newb questions on dagger mods

Actually, I'm not really a newb so I should know better, but I don't.

Question: Does elemental damage basically all armor except +AL v. elemental?

If that is so, should not elemental damage daggers be preferable to almost all else? I found some purple Ebon Daggers (max 17 damage). I can salvage it, and if lucky, get the hilt (or tang or whatever). But is a +enchant duration dagger better?

Yeah...I know...depends on the build...but it seems that doing earth damage in Pvp and Pve would be much better than getting more milage out of enchants.

Comments?

Quote: Originally Posted by ogami_ito

So then...what good is getting earth damage on the dagger? Its actually worse against rangers and elementalists (and maybe others...not sure)

Elemental damage should do more damage than your regular attack (the elemental damage should be resisted less by your target). Personally, I don't like to use elemental mods on my weapons because against your average ranger armor, you'll be hitting crap for damage. Don't even get me started on what happens if they're wearing armor that gives extra bonuses vs your element.

Quote: Originally Posted by Bloodied Blade Elemental damage should do more damage than your regular attack (the elemental damage should be resisted less by your target). Unless they have AL + physical that is making them extra resistant to physical attacks, that statement is false.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ogami_ito So then...what good is getting earth damage on the dagger? Its actually worse against rangers and elementalists (and maybe others...not sure) I've heard that Afflicted dont have much armor vs. Earth, so that might be the reason. Elemental weapons also do more damage to most warrior armors, since those have a large +AL vs. physical.

Of the armors that actually protect against elemental damage (both ranger and elementalist) only the geomancer armor for eles specifically targets Ebon (earth) damage.

^^^ But Ranger and elementalists have +AL to all elemental damage. So, what I'm starting to realize is...Ebon daggers are not that great, but may be the way to go when attacking warriors.

All elementalist armors that offered +AL vs. a specific element now offer a flat +10 AL vs. all elements and +10 vs. a specific element. Ranger armor also has a +30 vs. elements so while they dont specifically prevent Earth damage, they will reduce it significantly.

For daggers, I'd recommend Vampiric and Zealous. You get a lot out of them with 13-16 dagger mastery. You can keep an elemental damage weapon for special situations (unless what I said about Afflicted earlier turns out to be correct, then you'll be using Ebon pretty much all the time )