Yes I think having two magics and picking something to complement hot magics shortcomings is one of the best parts of AO character building.
If I had to complain about it is that the rewards for combining two magics that dont work on water are not good enough for the disadvantages.
If you want to be competitive having at least one magic that works on water isn’t so much optional but required.
as a metal mage I completely agree with people here, metal was my first and main magic I choosed when joining AO, and that file I hate the magic, its so clunky, new visuals are a meh, and finding hecate essence has been shit so far, so I feel that if I were to become a fire mage, that would be a Dream.
Saying water is underrated is heavily triggering my wom memories
i think this is where our views differ a little bit. i speak coming from someone who plays ao very casually. not to toot my own horn or anything, but im not terrible at pvp. i was pretty good at pvp during wom, even now that i dont pvp as competitively anymore, i still participate in tournaments sometimes and place well in them
however, as a casual player, i dont think it matters. again, look at my reasonings in my original post. i still do think you can do very well with off-meta stuff in more competitive settings, but i agree some magics have more of a dominance.
i thought shadow was the meta for awhile? and snow? i didnt know ligtning was as oppresive as you say it is
Metal is great stat wise as a short range magic but I agree its visuals and deafening noises can be unpleasant.
What second magic are you going to use with fire?
it’s not rly oppressive ppl just hate it bc it’s popular 
You are right I mentioned mostly the competitive aspect.
The casual aspect also matters and lightning is still great for casual magic. For casual I hate every magic that has low destruction due to me wanting to collect reagents.
I loved water for a underwater casual mage but I could never break anything underwater.
Lightning happens to be better for killing sharks and also collecting jelly flesh.
Actually 80% of my complains are water related. When is Vetex releasing the ability to waterproof magics?
vetex? adding QOL? lol that’s funny
idk why vetex is so against just letting heat magics work underwater he literally said himself it’s magic mimicking an element not the element itself so there’s no reason it shouldn’t work underwater
He has a point fire shouldnt work underwater.
Its not like 95% of the map is water and would cause balance issues.
Ok fine Vetex if you are going to make fire magics not work on water I want to SEAR THE FLESH OF MY VICTIMS. Fire should reward the lack of underwater use by being a stronger option in land.
Not a lot stronger but strong enough for you to not regret your 100 hour file cant fight a fish.
that would make it really annoying both to use and to fight against
you might feel strong on land but you’re gonna remember the times you’ve been fucked in the water
and conversely it’d be really annoying to fight fire on land if it’s balanced to just be straight up better there
I feel like a simple solution would be to just make heat magics turn into steam magic when underwater.
Its a good point.
Either the land advantage would have to be so low it might not even matter or it would create a whole new problem.
Still it seems equally bad that you have to waterproof fire just to be able to feel balanced with another magic that started balanced.
Oh that would be fun!
Magma could turn to solid rock as well!
And sand would turn to wet sand balls I guess
sand doesn’t work underwater? 
Haven’t played in a while, does it actually look good yet?
Sure doesnt!
lightning looks sick imo yeah
That’s right, use that graphics card!
Mimicking the element means mimicking it’s properties, it’d be kinda weird if it only held up some of the properties like burning people, but not going out when there’s a lack of oxygen.
Gameplay wise though I can agree its annoying and wouldn’t care if there was a disconnect here between gameplay and lore.
but it’s still magic energy
water doesn’t extinguish magic energy
so therefore heat magics shouldn’t even be extinguished from a logical standpoint
even so vetex can very easily just handwave it and say “bc it’s magic” and have it not extinguish for gameplay purposes