The following is a list of all elements and damage types in Final Fantasy XIV.
Story[]

Gameplay[]

Damage in Final Fantasy XIV is divided into two categories, type and element, with type determining whether an attack deals physical or magical damage, mitigated by Defense and Magic Defense respectively. Additional damage types include "Breath" and "Limit Break", which aren't mitigated by any defensive attribute. All damaging abilities have both a type and an element.
From the launch of the A Realm Reborn expansion through the launch of the Stormblood expansion, players had access to elemental resistance attributes. However due to the lacking importance of elemental resistances in the relaunch version, they were removed from player stats in patch 4.1, along with elemental defensive potions and materia.
Similar to elements, physical damage may be split further into three groups—slashing, piercing, and blunt. Players have access to physical resistance attributes to further mitigate them. Unlike elemental resistances, physical resistances can still be found on older equipment, but have little to no relevance to modern gameplay due to their low item levels. Most physical player abilities were divided into one of these three categories prior to patch 5.0, when they were changed to a generic physical type, with the exception of physical Blue Mage abilities and a handful of
Machinist abilities. Enemy abilities still largely use these categories.
Despite the deprecation of elemental and physical resistances, these elements and types do still play a role. All abilities are still assigned a physical damage type and/or element, and certain status effects can increase or decrease the damage dealt by abilities of the appropriate type/element, such as a Black Mages Astral Fire, which increases fire damage dealt. More commonly bosses will inflict status effects that increase damage taken from types or elements they use. Non-damaging spells may occasionally have elements applied to them as well, though this has no effect in practice.
Elements are also still important for Blue Mages, as many opponents at the Masked Carnivale will have their own elemental resistances and weaknesses, and it is up to the player to collect a range of spells that cover various elements in order to best take advantage of their opponent. Blue Mages are in turn the only discipline with access to every element and physical damage type.
The Forbidden Land, Eureka features its own element system that operates independently of the elements assigned to abilities. Instead, every enemy found within Eureka is assigned an element, while players are assigned a Magia Board wheel. Players can then slot magicite they earn throughout the region into the Board to bolster their own elemental alignments, and spin the wheel to shift their alignment as necessary to take advantage of the elemental weaknesses of their opponents.
List of elements[]
Element | Description | Mitigated by |
---|---|---|
Fire | Used by Black Mages, Blue Mages, Dragoons, Machinists, Ninjas, Red Mages, and Summoners. Element of Ifrit, Ravana, and Zurvan. |
Fire Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Ice | Used by Black Mages, Blue Mages, and Ninjas. Element of Shiva and Zurvan. |
Ice Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Wind | Used by Bards, Blue Mages, Red Mages, Summoners, and White Mages. Element of Garuda, Bismarck, Sephirot, and Sophia. |
Wind Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Earth | Used by Blue Mages, Ninjas, Red Mages, Summoners, and White Mages. Element of Titan, Ravana, and Sephirot. |
Earth Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Lightning | Used by Black Mages, Blue Mages, Ninjas, and Red Mages. Element of Ramuh, Sophia, and Susano. |
Lightning Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Water | Used by Blue Mages and Ninjas. Also used by White Mages prior to patch 4.0. Element of Leviathan, Bismarck, and Susano. |
Water Resistance Removed in 4.1. |
Unaspected | Used by all disciplines. Most physical attacks are unaspected. | n/a |
List of types[]
Type | Description | Mitigated by |
---|---|---|
Physical | Used by Bards, Dancers, Dark Knights, Dragoons, Gunbreakers, Machinists, Monks, Ninjas, Paladins, Red Mages, Samurais, and Warriors. | Defense |
Slashing | Used by Blue Mages. Also used by Dark Knights, Ninjas, Paladins, Samurais, and Warriors prior to patch 5.0. | Defense, Slashing Resistance |
Piercing | Used by Blue Mages and Machinists. Also used by Bards and Dragoons prior to patch 5.0. | Defense, Piercing Resistance |
Blunt | Used by Blue Mages and Machinists. Also used by Monks prior to patch 5.0. | Defense, Blunt Resistance |
Projectile | Exclusive to enemies, used extremely rarely. | Defense; there also exists an unused Projectile Resistance attribute in the game's data |
Magic | Used by Astrologians, Black Mages, Blue Mages, Dark Knights, Ninjas, Paladins, Red Mages, Scholars, Summoners, and White Mages. | Magic Defense |
Breath | Used exclusively by enemies. | n/a |
Sound | Unused. | n/a |
Limit Break | Used by Limit Breaks and Adrenaline Rushes. Scales with the party's combined weapon damage rather than the individual who performed it. |
n/a |