Destruction damage types in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Badsah]

I am thinking about perking the 25% damage to a spell type so thinking about which one to pick. Frost and shock damaging stamina and mana seem straightforward. The wording on fire of "targets take extra damage while on fire" is a bit ambiguous. Does that mean it continues to burn for a small amount of damage, or is it like a built-in "weakness to fire" effect that benefits subsequent spells? The elephant in the room is the mana cost - shock costs a ton more than fire, with frost in the middle. Is there some factor I'm neglecting that justifies the extra cost? Frost seems like it would get the short end of the stick as far as encountering resistant creatures in Skyrim, but I would have thought shock and fire would be on equal footing in that respect.

[AlisaDsa]

Fire just does some extra damage for a second. Similar to the bleed effect I believe, but fire. Fire has the greatest damage because of the additional damage. Fire also tends to be the most mana efficient. And is the least resisted type in Skyrim. Frost is most resisted.

[Mollyi7]

This does not seem to be working properly. With your novice ability it only works on the first tick and you have to stop and cast again to get the effect. Fire bolt woks better but the flame effect is so short that unless you are at point blank range, you shots will not reach in time to get the bonus. Of course flame fire effect lasts longer so you could try switching between it and fire bolt (not optimal). And dual casting seems to increase disintegration's range. Until someone mods the ability to actually see health bar numbers, this is all speculation and feeling atm.

[Orochimaru]

You're simply describing what "Disintegrate" will do when the enemy gets to that level of health, not that it does more damage. You all but confirmed what I said the perk does. Again, all it does is give a disintegration animation, that's all. Go look at the perk tree and you'll it offers no other damage, the "augs" do (obviously). Again, if I am wrong, show where the game will change the power or percentage of the damage given for that perk, not the ratio of damage given by the actual spells used when either augmented or not.