E/Me fire or air?

My character is a E/Me and I can't decide whether to use fire magic or air magic. First, I can't find any good air staffs people are selling. Also, the skills I have now are:

Fire: 8
Air:11
Illusion:7
Energy Storage: 7

Skills

Lightning Strike
Lightning Orb
Fireball
Blinding Flash
Conjure Phantasm
Arcane Echo
Glyph of Lesser Energy (NOT elite)
Resurrect Signet

*Also, since my chracter is only a level 17, I might not have heard or be access to some of the skills you mention.

For a good portion I went with just a simple, and less effective "Storm mage" type build.

All Air
Rest into Energy Storage
Damage:
1. LitOrb
2. A Echo
3. Lit Strike

E Management
4. Air Attunement
5. Glyph of Lesser energy *use before an orb somewhere...*

Aggro Control
6. Whirlwind *lets you escape...yay knockdown*

Cover Enchant:
7. Aura of Restoration (to cover your Air Attunement)

8. Res Sig

At 15 Air I believe that Air Attune is 60 seconds, so you can keep it up, in theory, forever.

Quote: Originally Posted by dinocroc109 My character is a E/Me and I can't decide whether to use fire magic or air magic. First, I can't find any good air staffs people are selling. Also, the skills I have now are:

Fire: 8
Air:11
Illusion:7
Energy Storage: 7

Skills

Lightning Strike
Lightning Orb
Fireball
Blinding Flash
Conjure Phantasm
Arcane Echo
Glyph of Lesser Energy (NOT elite)
Resurrect Signet

*Also, since my chracter is only a level 17, I might not have heard or be access to some of the skills you mention.

1. Drop at least one of Illusion, Air, or Fire. You'll do more damage that way. Preferably go with just one of three.
2. Focusing on one element, run Fire or Air Attument.

Fire doesn't have any disruption with the coolness of Blinding Flash or Gale, but I'd consider swapping in Fire skills anyway.

Also, look at Power Leak/Drain (whichever the Inspiration one is) to see if it appeals to you.

Well the above posts for me were confusing so im sure they are some what confusing for you, I think you were asking for more of an oppinion then a build but ill give reasons for both... First you need to ask yourself PvP? or PvE? Im sure you mean pve so heres my input because i have made BOTH seperately...Now an air ele has very bad skills in the beginning of the game i mean you cant really appreciate air until you get all the nice skills...But for that reason i would say go with fire...Pure fire and for you mesmer aspect you should bring arcane echo if its availibe and for the fire portion go to ascalon settlement outside of beetletun and go to the person there for skills(not an accaul town) and get Meteor shower(one of the best fire spells in game) now you are considerd an Echo/nuker...For pvp many groups want you and you deal MASSIVE damage...

Now for lightning...If you can get the skills
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Enverating Charge
Blinding Flash
and a few other high damaging air spells then you can go this route...
If you choose lightning and get good at using the spells you will see tons and i mean tons of damage being delt at a high lvl of air att points put into it(with being lvl 17 you should be able to do...)And you will be able to solo about any mission with henchies(at least for me when i made mine)So not relying on groups are very very nice

If you are looking for a farmer to get items and join lots of groups Id go for fire especially if your new to the game
If you are looking for PvP and soloing missions and have a bit of exp Id go for air..

I hope this helps....To end it i will put a small build for you on fire or air with your mesmer seconday

Fire nuker
Meteor
Meteor shower
Arcane Echo
Fireball
Flare
aura of restoration
and 1 mesmer skill id suggest energy tap

Air ele
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Enverating Charge
Blinding Flash
Aura of Restoration
Air attunute
energy tap
and one more mesmer skill that is the same type as energy tap i belive illusion which needs to be able to help you get more energy

I hope this in some way helps you...

As for attributes use as followed
1 less then max for air or fire which ever you choose
8 into energy storage
rest into the mesmer type of skill you choose...
When you hit level 20 max the ele you choose

You can get a 20/20 air staff from a collector in the desert I think. Look at guildwiki, collectors locations to find it. Get the staff, then add your own mods. I used air for a while, mostly out of boredom... I found Mind Shock+glyph of power to deal one giant blast of damage, with KD. Sometimes for fun, Id use Glimmering mark, and fire away with my air staff. Best used on groups though. Thunderclap, was fun, till I ran out of energy. I realize that the OP hasnt reached these skills yet...

Also, if you havent found an air staff yet, and are not in the desert, I can get you one.

If you want to spike a single target to death go air. If you wanna do AoEs at large groups go fire.