It seems the poison can lead to:
confusion if they make the save
forget if they fail
paralysis if they fail especially badly

Now, I've been using it on PCs but each time I landed paralysis or forget it was maybe 2-3 rounds before they were doing stuff again. Against mobs they would stay "rigid" for at least 3 ticks.

What gives? Considering all three of the possible effects don't make any difference vs mobs, I don't get why their duration is so heavily cut on PCs.

Or is it because I was using strike in combat?

gr

Otherwise it would be op given you can then shift into an offense form.

Paralysis lands once in a blue moon already. But alright. It's still a good form, I'm just a little dumbfounded about an ability that has no practical use whatsoever.

The main strength of cobra is regen plus good damage plus some better-than-offensive dodging. However, if you time it right, the way to use the strike is towards the middle or the end of the fight when they're ready to run. Prepare, coil, let them come to you, bite for a while and when you've done some damage and they start to realize they're not winning is the time to strike and hopefully finish in neuro lag. Depending on your other forms, you might just use it for regen, camo and danger sense, which is not nothing.