Why weren't ele shamans more represented at high mythic + keystones in Legion?

[Great Destiny Man]

Cool, I did not know that. Do you know how they nerfed it?

Down from 55% increased Stamina to 25%

[Kralljin]

Isnt that the exact same scenario as boomkins being in bear form?

You shift into bear form.
Big damage hit happens.
You go out of bear form.

Two GCD's, Balance lives, Ele is dead w/o Astral shift.

You could also say that Elemental heals itself to full health before a big hit to survive it, whereas Balance just shifts in and out of bearform to survive it.

Most classes get 1 shot though. Having a combat ress must have SOME value, right? And correct me if I am wrong, but warlocks unending resolve has quite a long cd as well (at least more than 1 min cd), so in theory they would also be a burden on second or third go, right?

No, because they gain a massive absorb shield, on top of that Warlocks have more life than your average caster.
A hit that deals 1Million damage is far more dangerous to a character that has 1,1M max life than to a character with 1,3M+0,3M Absorb shield.

Also, Healthstones, if you're affliction, they're basically LoH for you and you get healed if anyone in your group uses one.
Gone with BfA obviously, but Healthstones itself are still a thing.

About cheat death vs reincarnation: Comparing classes in one area is always a bad idea. Okay, cheat death is better than reincarnation. But do rogues have heroism? Do they have AoE stuns? I hope you see where I am getting at.

And comparing two classes while ignoring setup is folly as well.

Drums exist, which provide BL at a 5% haste malus, Dps that requires a lot of healer attention vs. 5% less Haste during Bl, i think you know which one people choose.
Also, if there's a Mage or Hunter present, Bloodlust has no value for the Shaman.
Second, in Legion a plethora of AoE Stuns existed, Monks, Dh's, Warlocks, Hunters, etc., things get toned down in BfA but AoE stuns also get nerfed, more than a single AoE stuns is hardly neccessary.

You can't come around with utility that multiple classes provide, that's why people tinker over group comp to take the strongest specs while still keeping a lot of utility.
A spec with "a lot" utility is not the same as the "the only one" with utility.

However, when looking at the tools available to ele shamans

This is where your fundamental error lies, you have 3 Dps slots, if you want to bring an Ele, you have to take a spec out of your setup, if however that utility is pretty much present already that Elemental provides, why invite one?
Why not just invite a Rogue who generally does more damage, has better defense and stuff like Shroud of Concealment?

[Cytraz]

Okay, so my conclusions based on your answers are:

Ele shamans have, on paper, a lot of great utility tools: However, other classes also bring these utilities (heroism, aoe stun), and since the other classes are stronger in comparison to ele shamans in departments such as survivability and damage, this is why Eles fall behind.

So basically, it is better to bring 3 different dps classes, where one brings bloodlust, one brings aoe stun, one brings purge/cr/whatever, but who also shine in terms of survivability and damage than to bring a shaman, who might bring all the utility combined by those 3 different classes, but falls behind in terms of survivability and damage in comparison.

[Kalisandra]

Note also that the one type of damage Elemental is really good at - burst AoE, they are actually only good at once every minute. This means about every second trash pull, less if it needs to be saved for particularly nasty ones. What's more, even with Stormkeeper bad RNG can tank DPS, and in BfA there's no damage multiplier so the talent is a lot weaker than the weapon effect.

For example, last night our guild failed to get numbers for a 'last raid with weapons' run, so we did m+ runs instead. I was in a group with an aff lock and a boomkin. Without Stormkeeper most of the time my DPS was under the PAlly tank's on trash packs, while the Lock and Boomy were consistently doing about the same, and way over the tank's DPS. With Stormkeeper I was top DPS, usually, but some pulls the RNG let me down and I was a close 3rd, and on longer fights I dropped back from 1st to 3rd, and likewise if the tank had to move the mobs a lot so I couldn't stack Earthquakes under them.

All in all, Elemental only has awesome DPS in a single situation - Stormkeeper available, 4-6 mob pulls, mobs last long enough for stacking EQs to tick out but not so long the initial boost from Stormkeeper is eaten away, and the fight is static so the EQs are fully effective and the Shaman can stand and cast. Does that sound like a good DPS strength to anyone?

[Socialhealer]

What about elemental shaman heals? If warlock drain life counts for something, then surely elemental healing should also?

have you raided at any decent level?

in a fight like high command a warlock can pull off about 300k hps without actually trying to do that.

for an elemental to pull off 300k hps they would need to constantly weave in healing surges, crippling their dps and probably going oom.

if you cannot see how thats such a fucking monstrous advantage i dunno what to say.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay, so my conclusions based on your answers are:

Ele shamans have, on paper, a lot of great utility tools: However, other classes also bring these utilities (heroism, aoe stun), and since the other classes are stronger in comparison to ele shamans in departments such as survivability and damage, this is why Eles fall behind.

So basically, it is better to bring 3 different dps classes, where one brings bloodlust, one brings aoe stun, one brings purge/cr/whatever, but who also shine in terms of survivability and damage than to bring a shaman, who might bring all the utility combined by those 3 different classes, but falls behind in terms of survivability and damage in comparison.

also elementals aoe is actually really REALLY bad.

in high keys like 25+ demon hunters/windwalkers/fire mages can pull like 30-100 million aoe dps due to their abilities hitting every single target, chain lightning maxes at 5, and EQ cannot pull anywhere near that kind of damage, maybe 10-15million at best.

[krl]

What about elemental shaman heals? If warlock drain life counts for something, then surely elemental healing should also?

There are a few fundamental differences. Healing surge costs mana thus is limited to a few casts. Drain does not. Most of elem damage comes from casts, which go to 0 while you heal yourself. Affli, while a large part of damage comes from dots, even does damage with Drain as part of a DPS rotation.

Healing surge is a recuperation tool, designed to minimize downtime between mobs during questing. Drain is a constant heal ticking all the while you do peak damage *during* damage taken situations.