I had the same issue as well. Did eventually kill the zombie's with Fireaxe after 10-20 hits.
I was getting the hit sound and blood but zombie would not die. Did not try shooting them though as other players were near.

I am glad to hear im not the only one.

Is it just the black version of the ax or has anyone tried it with a green one or a unpainted one?

I have tried with both an unpainted fireaxe and splitting axe. Both required a significantly higher number of hits to kill the zombies than the usual 1 and 2 hits, respectively.
The fireaxe took somewhere around 5-10 and the splitting axe around 10-15 hits to kill civilian zombies.

Mine was painted black, will try wil unpainted next time.

Not invincible just take a hell of a lot of body hits or one or two head hits, known issue, from the change log:

Ongoing melee balancing has zombies more resilient to body impacts. (Aim for the head)

It was this way on experimental servers already.So i don´t think its a bug. I prefer hard to kill zombies for it enhances the survival aspect and reduces the pvp.
aim for the head and 3-5 hits will kill ´em.

Okay so its not a bug.....just bad balancing. If the best melee weapon takes so many hits to kill a zombie.....what you do with a baseball bat?! I mean Zombies were ordinary humans and they should take as much damage as humans. 3 to 4 body hits should definetly be anough and 1 hit to the head.
Or they leave zombies as strong as they are now and dont increase the general amount of Zombies.

This is not a bug, it is an intended new feature, read the patch notes.

Aim for the head, they go down within seconds, even if you use your fists.

Same problem, an axe hit to the head should kill a zombie.

If you read the changelog, you'll see its intended. Zombies take 10+ hits with a fireaxe, unless you hit the head. Then it's 1 hit as before.

Its definetly not one hit to the head with fireaxe....i tried this many times. You need at least two to kill a zombie.

I've one hit a zombie in the head with a splitting axe just now, if no one is able to reproduce this, I'd suggest blaming latency, bad aim, or bad luck.

I just killed a few more zombies with ONE single hit to the head. Its really easy if you sneak up behind them. The only type of zombie I've seen so far that takes more hits is the soldier zombie.

I agree with Nainakai, latency is probably be an issue here. Bloodsplatter usually indicates where you hit the body, but this is far from accurate when both player and zombie are moving around each other. So you might mistake a hit to the shoulders for a hit to the head.

I disagree with lenni20, zombies are no longer ordinary humans and its perfectly fine that they can take more damage. I hope for even stronger types of zombies like Dr. Ivan from DayZ Origins. There should be a lot more PVE elements!

I have also experienced this with multiple weapons including the splitting ax. Had three zombies after me and could not kill them except with head shots or guns. Also the fact that they no longer slow down after a reasonable amount of sprinting and can hit you from afar makes it very difficult.

Changed the title of this issue to better describe the problem.

Zombies are too OP !

LoL,
a normal Zombie hit me one time: Jacked runied, Taticel helm runied and the Zombie Needs 10 hits with a fireaxt. This is not okay and makes no fun. And a game should make fun. Realistic yes or not. And this is not realistic. Also ist no fun.

Zombies got a buff with Title Update, version 0.44.

It was too easy before. Now its more balanced. If you dont want to fight with the zombie, then shoot him! You got the choice: Use ammo and maybe somebody in near hears it or go in a near fight. Good survival aspect.
Little hint: Use the amphibia cause its good silenced.

If you are a newbie, you should avoid fights with zombies.
Run away!
I dont have problems with the new balance. Not as a newbie, nor as equipped.
You have to change your style of play cause zombies aren´t that harmless one-hit-bunnies.
PS: Military Zombies need more hits than a civil zombie. Try it.

we tried it a lot. But the 6. zombie hit me one time and you read the result.
And 2/3 time i make a sneak attack from behind the zombie see/hear me and make a U-turn and run, so near of impossible to make a hit to the head.
If my gear is not runied by one hit it could(!) be okay, but the risk to lose all by one hit it too big.
I havn't fraps :( If i had it i would make movies of it how unbalanced it is.
If a zombie becomes slower by hitting him with a axt its also okay.

As stated in the latest patch notes, this is a known issue and is a part of an ongoing balancing effort. This issue will be resolved later.

Note that hitting zombies in their heads still deals considerably more damage and will allow you to get rid of them quickly.

EDIT: Cleared out some drama-inducing comments. Please refrain from insulting one another or being vulgar in general. Discuss issues in polite and relaxed manner.

With the game being what it is, the clunky controls and all. It's not exactly easy to strike Zombies in the head. Plus they're very fast and jump around, i would suggest 3 hits to the body, and 1 hit to the head.
Mainly because 7 to 8 body hits is ridiculous.

Even with aiming for the Head it takes way too many hits and too long to kill them. With an axe. Other Weapons like the god damn Bat are near to useless against zombies, even with aiming for the head, wich results in neverending fights where you almost have to pay attention not to starve. in game or in real life. very frustating, very unbalanced and this does not increase the feeling of a survival game, when you're stuck in those lame fights.

You have to be a bit practical here, they are zombies, of course they take tons of damage to the body, they are not living humans. I feel that if the desync and latency issues were improved upon, more players would be able to handle zombies.

Does anyone feel their vision range is too far though?

head shots for me do not work. i am hacking away with the axe with no effect and by that time his buddies show up and i am up the creek. frankly a new spawn has no chance in these circumstances.

Its impossible to aim for the head in desync. Its no use killing zeds until desync and the absurd detection range and clipping through walls is resolved.

This has nothing to do with AI. It's not a bug!

I think all know its no bug. But the game-play feels like a bug or it could be a but. Also the dev read it here ;).
http://feedback.dayzgame.com/view.php?id=11150 write the best text about this problem. Thanks for the Text :)

Ive noticed when attacking zombies, I will hit the zombie around the head and my hit will register somewhere between mid-neck and shoulder. I know other games refer to this as "hitboxes" so I ask this question, Would increasing the size of the hitboxes (if thats even how its done) make zombies more balanced when it comes to hitting them in the head?

Of course I do have to factor in server dysnyc and latency, but even when I am playing in game with stability I notice this.

This should be solved quickly, Even with the actually supposed the "BEST" melee weapon in the game in pristine condition good bandwidth/ping/desync you have to land like minimum 10-15 hits on a zombie even hitting him a few in the head. And if there's 3 zombies what?

Then what i am supposed to do with a baseball bat? And im not going to talk about trying to kill one with a machete...

I am actually more concerned about zombies trough walls that bandits...

Tried today the 0.49 and the zombie invulnerability has worsened up to the point of being ridiculous.

Another player and I kept hitting the same zombie with a pitchfork and bare hands; after 30+ blows he was still up and fighting. Died, respawned, and found a pristine biker jacket. A female zombie hit me a couple of times and she immediately broke my arm. I was able to knock her out, then she insta-respawned. Knocked her again, she insta-respawned again and killed me.

If any single encounter with a zombie results in a death the game is unplayable.

Yea, I like the zombies being a challenge but this is bad. They are way to hard to take down now. I agree with some others here on, that it is kinda ruining the game flow.

Same for me. I see a huge difference with the new 0.49 patch. Beforehand, I could fight zombies easily. Now perhaps 1 of my blows in 20 strikes the zombie.

With the previous versions of the game I've had the same character for 40 hours of play. Now my last dozen of characters were able to survive perhaps for 15 minutes. A single encounter with a zombie results in death. VERY frustrating.

I will stop playing until this issue is adressed, as the game is unplayable.

The zombies seem to be getting worse and worse, It should only take a few hits with a fire axe to kill a zombie and one to the head, also any swing of any melee weapon should knock the zombie to the ground rather than them standing there like a tonne of bricks(where are the ragdol physics they promised?)
What I want to see is MASSIVE hoards of SLOW WEAK zombies with much poorer eyesight, rather than 1 or 2 super strong usain bolt athlete zombies with binocular vision spotting you from over a mile away.

Hi,
we believe this has been fixed.
If the issue persists, please submit a new ticket.
Regards,
Andy