Best Element

Which element would deal the most damage for an elemntalist?
How about most useful for PvP?
How about most useful in very hard quests as a full party?

most usefull for PvP is Air added with alittle Water(slow down Tankers spells) would be the best for PvP

hard quests i use Air with alittle Earth (for extra armor)

Got to semi-disagree with that last statement.

True that Air is good for PvP... however so is anything else if you know what your doing.

I would say there is no REAL best Element to chose... best thing to do is collect skills, make PvP characters and see how they play out.

Fire/Earth does me fine in PvP battles.

Most damaging is Fire

I am running a fire el right now although I have yet to get to the arenas, she deals damage out just fine. All I need now is the meteor spell, anybody know where I can find it?

So you're saying fire is most damaging?

well what about most useful in roleplaying?

No I can't say that it is the most damaging, it works best for me and my style. Used properly another char with a different element coudl do more than mine, its all in the guy/girl controlling the char, not the char itself.

On base dmg reflected Fire does "show" as dishing out the most dmg per spell - with a 12 in Fire my Fireball is right at 100dmg, Firestorm 24/sec for 10secs?, Inferno 100+ dmg.
you have to consider as with all things, the defense of your target(s) as some my have more resistance to fire and thereby lowering your base dmg while other targets are highly flamable and your dmg is actually a lil better.
I would still have to say Fire puts out more for PvE, and from what I've seen/heard for PvP it's more likely that players would be stacking against Air/Lightening dmg as it has more Armour piercing capabilities and can wreak havoc on some builds energy usage (knockdowns etc.)

These "what's the best... fill in the blank" questions are becoming all too common. This game was designed to be balanced. As a result, the "best" anything will depend on the situation.

That being said, fortunately, the OP outlined a few somewhat specific situations for the question in the title.

Which element would deal the most damage for an elemntalist? - Air tends to do the most spike damage, but mostly on a single target. Fire can do equal or better damage over an area, but doesn't have quite the spike potential

How about most useful for PvP? - Because of its single target, high spike damage potential, air has been very popular in PvP. But damage is only one side of the equation, and people have found great "usefulness" in the other elements as well.

How about most useful in very hard quests as a full party? - Same as above

You can buy it at Divinity Coast, *I think*. It's not that great of a spell. It does great damage, but the costs of using it are pretty hefty.

incorrect. air has more damage output than fire

the problem with Fire is the AOE are only subject to the location you are casting it on... with Air it does have a AOE but is a bounce from target outward which is much more effective in PvP than fire.

and the casting cost for Static effects with Fire are way to high and take to long to do..

With Air you can KD someone with no casting time and only cost 5 points with a damage output of around 50 to 80. nothing klike that with fire.

Air allows you to Knockdown people, blind them, and also offers a bonus of Cold damage.

Fire is the weakest in PvP. If you are doing well with fire in PvP then you can do AWSOME with Air..

im currently a Air 15, Energy 13, Healing Prayer 8, Earth 3 and i can stand toe to toe with a warrior for a good while.
I only use uearth for Kenetic Armor that gives me a Armor Boost of +18

Thanks for all the replies, keep your opinions coming.

Only useful fire spell I can think of is Meteor Shower for the knockdown. I switched to fire for bit in an attempt to farm yesterday. It didnt' work out so I was going to change back but ran out of refund points. So I had to get some exp and decided to try out fire for a bit.

To my surprise, fire was even worse than I had remembered. Most enemies do not clump together for AoE spells to take maximum effect, and the mana cost of the spells was too high to constantly use (fireball). Meteor Shower was good, but the 60 second recharge is way too long. Not to mention, fire has no spells to help out the party, and I find my henchies dying too quick to really tank.

Bleh, I'm back to Earth/water and its just simply so much better.

meh, they all have their high and low points. From what i see most ppl crowd around in a circle and attack, so they are to busy clicking their spells to notice a meteor shower since in chaos it is hard to tell smoke or hear the sound through the clangs. Fire Storm though is obvious and could make others scatter. I would go fire/air but I like fire to much and earth is great defense. Anyone ever play with 4 elementals with all diffrent primaries? how was that?

If you want to rule at PvP from what i see the warrior is top dog, then rangers with poision arrows.

I am happy knowing that in chaos and a few meteors that I see 90 hp points being subtracted by the enemies. One thing that took me by suprise is that for once I heard the phrase

"looking for elemental" as most are monks and warriors in PvP apparently.

The "best" element depends largely upon context.

I'd say Fire is more useful in PvE since the enemies do not move out of an AoE spell. So, you can firestorm or meteor shower more easily, for instance. In PvP, I think Fire is less useful because opponents can easily move out of a Firestorm or Meteor Shower, if they're paying attention (which good players usually are doing). Moreover, there's a large chance to miss with Fire skills, except for spells like Immolate. Finally, fire simply does damage and almost nothing else.

Skill lines such as Air are especially useful for PvP because there's the ability to do high amounts of spike damage very quickly, thus making keeping someone alive much more difficult. A number of Air skills don't miss either, such as lightning strike, enervate, or lightning surge. Plus, Air allows you to knockdown, weaken, blind, interrupt, which are much more helpful in a PvP setting than Fire's straight damage output.

Earth skills are also useful in PvP because they grant substantial defense bonuses that can benefit an entire team and are extremely beneficial for maps such as Capture the Altar. Armor of Earth provides crazy armor (+60 at lvl 16 with minimal movement slowdown). Moreover, an Earth ele can do high amounts of damage as well with skills like Obsidian Flame, Crystal Wave, and Earthquake+Aftershock.

I've yet to see a Water ele being used extensively in PvP.

In sum, it all depends on what you want to use your ele for.

If your doing PvP then this is what i use in PvP and it works very well

Vs. Warriors i use Shock that knocks them down and whirlwind that also knocks them down.. And i use my Wand for damge and Increase the damage output on it will enchantment spells for lightning. so my wand is doing about 40 damage every 2 to 3 seconds. also casting Kenetic Armor and Mending.


Vs. elementalist/Mesmer/or Necros i use Lightning Javlin, this disrupts them from casting and can keep them from casting anything against you. Shock them ( will KD them them ) when they get up javelin them to disrupt them then your shack will be recharged and they will get KD'ed again. this wil keep them disrupted and do damage at the same time.

Vs Rangers well your shit out of luck with them as a elementalist becasue there range is really the problem and the poison application. when your in a group you need to make sure you tell someone to take them out for you.

Vs Monk. the same method above will apply keep them disrupted and they will go down fast.

Im not trying to convince you to take AIR but can speak from experince and trial and error that Air is the best thing you can use in PvP and Fire is by far the weakest thing you can use.

Keep in mind that Air magic for the most part has 25% armor penetration on most skills.

fire = fire,burns,KD's,AOE's
Air = Disrupts,Blinds,Cold,Lightning,AOE's,KD's, Increase movement
Earth = Armor increase, KD's, Earth, some AOE's, group armoring
Water = Slow Movment, Armor increase, cold,

I've heard "TONS" of opinions on how good air is in PvP, and how good fire is in PvE, but what are for instance the benefits of water? And what would be the best combination of elements for missions, quests, etc.?

water spells basically slow your enemys movements down. there is also a spell that will make you invisable for a few seconds so you can heal or cast other spells and cant be touched.

I did water for alittle while and found that it is good in groups without tankers but thats about it.

most people always have a tanker with them.

I can say Air Elementalist is the most damaging. [gotta love armor piercing]

In PvP, I'd say Fire due to Monks robes supposedly being weak to Fire dmg.

In a full party for tough PvE quests, I'd say Earth due to anti-mob capability. Protect your party!

I would have to say fire for PVE. I don't pvp. Why fire. Simple mark of rodgrot, firestorm and metor shower. Only lvl 28 bosses survive that, and then not by much. Aslo Fire is AOE. Air is single targets.

I use earth magic because I am a knockdown character.

Im having good time (After tons of tries) with this setup on my E/mo. 12 Air (with min rune), 14 Fire (with sup rune and fire eye), 9 Energy (with minor rune), 6 earth (with min rune) and 5 protection.

My equiped spells are : Fireball, Meteor shower, Lightning Orb, Enervating Charge, Chain Lightning, Melee ward, Aegis, Elemental Attunement as Elite (sometimes changing it with Ether Renewal).

So far I love this setup. Aegis and Melee ward realy are usefull protection for the team, then you blast an enervating charge to weaken the tank from the other team, and cast meteor shower and thereafter chain lightning when they are knocked down.

I also have a sup Vigor, a Fire wand that add 20% chance on both casting speed and recharge and a +12 fire artifact that does the same (for a 40% chance I guess (still not sure if its cumulative)).

So some of you are saying fire/air is a good mixture also .
What would be best way to distribute attribute points for a E/Me?

I would use the same setup as I use but use one of the most powerfull mesmer skill instead of aegis. What I found out is that Energy is realy not worth the points its costing if you can recharge it fast (like ele attunement). Much better to use those points for other skills. Im guessing Air and Earth would be a good setup also.


I have Aegis and melee ward becose my melee ward last 12-13 sec and take 20 to recharge, my Argis last 7 sec - This way I can cast constant protection.

Well here a question, would an Air/Illusion/Energy storage be good way to spread attribute points for an E/Me concidering that most of them are put into air?

I am currently a E/Me and i use Fire/Domination/Energy Storage to deal out massive amounts of damage. I use the AoE fire spells for multiple targets that are around a tanker and then i use my Me Domination spells to quickly drain the life of single enemies.
Illusion and air are a good combination if they are used in the right way.

This is my rule of thumb for elements

Fire- Damage
Water- Slowing
Lightning- Armor pen, speed (vs. warriors)
Earth- Protection

Hmm, depends on what illusion magic spells you're using. The only Illusion spell that I think would work with an air spiker is illusion of weakness. Be sure to pack hex breaker too though, enemy mesmers love to hex air spikers =P