At the same time, though, when I started multiboxing we had Xzin's voice via PTR shaman that having classes with cast-time spells was a weakness in PvP due to facing. Also, I recall Xzin mentioning the lack of "true" aoe was another weakness (though I mildly disagree with nova/magma).

This was another reason why warlocks took off and mage groups didn't when paired with a priest. BC brought much higher health pools that didn't scale as well as a warlock dot-driveby, plus there were no real videos advocating the power of the mage/priest combo post-BC (Hopefully Suvega can rectify this).

Both mages and shaman have to face their targets, which honestly is a weakness with all of the aoe fears. Xzin's solution was to scare them away with aoe and use WoTF+pvp trink, whereas the shaman solution, tremor totem, was considered a poor game mechanic due to the pulse system, which Ellay proved could be mitigated by stagger.

With the "retiring" of Bradster, the rise of the shaman was heralded with a sudden drop in the availability of warlock videos. In fact, you can see Bradster's "I'm moving to EQ2" message on Oct 10, RIGHT before Ellay came out with his arena PvP video.

Coincidence? I think not.