You can break through almost anyone's magic armor as an elementalist within the first turn in mid to late Act 1 and still have enough AP to CC them depending on your build. That's pretty much parity with everyone else. Your burst damage also exceeds or is the same as everyone else.
On anything more than the typical low magic armored melee unit? Is this another strictly Lone Wolf plan? Because it sure as hell
doesn't happen at level 8 in a four person group even on Classic. You start with a total of 4 AP, 5 if you're an Elf. You aren't going to be CCing anything, let alone breaking the magic armor of most units at that point on your first turn.
Glass Cannon? Adrenaline? Flesh Sacrifice? Most things do not have more than 3k magic armor pre-18 for a fact and you know what? You can possibly chew through 3k with a single crit, otherwise it'll take you two spells.
Dive -> Pawn -> Flesh -> Nova -> Adrenaline -> Ray -> Medusa. Total AP used 4. Total damage exceeds 4k.
Dive -> Pawn -> Flesh -> Nova -> Searing Daggers/Fireball
Total AP used 3. Total damage exceeds 3k.
At level 8? Flesh -> Fireball -> Pawn -> Nova -> Adrenaline -> Searing Daggers -> Medusa. Total damage will be around 290, 340ish if you pre-cast Medusa. If you're on a glass cannon character you can squeeze in Ignite and Combustion for around 85~.
So yeah, regardless, you have a guaranteed CC. You could also just charm the target too. Most things under level 8 don't exceed 300 magic armor. Alexander is one of the few.
I feel like you haven't ran through the game with an 'elemental first and make this as best as I can' mind set to see what the curve and experience is like.
