I was a lvl 8 Paladin. Matched some gems whose spells weren’t full. NO elemental damage.
Matched later when the spell was full = Elemental damage.
Is that the way it is supposed to work?
Hi Jerry,
When you match colored gems that are the same color as the spells you have equipped, you will do elemental damage. However, matching gems of a color that are not equipped on your spell bar will do no damage at all.
For example, in this loadout,
Matching purple, green, red, and blue gems will generate elemental damage.
However, matching yellow gems will not generate any elemental damage because there is not a yellow spell equipped to the spell bar.
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Great answer! It should be in the gameguidea!
Apparently I was wrong in my assumption of having spells of the color that I matched.
Spells that do damage are also potentially a source of “elemental damage”. Both elemental damage from Spells and elemental damage from matching gems aligned with the color of the spells you have equipped (Gem Damage) are applied against the Resistance value first of the enemy and then when Resistance is reduced to zero, applied to Health.
Keep in mind the elemental type of damage from Spells may be different from the color of the Spell itself (For instance Acid Arrow is a green spell so you might assume that it does green (Poison) elemental damage but in fact the spell does Fire elemental damage).
Ah so resistance is “elemental armor”. I thought it worked like in Warhammer. Either you do damage or you don’t 
Good to know!
So how about that acid arrow? It’s green mana but do fire damage. So green mana does elemental damage then?
As Lyrian detailed before, matching green gems while having at least one green spell equipped will do green (Poison) elemental Gem Damage. A cast green spell will do the type of damage listed in its spell description (likely Poison damage but it could be other, like with Acid Arrow’s Fire Damage).