I’ve been playing on US3 PVE. I don’t think this is a bug so much as a mechanic that could be refined. It’s not new, but after the last update or two, it seems to be noticeably exaggerated to me. I’ll do my best to describe exactly what I’m talking about.
It’s similar to when an enemy attack staggers you, but it’s not caused by an attack. It’s caused by the mob’s movement. In most of my playthroughs, I’ve spent a great deal of time around Sepermaru. The small scorpions are pretty bad about doing this to the character. Sometimes when they turn and get too close to you, their little claws will scoop you up off the ground. Then for a brief moment, your character has to “fall” back down to the ground. The Green Dragon Hatchlings will also cause it, but they are about the largest creature I’ve observed this behavior with. This falling action appears almost identical to what happens when you fall into a crevice where you don’t have a good footing. You can’t resume action because you’re “falling”, and sometimes you get stuck doing a little jump - fall - jump - fall - jump - fall stutter dance. It’s not the attacks that are interrupting you. It’s as if you are being interrupted by the creature’s texture, if that makes any sense. In the middle of combat, this is not a pleasant thing to experience.
Today I ran the Well of Skelos dungeon for the first time. I’ve never fought the Serpent Men in the live version of the game before, so I don’t have a baseline for comparison. They may have been notorious for this behavior or they may not have been. Someone more experienced can comment on that if they feel it necessary. The Serpent Men interrupted my character in this way worse than anything I’ve encountered in the game. At one point while battling 2 Serpent Men side-by-side, my character was trapped in this “jump/fall” stuttering loop for 3 to 5 continuous seconds, and it was caused by the texture, by the collision box. This inconvenient collision mechanic seems to nullify any attack the player may have been performing.
I really hope that explanation was understandable. This behavior is preexisting, but it is much worse now.