The Collaborative Elf Guide

Preface
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So, I'm not sure how long this guide will be useful. There's an elf rework in the making, but I initially planned to hold off until the new rework was implemented (me thinking in early December). Here we are in the first third of January. It could be days. It could be months. I don't really know. I blame Nom. I might write a guide following the rework - that will be preceded by another 15 minute straw poll, hopefully also having unanimous votes totaling 2.

Additionally, this wouldn't be collaborative with one writer. @Sprae wanted to help. @Salty_Ivan also offered, and Sprae feigned emotional damage when I took up Ivan on his offer first, so both are writing. @Kashyyyk also jokingly offered to write about defense, but I took him up on that offer anyways. I'd like to thank each of them; this guide wouldn't be nearly as awesome comprehensive without their contributions.

Without further ado..

Prerequisites: Knowledge of Elf's tools (found on Wiki). A little experience helps too.

Offense​

Spoiler: 915's Perspective

Tools:

Sword - Primarily, I use this for shielding against projectiles and fending off ninjas (there will be many). I find it invaluable to enable hitboxes (F3+B).

Pure Element - If you find yourself against a tank, use this. It'll leave a mark. I really only use it on recovery or when there's a full flagroom (rare for use even then).

Earth Element - If you are about to enter the flagroom and there are many assassins, shoot the flag with this as you steal. You will probably kill a few. This is also useful if you know there is an invisible ninja, but you will probably get cited for spam in a match.

Wind Element - Best getaway tool. Also useful to shoot flag before dropping in (ex: Moria V). If you shoot the block under someone, you can deal massive fall damage. If you shoot the ground and you see particles, there is an enemy nearby (usually an invisible ninja).

Water Element - If you need more armor in a flagroom, charge up and shoot yourself just before going in. You will get 6 seconds of Resistance I. Make them count. Also, if you catch on fire near a pyro, charge this up and wait for the pyro to get within striking distance. Then you can extinguish yourself and melee fight the pyro more safely.​

Stealing the flag:

One primary goal is to enter and exit with as many remaining arrows as humanly possible (and don't spam all on the way out either; you still have a map to cross). The biggest help here is timing and stealth. If you can enter when there are the fewest possible defenders, you stand the best chances of succeeding. You can't stay in there long either, elf armor is akin to Kleenex.

So, here's how I deal with defenders, as the flag is most assuredly, probably, likely not empty. If there is a dwarf, pure element it to death (you have to try this; great fun). Ninjas? Be quicker or kill them with your sword. Assassin? Block. Pyro? Extinguish yourself and/or hit it away from you long enough to steal (same principle applies to other classes too). Mage? Shield, unshielding when you think it will use lightning. Medic? Reflect webs. Flagshooting archer? Shield. Engineer guarding exit? Take an alternate exit or time your shield to the arrows. For the other classes, just dodge them long enough to steal. It's most effective, however, to just be quick about stealing and to avoid fights.

Getting out? If you can, take the hardest exit for defenders to follow (simple logic). If that is a no-go for whatever reason, it's probably most effective to wind straight through them. Then they're all behind you. If you are on fire when you leave and if you can, extinguish yourself to prevent fire ticks from slowing you. Alternatively, get Fire Resistance from a generous chemist.
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Getting across the map with the flag:

Congrats! You made it out! Now you have to reach your flagroom without dying, and you can practically watch the pearls fly in F5.

Psst. Take the sponge. Especially if it takes you across the map (Aurora or Skyworlds, for example). Even use a wind element just after the sponge ends to give yourself that extra distance over the recovery that takes it. Make yourself hard to follow - climb walls, fly over structures, etc. If you can, gain altitude; it's your friend (example: top of Blackout). If there are ninjas waiting or too many, you can drop down and reflect pearls. As an added bonus, many ninjas jump off the structures as they pearl down, so if you reflect the pearl, they take fall damage, get teleported back, and then lose 2 more hearts. Usually it's suicide.

If you continuously give yourself a boost forwards with the wind element (requires constant 180s or 360s), that is on par with a speed boost. Fun fact: you can wind element with only 1 arrow. If you're buffed, you are about as fast as a running ninja (Speed I + wind element -> Speed II) with that technique.

F5 is a fantastic invention. If you see a ninja pearling to you, you can reflect the pearl, setting the ninja back 2 hearts, while they gain no ground on you. You can also reflect archer arrows and mage spells - if it's a projectile, it can be reflected. Block if you see an assassin coming up behind, or alternatively, go somewhere they can't reach you and carry on.

I advise typing /md midair or mid-sponge - just anyway it won't slow you down.
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Stalemate:

Darn. You couldn't be so lucky as to have an empty flagroom when you return from your trek across the map. Get yourself a medic. Those pesky ninjas are on their way; the rest of recovery is following them. Now, get to the most impossible-to-reach spot you can find. The tops of trees work nicely (example: trees in the flagroom of Celestial Gardens), as does bouncing on a sponge. Block with your sword for assassins if you're on the ground. Always be looking around for archers and pearling ninjas. If tankier classes come barreling in, dodge them and pure element them if you can. You can actively check for ninjas with the wind element. If you detect one, you can use the earth element to damage them and pressure them to go visible, but be careful you don't get warned for earth spam.

Competitive scene: you should probably pass the flag to something with a little more armor. First, check for ninjas with the wind element; don't want to lose that flag. When you're certain everything is clear, pass and shield the recipient to prevent pearls from landing on the flag.
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Miscellaneous Tips:

Unless there are archers actively shooting or ninjas pearling, do not pick up a passed flag with your shield active. That lightning will also destroy the shield.

You do not need to fully charge the pure element on the first shot to get a combo started.

Likewise, when it works, you do not need to fully charge the water element to extinguish yourself.

You can wind element with one arrow.

Plan your route ahead of time. Having a backup is also a good idea.​

Spoiler: Salty_Ivan's Perspective

Melee PvP:

One of the first things I noticed when I started learning Elf was how easy it is to combo with it. I don't know what it is, but it feels as if Elf deals less knockback and has the vanilla "hit cooldown" reduced or something. Either way, it's very easy to combo someone compared to other classes. Combined with the Wind Element, it's quite easy to take out classes without a lot of armor (Archer, Engineer, a bad Soldier, etc). When fighting, keep an eye on your health as elf is quite squishy. You always have wind element to end a possible combo from the enemy, or if you are very low. I would not recommend staying in very close fights for very long against armored classes are they can be a pain to take out without wind element.

Pure Element - Pure Element is best used against heavily armoured classes, as mentioned above. Chaining a couple shots on a single target takes practice, however, if you can shoot from a safe distance into a large crowd (best bet would be enemy defence), you have a high chance of landing some kills or dealing massive damage. A perfect example of this would be shooting from the ledge on Martian Outpost I onto possible dwarves and pyros in the enemy flag room. You can always wind out or down and out if someone comes after you.

Wind Element (bow) - Gala uses this efficiently but I honestly have no idea how to use it other than to launch archers standing on a roof...

Wind Boosting - One of the most essential skills as elf is definitely wind boosting. If you boost perfectly and frequently, you can keep up with a ninja that isn’t pearling for a very short period of time. A single boost launches you 2 blocks I think, 3 blocks if timed mid-jump.

Water & Earth Elements - I use this only for ****s and giggles, it’s a waste of arrows imo and they don’t work half the time (water does if you charge it enough, but that gives the pyro time to kill you, or you could get really lucky but I never am).​

Capping as Elf:

Elf can be one of the hardest classes to cap with when first trying it out. You’ll find yourself running out of arrows and steak very easily. However, once wind boosting and shielding is mastered, you don’t really need anything else. When approaching the enemy base, take a route that either is obscure or has lots of teammates. Even a single ninja can completely ruin an attempt as you get drained of health pretty easily. When entering, you want to choose an entrance that is very close to the flag post when you enter. Wind boosts can help you get to the flag post very quickly, sometimes before the defense can react. Note that you can change your direction of motion VERY quickly with wind. This can be used to dodge attacks and reach the flag. Takes lots of practice.

When stealing, you want to get in and out as fast as possible, of course. Time it so you don’t stand for very long trying to steal. Boost away from the flag post to gain momentum, and ideally you should be already moving away from the pole when you steal. Get out asap, through any means but minimizing damage loss. This goes with capping as every class: you NEED alternate routes and have to be able to switch from one to another quickly.

Once you are out of reach from the slow classes like pyro and heavy, you should get onto an elevated structure or onto a path that is hard to get on with the average class (heavy, medic, etc.) Ninjas deal quite a lot of damage to you, so doing this not only saves your health but potentially forces them to pearl to get to you (-2 hearts).

A highly recommended alternative is using a sponge. When your motion stops in midair, boost off to one side. You gain a lot of horizontal distance in the air from this, saving you health, arrows, etc.

Now that you are hopefully crossing the map, be alert of ninjas and archers. If you see a pearl coming to you in F5, try to deflect it, even if you have to backtrack a bit (if it was thrown high in the air). Deflecting pearls sets back the ninja 2 hearts, ensures they stay still or teleport backwards for the duration of the pearl, and lets you get a couple blocks’ distance. Always know your options. A good capping route is one where you can change your route really quickly. As previously mentioned, you can quickly change your direction of motion by boosting. Use this to turn corners quickly and change your route. A good example is on Large Hall I (op elf map), where you have multiple levels and good routes on every level. It doesn’t take too many arrows to change course quickly.

If you are low on health and have ninjas on your tail, sometimes sitting there and keeping the shield active can be your best bet. If you don’t put it up and they get to you, you’re pretty much toast anyways. If you deflect their pearl, you may stand a chance. Eggs are good to deflect too as it gives them slowness. You can always wind up to buy yourself some time, but beware that this drains arrows quickly. Try to get onto a ledge asap.

If you are low on arrows, (0-3), you should probably use them all and continue boosting. As 915 stated, you can boost when you have 1 arrow, and it drains only the one. This means you can boost twice as often, once every 2 or so seconds. This is a significant increase in speed which can hopefully get you to safety before a possible ninja catches up again.​

Spoiler: Sprae's Perspective

Items:

Sword – Like Ivan said, something about the whole wood sword pvp just feels a lot better to pvp with, and the only thing this is important for is reflecting projectiles (shift +block) and killing ninjas.

Wind Element – aka the only fun, good, and useful ability the difference between a bad, decent, sub-par, good, and 915 tier elf. Use it for boosts, flying, juking, avoiding fall damage, and annoying the hell out of the enemy team.

Earth Element – I don’t tend to use this one much on offense at all, mainly in stalemates and trying to help my team recov, but it’s very used and I often forget that the damage dealt is somewhat useful in terms of killing assassins/ninjas.

Pure Element – This is pretty situational, best used for killing dwarves, heavies, and sometimes the worst of them all, randies. And I usually don’t have enough time to land multiple shots, however if you land one shot, then land a fully charged second shot and quickly hit them with your sword, then sometimes people will quickdrop because they are caught off guard and didn’t steak fast enough.

Water Element – Tbh I rarely use this element, mostly in dropdown flagrooms that have pyros (blackout, moria), I charge my bow and use it as a drop in to extinguish the fire. There usually isn’t much time to put yourself out if you are on fire and running, and this is also decent for supporting your team as they go into the flagroom.​

Stealing:

You always want to get to the flag with at least 8+ arrows. In a perfect world you would have 14-16 every time. Less is fine, it would just require some more pvp and reflecting. When running to the enemy flagroom, avoid ninjas at all costs. Heavies, soldiers, medics, and chemists can be easily pathed around, but if there isn’t really an optimal way to avoid one of them, one of my favorite things to do is run up to them like you are about to fight and do 2 quick wind elements to run right through them. (For tips on dealing with each class, check what 915 said).

Almost all flagrooms can be dealt with in with about 8 arrows. Try to time your entrance when the enemies are distracted are don’t see you. Elf has probably the quickest mobility in terms of 1-5 block distances so one or two wind elements can get you from the flag room entrance to the flag post. As soon as you steal you would want to preferably look to go out the way you came in, since your back is facing that way so you wouldn’t have to 180. In tiny flagrooms, many people will swarm you when they see you have the flag, and one good way to shake them is to fly in and steal the flag then use a wind to escape and when you see people behind you and a couple in front of you, if you quickly spam 2-3 wind elements to go in the direction of the people behind you it will often juke them out for a split second allowing you to distance yourself from them out of hit range.
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Getting back to your flag:

At this point you will most likely have several people chasing after you, as well as pearls, eggs, and arrows to watch out for. Your best friends are F5 and sponges. You almost always want to be in F5 most of the way back with the flag. Using multiple arrows to get to a good sponge is always worth it.

You always want to try to take paths that are harder for less mobile classes like heavies, medics, chemists, and pyros to reach to limit the amount of things that can hit you. Elf’s mobility is best used when climbing diagonally upwards or across big gaps, and is often what gives you that extra bit of distance from their recov and the distance to easily react against ninja pearls. Climbing diagonally upwards has to do with getting to higher ground away from the classes previously mentioned and is a lot more efficient and faster than either walking up that way or using your wind element straight in the air, and big gaps (top mid to structure in front of flag on blackout, Canadian fort river, Beaver Creek river, etc.) is self-explanatory. When you fly up to a structure, ninjas will often pearl directly at you or near you, so using your shield for a bit to block 1 pearl is often the difference between life and death.

Juking! This is a very important part in elf capping as avoids players which means less damage and worries. You will have to experiment with which types of tricks you like to do and when to do them but one of my favorites is on platform, using your wind element to go middle and take the sponge to mid, but purposely missing and quickly using 1-2 wind elements to go to the next sponge. It also works when you have people chasing you and you are about to jump down some place (jumping from blackout structures). As soon as you jump, your enemies chasing you will most likely jump with you and right as you do, use your wind element to get back on the previous platform you were just on and look for an alternate route.

Using 180 or 360 boosts is really important in elf capping, as it can give an extra 1-4 block distance between you and the person chasing you. This is often used when running across an open distance that is mainly flat ground with not much structures to fly up to or run around and it is just quickly turning around to face the person chasing you, using your wind, and then quickly turning back around to run forwards again.​

Stalemate:

Don’t be too upset about losing these, as elf is arguably the worst class to hold the flag in a stalemate with. Your best bet is to alternate between high and low ground so ninjas cannot combo you out so easily. You need to have a good medic at your side ready to kill ninjas and web other classes, because fighting multiple ninjas is a rough job as you get 3 shot, even 2 shot (buffs/crits) by ninjas. Flying straight up to buy yourself some time and allow for your team to kill the ninjas under you is also a good strategy. You want to always be alert and can’t take a second off of the screen because you will die to a ninja and your team will look at you like wtf dude, it was just ONE ninja. Earth elementing the ground can also help you to kill ninjas near you, but you want to try to avoid stale mates as much as you can, or look to pass off to a heavy or soldier.​

TIPS N TRICKS:

Always hold down togglesprint when you are using your wind element, and try to get your 180 time to be as fast as possible so you can turn around, wind, then quickly snap back forwards and continue your sprint.

When being chased and jumping off of something to lower ground, it’s almost always worth it to use an arrow up and diagonally as it will propel you forwards and help you reach the ground before the person behind you does so you can continue your sprint first in addition with the little boost.

Much like soldiers do, wind elementing the ground to fly a couple blocks in the air is useful when trying to kill a ninja 1v1 or when you are stalling for a medic to come and help.

When trying to cross big distances if you do several 180s, repeatedly looking back and forth while in mid-air to get the toggle sprint off, it can help you save a wind element or two in the end as opposed to just putting your back to the ledge and wind elementing the whole way facing backwards.​

Pvping ninjas on the ground, they will often egg you in a cycle if they get a hit or two on you, so try to be prepared and use a quick shield to reflect the egg back on them, throwing them off guard and making them a lot easier to kill.​

TLDR: Wind smartly, be conservative, take sponges, f5, path smartly, follow tips ^^

Defense​

Spoiler: 915's Perspective

Items:

In defense, items are not that differently used from offense, but I think it will be helpful to show defense-specific uses.

Sword - Much like offense, this is primarily used for dealing damage to opponents. There won't be as much use for the shield here, unless a mage is stealing, in which case freezing them would be invaluable. It might also come in handy for flagshooting archers. Also useful for the chemist that likes harmful potions (potspammers beware).

Pure Element - This is useful for annihilating the health bar of any class, but especially tankier classes that usually successfully steal, like heavy or medic.

Earth Element - Ever needed to stop an opponent so the defense could catch up? Use this element. Climbing soldier? Carrier has lots of support? Flying elf even? Charge up this bad boy and let that arrow fly. Also useful for stopping ninja caps (beware of spam restrictions) and assassins looking to clear the flagroom.

Wind Element - I use this to catch up to a flag carrier and to get in front of them, enabling me to hit them back to the defense. Only way to follow soldiers. The projectile finds particularly great use here; you can knock just about anyone into the void (example: Blackout). Use this and all but soldiers/ninjas/elves are goners. You can also wind element the flag to knock someone away before they have the chance to steal.

Water Element - In the rare case you are dealing with an offensive pyro, this will help you. If there is a large group of offensive players incoming, it may be helpful to give them a splash of Resistance I before all chaos breaks loose.
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Guarding the flag:

<to be continued..>​

<Other perspectives coming soon(tm)>

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Thanks! I was building suspense