Here for elementalist skills. I have not seen that specific build (W1Pyro2Ele3FF1Shadow2) before, please try it on itos in the future. Shadow2 is excellent vs Ground enemy and Ground boss. Vs flying boss shadow2 will lose a lot of power.
Many classes have damage skills! QS3 is the most popular archer class, and often combo with falcon3 builds + mergen or bullet1. It is OK. About higher swordsman classes, dragoon/doppel/murmillo/shinobi are more often seen than fencer/matador/lancer at PvE. Cleric and wizard still doing great.
Cleric compared to 2-handed class? Do you mean cleric compared to paladin and monk with two handed mace? Cleric1/2/3 best damage skill is Heal on enemy with Blessing buff. Blessing doubles heal hits. Cleric1/2/3 is magic based, paladin and monk are physical classes.
For AoE dealer I will recommend you pyro, psychokino, or elementalist as early/mid ranks.
Consider Wiz3-elementalist3-Free rank-sage2/shadow2. For free rank you may pick runecaster hidden class or sorcerer1 or another class.
Wizard3 Elementalist3 Runecaster Shadow2 challenge mode stage 5 solo video here
Wizard3 Elementalist3 Sorc1 Shadow2 cm-stage 5 solo video
Wizard3 Elementalist3 (alchemist1) Sage2 Hunting Grounds 340 here
.Some other options (AoE + more crowdcontrol) with pyro and psychokino:
Wiz3 Psychokino3 Runecaster Sage2 CM Stage 5 solo here , at Hunting Grounds 340 here , another at HuntGr340 here
Pyromancer3 Psychokino3 Sage2 Hunt Gr340 here
Pyro2 Kino3 Sorc1 Shadow2 HuntGr340 here
If you need a sage2/shadow2 farming build, try linker2-thauma3-sage2/shadow2 build. Sage2 could take wiz2 as second rank, shadow can take any rank as second rank. Scroll to bottom here to view farming build
Link3-Thaum3-sage1/shadow1 is possible too.
@ihaveangerissues it will depend on your preference. Shadow2 is stronger vs ground targets and ground boss. If you will bring your character to bosses, I will recommend shadow2. If you only have to farm, both shadow2 and link3-shadow1 are viable.
A base of wizard2+link+thaum is already sufficient to farm (~4600 magic attack at HuntGr340) video , a linker3 thauma3 featherfoot1. Shadow1 is similar, you could use shadow conjure x2 after linking + earthquake/magic missile.
On field, your character will aggro max 5 mobs, and inside hunting grounds & dungeons you may aggro 8 mobs max. Bring a pet to increase aggro targets to match 10 target joint penalty.