Earth Elemental has some use in PVE, and Water Elemental in PVP, but in general, the elites are worse than regular utility skills.
I use the Sylvari racial ‘Take Root’ – I find it far more effective than any of the Ele elites.
I agree, people keep saying racials are useless but I miss this elite skill in pvp. When I get into trouble, I swap to water, hit this skill, and with the 3 secs of invul gives me time to regen most of my hps, plus the turrets often take a lot of the aggro off me.