Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Dinosaur View Post
You seem very concerned with damage and a certain specific kind of campaign to the exclusion of the sphere's utility and more general applications. The damage is mostly there for specialists and those who took the Dual Sphere feat to augment their elemental damage.
I did pretty much fully explain the reason why the damage parts of the sphere aren't good - it's because Destruction sphere is better at that, hitting touch and...well, doing more damage, and having some disable. The notable exception is Fire Wielder.