Shockerz

I'm a 70 Draenei Shaman 41/0/21 elemental raid spec. I'm almost at 375 leatherworking and getting my netherstrike set. My guild is currently working on Magtheridon so getting my tier 4 pieces is simply a matter of time. However after magtheridon i have a few concerns about my raid spot.

Primary concern- as of right now im pretty high up on the damage meter. Generally top 5 in any encounter. Say what you will about that, it does vary but generally i'm putting out some good numbers. While everyone else in my guild is getting very significant improvements from tier 4 and other random boss drops from raiding the amount of gear specified to an elemental shaman is next to non existant. Correct me if i'm wrong but after searching wowhead for all the drops from ssc and tk and hyjal I only see 2 items (outside tier5) i would even consider getting.

One of those is a almost sideways upgrade from more dps to better mana returns. Tier 5 in and of itself offers a shaman over the capped amount of +hit (which opens the idea of dropping +hit talents and getting more+ healing from resto talents) and leaves alot to be left desired in terms of +spell crit. Also the 2 pc set bonus is directly tied to an elemental shaman healing.

Now i completely understand the utility a shaman offers in a raid, including the fact that I am a hybrid who can and should be healing from time to time. However if there is a situation where i need to be spot healing instead of dps'ing or interweaving heals i firmly believe something else is wrong with that attempt at the encounter and the healers arent doing very well. Most fights my raid leaders are telling the healers not to spot heal dps they can take care of themselves (gruul/mulgar/mag )

Is there anyhope of blizzard reworking thier position on Elemental shamans role in a raid? Do many highly progressed guilds even bother with an elemental shaman?
As everyone else increases thier dps and scales with encounters are shaman left lacking?

I'm just looking for some feedback from shaman from raid leaders and other dps classes and so on. I've come to find these forums one of my favorite places to visit and make it a daily necessity to read alot of the new threads. I would appreciate anything you folks have to offer.

 

Hamilburg

Read [Shaman] Just how bad is the 2.1 Elemental Focus nerf

In particular pos 257 by Ezareth (on the last page).
It's been discussed - we just have to wait and see what Blizzard throws us.