1 pally + 4 shaman viable for PVE/P?

[Multibocks]

What niley said.

[Fuzzyboy]

Also, consider what you want to do with your group. For heroics, you don't need the damage debuff and the simplicity might be worth more than 13% damage - at least in the current state of the game. If you're not too sure on your feet, I'd try and keep it simple.

You need to plan for buffs and debuffs if you plan to raid. If you plan to PvP (arena), 4 shaman is a proven and viable combo, 3 shaman and a lock isnt. That's not to say that it isn't viable for arena, but simply that it hasn't been done yet. The best groups for PvE in no particular order (although this is overkill for current content):

1) Mixed group with good synergies - i.e. 5 different classes (it's not as complex as you'd think)
2) DK + 4 shaman
3) Paladin + 3 shaman + lock
4) Paladin + 3 shaman + druid

I've run with both a mixed team, pure shammies (BC), pala + shammies + druid and pala + shammies. For PvE the mixed team was most efficient. There's a lot of EJ-info to keep track of, but other than that, it's not as tricky as most think. Priests are amazing healers for multiboxing - you hardly need to pay attention to them. Although the mixed team is very efficient, I sitll like playing paladin + 4 shammies most :-)