Overall, the class is fun, but it has a few quirks that detract from how it works.
Summary
Overall, I like the class, and like the flavor it provides.
For a basically free PRC for any dedicated ranged character, it offers some nice tools and niche utility, however I'm not convinced it overcomes the loss of base class abilities for the same progression of simply taking more fighter or ranger and saving a class slot. I can definitely see that taking Acid or Fire means that your ranged character suddenly has a 100% solution to trolls, but electrical and cold don't have a similar "Favored enemy bonus" that I've seen yet (Though I will admit I do not consider myself learned by any appreciable degree on the server mob types).
Elemental Shield in particular seems a bit wonky, since you get only half a benefit regardless of why you activated it.
Elemental Shot, Accurate Shot
I've been mentally comparing Elemental Archer's Elemental Shot and Accurate Shot to Arcane Archer, because, well, they have similar theme, though obviously very different requirements.
Both improve your basic attacks: Elemental by +2 over 5 levels, and AA by 5 over 10 levels. AA is pretty exclusive, needing both spellcasting and racial, so seems pretty reasonable.
A status on hit effect would also help with what appears to be a massive potential difference between fire/acid, and electrical/cold, simply in terms or the server and what those elements mean. it seems like no suprise the fire and acid are stonger simply due to the existence of a substantial troll population, so there is a significant imbalance in the class choices.
Elemental Shield
Elemental Shield, however, is a bit wonky. Given the power level of the server, it offers mutually exclusive bonuses, neither of which are really notable and each of which replicates a first level spell.
If something can't hit you, you will never need to pop Elemental Shield for a +3 shield bonus to AC. (Replicates Shield, albeit for one less and very briefly)
If something can hit you, the +3 seems pretty unlikely to change that for long enough to matter, and the max of 1d4+3 damage really isn't impressive, particularly compared to the chunks of HP you are losing in the process. (DR dosen't even help, since fully blocking the attack means the on-hit effect won't trigger) (Replicates Death Armor, and caps 2 points lower)
As a result, it really doesn't synergize even with itself. It's fairly clearly intended to be based on the spell Elemental Shield (funny that), but functionally acts like a combined [Death Armor] and [Shield] by being less damaging, lacking resistances, having a substantially shorter duration, and negating part of it's own value, in exchange for the stacking* shield bonus and the reusable cooldown.
The cooldown is nice, because it can be used multiple times, but I've found myself struggling to find reason to use it at all, and even with the shorter cooldown at level 5, it seems far too short a duration for the prospective utility it provides. Also, while Elemental Storm activates instantly, Elemental Shield gets stuck on the queue behind any active attacks and round-counters, which makes Elemental Shield even more cumbersome to use given it's particularly short duration.
The result is that it is basically only viable as a reaction to a large horde of creatures where you will foreseeably get attacked a lot at once in melee - which is about the worst place to be for a dedicated ranged character given that the difficulty settings mean you either get hit only on crits andyway and deal plink damage, or are about to take probably lethal damage in attacks with even more of them being crits - and still dealing comparative plink damage; and somehow you need to take them out in mayby 3-5 rounds while provoking a half dozen AoO, with a ranged weapon. Not really ideal.
That said, I think the ability could be made a bit more satisfying by either
1) providing an elemental percentage immunity or resistance of the appropriate type or generally (similar to the spell), making it a valid defensive counter to aligned elemental spells, or
2) change the damage component to use a Body of the Sun format that simply radiates damage once a round to nearby targets, regardless of whether they hit but capping potential damage per target as a result. (As opposed to 1d4+3 times the number of hits that round).
*: the fact that it stacked as a shield bonus, with Shield and shields, seemed weird. Apparently it got scripted as an Untyped bonus?
Elemental Storm
Elemental Storm, though I've had it less to practice with, seems to be pretty handy so far. It offers a nice bit of multitarget burst, and is rolled as a touch attack making it useful even against dodgy single targets - albeit only once every five minutes. The damage seems a bit lackluster, but considering it fires instantly with a very high hit ratio and significant portion of elemental damage I am definitely looking forwards to seeing it work with the Improved Elemental Storm feat. Definitely a satisfying ability to have and use on sudden gangs of monsters.
