I have done the Earth Temple three (probably more, I forget) times now with melee characters. None of the times have I scummed stats (in two of them I didn't use herbs) but I did not find it difficult in the least. One thing that has made the Earth Temple extremely easy is playing characters with high speed and low energy costs for attacking like duelists and monks. One of them was an assassin. Having 7LB definitely helps. It's also possible to pre-prepare any area to kite the monsters into (I didn't do this, but it would make things even easier). Using construct slaying ammunition was helpful. When I got really surrounded I threw out a few charges of wand of fireballs. Overall I don't see any problem with the difficulty level for melee. Using arrows and wands wasn't really necessary, and I didn't use them every time. IMO if you're just careful, don't draw too many monsters at a time, and play with a quick character, you should be fine. I still think the Earth Temple is way, way easier than the Mana temple.
If people INSIST on a nerf (which I really don't think is necessary) just lower the speed of the monsters there by 5 points or something, don't let people bypass the difficulty of the level by going up and down the stairs.