Do you guys know if Wards (for magicka damage) is reduced before or after resists to elements are calculated?

For example:
I am a Breton and I get hit with a fireball from an enemy that is supposed to do 100 damage while I have "Lesser Ward" activated. Do I....

- take 25% less (racial ability) than 100 = 75 - 40 (lesser ward) for 35 damage taken?

or

- take 40 (lesser ward) less damage = 60 - 25% (racial ability) = 15 for 45 damage taken?

Seriously? No one knows? I usually see 12 know-it-alls answer every questions under the sun.

I would think the 25% resist spell power is calculated first as it is an ability and always there, then the ward would be applied after.

Thank you, can anyone confirm the above?

Looking for an expert, self proclaimed or otherwise...

With no Spell Crafting, and thus no ability to make a "control" (known value) damage self spell, it is a lot harder to reverse engineer these mechanics.

I suggest finding a dragon, quicksave, engage and let it breath on you without a ward for the full duration of the breath. Note health before and after. Reload and test several times, and you should come up with a fairly good range of damage to expect. Make sure you aren't running any potions or equipment or perks with magic resistance of any kind on them.

Now repeat the tests with a ward up and calculate the range again.


The first test gives you .75X=Y, where Y is the damage you take after Breton Resistance and X is the damage you take before.

The second test will give you either:

1) (.75X)-W=Y

or

2) .75(X-W)=Y

Where X is initial damage, W is ward damage reduction and Y is final damage done.


Even accounting for the imprecise nature of the tests, if you do it a few times each, you should be to get a strong indication of which way it is calculated.

That is a great idea! ...and exactly what I would have done had I owned the game. Sadly I will not have it until this Friday. I was really hoping someone would have done this by now.

Ideally it would be better for the player to have % decreased first as that will help the most against the big damage dealers.

I dunno, I've tried spell wards a few times and had no luck with them. It seems they take a lot of micromanagement, and they svck up the magika very quickly, I found I was better off just having my mage character concentrate on Destruction and Conjuration spells, something about the best defense being a good offense.

Have you thought of adding the enchantments that would reduce the cost of casting restoration spells to a fraction of their original cost? I would imagine you could pretty much cast a ward indefinetly if you did that....