Air Magic

Air Magic is an Elementalist secondary attribute meaning that any character with an Elementalist for their primary or secondary class can put points into this attribute.

Guild Wars Description
"No inherent effect. Many Elementalist skills, especially spells which deal lightning damage to and debilitate a single enemey, become more effective with higher Air Magic."

General Description
Air Magic has been dubbed the "PvP attribute" due to its effectiveness and easy use in PvP battles. The reason for this popularity can be garnered from the Guild Wars description - Air Magic spells deal large amounts of damage to and debilitate a single enemy.

Air Magic is all about one thing: Spike damage. Oh, and throw in some knockdowns and blindness in there just for fun. As a result of this, some PVP teams can be seen with 3 or more mages dedicated entirely to using Chain Lightning, using Air Magic skills to blind and knockdown while they wait to use chain lightning again.

Some Air Magic skills knock down foes, effectively canceling all their actions and allowing you time to escape or deal more damage, including Whirlwind, Thunderclap and Shock. However, the real power of the Air Mage is in the huge damage to a single target (or in the case of chain lightning, three targets) that the attribute's spells deal.

However, Air Magic is a kind of one-trick pony, lacking any skills that heal or protect the caster in anyway. Also, a great many Air Magic skills cause exhaustion, something that can be crippling to a mage. Finally, Air Magic lacks any skill that does damage over time, so Protection Prayers skills that prevent Spike Damage such as Reversal of Fortune Protective Bond, Spell Breaker and Protective Spirit or just a ranger or a mesmer can render a pure Air Mage harmless.


 * ri = Relative Increase of this skill
 * ip = Increase Peak of this skill, that is closest to its "ri"
 * oi = "Optimal Increase" = both of the above (or no peak/number at all)
 * % = 50% chance of failure.

Whatever your characters Air Magic is, you should use skills that have nearly the same oi/ri/ip as your Attribute Skill to optimize the usage of your Attribute points. (-> some skills come in pairs because they have nearly the same relative increase.)

The lower your attribute skill is the less skills of it you should use. If you have ~16 Air Magic just use all the lowest skills of the table.