Originally Posted by
Grognard
First off, to the last statement there, Shammies do, to an extent, in that they only get one fire totem active at once - Magma or Searing; Enhance gets shafted on that even more, since they have to ST up to Maelstrom5 to Chain Lightning and have to use a ST ability to spread Flame Shock. Fury AoE, from what I've seen in half-assedly leveling mine, is, too, in that they have to WW to ramp up RB's cleave potential.
Now, with the changes to the talent system, talents can be shuffled almost constantly; Holy Prism, self-targeted, is perfectly adequate for trash and otherwise consistent AoE need. For bosses (in LFR; I typically don't have the opportunity to swap in 5-mans), I do change to ES for most fights. I will give you potential gear disparity, but in LFR and 5-mans, I've been soundly out-DPSed once, I believe, by a mage, across both heavy AoE and single-target; other than that, I've only seen steady competition as with that monk, a Blood DK and an Ele Sham in 5-mans, and a fellow Ret in LFR.
I will also give you that my experience is not in true prime content; hoping to rectify that as soon as possible. But I refuse to believe that we are as gimped as you seem to be suggesting in the face of what I have personally seen thus far. I was actually tanking an heroic the other day and got a Ret, a Fury, and a Fire Mage for DPS; every single pull, the Ret was top - AoE, ST. And he was comparably geared to the mage; warrior was fresh 90, I think. Could just be a case of a bad mage, sure, but I would rather choose to believe in the potential of the Retribution spec in the hands of a capable, and competent player than think that all the DPS I've seen in LFR and heroics is just that bad.
...Though I will admit, that is just as feasible.
EDIT: Want to go ahead and apologize for anything in that last paragraph that someone might take offense to; it was not my intention in any way to potentially insinuate that anyone here is bad. Was in a rush as class was ending and wanted to go ahead and get that post up before I left.