If your only around 200, do you have the Militia Off hand tool? or any off hand tool for that matter. Those items are now considered equipment, and they have a very large impact on your crafting stats. They are no longer an option piece of equipment if you plan to craft higher level items.

I have only seen 1 synth actually light up w/ an element on it. Probably because I don't use the "brand" skill line. The time I did notice it however, an effect actually showed up on the crafting table, or my hammer, I can't remember which. It glowed firery red, which im presuming ment that the brand of fire would have then worked correct. I would think you can tell if a recipe is two types of elements based on the crystals/shards you actually need in order to synth that particular synth. Example, Recipie takes 5 water and 6 lighting shards = water/lighting elements possible.