History Main / ElementalTiers

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'': At launch, Lightning and Fire seemed to be jostling for the top spot as the most powerful element. Fire was very useful against the many Hollows in the early game and the monstrous foes later on (made even more exploitable by the [[DiscOneNuke early availability of a Fire Longsword in the Forest of Fallen Giants]], while Lightning took care of most armored enemies: in addition, many enemies that were resistant to one element were weak to the other, as in the case of the Fire-resistant enemies in [[LethalLavaLand Iron Keep]] being cripplingly weak to Lightning. Lightning still seemed the better option overall, though, particularly since a large number of areas are partially submerged or raining, which lowers Lightning resistance and boosts Fire resistance. However, after the release of the first DLC, Lightning and most of its damaging miracles were heavily nerfed, making Fire a much more consistent option overall...save for the second DLC area, which consisted entirely of Fire-resistant enemies.

* ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'':

** In the first generation, Psychic was the clear top-tier element, as the only two intended weaknesses were Bug (which had no good offensive attacks) and Ghost (which also had no good offensive attacks, and due to a [[GoodBadBugs programming oversight]] was accidentally made to deal no damage at all to Psychic Pokémon, anyway). Meanwhile, nothing but Psychic itself actually resisted Psychic moves, making them a strong coverage option; while Normal and Dragon had comparably-few poor offensive matchups, neither had any good offensive matchups like Psychic did. The next generation introduced Dark and Steel types to combat this, and every year Psychic's power has been waning. Some things remain constant, though - Poison has pretty much always been at the bottom of the rankings, even though it got an advantage against the [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY newly-introduced]] Fairy-type. But a given type may have wildly different performance offensively versus defensively. For instance, Ice-type attacks are very good (four enemy types are weak against them, one of which is otherwise weak only to itself and a newly-introduced one) but being an Ice-type is terrible (four weaknesses, three of which are incredibly commonly used; and a single resistance, to Ice). Steel-type is the opposite (the ''majority'' of other types do reduced damage against Steel-type Pokémon, but only three take extra damage from Steel-type attacks).

** In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', Agi spells cost the same as most other elements, but can now inflict Burn. Garu spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Burn and are cheaper than other elements. Frei spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Freeze, Shock, or Burn, and [[PsychicPowers Psi]] spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Confuse, Despair, Fear, Rage, and Brainwash. [[LightEmUp Kouha]] and [[CastingAShadow Eiha]] spells... have no particular upside and no access to Severe-level damage (except one skill that is unique to Tsukuyomi).

* In the first ''VideoGame/AtelierIris'' game, the first and weakest offensive Mana Item you're able to synthesize is the Bomb Ice (Ice). Then you get the Obake Bag (Dark), Flame (Fire), Thunder Rod (Lightning), and finally the strongest one is Dragon Gem, which is also fire-based.
* In the second game, ''VideoGame/AtelierIris2'', Ice items are again the weakest, since there are only two of them and the stronger one only deals medium damage. Meanwhile, there are a lot more Fire-based items and the second strongest item (Cerberus Flute) is Fire-based. The strongest item, however, [[TakeAThirdOption deals all four elemental damage at once]].
* Seems to be a trend in ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' series.
** In ''VideoGame/AtelierRorona'', the absolute strongest item, [[NukeEm Tera Bomb]], is Fire-elemental. Regarding the characters, though, the two Wind-based party members, [[DorkKnight Sterk]] and [[CoolOldGuy Gio]], are regarded as the [[CharacterTiers strongest party members]].
** In ''VideoGame/AtelierEschaAndLogy'', Logy's "Blitz" attack items are, from strongest to weakest: [[BlowYouAway Guryun Blitz]], [[MakingASplash Flava Blitz]], [[PlayingWithFire Roten Blitz]], and [[DishingOutDirt Airto Blitz]]. The InfinityPlusOneSword, Tauzent Blitz, is NonElemental.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', you fight the [[FourElementEnsemble Elemental Archfiends]] in order of their strength, from the weakest, Scarmiglione (Earth), then Cagnazzo (Water), Barbariccia (Wind), and finally the strongest, Rubicante (Fire).

* ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': In the category of the Eight Elemental Attributes, five of them form a set where Earth > Space > Wind > Water > Fire > Earth, but they're trumped by a superior set consisting of Light and Darkness opposing each other in equal measure, and a final tier where Time is superior to all of them.

** Finally, there are also various "secondary" elements like Plasma, Magnetism, Sonics, Plantlife, etc...While not inherently less powerful than the core 6 elements, they are much less known and used because their users are few and far between (Matoran and Toas of these elements are rare and almost never appear in the stories, while the only toys ever released that used these were the 6 Bohrok Kals, and they were explicitly 6 individuals rather than 6 breeds).

* In ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' there are five elemental damage types: Magic, Fire, Lightning and Holy. Out of the five, Magic and Fire are tied as the best; magic is effective on damn near everything (though nothing is particularly weak to it either) and there are a lot of spells with it, allowing it great versatility. Fire is less universal, but there are plenty of enemies who are especially weak to it and may even get stunned when attacked with fire. Fittingly, the Sword of Night and Flames is considered one of THE best weapons in the game, due to it dealing normal, magic and fire damage at the same time, and having a weapon skill that allows either shooting a concentrated ray of magic or a wave of flames. Lightning comes second, being strong against armored individuals and not having any particular weaknesses. Holy, however, comes at an absolute last due to one simple fact: damn near every major boss in the game is ''extremely'' resistant to Holy damage, making weapons and spells that innately deal holy damage near useless against them; they do have some limited utility in fighting specific undead bosses, but those are all optional and fairly rare.

** While the best element in the game is up for debate, it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] is the absolute worst, because most of the game's major bosses massively resist it. Of the bosses important enough to drop a Remembrance, only a single one (the Regal Ancestor Spirit) has a Holy weakness, with ''every other boss'' having Holy resistances ranging from "respectable" to "almost immune". The FinalBoss, in particular, has so much Holy resistance that at one point the game's wiki erroneously reported that Holy damage actually ''healed'' it. While that is not the case, Holy damage is still so ineffective that trying to use it against the FinalBoss is essentially a SelfImposedChallenge.

** While the best element in the game is up for debate, it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] is the absolute worst, because most of the game's major bosses massively resist it. Of the bosses important enough to drop a Remembrance, only a single one (the Regal Ancestor Spirit) has a Holy weakness, and only a single ''other'' one has a Holy neutrality (the [[spoiler: Fire Giant]]), with ''every other boss'' having Holy resistances ranging from "respectable" to "almost immune". The FinalBoss, in particular, has so much Holy resistance that at one point the game's wiki erroneously reported that Holy damage actually ''healed'' it. While that is not the case, Holy damage is still so ineffective that trying to use it against the FinalBoss is essentially a SelfImposedChallenge.

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIVLegendsOfTheTitan'' and ''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'' have this with the Runemaster class. Runemasters, unlike the Alchemist and Zodiac classes of previous games, have a drastic difference in what their three elemental spells do: volt spells target an entire line, fire spells deal splash damage, and ice spells pierce to hit the back line. The imbalance is ''heavily'' weighted to volt, as targeting a whole line for equal damage is better than targeting one thing for full damage and things next to it for splash, or one thing in each line, assuming there even is something in the back. Bosses which have multiple parts are a common thing as well, and volt spells hit each part for full damage, which is something neither of the two can do. While later tier spells just hit everything, that costs more TP, meaning volt is best for conserving it whether wandering around a labyrinth or fighting a boss.
* In the first generation of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', Psychic was the clear top-tier element, as the only two intended weaknesses were Bug (which had no good offensive attacks) and Ghost (which also had no good offensive attacks, and due to a [[GoodBadBugs programming oversight]] was accidentally made to deal no damage at all to Psychic Pokémon, anyway). Meanwhile, nothing but Psychic itself actually resisted Psychic moves, making them a strong coverage option; while Normal and Dragon had comparably-few poor offensive matchups, neither had any good offensive matchups like Psychic did. The next generation introduced Dark and Steel types to combat this, and every year Psychic's power has been waning. Some things remain constant, though - Poison has pretty much always been at the bottom of the rankings, even though it got an advantage against the [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY newly-introduced]] Fairy-type.
** It's worth noting that a given type may have wildly different performance offensively versus defensively. For instance, Ice-type attacks are very good (four enemy types are weak against them, one of which is otherwise weak only to itself and a newly-introduced one) but being an Ice-type is terrible (four weaknesses, three of which are incredibly commonly used; and a single resistance, to Ice). Steel-type is the opposite (the ''majority'' of other types do reduced damage against Steel-type Pokémon, but only three take extra damage from Steel-type attacks).

** While the best element in the game is up for debate, it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] is the absolute worst, because most of the game's major bosses massively resist it. Of the bosses important enough to drop a Remembrance, only a single one (the Regal Ancestor Spirit) has a Holy weakness, and only a single ''other'' one has a Holy neutrality (the [[spoiler: Fire Giant]]), with ''every other boss'' having Holy resistances ranging from "respectable" to "almost immune". The FinalBoss, in particular, has so much Holy resistance that at one point the game's wiki erroneously reported that Holy damage actually ''healed'' it: while that is not the case, Holy damage is still so ineffective that trying to use it against the FinalBoss is essentially a SelfImposedChallenge.
** Lightning and Fire damage[[note]] or "Flame Art" damage, to be specific, as "Fire" damage scales almost purely with Faith[[/note]], rather than being purely tied to Faith, are somewhat connected to one's Dexterity or Strength stats respectively, allowing for builds specialized in physical stats to consistently deal elemental damage. However, Lightning still tends to be better than Fire for one simple reason: the weather system. When it's raining, all Fire damage is 10% weaker while all Lightning damage is 10% stronger, while there's no weather that does the opposite. Given that the community's favourite location for [=PvP=] dueling happens to be in Liurnia, where it rains often...

* ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey IV'' and ''Nexus'' have this with the Runemaster class. Runemasters, unlike the Alchemist and Zodiac classes of previous games, have a drastic difference in what their three elemental spells do: volt spells target an entire line, fire spells deal splash damage, and ice spells pierce to hit the back line. The imbalance is ''heavily'' weighted to volt, as targeting a whole line for equal damage is better than targeting one thing for full damage and things next to it for splash, or one thing in each line, assuming there even is something in the back. Bosses which have multiple parts are a common thing as well, and volt spells hit each part for full damage, which is something neither of the two can do. While later tier spells just hit everything, that costs more TP, meaning volt is best for conserving it whether wandering around a labyrinth or fighting a boss.

** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'': Lightning is the most powerful element in terms of both gameplay (almost nothing has decent lightning resistance except DLC bosses which have massive resistances to ''everything'') and lore (it was the element of TopGod Gwyn, and the AchillesHeel of the otherwise NighInvulnerable everlasting dragons).
** ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'': Lightning was most likely originally ''intended'' to be the most powerful element once again, since most of the lightning weapons and spells aren't obtainable until pretty late in the game. However, lightning ended up being merely decent, while the most useful element in terms of gameplay is fire, the earliest and easiest element to obtain (you can choose a Fire Gem as your starting gift, which lets you turn your starting weapon into a fire weapon immediately after beating the tutorial boss). [[DiscOneNuke Every boss during the first half of the game is massively weak to fire with the exception of the Old Demon King]], and [[ScissorsCutsRock during the later half of the game + the DLC, all bosses are either weak or at the very least minimally resistant to fire]], with the exception of dragons and [[WalkingSpoiler one specific DLC boss]]. Fire is also nearly always effective versus enemies and will even stun and stagger some fleshy enemies. This is on top of all the other bonuses pyromancy receives over sorcery and miracles, including faster cast times, easier attainability, minimal investment needed, and viability for PVP.

** While the best element in the game is up for debate, it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] is the absolute worst, because the majority of the game's really difficult bosses massively resist it. The FinalBoss has so much Holy resistance that at one point the game's wiki erroneously reported that Holy damage actually healed it.
** Lightning tends to be better than Fire for one simple reason: the weather system. When it's raining, all Fire damage is 10% weaker while all Lightning damage is 10% stronger, while there's no weather that does the opposite. Given that the community's favourite location for [=PvP=] dueling happens to be in Liurnia, where it rains often...

** ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterTri Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate]]'' made the [[StuffBlowingUp Slime]] status effect (known as Blast in later games) far too powerful, allowing it to easily lock down monsters while doing obscene damage.

** Lightning tends to be better than Fire for one simple reason: the weather system. When it's raining, all Fire damage is 10% weaker while all Lightning damage is 10% stronger, while there's no weather that does the opposite. Given that the community's favourite location for [=PvP=] duelling happens to be in Liurnia, where it rains often...
* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'', Fire elemental weapons get the short end of the stick because most monsters weak to it are not really much trouble to begin with, with others being either neutral or resistant. Only one trouble monster, [[spoiler:the elder dragon Vaal Hazak]], is weak to it. Dragon to an extent has shades of this as most Elder Dragons aren't really that weak to Dragon, but the Rathalos/Rathians are and the addition of [[AntiMagic Elderseal]] on most Dragon element weapons stops them from falling into the same rut. Thunder on the other hand is the king of elements because a ton of powerful monsters like Bazelgeuse, Deviljho, Nergigante and [[spoiler:Kushala Daora]] are weak against it. That being said, status ailment weapons are more universally useful because they affect all monsters equally: Poison has been buffed from previous entries and with enough points in the Poison Attack skill you can inflict the effect three or four times in a hunt with considerable damage each time; Sleep is quite powerful if you bring bombs or have a partner with a Great Sword, otherwise it just offers windows for healing and sharpening; Paralysis gives you and any partners a window to just go ham. And with the addition of skills that boost the damage of non-elemental weapons, forgoing an element weapon entirely is quite viable too.

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* In the first generation of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', Psychic was the clear top tier element, as the only two intended weaknesses were Bug (which had no good offensive attacks) and Ghost (which also had no good offensive attacks, and due to a [[GoodBadBugs programming oversight]] was accidentally made to deal no damage at all to Psychic Pokémon, anyway). The next generation introduced Dark and Steel types to combat this, and every year Psychic's power has been waning. Some things remain constant, though - Poison has pretty much always been at the bottom of the rankings, even though it got an advantage against the [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY newly-introduced]] Fairy-type.
** It's worth noting that a given type's ''attacks'' may be of vastly different value than having a Pokémon of that type. For instance, Ice-type attacks are very good (four enemy types are weak against them, one of which is otherwise weak only to itself and a newly-introduced one) but being an Ice-type is terrible (four weaknesses, three of which are incredibly commonly used; and a single resistance, to Ice). Steel-type is the opposite (the ''majority'' of other types do reduced damage against Steel-type Pokémon, but only three take extra damage from Steel-type attacks).

** In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', Agi spells cost the same as most other elements, but can now inflict Burn. Garu spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Burn and are cheaper than other elements. [[ILoveNuclearPower Frei]] spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Freeze, Shock, or Burn, and [[PsychicPowers Psi]] spells do extra damage to foes afflicted with Confuse, Despair, Fear, Rage, and Brainwash. [[LightEmUp Kouha]] and [[CastingAShadow Eiha]] spells... have no particular upside and no access to Severe-level damage (except one skill that is unique to Tsukuyomi).

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': While the best element in the game is up for debate, it's pretty unanimously agreed upon that [[HolyHandGrenade Holy]] is the absolute worst, because the majority of the game's really difficult bosses massively resist it. The FinalBoss has so much Holy resistance that at one point the game's wiki erroneously reported that Holy damage actually healed it.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', elemental attacks have different areas of effect. Ice is a single-target, Fire hits a whole row but does less damage, and Lightning targets a random enemy and is prone to missing frequently unless there are many enemies. So even if you're facing a lightning-vulnerable boss you probably want to use ice, and same goes for if the fire-weak enemies are on multiple rows.