We've been raiding together since launch and we had a couple people reroll shaman. With this change, I've been trying to see what the best combination of class spec for hybrid classes are.

Currently, our two shamans are melee dps spec'ed and add some big time damage to our rogue/feral druid/fury warrior group with the +agi totem and the +10% atk power proc.

On the flip side, our shadow priests have quickly become high dps'ers with the versatility to give a group mana/hp back.

So my question is this:

Is it better to have my two shamans healing and have 2 of my priests go shadow or should I just let my priests remain healers while I let my shamans dps to their heart's delight?

To add to tedv's comment, in terms of group buffing to increase raid DPS, also consider asking 1 of your shaman to spec 41/0/20. It's a solid nuking build (at least for now =\) and adds a healthy amount of damage to a casting group. Having been both enh and elem, I know I'm a big hit with the DPSers in either spec.

101 spell dmg, 30 mp5, 3% spell hit, and 3% spell crit is certainly worth considering.

Thanks for the feedback.

My shamans don't care what they spec. They've been asking me "what can I do to improve our overall raid performance" and "I'll spec whatever is needed".

We have a healthy number of holy priests already and I'm just wondering if a priest being shadow will give us more dps than a shaman not being healing spec.

Healing specced Shamans add alot to your raid. Mana-tide is good and all, but mostly because of Chain-Heal. It's simply amazing for most fights (Void Reaver, Hydross to name a few). Also you can throw resto shams in your Tank group for added aggro gen (Windfury/SoE) or suvivability (GoA, Stoneskin), without sacrificing those groups dps.

I try to run with 3 Shamans in my raid always, 1 of each spec, or 2 Reso in place of elemental works well. There is simply no better buff for your melee dps than windfury (or GoA depending on specs, warriors and combat rogues easily benefit more from WF than your druid will from GoA).

Generally assuming your Shamans are active players; one of each spec, and depending on the size of your guild maybe a second of one or two (Resto usually, maybe Elm) is enough in your guild.

Shadowpriests are simply amazing, if you can cut it bring atleast one or two, in your raid always, but I would say no more than 3 max.

About your Priests, even if you have Shamans healing, dont count out your other classes completely; having a well balanced and diverse group of healers can add alot of utility to your raids.

If you're asking if a shadow priest would bring a lot more DPS than an Enhancement shaman, the answer is yes with comparable gear. The answer is yes, but that's not really the point of a shadow priest-- it's providing +200 m/5 to four other party members. That mana directly turns into extra healing or damage, and you can even shift the focus based on raid balance. Low on healing? Move the shadow priest out of the damage group and into the healing group.

Enhancement: One enhancement shaman is truly amazing. They do incredible things to your melee DPS.

Elemental: I've raided with an elemental shaman shaman and he put out some good numbers, although it's unclear if that will still be the case next patch. The 3% hit/crit totem was hardly a make-or-break deal though, and you get all the other totem benefits from a resto shaman, plus mana tide (if you don't have a shadow priest in the group).

Moonkin: No direct experience with this, but there was a thread on this subject earlier. The basic summary was that Moonkin didn't contribute enough damage and 5% crit was not big enough buff to warrant losing a "real" DPS class.

It all depends on your raid setup. If your guild min/max's effectively then thats a definate yes, if (like alot of Alliance guilds, sadly) you think every tank needs their own special little group and the like, then people wont see much effectiveness in them.

That said, both specs of Shaman can put out very respectable dps in their own right. Moonkins I do not have much experiance with, however have heard very good things for buffing groups, not so much in personal dps. We have no druids in our guild with any desire to spec Moonkin; however we have a couple of each type of Shaman.

Elemental is great and can put out very good dps with less gear, but is getting nerfed next patch so longevity may be an issue.

Enhancement has amazing burst potential, but is harder to gear for, however we had one of our Elemental Shamans just respec Enhancement to try it out, using almost all blues and a couple minor Karazhan epics and he nearly kept up very respectable dps last night. Aggro can be an issue at times, but a melee dps who knows how to play shouldn't have a problem with it.
Enhancement will also buff your melee group much more than Elemental will your caster group.

I try to keep 1 of each in our raids always for max buffs. It will increase your dps expodentially with correct group setups.

Did you just use stoneskin and survivability in the same sentence?

@OP, i would advise you to switch one shaman to resto, keeping the best geared as enhancement and if you have the ehalers have both priests go shadow.

shadow priest are the best hybrid by far, there healing and mana regen is insane for any ranged dps group, and assuming you have 2 ranged groups then both will benefit from the SPriest, or a healer group.

Doable? Yes, adds minor survivability.

Unncessary buff? Yes, would be more beneficial to use SoE; or swap out that Shaman for a Resto Druids +healing if thats all he is there for.

ok well you seem to be sticking by your comment, if you want to believe it adds minor survivability fine.

Our raid group is actually finding that often times hybrids are as valuable in the 'off-spec' as they are in the 'raid-spec'. We have an elemental shaman who frequently works healing assignments while buffing a caster group. I would wager that at least half of our priests are now shadow to provide mana to healing druids and holy paladins. We only have two shaman raiding right now and thus don't have an enhancement shaman, but the theory I'm seeing shows substantial group buffs for melee.

I think the real measure of a hybrid right now is not just "what do you bring to the group?" but "can you buff the group while pulling your own weight?". I would wager this is why you aren't seeing moonkin druids and ret pallies discussed; moonkin suffer from significant mana issues that overshadow their group buffs; pallies provide some group buffs (notably refreshing judgements) but the damage they bring to the table doesn't justify not bringing an enhancement shaman to buff a melee group.

Hybrids do reward diversity but also suffer from diminishing returns. You don't need 2 enhancement shaman to provide buffs to one melee group; given their proclivity for pulling aggro, a rogue might be better than the second shaman. You don't need two shadow priests to stack weaving or misery (although a second VT and VE make a large difference in many cases). The gist of my argument is that you should be open-minded about the possibilities but also judicious such that you don't wind up with people with weird specs who aren't really pulling their weight.

We have 3 shaman, two elemental and one restoration.

Enhancement shaman are too often threat capped and we don't need another one running around getting cleaved or something. One of our current elementals was a pretty hardcore enhancement shaman (took decap + smithing) but realized how powerful elemental shaman were and switched. His DPS can be off the charts in some fights.

We also roll with the 1 shadowpriest + 1 elemental shaman + 3 dps caster groups, except we have two of them (ideally, when everyone shows up). It's pretty filthy how good the synergies are.