Last night in Imperial City PvP, I had a really weird experience. A player ran up to me and swung their arms twice, which looked like they were using maybe two abilities. But then, I died instantly. After I died, the kill feed showed I actually took damage from five different abilities, with some hitting multiple times, all happening in under two seconds. It felt impossible to react to, and it made me wonder if this was some kind of macro or cheat. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is this just lag, or is there more to it?
5 Answers
Honestly, it’s almost always lag. Sometimes the game lets players dump a bunch of ability server hits in a short burst and it all lands instantaneously from the victim’s perspective. It’s not really a macro or cheat, just the way the server handles rapid ability data. This kind of ‘front-loading’ of attacks is actually why they nerfed bows so hard — because you could theoretically fire so many shots that you kill before the first arrow visually hits, thanks to server delays.
Playing from a place with higher ping or unstable internet connection can really mess with your experience. I’ve had the exact same thing in Cyrodiil where enemies seem to teleport or attacks hit out of nowhere. If you’re in regions like Latin America and the servers are farther away, these issues can be much worse. Sadly, sometimes it’s just the unavoidable network problems rather than the game itself.
That sounds like classic lag messing with what you see versus what the server registers. I’ve had fights where the enemy looks like they’re barely attacking, but the server queues up a bunch of hits all at once and you get obliterated before you have a chance to react. It’s frustrating but pretty common in big PvP zones like Imperial City, especially if the server or your connection is lagging.
I’d also be curious what abilities were used. Sometimes if players use AoE or damage-over-time skills, the kill screen can register multiple ticks of damage very quickly. You mentioned one was Dawnbringer? That’s definitely one that can hit multiple times fast. Combine that with lag, and it looks crazy fast.
I’ve seen this too, and the kill feed showing multiple hits with just a couple of arm swings is definitely caused by delays syncing abilities between players. When it happens, the enemy’s actions look sped up or chopped into quick bursts, but really it’s the server catching up on all the hits it received at once. It sucks, but it’s just lag, not hacking or a macro.
Yeah, that makes sense. I was just surprised by how many hits showed up on the kill chart vs what I actually saw.
Yeah, Dawnbringer was one for sure. I just couldn’t keep track after that, it happened so fast.