As others have said, I really like the IDEA of the spec - combo party. The feel is there and as an ele main, it would provide another type of playstyle - slow but impactful hits. But it has missed the mark.
So after reading here and playing a bunch I think 4 changes should be made outside of better oomph/faster casting (easy post-beta fixes imo)
1) skill 3 needs to be much longer (~12s). Right now, the frantic swapping feels too much like weaver with core attunement CD. Unlike what I saw some people say with the perma orb upkeep, I think Grand Finale should stay. The scaling needs to be increased and the range of the orbs needs to change with the earth/water attunements (or earth/water should be 600 range). Having perma buffs like others suggested basically turns it into a passive that needs button presses every so often - a wasted weapon slot.
2) as has been said, swap utilities and F5 and make the fields true wells (or call it something else if chrono runes are too scary). We have stationary wells on necro and chrono that do not feel bad to use, would keep the boon support idea as well as not wasting the art and importantly FIELDS. Keep the jade sphere/projection idea even and call them Jade Sphere Fire/Water/Air/Earth. The heal skill is fine, just make it so it works in any CATA well (or go full ham and make it work in ANY well for the lolz). Rework the elite to freeze the energy (more in a moment) where it is and give a boon (25 might and fury in fire, alac in water, quickness in air and aegis in earth) on a 30s CD. F5 (Just called Augment or Jade Sphere Augment) now empowers wells for more dmg/condis/more boons using the 30 energy pool and rev mechanics (50% cap ooc and pips in combat with down pips per well enhanced). If it feels bad, make the F5 cause the wells to persist while you have energy. If it is overtuned, change the energy cap or pip cost. Or keep the same buffs (15% dmg/unblockable in fire, shatter in water, endurance in air and dmg mitigation in earth) if you want to change from well boosting.
3) make the hammer have finishers to combo off wells. Whirls, 20% projectile on autos, projectile on Grande Finale (why it should stay). It seems anet wants this to be a combo class - make it combo like all the other weapons.
4) more survivable than just cele buffing with mid trait. As it is, it is hard to keep that 20% modifier since stacks have their own 15s timer (I was hoping they would be like the willbender and top line stacks with new ones refreshing duration) - not sure exactly how still, maybe move/combine traits. I will think about this more and edit my post.
