamming tended to fix the issue. I also recall a lot of people early on after the game's release suffering from the problem when using certain channel abilities, such as Flurry from the DW weapon skill line.

I know this game uses animation lock and priority... I wonder if animations of certain skills or actions sometimes fail to register as complete, and the animation lock stays in place. It's possible that, at the same time, the game is unable to cancel the animation either due to or despite its priority. I mean, many people suffer this problem from skills with high animation priority, such as channel skills (consider: you can't block during channels/cast times, can you? And block has an extremely high priority) and animated actions such as mounting (which also takes priority over even blocking - I recently had the issue after mounting, myself).

Shrug it's not lag. The description isn't anything like typical lag experienced by players. These aren't some nubs wondering about why they can't switch their action bar during a Zerg. They were pretty specific and "lag" is just not part of that picture. "extensive experience" or not. But hey. Luv u man. No worries. We're all just talking here.

Here is the thing. I could still move and actually avoid being attacked by using terrain. Additionally everyone else continues to move and their attacks are just fine. It's not in the least like lag where you sit there and nothing happens and then you end up dead. it's not the same kind of lag one experiences when their action bar doesn't switch. Additionally pulling up a menu tends to fix it. Why? Cuz it's not lag. At least the second part of your post is sniffing up the right tree.

Vandril

Vizier wrote: »

Vandril wrote: »

Vizier wrote: »

jwboudreau1b16_ESO wrote: »

Hello!

There's an infuriating issue that seems to occur during combat every so often. It seems to be completely random, but the character will just become completely unresponsive. You're unable to attack, use skills, etc... but you can move around. It pretty much means that you're insta-dead, which damages your armour, costing tons of money on repairs. When this is happening, the game is registering the input because the actual skill icon presses as though it had been used, but nothing happens.

This is happening with a Templar using a Lightning Staff.

The issue has been happening since launch. Any potential resolution?

People talking about lag don't know what they are talking about.

Pardon, but I'm quite sure I do know what I'm talking about. Even disregarding my fair experience with network and client-server technologies and action prediction methods used in online action games, I can still say that I have experienced the skill-lock problem before, as well as the intriguing server disconnect I mentioned in my previous post which I mentioned felt similar to the issue. I said it could be lag, and that much is true.

Likewise, it could very well be a bug.

Rokal wrote: »

This is a really infuriating bug in part because it's been around and more importantly REPORTED several times since Beta, and ZOS obviously either can't or won't fix it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, to quickly get out of it, just go into a menu and escape out of it.

EX: Hit C to enter character screen then immediately hit Alt or Esc to leave that screen.

Your abilities will begin working again... for now...

Oh and the fact that jumping in and out of a menu leads me to believe that this is not a silence spell used on our character but a definite bug.

I had forgotten about how the menu-spamming tended to fix the issue. I also recall a lot of people early on after the game's release suffering from the problem when using certain channel abilities, such as Flurry from the DW weapon skill line.

I know this game uses animation lock and priority... I wonder if animations of certain skills or actions sometimes fail to register as complete, and the animation lock stays in place. It's possible that, at the same time, the game is unable to cancel the animation either due to or despite its priority. I mean, many people suffer this problem from skills with high animation priority, such as channel skills (consider: you can't block during channels/cast times, can you? And block has an extremely high priority) and animated actions such as mounting (which also takes priority over even blocking - I recently had the issue after mounting, myself).

Shrug it's not lag. The description isn't anything like typical lag experienced by players. These aren't some nubs wondering about why they can't switch their action bar during a Zerg. They were pretty specific and "lag" is just not part of that picture. "extensive experience" or not. But hey. Luv u man. No worries. We're all just talking here.

Here is the thing. I could still move and actually avoid being attacked by using terrain. Additionally everyone else continues to move and their attacks are just fine. It's not in the least like lag where you sit there and nothing happens and then you end up dead. it's not the same kind of lag one experiences when their action bar doesn't switch. Additionally pulling up a menu tends to fix it. Why? Cuz it's not lag. At least the second part of your post is sniffing up the right tree.

Actually, these things can still be caused by lag. Lag spikes in particular. Action prediction systems over a network with lag problems can cause this exact issue. This. Exact. Issue. Because the server and client are not on the same page as to what your character is doing, and the system doesn't know how to properly handle it.

Don't get me wrong, even if it is lag that causes the issue it's still something that needs to be fixed on Zenimax's end. It would mean that their action prediction system isn't functioning properly, as it isn't handling client vs. server disagreements properly and instead becomes stuck on the point of contention.

Even if the second part of my post were to end up being 100% true, the reason that some animations are not registering as having been complete may still be lag.

Believe it or not, I'm actually not just talking out of my behind, here. :P

Anyway, that's all semantics, really. The point is: it's a major problem. And it needs fixing.

It's only been a year and change since this issue was first reported. Get on your game, here, @ZOS.

jwboudreau1b16_ESO

It would be nice if we could get some ZOS confirmation about why it's happening... considering it's been reported and happening since launch lol. With my NB, Flurry still causes my skills to become unresponsive the odd time...