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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?

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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.

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  • Hmm. Would you use Absorb Stamina over Absorb Health?
    – Bleep Bloop
    Dec 16, 2011 at 1:38
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    Depends on your build and your priorities! Absorb Stamina may be a better choice if: you find yourself waiting to make power attacks, or if you find that enemies power attacks or blocks against you are more effective than you'd like. Absorb Health by contrast, will help you kill things quicker, and keep your own health topped off. One notable difference is that Absorb Stamina is much cheaper - you'll get many more charges out of Absorb Stamina than you will Absorb Health. Experiment! Or, get the Extra Effect perk and use both!
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Dec 16, 2011 at 1:52
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    Absorb Stamina is a really fun enchantment to have on your weapon(s) as it should reduce the number of power attacks used against you but also give you more stamina to perform additional power attacks yourself.
    – Bravo840
    Dec 16, 2011 at 16:55
  • Absorb Health is indeed quite expensive to recharge. I feel like I'm wasting it on 80% of the encounters where I don't absolutely need it. I'll keep one Absorb Health weapon handy for the difficult fights, and pray for the Absorb Stamina enchant to reveal itself :)
    – Bleep Bloop
    Dec 16, 2011 at 17:44
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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.

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  • I would imagine the downvote is more likely because you posted it as two answers - try editing this content into your previous answer then deleting this duplicate.
    – Rory
    Mar 13, 2014 at 14:27
  • I've played 700+ hours in Skyrim and it never occurred to me to use Fortify Destruction potions in combat with absorb * weapons, as you pointed out in a previous version of this answer. Many thanks.
    – ohmi
    Mar 13, 2014 at 15:41

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