ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Some weapons deal "manaburn damage", and the Antimagic Zone talent also causes "manaburn damage" to all those inside.

What exactly is this manaburn damage? Does that deal actual damage to hit points? Who is affected by it? Does it affect only those with the arcane "mana" resource, or also other resources like vim, paradox, hate, positive energy or negative energy?

Basically I'd like to have a mechanical description of what "manaburn damage" really is, and a way to tell whether it's a good idea to use Antimagic Zone against any given enemy.

Manaclash deals manaburn damage. You can read its info.
Antimagic Zone also silents, so basically it's worthy to use on any enemies with spells.

It subtracts Mana from the target and deals that much Arcane damage to them.
So, it is capped by how much Mana they have, but if it does empty their mana pool, sustained mana costing talents are disabled.
If they have Celestial Energy or Vim instead, it might drain that instead, as they are also magical.
However, it drains half the amount against Celestial Energy and a quarter against Vim. (To balance against relative costs.)

Thanks. So I guess Paradox, Psi, Equilibrium, Hate, Feedback and Stamina are all unaffected by manaburn damage.

Is there a way to tell if any given enemy on screen uses Mana, Celestial Energy, or Vim? If not, I guess it's wiki-diving time whenever I see a new weird enemy.

Edit: Oh nice, the mouseover info on e.g. the Weirdling Beast does show me Mana and Vim meters. That'll work.

There was never any need to Wiki-dive. You have always been able to see what Sustains they have on, which you can quickly learn as to what resource those are tied to.
And you have always been able to inspect their character sheets as well.