I have noticed that the Parsing for DPS have put elementalists much lower on the chart than every other primary weapon doing DPS. When I spoke to a group of players who have played since the onset of the game, they said “Drop that as your main. You will never get the DPS you need for top end. Switch to AR or Hammer or Pistols”. I really like the Elementalist play and I have tried almost every weapon and build combo with it and with an IP of 1100, I am still far behind all other DPS even when they are at IP 950 or so. Do I really have to abandon Elementalist and do something else to participate in endgame content?
It really depends how good you are with Elemental. I would say that if your doing 10-15x your IP in DPS then you will hold your ground fine in any endgame content. But if your unable to do that then you will be more of a hindrance in fights that have a DPS check. I am no expert on Elemental but to take another weapon that often gets a bad rep for DPS for example “Blade” I mained blade all the way up to 1630 IP and was always able to maintain good DPS. Will you ever out DPS an equally geared hammer or AR user probably not but If you are able to maintain 10-15x your IP in damage you will be able to complete almost all endgame content. (Aside from very high levels of Occult Defense which is an entirely different beast)