elemental resistance vs spell resistance?

lihentian · May 2015

so what is the difference exactly?

Am thinking about making a vampire.. so breton and dunmer which race have higher resistance? many thanks

PKMN12 · May 2015

this is from what i know/can tell, could be wrong:

Elemental resistance effects ONLY That element, but from all srouces, and it is easier to get.

Spell resitance effects magic of all kind, but not stamina/weapon related and is harder to get.

Because vampires are weak to fire specifically, Dunmer is probably the way to go if you want best defense against fire

Again, i COULD be wrong, not 100% sure.

Natjur · May 2015

When spell damage is applied, you can mitigate up to 50% of the damage but only the highest resistance is applied.

So if get hit by fire and your fire resistance is higher then your spell resistance, then that is used. if not then spell resistance is used.

lihentian · May 2015

PKMN12 wrote: »

this is from what i know/can tell, could be wrong:

Elemental resistance effects ONLY That element, but from all srouces, and it is easier to get.

Spell resitance effects magic of all kind, but not stamina/weapon related and is harder to get.

Because vampires are weak to fire specifically, Dunmer is probably the way to go if you want best defense against fire

Again, i COULD be wrong, not 100% sure.

cool many thanks

Natjur wrote: »

When spell damage is applied, you can mitigate up to 50% of the damage but only the highest resistance is applied.

So if get hit by fire and your fire resistance is higher then your spell resistance, then that is used. if not then spell resistance is used.

breton it is then, many thanks

Merlin13KAGL · May 2015

Specific resistances (Fire/Shock/Disease/Poison) are twice as effective as general Spell Resistance. (Queue up a Legendary Spell Resist glyph and compare to a Legendary specific resist glyph - the value of the latter will be double the former.)

Also, they specifically resist the specific 'item' in question.

While that part is obvious, the side effect is not always so apparent.

That is, specific resists will work from Magicka based attacks as well as environmental. (Fire resists will help with lava + fireballs, for instance), whereas SR will only defend against Magicka based damage.

Regarding the max resistance, you still get benefit from both (it's not an either or, @Natjur ), specific resist applies in addition to spell resist, up to the max of 50% mitigation.