Well, I think of it this way, for better or worse:

Spell Crit:
Gives your Magicka-based abilities and weapons a chance to do Critical Damage

Weapon Crit:
Gives your Physical Attacks a chance to do Critical Damage

+ + +

So what is a Magicka based attack vs. a Physical based attack is the next logical question?

It gets a bit mudier here...

Staves have their "damage" based on weapon damage, but their CRITICAL based on Spell critical... (bizarre, right?)

If it looks like a physical attack (staff bash) that's a weapon attack... if it looks magical... (staff ability) - then that's a SPELL CRIT attack!

You cannot go by whether it drains your resources (magicka / stamina) to power the ability... example, lava whip drains magicka, but it uses WEAPON CRIT... Also, you have other class skills like class skills such as Searing Strikes, Biting Jabs, Veriled Strikes which are skill based spells that create weapon strikes and use WEAPON CRIT. These are mitigated by ARMOR. Puncturing Strikes on the other hand seems to be mitigated by Spell Resistance and does not crit... LOL confused yet?

You may want to watch this vid, it works to try and explain things - at least, as when the vid was made... ZoS is dynamic and ever changing... UNFORTUNATELY, we don't see damage numbers on PS4, so, its all a bit of a mystery on those specific consoles and builds, so we can only rely on the latest PC info, and hope there are similarities...

Wish there was a better answer, but vids like this, are what we have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGOwZHb4sXY

Happy hunting

I have been thinking and reading about all this and I have come to the conclusion that Damage and Critical (wether spell or weapon) are not tied together. This would explain the confusion that I have with all this.

So maybe this is a good way to think about it:

What uses Weapon Damage (not worrying about weapon critical):

1. All light/heavy attacks use weapon damage (doesn't matter the weapon type)
2. All skills/abilities that burn Stamina will be based on Weapon Damage

What uses Spell Damage (not worrying about spell critical):
1. All skills/abilities that burn Magika will be based on Spell Damage


Now how do you determine what uses what critical chance?

Best guess:
* 1-handed, 2-handed, bows, shields - are all definetly a physical attack - weapon critical
* Staves are doing a magic attack (i.e. fireball, iceball, lightning) - spell critical
* Lava Whip skill -> I can see this as being a physical whip with a fire attribute - weapon critical
* Piercing strikes -> This is seen as a physical spear -> weapon critical
* Ambush -> I would think would be based on weapon critical because they are blades striking the enemy

In summary, if it can be seen as a physical attack (even though it uses Magika, then it will use weapon critical). If it is a "magic attack" (Storm Calling, Dawn' wrath abilities) then it should use Spell critical.

The issue here is understanding what abilities is "seen" as a physical attack versus magic attack by ZoS.

Allyhoo811 wrote: »

I could be way off base here (I'm not a huge min/maxer, so I don't worry with number crunching etc.), but I feel like a lot of the muddiness you all are speaking of was simplified in one of the patches late last year or early this year. Again, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that now if it use stamina it is a physical attack and scales off weapon damage and if it uses magicka it is a magic attack and scales off spell damage.

Maybe one of the data crunchers that play on PC could shed some more light on this, but I feel like I remember reading that things had changed from the crazy randomness of launch.

I think you missed part of the objective to my post. I believe if it is a skill and uses magika then the damage is based on spell damage. However, what critical chance % does it use to determine if that attack was a crit?

I don't think it is as simple as you have suggested - but that is what I hope to find out.

Yup in the PC patch 1.6.5 is the following;

Other Major Gameplay Changes

Synergy abilities now scale off your highest stats that are either stamina or magicka based.
Ultimates and Synergy abilities now always scale of your highest Critical Strike stat instead of just your Spell Critical Strike.
Abilities that cost magicka will now always scale off your magicka, spell damage, and spell critical strike stats.
Abilities that cost stamina will now always scale off your stamina, weapon damage, and weapon critical strike stats.

via: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/154426/patch-notes-v1-6-5#latest


This was patched into ESO Before the game was released on PS4/Xbox One. It should be safe to assume that PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game also use this same method.

Thanks for finding the thread Allyhoo811

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

So...... Heavy and Light Attacks from Destro/Restro staves scale off of Weapon damage or Spell Damage?

They scale off Spell Damage, as staves are magicka based weapons.

The only "staff attacks" I can see scaling off weapon damage would be if you bash with the staff, because bash costs stamina (Note: I have not tested this part, but it would make sense, since all stamina based "abilities" scale off weapon damage).