Ele, like all classes, requires that you are able to “click” with the mechanics and intuitively understand them. The Ele has a rather steep learning curve (really, the attunement-swapping is confusing; I’d suggest binding them to something easier like ctrl-something rather than f1-4), but honestly, once you learn it, it actually becomes a pretty middle-of-the pack class in terms of ease of use.
For example, for the life of me, I can’t get into the “flow” of play for a Thief or Mesmer. I have an easier time with the Guardian and Engineer, for whatever reason.
Conjures are what I would call an Alternate Playstyle for the Elementalist. What I mean is that they open up a whole new way to play the class (much like Mantra Mesmer or Venom Thief or Minion Master Necromancer, regardless of how good/bad these specs are). They are NOT like Kits for the Engineer, which the class was more or less designed around (for the Engineer, non-kit builds are actually the Alternate Playstyle).
For the Elementalist, I would seriously look into trying a build with lots in Arcane and playing around with that. That seems to be where the class is most fluid. In my signature, I list some builds to play around with, and the old bunkery specs are still great fun to play on. They do subpar damage and aren’t meant for speedclearing dungeons, but for general play they’re great! Honestly, the thing I’d focus on right now is putting a lot into Arcane, picking up Elemental Attunement and Renewing Stamina, and seeing where that takes you. Equip Air Sig for running around (it’s great now that it’s a Blind/Stunbreak!), and play around with all the weapons to see what you like (I like D/D a lot for open world roaming and D/F for Dungeons).
Ultimately, what you need to do, with any class, is find how to play the class’ “rythm”. For some classes this is very straightforward (Warrior and Guardian, for instance), hence leading to their popularity. For others, it is completely non-intuitive (Engineer), and for others, many people actually probably NEVER step foot into the class’ mechanic and instead play a more straightforward Alternate playstyle that, while still valid and good, doesn’t really take full use of the class’ mechanics (Greatsword-autoattacking Phantasm Mesmers that never shatter, Elementalists that stay in only one Attunement). I wouldn’t want that to happen, which is why while I still respect that the “meta” builds, as they are so called for the Ele, rely on a rather interesting interaction between camping Water Attunement and spamming 1 on Lightning Hammer, you should know that there is far more to the Elementalist than this, and in your general play and leveling up, you should explore these to experience the class to its fullest!
