I'm currently playing a level 38 PB Embermage and I'm having a hard time figuring out what gear will benefit me most. Like, what's better, + elemental damage, +% elemental damage, focus, cast speed, etc.? What will give me the best DPS increase?

I realize this probably all depends on build, other gear, etc., but my question is, how do I figure it out? Are there any resources or formulas available for this?

Hey there, there is detailed information about damage done per hit etc in the game. You can literally look up as equipped with each item to see how it shakes out.

don't over think it. If your playing at a higher difficulty you'll probably will start fine tuning your items to benefit you in certain situations, battles, etc but if your just playing normally don't worry about it.

What i do is keep 1 weapon that is your favorite and then have 1 backup weapon. As for armor just wear the strongest protection gear you'll be fine.

I have my normal 2 handed weapon, either hammer or axe which ever i have that is strongest, and i have a good 2 handed mage staff which does fire damage in case for some reason i run into foes weak to fire. But on normal play you don't have to worry about all that, too much brainwork. Just use the strongest weapon that shows the damage per second and if you find later you like faster weapons, or such you can switch, but no need to overthink it that much.

I think the character sheet will do it.

But what you actualy want, is health. Lots and lots of healt. Equip at least +1000 HP, and keep incrising that.

That depends on difficulty. Beside elite it really don't matter so equip the items that gives you something that you like or you think it is cool.

Elite is a bit more tricky because enemies start overpowering you very fast if you can't keep up with them and equipments are the only that actually can make you keep up with them. At the beginning it isn't much different compared to other difficulties but later your character will lack defense. As others already said at that point nothing helps but increasing your HP. Engineer is kind of overpowered because of the healing bot so you have much more options there but even that class benefit more from higher HP than from anything else. If you've pumped points in the class' primary stat your damage on skills will be powerful even without bonuses from items so beside HP there is some degree of creativity to play around.

Sets are nice but you don't have to focus on them before reaching some stable levels where you start leveling up slower. Once you free the random item vendor in the desert he will be your best friend to find high level yet still equipable items that are worth to enhance because you keep them on your character longer. Enhancements help a lot to make more diverse builds than simply just increasing your HP but once again this is only true for elite. On lower difficulty you don't have to take any suggestions seriously about items. Go with the item that you find more cool.

DPS shouldn't be your only concern. There's only one Embermage skill that helps you regain Health/Mana, Death's Bounty, and none that helps your defense. If you want to survive on the higher levels, you're going to need to get high-level armor, with sockets, fill those sockets with gems, skulls, eyes that up your defenses, add health and otherwise keep you from dying, along with as many enchantments as you can. To some extent, that's true for all classes, but the Embermage is an extreme example.

Heh I missed the DPS part lol. Well the answer is focus and +% elemental damage. Practically anything the embermage can do is pure elemental magic, even the melee attacks. Overall +% elemental damage increase your DPS the most, while focus acts kind of like strength for berserkers: it gives the initial damage on hit. High focus turns skills like infernal collapse into nuke instagibbing whole enemy groups.

You're going with prismatic bolt, then elemental damage is even more important since hits separately benefit from it as the bolt apply the different damage types. But still keep in mind you need HP to not get one-shooted by the enemy at higher levels. Embermage has reduced defense compared to engineer and berserker so with armor and resistance you will not go too far. You need pure high HP to actually survive the stronger attacks.