I'm just trying to get a broad sense of the difference between these two types of attacks. I get that elemental attacks are anything fire, ice, and shock related, such as various mage attacks, or dragon breath. I assume that you need to have elemental resistance to each individual one, correct?

However, where it gets fuzzy for me is the "Magic" attacks. Is this a kind of catch-all for any non-elemental spell-type attack? Can anyone tell me if these are both classified as "magic"?

- Vampiric Drain

- Seeker "absorb health" attacks

I was also wondering about the Lurkers. Those gooey blobs they throw at you, are those considered poison attacks?

Thanks!

Whats a seeker? OH crap its like Cthulu in skyrim gargh!

Anyway im pretty sure (99.99%) that vampiric drain is magic. Because i have maxed magic resistance (i modded it to 90%) and the drains that vampires do are crap. So im going to extrapolate that absorb health is probably magic as well. Mostly, only poison will do full damage i believe.

Some stuff like drain vitality shout isnt magic though. So having a deadly dragons mod is really exciting.

Any enemy attack that is not a physical attack is considered magic in nature. Dragon's breath, spider poison, and chaurus spit are all treated as magic attacks (along with elemental attacks, of course).

But for the purpose of setting up my gear for balanced defenses, I need to know which ones require an enchantment classified as "magic resist" rather than one of the elements.

ALL of them fall under "Magic Resist" whereas only Fire, Frost, and Shock fall under the elemental resistance.

Edit, for what it's worth magicka absorption via Atronach Stone or Perk will absorb all of the above, as well.

Ah, okay...so it's better to use Magic Resist on all your gear, rather than a bunch of separate ones for each element. Is that correct?

Probably, if your enchanting skill is high enough. The magnitude for each element is higher than general Magic Resistance, but at least MR reduces all magic attacks.

Good to know. Thanks. I've got high enchanting, so I believe I should be able to get a decent amount of magic resist. Playing on Legendary, those magic attacks are devastating without any enchantments.