Do Staves Do Physical Damage?

Peel_Ya_Cap_517

As the title says..

I am unclear if staves do physical damage when doing light or heavy attacks.. For example, is the Sharpened trait useful on a staff? Does the staff actually do physical damage to trigger the armor penetration effect?

Thanks for any insight!

13igTyme

No, Spell damage.

Xeven

They do elemental damage dont they? I think restoration staff does magic damage.

FriedEggSandwich

Not sure whether the attack does spell or physical damage, I'm tempted to say spell damage. But I also thought the strength of the light and heavy attacks from a staff were determined by weapon damage.

DeanTheCat

Stave attacks checks vs Spell Resistance, Spell Damage and Spell Critical. Therefore, Nirnhoned is always a superior option to Sharpened when Staves are used as the weapon, as the Armor Penetration from Sharpened is useless.

Peel_Ya_Cap_517

Yea, this is why I'm confused. Staff attacks and even destruction staff abilities scale off of weapon damage, which made me think the base attacks must do physical damage...

Thanks for the help guys!

Xeven

No they dont, not anymore since 1.6. They scale off of spell damage and magicka.