A lot of good reviews and changes in this thread.
I have 6000+ ele games in pvp. I have played off and on since Beta. Did all D/D , D/F, Staff. Mostly Core and Tempest. Weaver is cool not really for me since I play mostly Staff/Marauder for fun now. Never really liked scepter or sword. I really want a Long Range DPS Mage. You know, that could kill like a Longbow Ranger or Hammer Rev from across the map.
The only viable option I've had some success on is a D/F Arcane/Water/Catalyst build with Sage and Dwayna runes. So basically a Heal/aura/boon bot.
F5 charges too slow to even be remotely useful and by the time its up the fights over or has moved off point. This skill as is would be most likely just be thrown on down bodies. The New heal skill is super weak and F5 needs to Follow you or you be able to pull the well to your new location. Remove the energy requirement, I would like to summon a field on my own call and not when ArenaNet thinks I've been in combat long enough to deserve one. Another Idea would be to have the F5 Follow your target creating a well underneath them for a duration that will follow them around. This would require the enemy to have to react and move from teammates and be a walking combo field for your teammates to attack. There are a ton of ideas in this thread that could be great, just do something.
Hammer is neat. No one wanted it, whos idea was this? Fire them. Sorry, just The community has been asking for a long range weapon for a long time, as staff is just not up to par compared to other ranged dps classes . I was hoping for maybe the range of hammer rev with some cool abilities and damage to boot.. What we got was a wet noodle with a meatball taped on the end with a range that every class has an insta teleport for. Please read these other response in this thread about all the hammer problems. It's just a blah weapon and design. rework recommended. Long range is my vote.
Utility skills like other have said, feel underwhelming. There is no reason to pick them over older/core ones. Augments not worth especially with F5 never being available. So why choose an Augment that I won't even get to see the second part of? The Heal is mediocre same as the Elite Skill. Neat idea for the Elite would be to have it summon a giant meteor based on your attunement that did different effects on impact. So if you hit your elite skill in Fire, you summon a giant meteor of fire/molten rock to smash on your target for damage + field, or if you do it in water you get a giant water ball that you can smash on your allies for a heal + field. Earth could be a giant rock that knocks down foes ( you could steal this animation from Hammer rev)+ field, Air could be a giant lightning bolt that stuns or pulses blinds + field.
So overall, I would not pick this elite to play as it stands now. There is no way to justify losing what you gain from the other Elite specs. My recommendation is to Rework hammer to long range, utilities, and Elite skill. Just tweaking the numbers is not going to save this unless you make it 1 shot people.