Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-96.49.190.238-20131031030902/@comment-23870891-20131031063919

I would love to elaborate on this topic.

Adjacent elements have 3 advantages going for them in regards to epic bosses, arena has its own rules as well, but I will focus on the Epic boss.

1) Having two elements means that it gets bonus from guild perks for each element it contains. Since it shares this perk with elements separated armors, this is only an advantage over mono-element armors.

2) It has improved versatility of the elements separated armors. Look at the elemental wheel:

In the case of of armors with the elements separated, look at the elements it is weak against. In the case of a Fire/Wind armor, this armor will only be good against a Spirit boss not containing water or earth, which means really only a Spirit/Wind boss or Spirit/Fire boss (or Mono Spirit Boss). This armor would deal bonus damage to a boss containing the element water, but you would take bonus damage in turn due to water being weak to fire. And against a fire/wind boss it would be even and exchange, and one typically wants to take advantages of element weaknesses.

Now consider an element adjacent armor. In honor of the the Headless horseman, lets look at a Fire/Water armor. This armor is good against a future Spirit and/or Fire boss not containing Wind or Water. Taking advantage of element weaknesses, what combinations is this good against? Fire/Spirit, Fire/Earth, and Spirit/Earth (and Mono Spirit and Mono Fire Bosses). This is one more boss combination (2 more if counting monos) then elements separated armors. In addition, this new weak boss combination has a unique synergy with the armor, which is the final advantage of elements adjacent armors.

3) If the Epic Boss is also Element Adjacent, then Fighting it with your own element adjacent armor will result is DOUBLE BONUS DAMAGE. Take for instance the current boss, the Headless Horseman, which is Fire/Water. Using a Wind/Water armor against him will deal bonus damage from your Wind defeating his Water, and from your Water defeating his Fire. In the case of an Epic like Maelstrom Irons, then this double bonus can exceed the damage of Nemesis armors at high levels. While the damage bonus also works in the case of elements separated, the boss will deal bonus damage back due to defeating one of your own elements, resulting in you dying faster, making using the armor sub-optimal.

This is the reason why many people prefer adjacent elements over separated ones.