Are there situations where Stamina or Magicka Damage is really useful?

On first glance these enchants seemed really great. Ideally I'd pepper a dangerous mage from afar with a +Magicka Damage bow. And then engage it safely in melee. But in practice I find that if I don't kill the enemy in a reasonably short time, I am dead anyway.

Furthermore the loss in damage compared to straight health damage doesn't seem to be worth it. A 20 base damage sword with +20 Frost damage to Health and Stamina will inflict roughly 40 damage to Health per succesful blow. Whereas the same sword with +20 damage to Magicka, or +20 damage to Stamina, will really only inflict 20 damage to Health per succesful blow.

Do you find these enchants useful? Am I misunderstanding the effects?

2 Answers

You're right, the Damage Magicka and Damage Stamina enchantments aren't terribly efficient.

Absorb Magicka and Stamina have their place, but in general, you'll find opponents regen Magicka to fast for Magicka damage to be terribly useful - generally, by the time you've done enough for it to be really effective, you've hit them enough times to kill them anyway. Stamina is a bit more useful - an opponent with low Stamina will have trouble blocking and power attacking, which can shorten a protracted battle, but given the magnitude and base uses of the enchant, you're often much better off using an Frost Damage or Absorb Stamina enchant - you'll find them to be much more effective overall.

Honestly I usually use absorb magika instead of absorb health and then use a restoration spell to convert the magika I gain from it into HP. I find it much more efficient. I cannot recharge my own magika while actively casting spells so if I go into a fit of restoration spasms I can run out of magika quickly unless I can absorb it either by absorbing enemy spells or getting all Nosferatu on somebody's ass.

I take it someone didn't like this strategy? Granted it won't deal nearly as much damage because it relies upon both a non damaging spell in the other hand in addition to a non damaging enchantment, but the healing gained is much faster. Not to mention you can switch the offhanded spell to a different one such as turn undead or illusion spells to make entire groups of enemies flee constantly while you dispatch them. The thing that makes this enchantment nice is how versatile it is allowing you to use the magika you steal in more than just one way.