Shaman class feedback

Because I can’t resist a good survey, and this time it’s Blizzard doing the asking.

What type of content do you focus on? [PvE/PvP/Both]
PvE

If PvE, what type of PvE? [Heroics/Raids/Other]
25man raiding as a healer

What are your biggest quality-of-life issues? (For instance, no longer requiring ammo could be considered a quality-of-life improvement for hunters.)
At the moment, my biggest quality of life issue is the fragility of Water Shield. It’s fine that Resto Shaman are so very dependent upon Water Shield for mana regen, but I feel like I spend too much time maintaining my Water Shield when I could be healing instead. It’s annoying that the damage wave that comes immediately after the pull on the Beth’tilac and Alysrazor fights knocks off Water Shield, forcing me to spend a GCD at that early, everyone-at-low-health moment to refresh it. It’s even more annoying to have to spend every fourth or fifth cast during the incredibly healing-intensive scorpion phases of Majordomo Staghelm or second phase of Beth’tilac on putting my Water Shield back up instead of casting a healing spell.
Perhaps some numbers would be helpful: When my guild was in the Firelands this week, I cast Water Shield four times during the Shannox fight, three times during the Rhyolith fight, three times during the Alysrazor fight, and I didn’t need to refresh Water Shield at all during the Baleroc fight. In contrast, I had to refresh Water Shield ten times during my guild’s Majordomo Staghelm kill, and I refreshed it fourteen times during our Beth’tilac kill. Three, four, maybe even five refreshes of Water Shield per boss fight is manageable, but I think that ten or more is excessive.
I’d love to see some talent/glyph changes to Water Shield for Resto Shaman to bring it more in line with the way Lightning Shield works for Elemental Shaman.

What makes playing your class more fun?
In general, spells that are both useful and interesting. Riptide, Healing Rain, Telluric Currents, Unleash Elements, Spirit Link Totem, and Spiritwalker’s Grace all changed the healing playstyle by adding more variety and power without making my job more complicated than I could manage. Lava Burst made questing/doing dailies more fun because mobs started to die a lot faster once I was able to learn that spell.

What makes playing your class less fun?
As mentioned above, having to refresh Water Shield too often. Having to remember to re-drop Healing Stream Totem after I’ve used Mana Tide Totem, or Wrath of Air Totem after I’ve used Spirit Link Totem. Boss encounters that require the raid to be too widely spread out for Chain Heal or Healing Rain to be very effective.

How do you feel about your “rotation”? (Rotation is the accepted order in which abilities are used to maximum efficiency.)
Healing isn’t a rotation as such, but I like the way things are working at the moment pretty well. I enjoy the synergy of Healing Rain and Chain Heal. I like using Unleash Elements to put a small heal on a DPS so that I can power up my next big heal for the tank, or using UE on the tank himself, to give a bit of breathing room while I spool up that big heal. I try to use Riptide as soon after my Power Aura that it’s off CD pops up as I can, but I usually deliberately avoid using Chain Heal on my Riptide targets so as to avoid consuming it. Keeping Tidal Waves up and getting as many of the HOT ticks as I can is more important to me than getting the boost on my CH.

What’s on your wish list for your class?
Something to help Water Shield continue to provide good mana return without having to put it back up every fourth cast during extremely healing-intensive encounters or encounter phases.
To have the healing from Healing Stream Totem benefit the whole raid, not just my own party of five.
A “Mass Water Walking” spell that applies Water Walking to an entire party or raid. If this was done for Shaman, Mages and Priests should be given “Mass Slow Fall” and “Mass Levitation”. They’d still want the single-target versions for situations where only one person needs to be targeted, such as setting off Magma Traps in the Firelands!Ragnaros encounter, though.

What spells do you use the least?
All totems that are NOT Stoneskin, Flametongue, Healing Stream, Wrath of Air, Mana Tide, Spirit Link, Stoneclaw, Searing, Magma, or Fire Elemental. I can’t remember the last time I used Frost Shock.