physical attacks

Sometimes you get an item that give you +armor or whatever vs physical attacks.

From what I understand, this means any attack from warrior type weapons (sword, ax, and hammer) and bows.

What about bows and melee weapons that use elemental damage such as fiery string or haft, ebon, and so on?

What about canes, staffs, cestas, and so on?

If the damage is modified in any way to be elemental, then the +armor to physical no longer applies. Canes, staves, and cestas are all elemental or "other" in the case of light and chaos, so physical armor also doesn't apply.