For beggining ...
"fire is slowdown-slowdown-slowdown-slowdown
earth is shield def-shield def-shield def-shield def
wind is shield smash-shield smash-shield smash-shield smash "
No! you dont do on all the rounds. Only earth do it. Please don't tell me how hard can it be to train a char ip to lvl 10-12 to get water shield ... Anyway you can use shrink on first mob, shrink on 2nd mob then def , and last 2 turn attack or if you do 4round version shrink first mob shrink 2nd mob then direct hit and direct hit. And don't tell me it's painfull to burst up a water manually till it gets its skills for normal burst...