Proff.X
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I disagree; ranged assassins are very poorly designed due to the penalty for shooting, resulting in them dealing only a quarter of the damage they should. When I tried to play with them at the beginning of the game, it still came down to pressing "Ctrl" and engaging in melee combat, otherwise the losses are simply terrible. Hunters are better in this regard; they can only do one thing, and they do it better than assassins.
Well, they are becoming more like support units that apply debuffs, and the main damage comes from Fury units. Still, it seems better to debuff with poison using ranged attacks than to expose an already small army to unnecessary risk.
Chaos is good at the beginning of the game, summoning is good at the end. Dark Elves are excellent summoners due to their high magic skill. Summoning consumes a lot of mana. Elementals cost ~15 mana (I don't remember the exact numbers), and a phoenix costs 20-something. But firstly, the specific skills from the sorcery skill tree, which are so easily obtained by necromancers, significantly reduce this number. Secondly, not every battle requires frequent use of summoning spells; it is quite possible that summoning a phoenix and elementals once will be enough, even if the battle is difficult. In general, I am a supporter of this school.
As far as I remember, fire elementals are ranged units? How is their initiative? And if a neutral creature has a choice between an elemental and any other native unit of the hero, will it prefer the simple units?