New to game, need help

I was wondering for elementilists what each catagory of spells do. I know that fire spells are usually AoE. Could you help me out, and possibly, suggest your favorite kind along with a decent build including second prof. and armor&Weapon.

Thanks a ton!

Warden Bill

fire is area damage like you said, air is more damage but to single targets, earth is more about defense, and water is more strategic with focus on hexs and snares. My personal favorites are fire and earth. Fire because it's fun doing big damage with it in PvE, and earth because it makes elementalists pretty deadly soloers, as well as it being fun to use in pve and stuff. As far as secondary, well personally I used mesmer as secondary for energy management. When you get to higher levels you start to realize that elementalists have plenty of energy management spells, so now I'm switched over to monk.

I got Monk for Heal Party and Heal Other. And rebirth.

Well, could u mix like, fire and air together, or would that not be good!??!?!

and what kind of armor would i use?/weapon?

The general consensus is probably to focus on one element, but of course you can mix. With both 15 attribute quests completed, and some runes for your eq you can definitely spread your attributes among three lines fairly well. Just play around with it and see how it works. Personally I prefer maxing the element I plan on playing, and then putting the rest in energy storage for max energy. Usually my builds don't include too much from the secondary, if anything. But it's definitely doable. And there are spells in the air and water line I believe that kind of go together pretty well.

As far as armor, well just depends really I guess. You'll definitely want to get the equipment with the max base armor (which is 60 base I think), and then depending on what else you want, be it extra hps, extra energy, extra armor in different situations, well decide like that. I use geomancer armor mostly because I like the look of it the best :P. As far as weapons, well the main thing to look for here is probably something which gives faster casting times and faster recharge for your spells, and longer enchants if you can find it. As a caster, you're not relying on your weapon for your damage so it's probably most important to get these other types of benefits. For me, I have a max damage wand for each element, and then in the other hand I have an item, again for each element, which gives +10 energy and 20% chance for both faster casting and faster recharge. Maybe not the best, because I know you can get them with higher energy, but they're easy to get. You can buy them in Henge of Denravi. With this setup though you can just switch around you equipment depending on what build you're using. If you want to play fire, use the fire wand and fire offhand. For earth, switch to that, etc.

Personally I like Earth.

Fire is good for AoE and those "up in your face". Air is good for support and direct attacks. 20% penetration, blindness, weakness, knockdown, running, lightning damage, all are good. Water, yes good for snares (slow so you can drop a meteor shower on them ), knockdown those who move, armor protection, interupt in a small area. Earth, wards, armor, ignore armor attack, knockdown, blind, slow down a single enemy.

Many like Monks as a 2ndary. Rangers can be okay (wilderness survival can manipulate all damage into fire or cold, so you can set yourself up in your defense). Ritualists are okay (hard rez, spirits, healing, etc.). Warriors for stances.

The main thing you must know is:
1) you have low armor, so either move around, or have good defenses
2) you have one of the worst healings in the game (I would say tied with Mesmer), get a 2nd profession with good healing skills (or at least acceptable)
3) PuGs expect AoE Fire damage from you, if you choose not to, tell people and your reason why.

Elementalists are usually wanted, sometimes required (unless the group is amazing in PvE).

Enjoy!