The general consensus now is that dancing between attunements frequently is the way to play an elementalist. Focusing on only one or two attunements is not viable because an elementalist must utilize all his skills to be on par with other professions. This appears quite accurate a verdict given the state of elementalists currently.
The question is: why must constant attunement swapping be the only viable play for an elementalist in the first place? The impression I get after trying an elementalist is that every elementalist who is not absolutely terrible runs the same build: that of a versatile attunement swapping. Of course there are variations; there are different utility skills and traits (to a certain extent) to choose from, hence introducing some diversity. But essentially every elementalist is required to play the attunement swapping style (and have lots of skills) in order to even begin to touch the other professions in effectiveness.
I think that this is the only viable way of playing an elementalist is a major factor contributing to the problem that many people find the elementalist too weak whereas a small group of top players find them balanced. Swapping attunements according to situation and utilizing all skills are very difficult and can be achieved only by the best. What if builds concentrating on one or two attunements are viable? Then less skilled players actually have an alternative to playing the elementalist, since these builds are presumably much simpler.
A build focusing on one or two attunements will lack the diversity of a build that utilizes all four of them. Thus it would be largely correct to say that these kinds of builds are not as strong as the attunement swapping builds used by elementalists right now. Yet speccing into these focused build should yield enough benefits such that they are still competitive, but with less potential reward than attunement swapping builds. For example, a fire-focused build could be oriented around strong aoe damage. It would have more damage potential than the meta attunement swapping build, but lack the other advantages like support, mobility and survivability, hence being viable but not as effective as the meta build. A water-focused build could boast stronger healing and support abilities (chill and vulnerability), but again lacking others such that it is slightly under the attunement swapping build in effectivenss.
If we look at other professions, we see that most have a diversity of builds like this. Take the warrior. Weapons like axe are considered more potent, more viable than the greatsword. This does not mean that the greatsword is unplayable. Lots of average players enjoy the 100b frenzy combo, which works up until a certain level of play. To bring this playstyle to the highest competition of this game (tpvp) requires a highly skilled warrior, precisely because, while the 100b-frenzy build is viable, it is essentially less effective than the axe in damage dealing. The elementalist could be designed in the same way. Focusing on one attunement is viable on more casual play up until a certain point, where it would largely be rendered inferior unless a very good player can bring it to the level of the meta attunement swapping build. This would eliminate the ongoing problem because the top players would still be able to play the highly demanding attunemet dancing playstyle and reap the greatest rewards, while average players could opt to focus on less attunements and relinquish some of the elementalist’s potential in return for easier control without giving up too much viability.
Indeed, it is possible that the Devs had this vision in mind when they first designed the elementalist, the reason being that there are a lot of traits that are attunement specific and promote staying in a certain attunement for a relatively long time.
To achieve this the elementalist would need to be looked into again. Attunement specific traits need to be strengthened so that staying in an attunement becomes feasible, but somehow it must be ensured that doing so would lose a lot of the advantages of being completely versatile such that the versatile build with the highest skill requirement still reaps the greatest rewards.
I thank those who take the time to read this post and please feel free to give your opinions on this analysis of the elementalist.
(edited by Zamotr.2106)