I'm not sure about which elements are the least resisted late-game, but Wind/Earth resistance is generally uncommon.
For the record, IIRC Torte's affinity is Holy, Fano's is Dark, Pristina's is Fire, Tainy's is Wind and Hraesvelgr's are Ice.
At this point I'm tempted to go Thunder or Earth, since it isn't covered by the other party members. (Well, covered less, because it's 'just' +5%).
Flying enemies don't get auto immunity to Earth, right? Or if they do, I hope they aren't too many of them around. Seems like a recurring problem in JRPGs where Earth specialists get burned.
Since Audragon doesn't depend on affinity at all, this is probably mostly dependent on which elemental magics you want to use. Fire, Ice and Lightning are all single-target spells, Wind and Earth are all all-enemy spells, Dark and Light have both but Dark's AoE and Holy's ST has somewhat below maximum firepower (compared to the advanced FIL/WE spells) and Holy's AoE is based on your HP instead of MAG. And if you're going to use a ST magic you might as well use the physical-element Ether Mana Burst.
That said, healing spells go off Holy, so if you want to be a healbot (this includes shenanigans like "equip the Healing Wave gem and run around as a Hunter with Audragon as a MAG stick") go for Holy. On the other hand, Dark boosts Meditation.
(...) Custom magic is OP, so we don't need to talk about it.
Huh, now it sounds like only Holy or Dark is worthwhile (from a munchkin powergamer perspective), because the +5% for the other elements just boils down to more damage instead of potential useful utility (and survival). (And I assume with "custom magic" one can create an arbitrarily-powerful damage spell such that your affinity% doesn't even matter. ) Is Meditation some kind of auto-MP regen skill? Haven't really played the game yet, because I got hit with decision paralysis on character creation. (Got Torte and visited the labyrinth, but it's on a quick throwaway playthrough and I plan to restart.)
So, basically, for utility purposes, the other elements don't really have much effects that scale with Affinity %, right? (are there status effect riders [e.g. prone, frozen, burn, paralysis, etc] though, and if yes, do their proc chance scale with Affinity?) All you get from the Blessing is more damage, mostly? And the MC is usually better off going physical instead of magic, is it? Hmm, sounds like I should go Holy or Dark then.
As for playstyle, usually I prefer to go mezzer/control if it's possible, but I usually gradually shift to sweeper/DPS as the game progresses because it's faster and more convenient that way. I generally dislike healbots, though I understand it's usually a dominant strategy in JRPGs. Of course, since the Healing Wave tactic is an autoheal and doesn't even eat actions, I'm sorely tempted to go Holy. Especially since this seems like an old-school-ish Wizardry-inspired RPG, where resource management and "sustain" is important.
Anyhow, thanks for the detailed advice.