by SoD standard (with the patch from the championship)
those who have played (and not just heard about it) will understand why elementals are weak.
there are many changes aimed at more or less balancing the game. I don't want to write too much, but I'll say one thing: phoenixes grow by default (2) and their speed is 17.
the biggest plus of Conflux is probably the immunity of the top tier unit starting from 4 to Armageddon, plus a small bonus for the second unit.
as for the school of magic, I don't know; I've never had such serious problems with magic that I would spend 7000k gold on building a university and studying one school of magic while you can't even buy out your entire army. In my same opinion, only noobs use the university.
by level 10, Earth magic will be available to 90% of the game's heroes upon selection, Air roughly 70%, Water and Fire 50%; after that, this scale will grow, with the exception of Castles/heroes who cannot learn Water/Fire