In my current state of Alt-itis, I was thinkign of rolling a PS. But I keep hearing how bad they are in PvP, and worse off in C5. Would clans activly invite one in, or should Summoners be avoided right now?
And in mass PvP/seiges, are PS's effective? Offensively? Defensively?
PS are "just ok" now--less helpful than nukers, archers, and buffers (the base classes for a seige) but often a little more useful than the "pretty weak" classes like tanks.
In C5, they'll pretty much be the bottom of the seige totem pole. Probably still more useful than Warlords (against foes that don't bunch up) and Bounty Hunters (doing anything), but basically less useful than any of the others.
If seiging is important to you, C5 is not the chronicle to play a Phantom Summoner.
Also, not to dissuade you from rolling alts, but if you want to be effective in sieges and clan wars you really will have to get some character to the higher lvls.
Otherwise you will be very dissapointed to watch all your hp's vanish in one single attack as the enemy runs over your body to the next target.
In large scale PVP summoners are an excellent healer and that's not likely to change in C5 even with Erase and the variious nerfs. Nightshade is an excelent PVP healer and it has made me popular with tank groups for raiding and archers for sieging.