- Friendly Fire means, that you need to be wary about when and where to use a skill. It is a handicap, there are only few instances, where you would wish for friendly fire, so in general it is a disadvantage.
- The point is, dodge is the only way to counter physicals and there are a lot of ways to solve this issue. Don't think there are many things to handly immunities. I think, there are a few enemies with physical resistance, can't remember properly. So in the end in most fights physical damage has in general no limitations.
- Damage was never the main 'advantage' of enviromental effects, except if you want to blow stuff up (fire/poison). In D:OS1 one they were good make enemies to be more likely to get stunned or set on fire, but as mentioned yourself, this part is mostly eliminated thanks to the armor system.
Overall the combat is heavily balanced against magic damage and in favor of physical, but this is sadly the case since start of EA and got even worse over time.
