Elemental Damage Or Spell Damage?

Which one does more damage, I.e which damage should one strive for in a build, or are they the same?

For example do I want higher earth damage % or spell damage %

Some in depth explanations would be appreciated.

 

Depends on the details of the build you're going for (I assume you're talking about spell primarily here but never know). Generally speaking spell percent and melee percent are equal to or better than elemental damages for their application - in the equal case, your weapon is full single-element, and in all other cases spell/melee percent applies to the whole thing while the element damage would only apply to (a greater or lesser) part of it.

 

so if its multiple element, spell damage would be better, but full single element = equal to spell damage
so basically spell damage better?