Curse

maximus2357 · Nov 01, 2007, 08:34 PM // 20:34

Saying this as a water elementalist: Earth is probably the most "balanced", if that's what you're after.

If you're only looking for balance (decent offense, decent defense), Earth would be your best bet. Earth actually has the best defense out of all the elements (water being a close second) and has better damage than Water.

I wouldn't call water either massive damage or defense, but something else entirely. Water magic has what you might call the "tricks", the cool tools that can make for an excellent support build if you put everything together right, but is rarely effective for soloing as the damage isn't up to par. Blurred Vision, Frozen Gust, Maelstrom, Water Trident, all excellent skills in their own way, but I wouldn't call the line "balanced" because of it. I think of water as the crazy old magician who can do all sorts of cool stuff, much of it unexpectedly useful, but nothing obviously so. And yeah, Shatterstone is decent for damage but if you're going to waste an elite on it for damage you may as well be an air spiker instead.

Fire and Air are pretty much all damage... defense is pretty much nil. Air eles are known for spiking, that is, they can pwn single players with quick, high-dmg spells, but they are pretty much lacking in area of effect (Obsidian flame is a good spiking earth spell). Fire eles are known for "nuking", which is AoE, massive damage, but high energy cost and recharge time.

Lourens · Nov 01, 2007, 09:01 PM // 21:01

all elements are fairly balanced in their own way imo