Water. Water is the absolute champ for levels 4-20 if we're talking about solo. You never want a rooted mob that would prevent the 'death march' of a dying mob if you are doing solo work outdoors. Water has a decent DD spell that matches Fire, which is 'meh' but better than Root for making something dead. Water also has the 2nd highest health, just below earth.
For grouping, it's Air elementals all day long, easy. The stun is just snazzy and always appreciated. I guess a case could be made for Earth in how it's constantly rooting and that would help a warrior style tank that has low aggro in Vanilla, assuming that he's the one standing nearest to the target. But Air is the one you could just use by default and everyone will love it.
Quick side note - absolutely no one is going to have access to Focused pets at the server's start, and that's a big deal for the solo magician. Keep in mind that pets can accept armor pieces and wear them, and substantially benefit from the AC. If you have the plat to spare and intend to do a solo camp for hours and are a bit cautious about your pet durability, even Tattered leather armor suits can make a difference.
At higher levels when I would solo certain dungeon camps where reclaiming a pet isn't such a hot idea, I'd cheerfully trash the under 30pp cost of a full set of banded armor (less one bracer) as I had the skill to make it and equip a max summon pet with it to make it far more durable. More than likely I'll do the same again on Green.
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