@Lohmar
for me it seems you have a big problem that they did a homogenization of the buff system.
it is better for raids that you have more options to get a buff in and it is no excuse anymore that a specific class is low in heal or damage
you may have a problem with this but in my opinion it is a good thing even if it costs a 100% raid slot where you now have to fight for.
totems are in my opinion still the uniqueness of shamans. thats combined with using elemental forces and spirits.
the monk statue may look like a big totem but it is no totem. it is a totally other mechanic. you may have another opinion. but this is my.
we may lost a lot of unique buffs due the buff homogenization but a shaman still brings a lot of buffs to a raid especially enhancer and elemental.
we still have the haste buff. we lost crit buff but got mastery for that. and we still bring heroism to the table. often you see lfm shaman or mage for bloodlust.
are we the winners of the new buff system? no. are we the big loosers? yes if it was important for you to be the only person that brings a specific buff. else no because we still are one of the class with the most buffs.
it is not true that back in "good all time" all totems were situational. we had a skill which put down 4 totems at once for a reason. you always had buff totems down. the only variant was "do I set melee or spell haste and do I have to bringt the earth totem". and after that it was the same totem setup all raid long.
if this means situational for you we have a different meaning of it.
the posin/deseas totem was situational for me. like tremor totem still is. as an example.
and once again I prefer the current system where buff totems are an aura. it was not always possible to have the totem out and it was much easier to "dispell" those buffs that are now not dispellable anymore.
I agree with you that blizzard could do more things with ghostwolf. some more love and inspiration would be nice.
I'm not agains root breaking it is just "druids have it with shapeshift give it us too you made the same thing with our buffs giving away to others" what annoys me.
btw I play elemental shaman so it might be possible that the buff homogenization had a larger impact to enhance or resto to get a raid slot cause of the "unique" buffs no unique anymore.