Well, quite honestly, if you consider spamming flare all the time to be an effective elementalist, I think you need to take another look at what you're doing. A flare spammer is the worst thing to base how an elementalist works off of.

Flare spamming does less damage than one Conjure spell + your wand.
No class should be played via mindless spamming, though every class could be. Rather than ask for a less spamy class, perhaps you should think about switching up what skills you're using instead. Spamming is always less effective than paying attention to what's happening, choosing your skills wise, and knowing when and when not to use those skills. Even a class such as elementalist, which at first glance would seem to need to constantly be casting to be effective, beneifts from
not casting at selective times. Know what to do, when to do it, and when not to do it, and you'll find that no class is just mindless spam.