what is better: absorb or drain (spell)?

[Internalized Bigotry]

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[slayor3000]

Think you can tell by the cost. I prefer Absorb.
Example Absorb Health (love this for an area spell with fire damage for a mage character, add absorb Magicka it is perfect).

Check the UESP here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Absorb_Health specifically this link on the page, Drain vs. Damage vs. Absorb: A comparison of these similar effects.

[Internalized Bigotry]

so what's better? absorb or attack?

[slayor3000]

Originally posted by eeeeeeeeerrrrrr...:

so what's better? absorb or attack?

When you say attack do you mean the "Destruction" spells or weapon.
If talking about spells I actually (when have enough magicka) prefer to mix and match different spells together.
The only real difference is the cost. I like them both.

I like absorb health, magicka and fatigue for a mage based character but always put in fire/shock or frost/fire with one of the former and when enough magicka, paralyze or silence.
What is best is determined by what you are wanting to achieve or how you gameplay.

Some spells have way to high a base cost to be useful early game.
There is a list of spell base costs here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Spell_Effects
As you can see Fire, Frost and Shock damage all cost less than 50% of Absorb Health but Absorb fatigue is cheaper and Magicka appx the same price. Paralyze and Silence you need Illusion at 75 and a lot of magicka or ways to fortify and replenish, but they are definitely OP spells.

So I normally start of when playing a mage type concentrate on Destruction and after a few levels decide which path I want to take i.e Illusion, Restoration etc. Which one will compliment my character best.

[Internalized Bigotry]

I meant absorb versus damage spells that target specific characteristic(s) of enemies which some do fall under destruction. I'm not referring to those destruction spells that are based on elements (fire, ice, lightning, etc) or those that just damage NPCs in general (minor and major wound).

[slayor3000]

In that case it is picking a school for me it would be destruction, attack.
Not a lot of choice in Oblivion.

Disintergrate weapons and armour for bandits etc

Damage and drain magicka (together a nice spell) for mages/ spellcasters.

Alterations Burden spell is useless in my opinion, but Damage fatigue + drain fatigue high enough will drop a lot of enemies to the floor.
Same goes for damage + drain speed good against most, especially good against the faster opponents.

One thing on elemental, always use shock damage in Oblivion, all daedra have a weakness to shock.

All the base costs are quite low apart from Damage Attribute so you would need decently high Destruction and magicka to get the best use from it.

[Internalized Bigotry]

yeah I agree most of the spells at novice and apprentice level are absolute trash, only journeyman and higher are worth getting. though by the time one advances all magic skills to journeyman level they should already qualify for Arcane University to make custom spells.

I have noticed that most Daedra and Mythic Dawn cultists are also highly vulnerable to frost based spells and weapons.

also agree with you how useless burden spells are. imo all the personality spells are useless because one can just bribe most NPCs and like destruction, the good ones are locked to higher levels.

[papa nurgle's pizza]

Originally posted by eeeeeeeeerrrrrr...:

yeah I agree most of the spells at novice and apprentice level are absolute trash, only journeyman and higher are worth getting. though by the time one advances all magic skills to journeyman level they should already qualify for Arcane University to make custom spells.

I have noticed that most Daedra and Mythic Dawn cultists are also highly vulnerable to frost based spells and weapons.

also agree with you how useless burden spells are. imo all the personality spells are useless because one can just bribe most NPCs and like destruction, the good ones are locked to higher levels.

Bribing NPCs is useless. Just make a Charm spell with magnitude 100 and duration 3. It's the only Charm spell you'll need for the whole game and it replaces the entire bribe/Speechcraft system.