@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Wrobel

The fact that your character's familiar was killed in vDSA is an error in the software for that instance, i.e., a bug.

SaltySudd wrote: »

I ran into a bug last night in vDSA where after my matriarch died (I thought they were immune to damage in group dungeons/arenas?) I would resummon it and attempt to activate the heal but it would simply resummon the matriarch again. .... In order to get it to actually heal, I had to resummon it and then wait about 1-3 seconds before attempting to heal.

I'm pretty sure that this is a bug because if not it would awful design. ....

You are right. Although TESO understandably functions as it does, given the fast pace of combat, it does not favor the player(s) -- software and network performance problems aside. That is probably why ZOS decided to exempt familiars from damage and Boss effects during combat in Dungeons, Trials, and Group Arenas.

PC & Mac Patch Notes v4.2.5 -- these are the patch notes for Murkmire Update 20, but they are not named as such in the Patch Notes directory of this forum. They contain the following comment:

Combat pets will now take 0 damage while in a Dungeon, Trial, or Group Arena.

In my experience thus far, apparently it has also applied to combat in Delves, whether the delve is, or may be, an aspect of a Quest which the character is pursuing.

With regard to other contexts, ZOS likely considers the behavior that you described to be the software working as designed. In my experience, the player must wait until the summoning and appearance annimations end, before activating the healing ability of the Twilight Matriarch. The same delay inherent in sequential animations applies to summoning and activating abilities of other familiars, too. (I don't know whether there is an effective "technique" for cancelling the respective animations, per se.)

For what it may be worth, I continue to use the Pet Health add-on to display the health bars of my character's familiars. I have noted that, when a Welva or other MoB charges the Twilight Matriarch and knocks her out of action for a few seconds, she does not suffer any Health damage. Else, when a familiar is attacked by an NPC with a weapon or a spell, the familiar does suffer Health damage. They do have a lot of Health, though, so sometimes they can and do outlast and kill their attacker. It has been unclear to me whether they can self-heal afterward.

However, sometimes the Twilight Matriarch or Volatile Familiar is one-shot killed by a World Boss, or during a Dolmen fight. So I must re-summon them when their Health bar disappears. Given all the fury of light and sound from multiple simultaneous animations, the display of their Health bar is often the only reliable way to know whether a familiar is still alive and fighting.

That said, I don't have any experience with a Sorcerer fighting PvP with a familiar summoned. Nor in solo-player Arenas.

See also: Combat Pet Changes From Update 19#latest