Elemental Damage

First off, for some reason the search function isn't working for me. I just get a blank page. So if anyone wants to just link to appropriate threads as opposed to answering something they have already posted 100 times, that is fine by me.

I have done the reading about combat damage on the main site here and also a couple other sites. From my reading I have gathered that elemental and 'other' attributes on physical damage weapons (such as fiery bowstring, ebon hammer haft, dark damage, light damage) are still affected by armour. That is elemental damage types on a physical damage weapon do not ignore armour or do not have a negative AL modifier.

Am I understanding this right?

I know that I do more damage to Ice Imps and Siege Ice Golems with a fiery bowstring installed. But if I'm understanding this right, I don't do more damage to the Stone Summit because of the fiery bowstring, unless they too have a weakness to fire, which I don't think they do.

If I'm understanding this all the advantage to an elemental attack would be that some armours have a defense against slashing, piercing, etc. Therefore a physical damage weapon with an elemental enhancement that would normally be subject to that defense (like piercing and bows, or blunt and hammers) would now not have that bonus defense against the weapon.

Also some elemental defenses are more popular (like a ranger with fire or frost armour) and as such an ebon hammer enhancement would only have to deal with the standard +30 vs elemental.

Am I missing anything? Anyone have anything to add or links to more information? Thanks.

You're mistaking "Search this Thread" with the regular forum search:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/search.php?

Yes elemental damage is reduced by armor and therefore elemental upgrades on weapons are usless unless the enemy has a weakness to that element.

However I think some elements bypass armor but I'm not sure which ones. I want to say Death and possibly Holy but that's just a hunch.

All weapons are affected by armor; a weapon with Chaos/Light/Dark damage, elemental damage, or physical damage will be affected.

Spells on the other hand with Chaos, Light, and Dark damage inherently act as if the target has 60 AL; that is, they do 100% of damage.

Spells with normal elemental damage (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth) are affected by armor.

You pretty much covered everything and understood it well. One thing I'd like to add, though, is that in the case of Shields Up, which defends against arrows, switching to an elemental bow will bypass much of the skill's defenses. So for a ranger, having an elemental bow on hand is a way to get around certain defenses your enemies may use.

Thanks for the confirmation and additional information.

I have a fiery bowstring on a longbow that I use for my main and a perfect sundering on a decent half-moon I got as a drop. I normally use the longbow and the half-moon is nice and I can't see ruining a perfectly good sundering string with any other upgrade. I have a zealous string on a longbow that has a dwarfslaying bowgrip on it, but really the fiery longbow seems to do best overall.

I would have thought the sundering string would be best, but I dont notice the effect that often.

I'm at this point where I can think more seriously about how I build my weapons. I am using certain build types in different areas I like to hunt and am trying to factor in my bow as well. It would be stupid to have a bow setup that didn't work with my build. Like having a vamp string and not use a QuickShot or Barrage build.

Anyways thanks for the feedback.