I just found this on thottbot and I agree with it 100%

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Even before you start crunching statistics, think of the situation and what the totems could do or fail to do. Higher raw dps is not always best in all situations.

I think this item is most useful for medium length fights where higher dps is more useful than high damage-per-mana (ie. 5 man instances and raid trash). Especially when you have time to drink between fights. This is where the statistical analysis will determine which totem to use according to the rest of your gear.

On the short fights (regular quest mobs and most PVP) the proc will probably not trigger early enough to help before the fight is over. Spell damage totem is probably best here since it is boosting every cast.

Long fights (raid bosses) might be better served with increased spell damage so that you get more boom for each cast or reduced-mana-cost totem where you get more casts. Spell haste does no good if you go OOM when the boss is half dead. Spell haste is good at dumping mana and pulling aggro.

I recommend keeping an assortment of totems for different circumstances.

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my shammy team tends to take down trash very quickly and there's a good chance I'd be wasting the spellhaste when it procs near the end of a fight. When I have the badges to spare I might buy em to use on longer boss fights.