Got an issue with the "Become ethereal" shout randomly just not working. The shout will go off, some graphical distortion will go off, but it just won't "take".

I'm playing on pretty difficult settings (Master, deadly combat, deadly dragons) so one shots are happening left and right, making this shout a very important part of surviving, but it choosing to not work one out of three times is really starting to wear me out in conjunction with the one shots.

I am sure I am not cancelling the shout out by performing actions that would cancel it.

ie I'm standing below a dragon, it's about to spray me with death, I am standing still, use the shout and continue standing still, and I get wasted. Like I said this doesn't happen all the time.

I want to know if it's a known problem with the shout, or if there's something wrong, or how to fix it?

Thanks

do you have any "Absorb Magicka" Enchantments?

I believe such Enchantments can negate stuff like become ethereal and summon spells...

I may be wrong, but I believe they do anyways...

Are you healing yourself when you're ethereal?

Hmm, I do tend to use a spell which absorbs health from enemies (not actively, a one cast deal, then it does its thing over time) in a lot of my fights, and I just tested it and it does cancel out the shout.

I can't say for sure that I've used this spell every time BE failed to work, but this may be the best explanation. Will be more mindful of it from now on and see how things develop. Thanks a lot!

Yep, any spell will stop the shout.