Which armor enchantment is better for defense against the Necromancer/Dragon's that hit you with the cold blasts that also drain your stamina. Is it better to use resist magic or resist cold. I just started a third character and I am only about level 15 and I keep getting killed fairly quickly by these creatures. More so the Necromancer bosses. This is my first time playing as an Imperial.

_{Well it woul be better to resist cold because dragons don't use magic also it will still be the equivalent of protect against magic with the cold.}

I find Magic Resistance a more convenient solution. This way, besides necromancers and dragons, you don't have to worry much about vampires and later on, revered/legendary dragons.

Probably the single best thing you can do is get the Atronach stone. This will absorb 50% of any spell thrown at you (shouts too). After that, if it's mainly cold you're worried about, get resist frost because you'll get a higher value, everything else being equal.

This BTW, is why I always play Nords, 50% resist frost to start.

But isn't a dragon's breath attack the same as magic? I mean, if you can use a ward to fend off other mages along with dragon breath attacks then I would think the dragon breath would be considered a form of magic. No?

resist magic is all you need. i think you can put it on 3 or 4 pieces of armor. on normal i can stand in front of a dragon and barely lose health. with my health regen . i can set my controller down and walk away. on legendary i have to play smart but im not getting destroyed.

Yes, it's magic as far as the game mechanics go even if it's supposed to be something different from a lore point of view. Same with shouts; treated just like magic.

Magic resistance is definitely better than Frost in the long run but at low levels when you can't make (or find) top enchantments, you'll get about twice as much Frost protection as Magic and the OP was mainly concerned with Frost Necros so Frost would be a good choice for him until a higher level.

If you can manage magic resistance through enchantments, the alteration tree and active powers/standing stones go for it. If you have self-imposed limitations on enchanted gear and schools of magic, you can try potions. Keep in mind that the resist magic potions rely on either wisp wrappings or void salts. Both of these are tough to get as loot unless you just buy from a vendor.

I'm wondering if the guy is worried about frost also because of the stamina drain which was mentioned in the OP. I'm just guessing, but maybe they think that more frost resist means less stamina drain. But as far as i know resistance just cuts down on the damage not stamina (frost attacks) or magicka drain (shock).

If it magic resistance didn't reduce stamina/magicka drain as well, I would've noticed

Ok...well...i was talking about the original poster...

I can see how it would be easy for some people to assume that increasing specific resistance reduces damage and reduces the effect. But i believe i read in the wiki that you only reduce damage, but the drain effect is not reduced at all. It's good that you would have noticed...but this might be something that the OP hasnt noticed. That's why i'm bringing it up because if the OP is raising frost resist to try and counter the drain effect, then it seems kinda pointless.

The OP is worried about cold blasts but they also specifically mention stamina drain. And again this is just a wild guess, but maybe they think stamina drain is affected by resistance too (which i dont believe it is). So even if the OP does stack frost resist, whats going to happen to them when they run into a fire dragon? or a shock mage? shock mages being more dangerous because LB and CL are instant cast unlike icespike or firebolt which have flight times.

I know this was meant for the original poster and you should lighten up a bit, as quoting doesn't mean attacking

Now, here's how it works:
Let's take a frost/shock spell, dealing e.g. 50pts of damage. It will also inflict 25pts of stamina/magicka drain, respectively. If you have 50% magic or frost/shock resistance, the incoming damage will be cut in half (25pts) and the same will be for the resulting stamina/magicka drain (13pts).

Magic and elemental resistances are capped at 85%, which means you can minimize the resulting stamina/magicka drain, but not frost damage's snare effect. Spell absorption on the other hand, can go all the way to 100% which, if you play on a console or don't have USKP installed, is like a double-edged knife.

Well the difference between your two posts is that your second one #15 had good info which was more what i was looking for. Hard to tell from your other post if you're bragging, boasting, actually trying to be helpful or what.