Quote Originally Posted by 'Fursphere',index.php?page=Thread&postID=157662#po st157662
...and without tremor totems down, one good fear bomb will likely destroy you.

Shaman may not be DPS king/queens anymore, but the utility they provide more than makes up for it IMO. And Hunters are getting the nerf-bat.
My healer shaman can supply the tremor totem just fine :-) (DPS crew = moonkin + 2 elemental shaman)

Edit: And also, I only PvE - I don't PvP.

The reason I used the hunters as an example is because hunters don't require a support debuffer (spell dmg taken) in the same way that shaman does (they do however require different specs). Hunters are getting nerfed, but I'll bet you 10.000 gold that they'll be doing damage at least on par with moonkin. Hunters also have utility spells (through their pets) that rival that of the elemental shaman.

One note that needs to be made is that in terms of PvE shaman do well enough. Even though their dps is sub-par, they still do enough damage to farm heroics, which is pretty much what I'm looking for. Once I'm decked out with my current crew I'll be looking for new challenges and replacing an elemental-shaman with a mage and trying out 3xhunter for heroics is on the project list :-)

Lastly, the changes to LB and Lava burst might put the shaman dps back up where it belongs (on par with other hybrid specs), we'll have to wait and see I guess.