This isn't exclusive to vMA, unfortunately, although I'm glad you've gotten video of it. I've had the same thing happen repeatedly (and reproducibly) on the Trapmaster group boss in Zenithar's Abbey. My character will be at full health, with HoTs and shields running, and then suddenly flop over dead from a full 35k+ HP. I used to be able to do it on a character with only 20k health without issue, since damage used hit when it should and didn't seem to pile up and dump all at once behind the scenes. During these fights my ping doesn't show any higher than normal (it's typically under 100ms). I've tried it at different times of day and on different days to try to minimize server congestion, but it happens all the same.

This has long been an issue in PvP, but sadly it seems to be affecting PvE more and more. I was hoping for some news on the code rewrite to improve server performance that was promised with the patch notes for this PTS, but it wasn't mentioned at all.

KlauthWarthog wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

I've been experiencing pretty much the same insta-death in nMA during the Vault of Umbrage, which has been frustrating me because I can't figure out what I can do to avoid it.

That one might be a mechanic called "Volatile Poison". You get it if you get hit by an exploding mushroom, or by an arrow spray. It deals damage over time, reduces your healing and, after some time, flat out kills you.
The damage over time is quite low on normal, so you might be ignoring it, and then getting killed by the one-shot it inflicts after... I don't know how many seconds.
If you get hit by an exploding mushroom or an arrow spray, go into one of the glowing pools on either side of the arena to cleanse it.

Yes, I know about the Volatile Poison and the two green circles.

At first I was running to a green circle after getting poisoned, but then I read that they don't respawn. I've been trying to wait a bit after getting poisoned multiple times before using one of the green circles, to help maximize their usefulness rather than squandering them too early in the fight, so it's definitely possible that I'm waiting too long and letting myself get poisoned too many times before trying to use a green circle; that's why I said I'm not sure if it's a bug or is working as intended. All I know is that one instant I'm at nearly full health and don't have any notable "losing health" animated arrows on my life bar, then in the next instant I'm dead.

The thing that's frustrating about it is that there are no obvious warning signs that I'm on the verge of death-- I'm just nearly at full health one moment and then instantly dead-- so there's no way to know when I'd better go run to a green circle.

It would also be nice if the green circles respawned, but that's another matter.

I also know about the boss's ultimate and the shielding bubble that the minders throw up to protect themselves. I managed to get inside one during second attempt at the round, but now I can't even last long enough to reach that point-- most likely due to waiting too long to purge the Volatile Poison. And the minders are always getting really close to the boss while I'm fighting, so I end up killing them without even meaning to.

I'm also trying to kill the vinecallers as soon as they appear, as well as trying to trigger the poison blooms (and hopefully get clear of them before they poison me) to help clear the area so it doesn't become too filled with blooms, so I'm pretty sure I'm getting poisoned more frequently than I might need to be.

I just gave up after a few dozen attempts, because I got tired of insta-dying over and over with no appreciable warnings that I was on the verge of being one-shotted. I really, really dislike the "insta-death one-shot" mechanic, and I have so many other, better things to do in the game instead of going through that so-called "mechanic" dozens or hundreds of times until I finally figure out how to recognize that it's getting ready to happen and what to do about it.

I'm grateful to those who have replied so far. If this issue is being encountered in more areas than vMA, that's cause for concern: encountering this in a Trial or Dungeon environment would ruin a No Death or Trifecta run, and there is no way to prevent it.

https://youtu.be/Jx96nabTkeg

Came to post the exact same bug, here is a VERY CLEAR video of it.
On ps5 - Have also personally encountered it in round 6 vma, and with call lightning in last boss moonhunter keep, and last boss icereach hm.
First time I encountered it was maybe roughly 3 weeks ago. This one in scrivengers hm was today.

Very frustrating when it's happening to things that are very easily outhealable, or manageable, but I'm not healing because it appears to be fine and then just dead.

Gothic_Gaymer wrote: »

Update 5/3/2023

It isn't delayed damage. The game is tracking the damage properly, it simply isn't showing up on the health bar. I know this because I gave vMA another run to see if the server-replacement had helped any. It didn't, but I noticed I was able to heal myself, even when I was supposedly at full health (the green Heal numbers popped up.)

@ZOS_GinaBruno I'm tagging you again because this really needs to be acknowledged, investigated, and fixed. A player's health bar is the only indication they are in trouble. If damage isn't showing up on it, they don't know they need to heal.

So, checked POVs from myself and another in my group with the video I posted above - on the tanks screen, my health bar was dipping as it'd normally look. so it's a personal problem per person, restricted to only your own view, not everyone sees you just die...

It doesn't change the effect it can potentially have on trifecta/no death content clears, but it does solidify the fact thay it is a visual bug with the health bar.

I have no video of my own, but I can vouch that I also notice this happening most obviously in vMA. For me this has happened from at least since High Isle came out, it's not new.