Our guild is trying to figure out how things are going to work in BC. One of the things that's now set in stone, or, clay at least, is that I'm going to be switching my main from my rogue to an enhance shaman.

This presents an issue of blessing count, as there are probably 4 I'd *really* like, but there will likely be 3 pallys at most in some 25 man raids, and 2 or fewer in 10 mans. For healer/caster shaman, it isn't quite as tight a fit (I'm guessing, I dont know), but with enhance melee-buff-bot I'm not sure what to prioritize.

My first guess is, in decreasing importance...

Salvation
Wisdom
Kings
Might

Salvation. With the amount of physical dps, along with shocks, some healing aggro, and (un)lucky windfury crits, salvation really seems to be the most important to me. Whereas a dead rogue's dps = 0, a dead enhance shammy's dps is 0, and his deat will produce up to 20% dps worth of buffs lost off the rogues/warr in the group as well.

Wisdom and Kings. I'm not as sure on this one. On the one hand, with shaman mana efficiency being dismal, wisdom would seem like the clear winner. On the other hand, between judgements and the 41 pt mana-restore talent, perhaps mana will not be as much of an issue, and kings would be more important. I'm guessing mana is going to win out on this one.

Might. Pretty easy to prioritize this one last other than in a completely non-mana-using scenario, in which case it would possibly surpass Kings.

Are there other lines of thinking that I'm missing? Or, if there's another post already on this topic, pls point me that direction and I'll edit this one to read "please SH this post" ;-)

I would argue that Salvation is still the most important in raids not so much for the individual but for the raid. Having a Shaman accidentally pull aggro on a mob enough for it to turn and run towards the casters or use its directional attack on the non-tanks just makes a lot unnecessary work for the rest of the raid. Especially since it is easily buffered against with a single spell cast.

In five man groups, I can see how Wisdom would be more beneficial. Unless the Paladin is tanking. :)

Shaman have absolutely no way of controlling or reducing their DPS aggro short of dying or ceasing action. Give them Salvation first or give them a rez after the fight. Unless aggro just isn't an issue, obviously.

Wisdom might not be necessary. Judgement of Wisdom is going to be the greatest source of Shaman mana regen (something on the order of 200-300 mp5 while attacking). An extra 33/5 is nice but I might prefer Might or Kings for the increased crit (Unleashed Rage), AP (Shamanistic Rage), etc. Blessing of Might alone will boost long-term Shamanistic Rage returns by approximately 20-30 mp5 anyway, and increasing their damage to boot.

I think I'd prioritize order as: Salvation (if aggro is an issue) - Might - Kings/Wisdom.

Your order makes a lot of sense there. I would second Salvation as the most important. Shaman DPS may be low, but it's plenty enough to pull aggro when you consider that we're generating 20% more threat than rogue/warriors and have zero abilities to control it. My shaman is in pretty lousy gear, but I'm already amazed at how much I can spike up the threat meter, particularly if 3-4 windfuries go off in a row.

On the second choice, I'd probably go with wisdom(unless it's been judged, then naturally it falls down the list). Assuming you have salvation already, then you're probably blasting away with mana inefficient shocks, storm strikes and possibly heals. With the whole item value system in place you're going to be lacking on mana and it remains to be seen whether shamanistic rage can sustain you on its own.

Again, it is tought to know what is needed, but salvation is a good bet if Rockbiter (the best sustained dps weapon buff) still creates double aggro.

Kings is second because as a hybrid, Shaman use all their stats, then Might, and lastly Wisdom, since with JoW and Shamanistic rage you may have a bit of mana.

On a somewhat related note, can anyone tell me what the designer's note on http://thottbot.com/?sp=20871 is supposed to mean? I suspect it's somewhat of a hint regarding rockbiter's threat mechanics, but I can't figure out what it means.

Or maybe someone can just peg a threat value to rockbiter for me.

This is pretty much exactly what i was going to say. Judgement of Wisdom dwarfs Blessing of Wisdom for an enhance shaman. BoW is last priority, and because of the lack of an aggro dump and innate aggro reduction, Salvation is the top priority.

If it's a pain in the ass for a Paladin to cast a 5-minute buff on one player a few times on a boss fight, I have a set of 1-2 minute duration totems I'd like to shove into the aforementioned ass.

Only the 15 Min blessings affect every member of the class. Much in the same way that you wouldn't bless your DPS wars and MTs the same way, you wouldn't bless Enh shaman and Ele/Resto shaman the same way, nor would you bless Feral Druids and Resto/Balance druids the same way. Whispercasting the 5 min blessings would probably be the best way to handle the crossover. Paladins are the only class who will be using the same amount of regents to buff the entire raid, more infact since the have an extra class to buff now, which is interesting to note. With a 3 Paladin Setup the general Cross over is probably going to be similar to what it is now, Kings, Might/Wisdom, Salvation/Light. Salvation and Kings are to good to pass up, really. In a three paladin situation, Salvation, Kings, and then a single target might. In a two/one paladin situation, if say one paladin isn't there, or the raid requires some stacking and one had to be left behind, then Salvation, and a single target Might, if possible.

The 5 minute blessing in raids problem is an already a corrected design flaw. Why? Because the situation you describe did really negatively impact the usefulness of blessings/paladins in boss fights. Thanks for the constructive feedback though!

Its not that it was hard, its that it reduced the effectiveness of whatever else your paladins could be doing by spending globals single buffing. Complain about shamans independently and spit your bile elsewhere too, cause the design flaws (corrected, perceived or otherwise) are unrelated.