Extra question: I use a fire/death sword attack on a life enemy, but the strike that doesn't cost MP doesn't do extra damage, even though it's supposed to be fire/death damage. I'm not sure if the shadow or fire strike spells do extra damage either, so is it better to just use a single element weapon for the more efficient magic costs?
Viewing post in Blood of the Last Dragon comments
Good question! The bonuses and penalties stack for the “basic” attack on the weapon (but not for the MP abilities). For example, Fire does +50% to Life enemies and Death does +50% to Life enemies – This will add a 2x multiplier to attacks against enemies who have life as their defense. It also will make water enemies immune to the basic attack (-100%).
I hope this makes sense.
In this version of the game, I think it makes most sense to simply stack shards on the same weapon as that reduces the cost of MP attacks giving you heavy damage against the appropriate enemies (e.g. 2 different weapons will cover 80% of enemies)