resist magic or elemental resistance?

[Cherry]

which one is better? since I'm a nord I have 50% resist frost by default, then I have 46% shock and fire on other equipments. but some people say magic resistance is better.

[Clever Monkey]

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Magic_Overview#Resistance_and_Absorption
Magic Resistance, Spell Absorption, and Absorb Magicka are three different effects and do not stack together. Spell Absorption is calculated before Magic Resistance, allowing the best possible outcome when hit by offensive spells.
Magic Resistance decreases the damage of any offensive spell by the displayed percentage. Stacking is possible, but total Magic Resistance is capped at 85%.
Spell Absorption is a percentage chance to completely nullify effects of a spell and, if the spell had a Magicka cost, add the casting cost of a spell to your Magicka. Stacking is possible, but the effect has very limited availability in the game. The only way to get 100% Spell Absorption is by using The Atronach Stone and the Breton racial power Dragonskin or by becoming a necromage vampire before getting the atronach perk and standing stone. A bug may cause your own Summoning attempts to be absorbed, resulting in the spell failing.
Absorb Magicka (a.k.a. Drain Magicka) transfers points of Magicka from the target to the person wielding the weapon. On the target, the effect is comparable to Damage Magicka; on the user, the effect is comparable to Restore Magicka.

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Resist_Magic
Resist Magic is factored independently of Resist Fire, Resist Frost, and Resist Shock effects, meaning elemental resistance is factored after Magic Resistance has been applied. A 100-point Fire spell would deal only 15 damage with full Magic Resistance, and Fire Resistance can reduce that 15 points by 85%, down to 2.25 points for 97.75% total resistance.
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in shorter words, stack the effects but Magic resistance will protect you against all magic damage while fire will only resist fire effects

[jreese46]

IMO, it's not going to matter much. If you can enchant 46% fire, you're probably only getting 15 of so of resist magic, so you'd still need to wear 3 items to reach the 46 % area. If you're already resistant to frost, then you can get the fire and shock with only 2 enchanted items, saving you another slot for something else, like muffle, one-handed, etc. I read all the formulas a while back, and to be honest, they're a bit overwhelming. I've played enough times, though, that a combined 45% magic resistance, or 45% in each element, hasn't made much difference to me in-game. Go with what you can get ahold of quickly, and change it up later on if you want.

I usually end up with my one resistance, a second on my boots, and a third on a ring, leaving necklace open for something else, or adding magic resistance to that, or whatever. When I can dual-enchant, then I do something like boots (fire/frost), ring (frost/shock), necklace (shock/fire) so I end up very close to, or over, the cap on resistance. Then I throw magic resistance on my shield anyway, usually coupled with increased health. I figure if I have to break out my shield, I can use both.

[jreese46]

As an after thought, if I'm playing a Breton, where I already have 25% resistance, I'll usually couple that with the Lord stone, for another 25% and 50 extra physical damage resistance too, and then I'll do the Mara quest for another 15% on top of that. That's 65% without having to wear anything at all, and I can reach the cap with a cheap ring or necklace, and still have my boots open for muffle.

[Zefram Cochrane]

Автор сообщения: Smile n Fire

in shorter words, stack the effects but Magic resistance will protect you against all magic damage while fire will only resist fire effects

Yes but magic resist is roughly only half the enchantable value of elelmental effects i.e. if you can enchant 44% fire resist you'll only achieve 22% magic resist or thereabouts, I forgot the actual ratio. So it's more useful overall but less protection overall.

[ElvenLiberation]

^^ that's not how it works. If you have 44% magic resistance, you'll reduce 44% of the damage that hits you, if you have 44% fire resistance, you'll reduce 44% of the fire damage that hits you. Where it becomes interesting is when these things combine. If you have 50% magic resist and 50% fire resist, say as a Dunmer with the alteration perk and agent of mara. Any fire damage that hits you gets reduced by 50% twice. So you end up only taking 25% damage.

Elemental and magic resistance stack multiplicatively. What this means in practical terms, is that it's always better to go heavy on one resistance than to be balanced. This may be where you got your idea from. If you have a base 50% magic resistance, you will have the same effect in terms of reducing damage by getting another 25% magic resistance as you would by getting a whole 50% elemental resistance. Getting 85% in a resistance is the maximum. If you have 85% magic resist and 85% frost resist, you'll only take 2.5% damage from frost. Basically just get to 85% magic resist and then everything afterwards is overkill.

[alexander_dougherty]

Автор сообщения: Siri

which one is better? since I'm a nord I have 50% resist frost by default, then I have 46% shock and fire on other equipments. but some people say magic resistance is better.

Resist Magic resist all spell damage.
Resist Fire resists all fire damage, including damage from shouts and dragon breath.
Resist Frost resist all frost damage, etc.

Finally when you enchant something with resist magic it is a lower value than when you enchant resist fire/frost/lightning.

This means Resist Magic is useful for resisting a wider array of enemies, but resist element is better against enemies you know is going to use a specific elemental attack.