I think we can all agree that Totems are the iconic Shaman trait and no one wants to see them marginalized. However, looking forward to Cataclysm, I feel that that is exactly what'll happen. Now that raid buffs are further spread out and equalized (a good thing), it isn't hard to imagine a scenario where a Shaman doesn't bother to drop anything but a Fire Totem for DPS since other totem buffs are disadvantaged vs what the other classes offer.

I know all these have been brought up 1000 times in the past, but its worth repeating 1001 since they really are some of the important mechanic issues facing Shaman:

1. Totem range. Others can provide these buffs to 100yrds, which immediately invalidates the use of the 30yrd totem. This is important because on mobile fights or in large scale PvP, its very easy to find yourself out of totem range, especially if you are a ranged player relying on an Enhancement Shaman for buffs or melee relying on elemental or Resto for your buff. Also, because the UI doesn't support it, its difficult to realize if you are in or out of totem range.

2. Totem buffs and utility should not be exclusive. If the Shaman has to drop Earthbind or Grounding , the raid shouldn't lose out on SoE or Windfury. Every other class can provide their versions of these buffs with no loss in utility since most of them are applied passiively or out of combat. This also puts us at an immediate disadvantage in PvP where other classes can easily maintain these major buffs and we cannot. The change to Fire Nova is a brilliant model for this. Earthbind, Grounding, Tremor, Mana Tide, Elementals, ect could be activated from any totem of their respective element. These "active" abilities would also ensure that totem range stays relevant if the passive effects are increased to 100yrds.

3. Totem Health. I'm not sure why Totemic vigor is so deep in the Enhancement tree since it is something every spec could really use. Dispels are being changed to make them less trivial to remove, Totems deserve similar protections from being destroyed.

I think that Shaman and Paladin have been impacted most by buff homogenization. Buffs were our "thing". The difference is that Paladin spells have been adjusted to keep up with the new raid environment. Hand Spells ensured that Paladins didn't have to choose between buffs and utility. Blessings have been consolidated and had their duration increased to match what other classes would bring. Similar adjustments is all totems need to remain relevant and I don't believe any of it would be difficult to implement since all the functionality already exist in other areas of the game.

We're fine with totem health given how easy totems are to replace. We also think it's fine to have to (sometimes) choose between a buff totem and a non-buff totem given how many different things a shaman can do.

However, we are going to increase buff totem range (and possibly other totem range) and we have figured out a way to make Searing Totem attack your target, instead of a random and probably inappropriate target.