Elementalist Help (magic)

Out of the four types of magic (earth, fire, water etc), which one deals the most damage overall? I just started a second as a Elementalist and wish to deal the highest dmg, have a large pool of energy and be decent at PvE and PvP. Thanks

Currently, I'm using fire skills, deal heavy dommages on many mobs at a time, which is quite cool. But I never tried Air or Water (Earth is mainly for defense, I think), so I can't compare

Fire is by far the easiest to deal good damage with.
Air does fairly good damage too and has armour penetration.
Earth has a few nice damage spells but is mostly defensive.
Water has hardly any damage spells and is composed mostly of buffs and debuffs.

If you want to do the most damage to the most things then fire is the way to go. Esp in PVE can't say about pvp since i don't do it. I have 106 mana now

Okay the breakdown is that in PvE, Fire does greater overall damage, and the higher end spells tag a -7 DoT on top of that, usually on a big area with an unlimited amount of enemies targetted.

Air actually does MORE damage to the top-end monsters, since they are more heavily influenced by the armor penetration, but usually targets 1 at a time with the exception of chain lightning, whirlwind, thunderclap, and glimmering mark, the first of those exceptions targets 3 at random, the other 3 are more utility spells so they don't count for main dmg.

On the other hand, earth does GREAT damage but will exhaust you in a few casts, if you are not careful about what spells you cast and when. Earthquake/Aftershock is a great combo but is energy-heavy. Spells like Crystal Wave and Obsidian Flame ignores armor which makes it wonderful against heavily armored monsters. The exhaustion and heavy energy cost is outweighed by Earth's utility, however, with its wards and armor spells.

Water is kind of an underdog in my opinion. Snare has a limited use in PvE since usually in a dungeon full of aggressive mobs there isn't much kiting room. That and water is depressingly outdamaged by fire, air and even earth. They do have some excellent spells, however. Computer enemies will sit in a maelstrom, attempt and fail to cast through it, making it very useful for pve against healing mobs.

My personal suggestion is Air, since most good groups will target only 1 monster at a time anyway, and clustering monsters is really a rare occurance unless you have a very talented tank, which makes fire's AoE advantage squandered. For PvP, again Air is the flavor-of-the-month since it's spike damage to a single target and that's generally the key to success in 8v8's.

So should i spent my attributes on Fire and Energy only? or Even out on Fire, AIR, and Energy?

Air is better for PvP by far.... Fire is better for PvE, untill you get to the Ring of Fire, then its pretty much useless....

For each stage of PvE, different element rule the area... example: when you go to the maguuma jungle... most thing there are quite resistant to air. When you go to north and south shiver peak... most thing there are resistant against water. When you get to the desert, most thing there are quite resistant to fire.

So basically, change attribute and elements as you progress in the game as PvE... or have the 2ndary being capable of taking out what is resistant to you.

Fire for PvE........Air for PvP

Just take Energy and the element that you're currently using. When you change element, then change your attributes. Refund points are great that way.

I concur with spiritofcat. Characters should evolve and adapt to the current terrain during PvE play.

Try them all out but focus on one at a time, or two if your not using a secondary profession tree. Don't water them down.

You can always change and tinker. Attribute refund points replenish so quickly that they almost seem free.