i dont understand how we can compare a stationary buff that needs to be put down for every fight to a buff that can be applied on the go and remains on the player until purged (which will only be in pvp) or it wears off after 30min. I thought blizzard was try to make shamans totems more useful. It just doesn't make sense. We will just have to wait and see what they do for Shamans in 3.1.

Elemental Shamans in PvP
We are going to implement our Elemental PvP mechanic next build. I'm not sure it will solve every concern you have, but we think it's cool.