(((PVE)))) My Goal...is that one day, the Elementalist will feel powerful! I don't mind being super squishy if I'm out-DPSing the unsquishy classes. But even if I'm doing everything skillfully--playing piano just right--it's just not worth bringing the Elementalist anywhere. It's a lot of work to play the piano, and the pay off isn't greater than...say, having a jade Mech beat the hell out of everything while you sip tea or whatever.
(People love support tempest but that's not quite what I'm talking about.)
99% of the time, I feel like I'm a liability if I bring Elementalist to ANYTHING compared to if I bring, say, a Scourge. Firebrand. I guess just anything else.
Currently, while Elementalist is my favorite class, I only play it once in a while to goof around at low stakes content.