Older versions of the game had a basic, single target, version of elemental spells and then a separate spell you had to learn to hit all enemies. That was cool in the 80s, but we strive to at least be in the late 90s when it comes to game quality. So those skills have been merged and all you have to do is hit left or right when targeting an enemy and it'll toggle between single target and multi hit.

In addition, we've made it so equipping certain elemental shards give you resistance to that element as shown below. Since you often get shards in areas where enemies of that same element abound, this should make new shards immediately useful to the area you're at. It also allows for a little more in the way of creating custom builds depending on what kinds of enemies you're going to be facing.