I'm an lv 59 shaman, and right now i'm talneted out 39 points into elemental and 11 points into enchancement.
#1 Is Elemental spec good for pvp?
One combo will say it all -
Elemental Mastery + Chain Lightning = 3 crit hits (which for me is around 1150-800-600 damage) followed my a shock, and then when a group gets closer fire nova totem(2 sec casting time is key) And i'm also an engineer :) and goblin sapper them for another 500-750 damage. PvP is all about the burst damage u can do, and then surviveablity after.
But i disagree about it being weaker than enchantment/restoration for PvE. Being a shaman i think your job is more of a DD than anything else, and being able to chain lightning, or do AE damage (which is very important as u get higher lvl) will be more effective in a party situation. Grabbing just 3 mobs that arn't attacking the mage when he's aoeing does help.
I've found there's only a few talents in enchancement that improve your damage; most are totem improvements(a waste) or defensive abilities (good for solo).
The only enchancement i've picked up is Shield block, improved crit and able to wield 2 handed ax's and maces. I've found that windfury to be the best proc, and it negates flurry sometimes.
So your damage out put with your weapon will not be to much lowered by not having enchancement abilities, but the damage output from the talents in the elemental tree will add more damage than anythign in enchancement.
But Enchantment/restoration is probably the best solo talents.
The poster above me answered question number 2 for me.
He was also right about clear casting, it's worht the 1 talnet point, but it really is just a bonus, nothing u can count on.
The only 2 points i've really wasted in the elemental tree is anything to totems except Fire Nova, and Maybe magma totem (20% mana reduction from 2 talent points for this skill is nice, almsot makes it mana effecent too)
All the 3 talent line for the shock spells is well worth it. The 3 talent line for elemental mastery is also worth it. And Also the chain lightning damage increase and lighting casting spell reduction is nice.
When clear casting goes off casting chain lightning as the next spell will do the most damage, and also be a quick cast too.
I've tried a heavy enchantment build, and thought stormstrike was a joke, only skill that i really missed from that line was the improved ground totem(the best wind totem) and the added defensive skills. Tried an balance of all 3 builds, and just ended up respecing to specialize, balance is not the way to go until your higher lvl.
I guess in the end it means this : Elemental = Offensive, Enchanemnt = Offensive/defensive, Restoration = Defensive.
I think i went alittle off subject.. But there's couple of answers