Having finished the game now, I can say that almost every fight I had ended in the area being covered in cursed flames. I only had one Pyromancer, Lohse, who also used necromancy and geomancy. Oil and poison surfaces were only used for the explosion-damage, and helped spread more fire. Electrified water, which was my go-to-surface in the first Game, was almost never used by enemies or me and, at those times, was quickly "overwritten" by fire.
Together with enemies' abundant use of teleport-abilities, as well as the armor system, this caused me to almost completly neglect this beloved mechanic of the first game. Here, it's just something that happens, not something I actively tried to achieve.
