Which weapon affects more DDO monsters; electrical, fire, or other (Spellsword)?

[Zaharia]

I have a multi-class character (Artificer lvl 2 {for traps} / Wizard lvl 3) whose current go-forward career path is 80% Wizard and 20% Artificer and have a question about which Spellsword to pick that will affect/damage the most monsters.

In the past (playing only 6 months so no expert, playing multiple characters of different classes but none beyond level 5 quests yet except those in Tangleroot Gorge quest chain), most of my magical characters’ enhancements I have selected from either Eldritch Knight tree or Harper Agent tree. In Eldritch Knight, I always pick Spellsword:Flame as soon as possible (Wiz/Sor lvl 3 with 5 points spent in tree, as I understand it). I have always picked “Flame” because it looks cool, but there is also; Acid, Frost, Shock (electricity). Some monsters have immunity or resistance to certain attacks that involve fire, acid, cold, electrical, or poison. Before I pick the Spellsword for this character, I was wondering if anyone had done a study of the Monster Manual to determine which Spellsword affects the most common monster encountered organized by quest level. I am looking for something like…

For quests level 1 thru 6 the spellsword that affect the most monster is: XXXX, followed by YYYY.
For quests level 7 thru 12 the spellsword that affect the most monster is: XXXX, followed by YYYY.
For quests level 13 thru 18 the spellsword that affect the most monster is: XXXX, followed by YYYY.
For quests level 19 thru 24 spellsword that affect the most monster is: XXXX, followed by YYYY.

I ask this because maybe I should be choosing Shock (electricity) over flame to get the most mileage out of this enhancement to deal damage to more monsters???

Seeking help in understanding. Thank you for your time.

[Lonnbeimnech]

http://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_DR_and_weaknesses

[Zaharia]

Thank you Lonnbeimnech!

I looked over the table posted by Lonnbeimnech. I want to verify my understanding of the meaning of columns; Weak, Resistant, and Immune.

Weak = means what? The monster is vulnerable or receives extra damage from items listed in this column???
Resistant = means monster has ability that reduces damage received from such attach, correct?
Immune = means monster takes no damage from such attacks, correct?

The table has useful information, but does not have a column listed what quest level in DDO you can first enter monsters. Does anyone know where that might be found?

[Enguebert]

Thank you Lonnbeimnech!

I looked over the table posted by Lonnbeimnech. I want to verify my understanding of the meaning of columns; Weak, Resistant, and Immune.

Weak = means what? The monster is vulnerable or receives extra damage from items listed in this column???
Resistant = means monster has ability that reduces damage received from such attach, correct?
Immune = means monster takes no damage from such attacks, correct?

The table has useful information, but does not have a column listed what quest level in DDO you can first enter monsters. Does anyone know where that might be found?

Weak : take extra damage
Resistant : take reduced damage (Can be 0 if amount of damage is too low, especially for a weapon damage))
Immune : take no damage
Healed : is healed by *element* damage

By experience, fire & cold are the most common "immunities", but also the most common weakness.
Fire works fine until level 7 where you start to face monster immune to fire


If you invest more than a few points in EK, take at least one amongst fire/cold and the other electricity or acid.
Also, if your usual spells are from one element, try to have your weapon from another element

[RD2play]

I would not use the EK imbues at all, unless you have a good source of Temp SP. It costs Mana to keep up and it will drain your mana to fast IMO.

[Selvera]

Depends on your definition of "fast". From my very limited testing, the tool tip and wiki... Imbues cost you 1 spell point per 6 seconds. That's 10 spell-points per minute. That's the equivalent of casting one spell quickened per minute.

[Enoach]

I would not use the EK imbues at all, unless you have a good source of Temp SP. It costs Mana to keep up and it will drain your mana to fast IMO.

Depends on your definition of "fast". From my very limited testing, the tool tip and wiki... Imbues cost you 1 spell point per 6 seconds. That's 10 spell-points per minute. That's the equivalent of casting one spell quickened per minute.

I'm going to have to agree with Selvera here, the SP cost is marginal, especially if you consider the fact that as a Wizard you will regen up to 12 SP if you zero it out and usually at a rate of 4 SP every 6 seconds as long as you are below 12 SP http://ddowiki.com/page/Echoes_of_Power

For me my go-to element is acid, however, at higher levels 15+ I prefer cold. But those are just my preferences and are not based on "how many". What I can say is that each area/level has its own "this is the best" element and keeping in mind that you can switch your APs for the cost of coin can help you keep the EK tree using the best element for that time, especially since we don't have the 3 day wait - Keep in mind it does get more expensive the more APs are being reset as well as how often you do the resetting.

[dunklezhan]

If you want 'most consistently does damage' and you can't go force or sonic, then experience tells me to go acid.

Very little takes extra damage from acid, but then, very little is outright immune and not very much is even resistant. Mostly it'll do normal damage or some resisted damage. Tharask Hounds and Xoriat stuff is your main 'immune' or high resistance, some oozes too.

One word of caution: as with most other elements, some constructs are healed by acid.

I'm not aware however of any general type of mob healed by cold or immune to both cold and acid, so cold could be a good backup (bosses and champs are a whole other thing, no matter what element you choose).

[doubledge]

Personally, I like shock and acid.

Shock is good against 3/4 of everything: and it works well against devils.

Acid is what you'll need to use against demons, since they're outright immune to electricity sometimes. (**** hezzies)

Between those two, you're pretty much in the clear.

Reasons against fire:

... everything is immune to it.
-Devils
-fire Skeletons
-Demons

Even some things that aren't outright immune, are heavily resistant against it.

Reasons against cold:

Really, it's just the fact that I fight far too many skeletons. It's useful, and it definitely can be used, but since just like fire it's resisted by a ton of things, it's just not as useful to me as shock or acid.

[Jalgratas]

I am also in camp acid. For the same reasons mentioned before me. Few mobs are immune or resitant to it but also few mobs take extra damage from it. It sort of go to solid middle way in my opinion from the 4 elements.

[Eth]

Early game til late heroics use acid.
For epic leveling use fire.
For endgame use cold or electric (demons are immune to electric, skeletons are immune to cold; acid seems really bad now with all the abishai and devils/orthons having big resistance/immunitites against it and fire doesn't work well either against devils/abishai).