"Best" Element?

I've been playing a straight Air elementalist for a few years now, and I'm debating switching, or at least adding a differently-based moveset to my character.

I like to be aggressive and cause direct damage, so it seems like Water's out (being mostly hex-based).

I've heard Fire's popularity has gone down lately because its damage output is dependent on an enemy's armor.

Earth seems to be very versatile, but most of the more damaging spells cause unavoidable Exhaustion (unlike Air).


What do ya'll think? Or is Air the most popular at the moment?

unavoidable exhuastion --> there's an elementalist glyph that lets you avoid exhaustion for exhaustion causing spells. and exhuastion itself isn't that bad if you can manage your energy well. If the hero AI can manage to use exhaustion-causing spells and not completely screw up energy management, I think a person should be fine :P

I'm not sure about how fire is affected by enemy armor, but when I was making builds for my elementalist hero it seems fire build vs. air build was very much about aoe or not aoe.

Fire in normal mode isn't too bad. Does a good deal of damage and you could use an average build and do well. In hard mode fire damage is cut down a fair amount. I used fire to get though all the campaigns in normal mode and killed quite a few things on my own during battles. After I entered hard mode I ultimately ended up as nothing more than suppression fire than anything else with my fire skills... unless you have winter or mantra of earth or something to convert the fire damage to earth or water.

Edit: I've seen groups of 3 or 4 elementalists (1 person + 3 heros, all 4 players, etc.) using a slightly modified Searing Flames build that using burning to kill enemies quick... but you really do need 3 or 4 elementalists to do well in hard mode.

I dont like air in pve because its too single target. Long run youll do way more damage in aoe spells then from single target ones. Same issue as water, although water doubles as snares, which can be good when used with other strong AoE's such as RoJ.

Fire has decent damage, but in HM it dies down due to the increased foe armor. This is the same issue as the other ones so its not gonna change with individual options, and its true which is why eles are so underpowered in HM.

Earth is in my opinion the best of the elements, because you got some solid aoes with good effects, especially in HM. Unsteady Ground gives almost a guaranteed KD because AI automatically wands when not casting. Churning Earth also guarantees a KD or full duration because in HM they all move faster then normal. Eruption can incapacitate large groups of melee foes for a while, and is probably the best non elite aoe blind skill if you can trap them in there. As well as that you can bring Wards for defence depending on areas, such as stability versus giant stomp, or melee for most general use.

In other words, I would give earth a shot

I normally use an earth build with water snares on my ele and she does great. Instead of "damage" in HM, she is providing knockdowns and helping to prevent kiting. An earth build is also less "area" dependent.

I see it depending on both mode and the zone .
Nm we know eles rule generally as fire nukers but in hm with foes armor buffs fire dmg becomes seriously toned down - one foe in nm may take 90 dmg from say fireball but hm takes 30 dmg.Ive seen air and water eles rock in hm - less aoe means less mob splitting for the melee guys ( and melee do hate having to chase scattered foes specially naga warriors ) and the water snares helps stop foes running away.
Earth id say is the odd one out - its used a lot for solo farming but ive rarely seen any real earth builds that supports the team tho i assume there are quite a few that do exist ).And going by examples above the earth ele in hm ( non terra tank ) is more what you would say party support ( snares/kd so melee can kill faster and casters survive easier ) rather than mass aoe dmg and splits.
Another option is to not use the elements and split to 2ndry - e/n spiker for example where you can do spike dmg and if you dont over spam skills you have a gd high energy pool.

I always liked air over all the other elements in this game. it is very single targeted but good damage and nothing to complain about.

If you want to use fire just make sure you have weaken armour in your build, people just dont seem t o understand that for some reason

prenerf sandstorm used to be nice

All elemental damage is dependent on armor vs that element, except for a few spells where armor-ignoring is in the description. Like everything else in the game, knowing your enemy will help you choose the most effective element.

Fire can be very effective when burning is advantageous or aoe damage is your focus. It also synergizes with an imbagon's "They're on Fire!" protection. Heroes run fire very efficiently (except for Meteor Shower, which they seem to favor using on an almost dead single target).

Air is effective in two respects: 1) typically casts faster than other elemental specialties, and 2) air magic has automatic 25% armor penetration, so it is effective against high-armor targets.

Water can be effective if snaring is your focus. Also, Maelstrom is one of the best caster aoe shutdowns in the game.

Earth can be effective for damage, aoe, kd, and conditions, as well as for snaring and wards. I prefer Earth mostly because of the wards, but it always depends on the area I am playing. Considering the armor bonuses/penalties of your enemies should be the biggest factor in what you play as an elementalist.

personally it depends on what im doing.

i use fire for all my "ima nuke you into next week builds"(yes HM too.. the condition of burning works well with discord or my new builds as well )or when im out general PvEing.

now when i want to do farming(except in 1 rare case) i always use earth magic. It has alot of Dagamde prot and defenses to make you immune to damadge. This essentially lets you tank enemies then hit them with something like crystal wave.

the other 2 elements i dont even bother with in PvE. too me the high exaustion in air (while can be delt with using a glyph) just doesnt seem to be very singulary targeted and doesnt do enough "ommph" for any good HM(or even NM imo) builds. And water is a decent element not alot of damadge unless you have a hex in the bar which water has a few. But imo the high cost casting rate of most water AoE snaring spells dont last loong enough for me to really do anything with it.

Well, even with the 25% AP Fire Magic is often superior to Air Magic because Burning is 100% armor ignoring.

Earth has some AoE skills with decent damage and very good side effects (KD, blind). Fire deals good damage even in HM if you use the right team build (3-4 SF eles and Weaken Armor).

Buying equipment and skills for a few builds for each element costs at most a few dozen platin, so why do you want to focus on one element anyway?

Honestly, just play what you want and have fun doing it. That is all that matters.

My advice would be to experiment with all of the elements and getting a good feel for each, then you'll be able to identify which one you'd prefer to use the most.

You'd actually be suprised at how efficient a combination of two snares can be. Deep Freeze and Ice Spikes, for example, have over a 94% efficiency if used in conjunction. If you'd like to check out more, check out this study, which has values for dps, energy per second, efficiency, average slow-down, percent of time casting, and more for both single water snares and two combined water snares.