As it stands, I'm convinced that the best strategy is going to involve having a party of 4 Mages, for reasons already discussed. Environmental effects and CC are currently very OP, particularly against melee classes who end up in the thick of it, and usually have to move through it before they can do anything.
I disagree. Mages are very good in offense, but they lack in defense. They are killed very quickly without any highly-armored tank protecting them. Also archers have the best variability and flexibility.
The best party is imo one that consists of one tank, one archer and two mages. Pretty much the same like it was in DOS1.
I do agree though that the scope of many environmental (surface) spells should be more limited and cover less space.
