Yep! All of everything everyone said is true.
In the late game, archers are actually handy for dealing with enemies that are heavy stander, mages just kind've hold stuff back and maybe chaincast firebolt, as the Magic attack formula drops off in higher levels (a soon to be update will hopefully be fixing this, the same one that adds instant casting), luckily most int magic does hold enemies in place for a little while, and close combat/fighters/lances kick face. Alchemists, due to how their damage scales are... basically useless. WITH THAT SAID!!!!!!!!!
The much talked about instant casting patch will also adjust a lot of alchemy skills to... actually scale. So when that happens not only will alchemy not be entirely useless late game, but a second type of cylinder, a battle cylinder, will come out. This bad boy is a shield and a cylinder at the same time, it gives magic defense and protection, and most importantly you can wield a sword and a cylinder at the same time. You can smash and flame burst without switching weapons. You can also dual wield cylinders to get super alchemy. That patch will also be removing all the specialty ammo from alchemists along with making a lot of their skills more useful. So yeah, that's something to look forward to. It'll be coming in.... September - October if we're lucky.
In three weeks guns will be coming out along with two new crafting skills on top of it. If you'd like to know more about any of these please let me know in game as I'm the guy that obsesses over future content constantly.