Originally Posted by
Pitkanen
On 2/3rds of the heroic fights a shaman can be as potent as the 2nd best healer on the fight, assuming the healers are being tested by the encounter (aka don't bring 2 extra healers). On 25 man. 25 man has the advantage of melee and the tanks adding up to over 6 players so healing rain is always usable. Plus during raid damage you can almost always chain heal the melee.
In terms of talents. Primal Elementalist on every fight in ToT. The choice between elemental mastery and astral swiftness... at 505ish ilvl elemental mastery, macro'ed to HTT. Use EM again when it comes off CD after using it with HTT. Get 3039 haste.
At some ilvl you'll realized that stacking spirit > 3039 haste > crit >mastery... will leave you with too much mana. Probably 515+ilvl. At that point go to 7613 haste w/ Swiftness talent (30% raid buffed haste).