die too fast to react

It could be that the people you are playing against have horrible pings or even your own net. Occasionally when my net is acting up I get instagibbed constantly, which also happens when servers are crapping out or playing against people with crappy net/comps.

Also, you'll get used to reacting as soon as you're being fired at or hear enemy gun fire behind you. You don't have to take damage to react, you can react off of sound which will save your life tons or seeing bullets flying past you if they miss. As you know, there will also be times where you just can't do anything, but those aren't all that often in my experience playing unless one of the above issues is involved (Usually primetime and server is stressed).

The funny thing is if you get the drop on an enemy it takes at least 20 bullets.
After several hundred hours I still haven't figured out why this is..

I've played several other online shooters for quite some time and never had it this bad.

It might be a combination of lag (a lot of people online plus crappy server), headshots and the fact the weapons are hard to hit with. (cof, recoil, etc.)

Edit
Just after writing this (I alt tab and browse since half the fights are frustrating or boring) I get the drop on an enemy at 10 meters and after half a clip he is still standing. And a teammate kills him.

This is probably because I missed half my shots due to the (in my opinion)b overly complicated weapons mechanics. I refuse to burst fire with an automatic weapon.

And right after that I get dropped by an enemy in half a second from at least 50 meters with a LMG. While I was moving and full health.

I think this is because there is a big delay between the enemies action and what you see on your screen.
Every shooter has some delay. Getting shot when you already are around a corner is normal in a shooter but in this game you could have entered the building already and still getting shot at. The delay is worse then in other shooters maybe three times as long.

This doesn't explain however how it is possible I get insta-killed by a LMG while going around a corner towards the enemy. Maybe the game calculates where I'm going and shows me to be already around the corner for the enemy. ?

Base Time to kill (TTK) is much shorter than actual TTK. If I creep up on you, or you take a knee right in my scope, base TTK is going to put you down. But, many factors are applied to base TTK to increase your Time to die (TTD). You are having a TTD problem, so you have to mitigate it.

Move, Rank up Armor, Fire from cover, Situational Awareness, Effective Range.. These all come from experience. So play more, die more, learn to live more.

The biggest mistake people make in this game is that they stop moving...

... NEVER STOP MOVING!

Always assume you're being watched...

The "P" in PS2 stands for Paranoia, not Planetside.

The game lags horribly for many folks so be prepared to die in ridiculous fashion many times a session.

Seems like most times the only people who can consistently turn around and get me after I've shot first are Heavy Assaults. Mostly VS HA's somehow but I don't want to digress .

The times I can survive being shot in the back...
1) long range if I'm close to cover and can get to it in time. Even then, as others have mentioned, there's a delay when shot sometimes so I'll die behind cover.
2) close range if the enemy is not HA, and I have a rapid firing gun, soft point ammo, and great luck with my aim. I don't bank on success though.

Remember one of the main tenets of Planetside 2 is "Death is no excuse." Don't worry about your deaths too much.
Have fun.

Wow, just saw an enemy going around a corner and I went around another corner (to safety) so there where two corners between us.. Then all of a sudden I get hit and die under a second by the same guy!
There must be at least a second delay between my screen and that of the enemy, maybe even two..

Yes, i'm getting the same of late, since the latest update. Are you on Miller?

so you refuse to burst fire which would solve many of your problems... strange why is that? if you burst fire like 3-4 round per burst you will kill people quickly, I dont find that complicated at all.

getting insta killed is normally a lag compensation issue, dosn't happen to me often, but sometimes you or your enemy will get a lag spike that results in the client registering all the hits at once instead of over time.

Either you like games where the guy who sets up the shot wins, or you like games where the guy with the better dodge/aim skill wins.

I prefer games where the guy who set up the shot wins. If you want to play a game where the guy with the better dodge/aim skill wins, then try flying an ESF.

Burst fire really helped me. My accuracy for a while was horrid. I'm right at the 21 to 22 percent(Engie and Medic) which isn't all that great but way better than I was.

Like most shooters out there these days, you need to spot your opponent before getting shot.

I think we figured out why this is, and it shouldn't have taken you several hundred hours to figure out either. If you don't want to use a method that will give you a great boost to accuracy, then its going to take you a lot more bullets to get a kill.

Just tap the trigger, it really isn't that hard. "Boycotting" firing in short bursts isn't going to get developers to change the game to suit your playstyle, and is only going to make the game less enjoyable for you.

Part of the skill in planetside 2 is positioning, situational awareness, opponent prediction, map knowledge, and a willingness to engage in unconventional ways.

So yes, time to kill is very short, but its not just because they shot you first. Its because they predicted where you'd be, picked out audio cues, and set up in a better location. Either that or they simply reacted faster and shot first, in which case the whole argument of it being no reaction is completely wrong.

If someone starts engaging you and you're taking hits, make for cover/evade. Don't turn around and try and shoot back.

If I take a break from game for a few weeks I tend to forget how to play a little and I experience the same thing as you. Feels like everywhere I go I get instantly killed all the time. Almost as if the pace of the game is too fast for me. As I get more into the game though it becomes much better, things seem to noticeably slow down and I feel like I have time to think and react a lot more.

Main thing is like some others have said, jump into cover depending on what side you are getting shot from, or if there's no cover quickly aim for the enemy and try to take them out with headshots while moving slightly yourself. Also anticipate enemy movements and pay attention to danger zones at all times. It's tricky, but becomes second nature after playing for a while. And I'm not great or anything, can barely keep my K/D around 1.3-1.4. Some days are better than others and even if I'm on top of my game, when I feel I kill a lot more than die, even then deaths are still pretty frequent in this game regardless.

Worth mentioning that ping above 80ish is noticeable to me. I do significantly worse above 80 ping (I usually sit around 50-60). If it jumps above 200 I'm pretty much non-competitive 1v1 as I'll lose most fair fights, even many where I have advantage, mostly because headshots and long distance shots become very unreliable with that much delay. With low ping, it easily becomes possible to outsnipe snipers at long range with heavy assault 2x scope machine guns.

About ping... just because all your apps are turned off when you login doesn't mean someone else in the house isn't watching netflix or downloading a torrent at the same time. That used to really mess me up when I didn't live alone.

turning around is faster then "evading" attacks when you get attacked.

but @Azimaith, doesnt matter, i still die before i can "react" i might get 2 steps and die, or just die as my fingers go to press a arrow key. so please tell me how im supposed to make for cover?

but regardless what im getting out of this thread is that the TTK is absurdly low in this game, coupled with the large scales of the maps and large number of players, its part skill, part luck. you can be as skilled as you want it doesnt stop that lucky SoB from walking around the corner you just scoped but turned from to make sure nobody is coming from another route.

The reason "instadeath" occurs is because they don't have to compensate for movement and recoil at the same time. The moment you start moving you are vastly harder to hit. If you are constantly in motion, you are much harder to hit. If you are caught stationary from an unexpected angle at a short range, you will get popped before you can react almost inevitably, and thats just how it goes.

I think your first problem is right here: "or just die as my fingers go to press a arrow key."

The TTK is not absurdly low. Its low enough to keep the pace fast and to reward both twitch aiming and positioning skills. Everything is part skill and part luck, but claiming that skill has nothing to do with whether someone is around a corner that you don't expect and someone you hear and are prepared for is incorrect. People make sound when they move, lots of people constantly waste time spotting everything audibly. You can watch maps for other players spots, keep an eye out for enemies popping on radar due to firing, and know what zones are dangerous and what zones are comparatively less so. This is all skill.

Sometimes you're going to just get jumped and die. There is nothing wrong with this.

Ohh, yes what Azimaith said about Map. Minimap is incredibly important to situational awareness. Sometime you see someone coming around corner and their signal disappears, I tend to anticipate where they went from there. It's like driving, some drivers check their rear-view mirror and side mirrors once in a blue moon, others constantly scan them throughout the entire drive. In Planetside 2 minimap is your mirrors, constantly scanning (pretty much instinctively) is VERY IMPORTANT.

My mouse wheel is constantly active (it doesn't switch weapons), I keep zooming in and out of map constantly depending on situation. Hell, the mouse wheel gets almost as much action as WASD.

Keep in mind, map doesn't tell you what level the enemy is on, which is important around towers. In these cases it's all about knowing the map. I can instinctively guess what level someone is on just by watching their dot make a few turns around tower. I can even guess if they're an infil/LA or some other class (max is obvious) based on how fast the dot moves, friendly population density in that tower, presence of enemy darts, spotted objects nearby, hacked turrets or terminals, sound of weapon fire (those are all dead giveaways). It's surprisingly quite accurate, not 100% but close. I tend to instantly put myself in their situation and think about what I would do, or what I have seen others do most often in that spot in that situation. That comes with time/experience and memorizing layouts of bases, but once you get it down you almost have the advantage of seeing through walls.

All that is very important when engaging, because if it's a max I'll take a few shots and bail if I can or aim with rocket. Against heavy assault mostly bail if my health drops, if it's engie I might be more aggressive with them and rush in, if it's a medic I'll be aggressive but try not to give him too much time to use self heal, if it's light assault I'll be more cautions with elevation where one could hide, if it's an infil I might pull out pistol with flashlight and watch out for mines. A lot of different situations that you have to come up with your own counter for, then you use that counter to figure out how effective it is, mess up lots of times, then use the best one until you no longer have to think about it it's just automatic.

And after all that, nothing is 100% certain, it only increases your probability of winning, it doesn't guarantee it.

@Azimaith

i think your confusing me saying "absurdly low ttk" with me saying "the ttk shouldnt be so low"

the ttk IS absurdly fast, that doesnt mean it needs changed, its just how the game is.

even if im sprinting thru or side straifing i die just as fast tho.

generally im not very good at indoor engagements tho, i never get anywhere with it, i do better in the more open areas.

There's no way to survive if you are attacked from behind at close range - there's just too much damage and that's fine by me. Proper tactics are not very good in games like this but some things are right:

1) Fire at the enemy, sometimes they take cover instead.
2) Take cover!

http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/EIB/EIB_Related_Battle_Drills/battle-drill-4-react-to-a.shtml

THIS: