Boylston's Quad-box Shaman Rated Battleground Compendium

[Boylston]

Boylston's Quad-box Shaman Rated Battleground Compendium

Introduction
Welcome to a guide dedicated to the 4xElemental Shaman team with a specific emphasis on Rated Battlegrounds. This is intended to be a large, community-driven guide to how to play this team to its maximum effectiveness in Cataclysm. Please take a few moments to read the ground rules before posting, and it is highly encouraged that you read the actual guide in its entirety before posting as well.

Ground Rules
This guide is intended to be very specific. Please stay on-topic as much as possible! Observe the following:

1. Although material in the guide may have broad application to Rated Arena, World PvP, or even PvE, please make every effort to not derail conversation with discussion of other areas. It's OK if a suggestion in the compendium or community discussion "won't work in arena". That's not the point of this guide.
2. This guide is NOT intended to debate which team composition is best for Rated BGs. Please do not derail discussions with comments like, "yeah, but 4xHunters are better for WSG" or "how does this team compare to DK+4xRets?". The point is to provide help to make this specific team composition work most effectively.
3. The guide will try to point out Best Known Methods as well as provide alternative suggestions where there is no clear winner or multiple effective approaches.
4. Try to keep suggestions independent of multiboxing solutions (i.e. ISBoxer vs. Keyclone vs. Hardware, etc) if at all possible.
5. I will try to edit and credit as we evolve and learn how to best play the team in Cataclysm.
6. Many people choose to run a healer or 5th player with this setup. Given the large number of combinations, please restrict feedback to the 4xShaman part.
7. If English is your native language, try to use it correctly. I am not trying to be grammar police, but I would like to be able to cut-and-paste great discussions into the main part of the guide without wholesale re-writing. (Exceptions made for non-native speakers as well as Ualaa, who is free to use stanzas to his heart's content).

Why Elemental Shaman?
Shaman have long been a popular multiboxing class for a variety of reasons. These include good ranged DPS performance, excellent burst capability, ability to heal, defensive options which do not need to be micromanaged (e.g. Totems, Mail Armor+Shields), and overlapping buffs due to the totem mechanic. They can also be easy to set up and play, unlike other classes or multi-class combinations.

Nearly all of the changes to the Shaman class in Cataclysm look like they will be for