You all have some really great points.

I am attracted to having a healer and maybe even a priest. But then I might as well have a warrior in place of my paladin while I'm at it.

I did try leveling with healer but the healer seemed to be sitting around not doing much, before level 20. A Rest Shaman could at least help out with the DPS. It was not till BRD that healing became a major issue. All instances before that were very doable by my group.

One thing for sure, from all of your comments, I've been missing out not having a dedicated healer. I have leveled to 60 with my Paladin+Mage group and the Paladin has really taken a beating trying to hear during fights. A dedicated healer would certainly allow the fights to be longer in my favor and I definitely will go that way. I'm leaning towards the 3 x Ele Shaman and 1 Rest Shaman as a dedicator healer who can still contribute to DPS.

And yes, once I hit Black Rock Depths, I soon realized something was wrong. Those level 51 dwarves where killing my group at 56 when taking on two or more. Apparently a Paladin+Mage group can not do heroics lacking the healing component. I guess there's a reason groups have dedicated healers. Took me this long to realize. And it won't come to anyone's surprise what happened when my 56 and later 60 group tried out Stratholme, lots of graveyard visits.

I think the PALADIN+3 ELEM SHAMAN + REST SHAMAN is probably the best choice for me. Being able to resist fear, being able to take damage cloth+leather+mail, being able to rez, having some dedicated healing all make a lot of sense for me.

No PVP for me I'm afraid. I have been running all five on one machine without a problem. Linux with five desktops which saves some video card power. But only keyclone works and can be a little buggy. Sound only works for one of the accounts and not the rest. So I'll try out windows XP.

OK
Anyone have more to say about RET PALADIN+3 ELEM SHAMAN + REST SHAMAN composition?

Since this combination is widely covered, I will not start a thread about this choice.

Now I understand why NOBODY is talking about a PALADIN+ 4 MAGES.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!!