How do poison arrows work?

[Cathulion]

I was playtesting my lightning composite +4 bow w/ poison arrows on BKs in Kilm area, I shot just enough for 1 to poison to death that reached over 400+ and I initially shot 4 for that, then I did a test on another and did 2 or 3 shots, it built up a bit over 200-300 poison and then it reset back to 2 and went back up. I hit him 2 more times for about 175 and it went up in ticks again after that. I'm so confused on how to keep it going.

[Pirate]

Just like the chosen undead, enemies have a poison meter. poison arrows fill up so much of that meter each hit, and when it maxes the meter out, the enemy becomes poisoned and starts taking 2-3 damage per tick until the meter runs out (the same way you take poison damage until your meter resets back to zero).

The damage you see only adds up if more damage is applied within a certain amount of time, just like with sword swings in quick succession. In this case, the poison damage happens fast enough to keep it visibly and adding. These numbers also include the damage your arrows physically do (all damage is added, not just the poison damage), so if you hit it while it was being poisoned and did X damage from the arrow itself on top of the poison, the number will jump up by X the continue adding poison after that. I can only guess that the difference in your numbers is due to being close enough for the arrows to do their own damage as well (seeing as the first one took 4 hits while the others only took 2-3 hits).

I also noticed that you need to stay within a certain range of the enemy and/or facing them to continue to see the numbers add up. Sometimes when farming slabs in the new londo ruins, I'll lob some poison arrows at the 3 drakes near the door for a chance for scales, then leave and kill more darkwraiths. usually I'll come back to the drakes with a few seconds of poison left, but the damage counter will be back to 0 and start adding form there one I get close enough back to them.

[Cathulion]

Originally posted by Pirate:

Just like the chosen undead, enemies have a poison meter. poison arrows fill up so much of that meter each hit, and when it maxes the meter out, the enemy becomes poisoned and starts taking 2-3 damage per tick until the meter runs out (the same way you take poison damage until your meter resets back to zero).

The damage you see only adds up if more damage is applied within a certain amount of time, just like with sword swings in quick succession. In this case, the poison damage happens fast enough to keep it visibly and adding. These numbers also include the damage your arrows physically do (all damage is added, not just the poison damage), so if you hit it while it was being poisoned and did X damage from the arrow itself on top of the poison, the number will jump up by X the continue adding poison after that. I can only guess that the difference in your numbers is due to being close enough for the arrows to do their own damage as well (seeing as the first one took 4 hits while the others only took 2-3 hits).

I also noticed that you need to stay within a certain range of the enemy and/or facing them to continue to see the numbers add up. Sometimes when farming slabs in the new londo ruins, I'll lob some poison arrows at the 3 drakes near the door for a chance for scales, then leave and kill more darkwraiths. usually I'll come back to the drakes with a few seconds of poison left, but the damage counter will be back to 0 and start adding form there one I get close enough back to them.

Ah I see. I literally thought the number that was ticking every few seconds was their HP being taken off(I put +1500 on a mini boss in NG+ and they didn't take damage appropriate to that). I see why now, ty!