There is one build on the elementalist that is currently meta, and good enough for tournament plays. (http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Tempest_-_D/F_Aura_Share) As a elementalist main who plays an offensive type Tempest, let me give my analysis on why this build appeared, and why it is bad in the long term, especially when considering the vitality of the other weapon sets. I can identify three causes of behind that shift;
1. The new Diamond Skin.
2. The synergy between Focus and Earth Magic.
3. Tempest Grandmasters
About Diamond Skin
The old analysis on Diamond Skin, and before the release of HoT was the existence of a certain perfect health pool, thoughness, and healing power to maintain the 90% threshold. The best scenario was close to 14500 health. This amount of health was easier to maintain with a mix of healing power and thoughness due to the limited healing scaling. Essentially, that was it for trait.
Then came Tempest with Elemental Bastion, a very potent source of healing + a source of Frost Aura, and finally, Hardy Conduit which essentially gives an additional 7% damage reduction. This caused the Diamond Skin to be much easily maintained, and was nerfed as a result.
The new diamond skin, is another thing completely. The threshold of 75% is much easier to play with. It gives 3349 health to play with (when the 13395 health pool is achieved with Cleric + Soldier Runes). Of course, the condition resistance is way less radical than the previous iteration of the trait, but it is very beneficial to the same old Thoughness + Healing Power + Low Health combo. This is why Diamond Skin is still quite good, and is still used. Though, it is no longer useful on builds that used Diamond Skin without water (with the exception of Focus, part 2).
The synergy between Focus and Earth Magic.
There is, without a doubt, only one weapon on the elementalist kitten nal that is good: the focus. Everyone was caught in surprise to see quality of life buffs given to focus on last patch (Fire Aura cooldown reduced by half; Gale cooldown reduction and unblockable). With the elementalist current state, and the over-performance of the focus will ultimately play against the class’ build diversity. Unless changes are given, every balance decisions regarding the traits and utilities will need to have the focus in mind. Focus currently offers the quickest and most reliable from of condition clear of the whole class. Additionally, it grants an invulnerability skill and offers the longest projectile protection from any other weapons.
Earth Magic’s traits location are also very favorable to the Focus. On the adept tier (1. Auto armor of Earth, 2. Bleed duration, 3. Protection on Aura), on the master tier (1. Thoughness conversion to condition, 2. Stability when swapping, 3. 33% cooldown reduction to earth + 33% condition duration reduction to movement). So, Elemental Shielding, protection on aura + Geomancer’s Training, cooldown reduction, are always picked because the cooldown of the Focus are extremely valuable, and so is the protection on aura. Both of these traits are build defining. Elemental Shielding and Geomancer’s Training need to be both at the same tier, Master Tier. Without this change, Focus will always be dominant compared to the other weapons.
Elemental Bastion and Offensive Traits on Tempest
Tempest does not offer an offensive grandmaster trait. You have a warhorn trait, which I heard is decent, and you have Elemental Bastion. The third one, Lucid Singularity, is more of a defensive trait, except when considering that anti-movement conditions can block the overload’s damage. Another thing to consider is that Elemental Bastion can be used on an offensive-oriented Tempest build to replace the class’ requirement for sustain like Evasive Arcana. So technically, an offensive grandmaster trait for Tempest cannot be “Deal extra damage…”
To conclude, elementalist is fine. But, this is only because of the over-tuned Focus, and on a healer only role. The rest is struggling, and it is not pretty to watch.