Kyro brought it to our attention that Element displays hits that are absorbed by armor is displayed as a "miss"

Kyro - Hits fully absorbed by armor are registered as misses, so that's most likely what you're seeing. Single archers are only really effective against unarmored opponents. Training groups so they can volley will yield better effect.

https://forums.elementalgame.com/391477

I would suggest display either something like Deflect(ed)(ion) or Glancing to give more feed back on how the fight is actually going. Large amounts of misses are very frustrating, so having the feedback of yes I'm hitting, no its not doing anything but at least I'm not flailing around like an idiot; should improve tactical game play a lot. Not to mention auto-resolve summaries.

Edit: This seems to be true for magic as well - a display of "Resisted" would be perfect for that.