Difference between physical damage, magic damage, weapon damage and spell damage

Ceoyang · April 2014

I started the game on Sunday, trying to roll a imperial nightblade. Im confused with the difference between physical damage, magic damage, weapon damage and spell damage. are physical damage and weapon damage the same? Plus 2 out of 3 of the nightblade class skills consumes magicka, but shouldn't rouge class run on stamina? Im torn in between adding magicka or stamina to the character. Also can i reset them at any point?
Thank you

Fexelea · April 2014

Hi

I'm sure Cas will have a more in-depth answer but here is short version:

Damage types are often related to their damage resistance. So physical damage is checked against physical resistance and magic damage against magic resistance.
So for example armor skills affect how much damage you will take from either one or the other
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor+Skills

And from what I understand yes, you can reset your attributes. SpartanJester made a video
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/62838/how-to-reset-you-skills-attributes

Castielle · April 2014

Generally speaking Weapon Skills deal Physical Damage and Class Skills deal Magic Damage/Elemental Damage. The exception here would be Staves as they deal Magic Damage. Things that enhance Weapon Damage would also enhance Physical Damage and things that enhance Spell Damage would enhance Magic Damage/Elemental Damage.

You can reset your skill points as early as the 15-23 area zones I believe.

Cas

Ceoyang · April 2014

If class skills deal magic damage then all the melee classes are screwed wouldn't that???
That means all melee classes are going to have to add all 3 attributes in order to stay alive and deal good damage with class skills and weapon skills.
That sounds terrible since the whole point for nightblade to exist to deal all physical damage and roll out

Bob · April 2014

That sounds terrible since the whole point for nightblade to exist to deal all physical damage and roll out

It is! No melee chars in TESO, only poor hybrids vs mages.

Castielle · April 2014

Ceoyang wrote: »

If class skills deal magic damage then all the melee classes are screwed wouldn't that???
That means all melee classes are going to have to add all 3 attributes in order to stay alive and deal good damage with class skills and weapon skills.
That sounds terrible since the whole point for nightblade to exist to deal all physical damage and roll out

I have seen many complain about just this. I am unsure why you can have a pure Magicka build, but not a pure Stamina build...maybe it will change in a future patch. *crosses fingers*

Cas

Ceoyang · April 2014

That's just ridicules

MercyKilling · April 2014

Ceoyang wrote: »

but shouldn't rouge class run on stamina?

Rouge is French for red. Stamina is the green bar.

Methinks you meant "rogue".

Ceoyang wrote: »

That's just ridicules

No, that's just ridiculous.

Stautmeister · April 2014

Pure stam build is possible if you take the weapon skills. You can support this build by taking utility spells that use magicka to cast.
Physical dmg: blank weapon dmg + dmg done by stamina using skills
Spell dmg All dmg done through magicka using abilities.

Weapon skill lines dmg is increased by weapon dmg.
Magicka using abilities are increased by the amount of magicka

Pure mages actually are worse of than hybrids because they run out of recourses faster. Stam/magicka hybrid offers higher dps due to constantly being able to push out dmg.

Ceoyang · April 2014

kstauthamerb16_ESO wrote: »

Pure mages actually are worse of than hybrids because they run out of recourses faster. Stam/magicka hybrid offers higher dps due to constantly being able to push out dmg.

If I add tons of magicka and stamina, I would have a lot of skills I can just spam on the enemy, but each individual skill will hit a lot lesser and takes way too much time to kill just one enemy. Plus there is only 50 levels, I can't really afford to add too many health attribute. So a pure magicka building can totally use pure magic damage to nuke me before i can kill him.

Fahstolph · April 2014

This is a really good video that explains ESO dmg mechanics. Whether or not you like the system is for you to decide, but this guy, Mystborn, really does a great job at explaining how the system works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_OIx7bp7g

Ceoyang · April 2014

Fahstolph, you are the man

kewl · April 2014

Fahstolph wrote: »

Mystborn, really does a great job at explaining how the system works.

MUST watch vids...all of them!

Fahstolph · April 2014

kewl wrote: »

Fahstolph wrote: »

Mystborn, really does a great job at explaining how the system works.

MUST watch vids...all of them!

Agreed! I would say his series is a must watch if you want to understand a big chunk of the game mechanics. He is really easy to follow and understand.

silent88b14_ESO · April 2014

Ceoyang wrote: »

That's just ridicules

I cannot resist. I apologize in advance.

Is Ridicules the brother of Hercules?