I just want to say this is my opinion, and that I’m only talking about the strength of magics between v1.4.0 - v1.4.42 which is a couple weeks before release after all base magics are complete. I also won’t be taking into account combos like freezing and wind applying the frozen status, because 2nd magics aren’t out yet and the scenario for my rankings is a player vs player (the only effect I’m considering is bleed because it can be applied with swords and bows). Synergy with stats (power and defense) will also influence a magic’s ranking.
Clashes and destruction currently don’t have much impact whatsoever so they’ll hardly make a difference on the rankings. I also want to make it very clear that I consider no magics to be bad, the magic doesn’t carry the player. Sure it may make it easier to win but you still won’t be anywhere near unbeatable without skill. The list goes from top to bottom in order of best to worst, again this is my opinion.
Fire/Plasma
Fire and plasma are very similar magics, with the only noticeable difference being that plasma sacrifices damage for speed and the opposite for fire. It’s really personal preference as to what you’d consider to be better. Both magics do by far the most damage in the game, especially with lots of power items, on top of their decent speed. Hitting just one placed explosion could easily take away almost a third of someones health. They also obliterate poison, making it basically obsolete and forcing the user to use weapons instead of magic. They don’t win many clashes and don’t have very good destruction.
Lightning
The second fastest magic in the game also dealing pretty good damage. It’s great for long distances however it costs a lot of magic power to use. If you can keep your distance it can pretty easily shut out slower magics. It’s paralysis effect will almost never get any use against other players unless you have lots of strong enchants.
Light
The fastest magic in the game however it does little damage, it loses almost all of it’s clashes and has virtually no destruction. The blinding effect light applies isn’t too helpful but occasionally completely disorient your opponent making it easy to land an additional hit. Playing from a far distance is typically the best way to fight with it.
Magma
Magma’s puddles forces the enemy to constantly be trying to play around them since they deal fair damage every second, using a shockwave explosion spreads puddles in a massive radius so just from using one attack you can completely take control of an area with a single attack. On top of that it does incredibly high damage at the cost of lower speed so playing close up is recommended.
Acid
Virtually identical to magma, however it does less damage but is a bit quicker. It doesn’t kill quite as quickly as magma however because of its faster speed you can play from further distances.
Wind/Shadow
Two pretty fast magics that deal good damage. Like fire and plasma, really whichever magic is better is up to the user, wind applies knockback that scales with its level and shadow is incredibly difficult to see at night time. Neither of the magics are particularly bad at anything so they both have pretty flexible playstyles.
Poison
Poison has low direct damage however it’s clouds delete a hefty amount of health if your opponent is caught standing in one for too long. The clouds aren’t affected by the power stat whatsoever so going high defense is probably your better option. The status that poison applies does very little damage however it lasts a very long time, it’s like a pinch of salt to the wound of a mountain but it can still come in handy. Using poison magic against a fire or plasma user is basically suicide as you’re literally just giving them extra damage, so in situations like that you just gotta run away but otherwise it’s pretty good.
Paper/Glass
Pretty much the same magic, they’re both pretty fast and apply bleed but deal low damage. They’re basically a slightly worse shadow and wind and picking one over the other is purely just visual preference.
Ash
Is similar to poison in that they have around the same speed and damage and also leaves behind a damaging cloud. In exchange for not applying a status like poison, it can petrify burning and charred enemies. But because second magics aren’t a thing, you’ll almost never petrify enemies.
Iron
Almost impossible to use from a distance because of it’s speed. Being up close and consistently hitting attacks does really high damage along with its bleed but getting close in the first place is the problem.
Gold
Iron XL, does what iron does better but is even harder to hit with.
Earth
Iron Lite, a very slightly faster alternative that doesn’t apply the bleed status, which isn’t worth the trade off in my opinion.
Sand
Decent damage, decent speed leaves sand piles that don’t really do anything. The reason it’s so low is because it doesn’t do anything all that well.
Ink/Water
Same stats as sand however puddles can be used against the user when facing a lightning user. That’s pretty much all that discerns them at least until second magics.
Explosion
Inbetween ice speed and default speed with slightly less damage than the standard. It’s destruction is unmatched and it wins the majority of it’s clashes but those still aren’t all that important right now.
Snow
Same as sand but does even less damage
Ice
Ice has decent damage but with pretty slow speed, it at least applies the freezing affect which will help in the future.
Crystal
Ice without a future 
Wood
Ice without a future but this time it’s even slower
Ice is a-okay, ill just wait until we can actually use its freeze effect properly someday
