QUOTE(mundomuñeca @ wants to sell equipments)

Prefix is important, but crucial ... is a bit of an exageration imho.
An elemental prefix gives you a boost to magical attacks in that element, and it's a rare case that you use it in a melee.
How many times gets procs'd ? And only on primary target. So, important yes, but crucial ? I wonder ...
Ethereal ... it's more complicated, sure it gives Void attack which is good, but takes away Interference & Burden
Just having the prefix is what matters, doesn't matter if ethereal or elemental, especially at low level. You cannot give up 50% more damage, that is whopping.
If anything the prefix is more important on melee than mage. You might be able to give up the elemental damage bonus on a mage...because how does it stack? If it stacks additively, that's probably less than 50%
overall damage increase. This analysis might be worth doing in Ask the Experts. I'm not a mage though so I can't do it alone.
Elemental/Void strike always procs. Only on primary target, but the only styles not benefiting fully are 2H/Niten and they still benefit a lot.