You shouldnt ever have to melee anything as elemental, the dmg your gaining by focusing on that is a fraction of what you will do just casting spells. You should always use a shield as elemental, unless you simply couldnt find one yet. Mana is almost *never* an issue for elemental either between water shield and thunderstorm. Most of my shamans dont even have over 10 skill in their current weapon if that tells you anything, and I've done basically everything a boxing ele shaman or a normal ele shaman can do right now between pve and pvp.