Elementalism in Pathfinder Design Philosophy

fire elementalist by ~maddama on deviantART

(note, picture is posted for non-comercial purposes and is drawn by the artist known on Deviant Art as Maddama.)
One of the more interesting things I've done to Elementalism is create a class that doesn't work.  Is a little too much of a channel for the PC to go down a certain path.  This goes against the design philosophy of 3rd Edition at the time.  One guy complained it should have been a prestige class.

However, there was no way to change it.  However, change is slow.  But thanks to Pathfinder, we can rest assured that change is coming that will recreate the class that will fit more in closely with the design philosophies of 3rd edition.  The idea is to facilitate creativity and design while in play, not to strictly have them go down the path.   So, the update will go away from that and follow the trends set forth in Pathfinder so that a PC will have more fun playing an Elementalist.