best fire elite skill ?

Reading these forums, it seems that searing flames is the most popular fire elite skill but I can't understand why since it seems to me that mind burn is much better.

With 12 fire magic searing flames does 82 damage and causes burning for 6 seconds, however if you have more energy than your foe, mind burn does 102 damage and sets the enemy on fire for 6 seconds.

Also mind burn has a much lower energy cost (5) as opposed to searing flames 15 cost.

Admittedly Mind burn causes exhaustion but it's ok if not used repeatedly.
So why is searing flames more popular ? you obviously didnt do much reading... you dont even understand what the skills do.
3 skills you should know, ranked from worst to best:

Mind burn:
-single target
-exhaustion
-bad. very bad.

Searing Flames:
-AoE
-causes burning on non-burning foes
-Causes damage to already burning foes

Mind Blast:
-Single target
-returns huge energy
-prefect fuel for rodgort's invocation spam

If you pay attention to the people on the Ele forum with a clue, Mind Blast is win.
[skill]mind blast[/skill][skill]fireball[/skill][skill]rodgort's invocation[/skill][skill]fire attunement[/skill] The Ele forum needs closing to new posts with that left as the only stickied post in my opinion.

Why do people like Searing Flames? Because it's the first Fire Magic elite you can get your hands on in Nightfall. Nightfall is the king of Fire Magic for a start. I'm guessing SF is so popular because it's easily obtainable. Savannah Heat and Mind Blast in particular are much further into Nightfall...though Mind Blast can be obtained quicker in Eye of the North. That and the fact that when Nightfall was released 3 Eles could use SF to turn PvE into Lulz-Mode.

I did write something on each of these elites, dunno how useful it will be to you:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...40#post3376440

Why do people like Searing Flames? Because a monkey trained to swat a keyboard could play it well.

Because a monkey trained to swat a keyboard could play it well. Admittedly, when SF first appeared, it was a much stronger skill than it is now.

When you also remember that Rodgort's was nowhere near as overpowering and we didn't have awesomesauce PvE skills to churn out too; Mind Blast doesn't really shine as much.

And, as PvEers as a whole are slow to adapt... We can kinda see why SF is still run

Admittedly, when SF first appeared, it was a much stronger skill than it is now.

When you also remember that Rodgort's was nowhere near as overpowering and we didn't have awesomesauce PvE skills to churn out too; Mind Blast doesn't really shine as much. To be honest, the nerfs to SF aren't that huge. It does do slightly lower damage, and energy management is a bit harder, but it's still easily the best DPS.

Mind blast has always been viable, although recharge times used to make things a bit rough. The old combo was [skill]mind blast[/skill][skill]fireball[/skill][skill]smoldering embers[/skill][skill]rodgort's invocation[/skill][skill]fire attunement[/skill] with 2 utility slots and a rez. Clearly not as strong as a rodgort's spam guy, but hardly crap.

Hay guyz I herd enchantment removal wuz gud. Consider that mindblast will fuel you energy, whereas wtih the attunes, they'll only return energy with your ele skills/fire skills and you can't take full advantage of the support skills/non ele skills on your bar (if you wish to use them). that is true. enchant removals can pwn dual attune, but if you are in an area full of enchant removal, run a different build. for most other places, it's good

that is true. enchant removals can pwn dual attune, but if you are in an area full of enchant removal, run a different build. for most other places, it's good not as good as mind blast