Welcome to the game. That is one of the basic mechanics question of the game, so I’m going to assume you’re a very new player to the world of elder scrolls. I’ll mention some tips, but you might want to read some basic guides at sites like ESO Academy.

Stamina vs Magic

ESO is designed so that your character will almost certainly be stronger / focused on one or the other. A character that is stam or magic based might use abilities that cost the opposite resource, but for the most part all outgoing damage should be of your primary resource. A stamina character will hit for like 12,000 damage on a stamina attack, but 500 on a magic attack. So as a beginner, learn the basics and focus a character on one or the other.


Races are inclined to either stam or magic

The races have “racial passives” that incline them to one resource or the other. This is good to know, but not vital for a beginner. This has moderate impact for vet characters who need every last bit of power they can get. Core stam races are Khajiit, Redguard and wood elf. Core magic are altmer, Bretons and dunmer. When creating a character, you might consider the race and role you’re going for.


What is stamina or magic damage?

First it’s helpful to know if an ability scales off stam or magic. Look at the tool tip for any ability. If the damage is physical, poison or disease, that is a stamina attack. If it’s magic damage, or fire, Frost or shock, those are magic abilities. Hitting harder with them involves investing in the right upgrades for your character.


How is your power calculated?

To hit harder with a stam or magic ability, the game has an internal formula that will consider these factors. Most values can be seen in your menu on your character sheet.

A. Attribute points invested in that resource (I advise just piling every one into your fighting resource. It’s complocated why, but for a beginner you just just allocate all to stam or magic and forget about this system)

B. Your max pool of that resource. A stam attack will hit harder if you have 40k max stamina than it will if you have 20k max stamina.

C. Your weapon damage for stam characters, spell damage for magic.

D. Your spell or weapon critical. This is a percent chance that damage of that resource type will do an extra 50% damage. So if an attack has a base value of 100 damage and you have a crit rating of 50%, half the time it will do 100, and half itmwill crit for 150.

There is more that goes into the damage calculation, but for now this is probably all you need to know to explain why characters specialize. There’s an incentive for a stam character to find ways to increase their stamina pool, stam regen, weapon damage, etc. This means that as they get stronger in stamina, they’re getting weaker in magic.


How to increase stam or magic power

As you play and level, you’ll work on increasing your overall power down one line or the other (stam or magic). You’ll get stronger as you level, and as you open new abilities that you level. There are tons of passives in your skill trees...these will also make you more powerful.

And gear plays a vital role in ESO. You don’t need to obsess over gear as a new player, but down the road learning about sets and gear combos will represent a LOT of your power. And gear sets are also inclined toward either stam or magic.


Benefits of stam or magic

Either type of character can be fun to play in most any class. I personally prefer stamina, but many players prefer magic and it’s mostly just a playstyle preference. Both types can put out massive dps depending on setup. Both types can play ranged or melee, and both types can be built to have good resource management or survivability.

A main difference will be weapon choices. For the most part, the stages are entirely designed to be magic weapons, while bows, dual wield, two handed and sword/board are stamina weapons. Their attacks solely use the appropriate resources, so a stamina character wouldn’t reallly ever carry a fire staff. In some cases a magic character might use sword/board for defense, and just not slot any attacks from the line...relying on class and other abilities. Take a minute to read through the abilities on the weapons...ifone sounds fun it might help you decide on a race, class and stam/magic.


Hopefully this helps a bit. If you have questions, feel free to ask, but use @davey1107 in your reply so that the system flags me. I’m happy to expand on anything if it was confusing.

Per your other comment, stam Sorc s are a ton of fun and a good started character. Note that you will use very few class abilities (most are for magic), and will rely a lot on weapon attacks (which are really fun). A stam sorc gets amazing resource regen via dark deal/exchange (I forget which is for stamina). They have an attack called hurricane which is fun and deadly. And they’re a great balance between damage and tankiness. You should have a lot of fun with one.

They don’t get a great heal right away, so consider coming into PvP early on and just fooling around with your alliance, helping take a few keeps. Once you’ve earned 85,000 AP (the PvP currency) you can unlock a great heal called vigor. Taking a keep gets you 6-10k AP, so it wouldn’t take long to unlock the skill.

Good luck!