The last time I raided 25m was the beginning of T13. I raided 25m exclusively prior to that (or at least since the distinction was made in WotLK)
The differences between 10m and 25m always seem to be a hot topic in this game, even more so recently with the announcement of Thunderforge itemization. My opinion is that the main difference lies in the distribution of responsibility. 10m places more responsibility on the individual raider. When, for example, a mechanic ignores tanks and heals, the chance a dps will have to deal with it on any given attempt is at least 3 times higher in a 10m raid. In contrast, the burden of responsibility on the guild/raid leadership is greater in 25m. This isn't limited to the often mentioned logistical problems inherent in organizing and maintaining a 25m roster; CD rotations, add management, and strategies in general become more complicated when managing more than twice the number of raiders.
I must confess, I rolled shaman in ICC because Chain Heal looked cool...
In the past 7 years I've raided on a Priest (Holy in vanilla, Shadow since BC), a Warlock, a Warrior (both ass DPS and OT), a Holy Paladin, and MT'd on a Blood DK (LOL AMS!). Outside of endgame, I've played every class/spec in 5mans up to lvl80. Next to my shaman, the only one that comes close for me is my Warrior. I think that's because both classes have high mobility (I often run in circles around bosses in 5mans on my Shaman simply because, well, I can...)
As I see it, Elemental Shaman excel in two areas regarding raid utility:
First, as a hybrid class, we bring strong offheals. This isn't limited to just dropping Healing Tide. Healing Rain and HST can be leveraged, through use of talents and glyphs, to provide strong healing and dmg mitigation to a raid. In the current tier, we're the strongest offheal after Shadow Priests (Blood DKs don't count...).
Example:
We two healed H Gara'jal, which required us to rotate which groups were sent down with Heals; sometimes neither healer could go down. When this happened, we used myself or our Spriest to heal the groups to 100%.
Secondly, we are excellent at Interrupts/Dispels. No one can deny the potency of melee interrupts. However, Shaman can provide reliable interrupts on multiple targets, and unlike melee, are not limited by range requirements. For example, I can operate within an interrupt rotation on a target 30+ yards from my dps target; I'd like to see a rogue do that. The same can be said for Purge. While other classes can provide ranged offensive dispels (Priest, Hunter, Mage, etc.), Purge is not limited by resources, has no CD, and can remove two buffs in one GCD when glyphed.
Example:
I was part of both our interrupt rotations, and our dispel rotation for H Spirit Kings (between myself, our Rsham, and our spriest, we could drop the 5 stack shield in 1 global)
Shaman utility obviously isn't limited to those two cases. We have very strong AoE burst (great for adds on H Feng), which will only be stronger in 5.2 if the changes to Chain Lightning/Lava Beam go through. Earth Elements are amazing tools for adds (last lift on H Spine, and more recently the last add phase of H Lei Shi), and can draw fire from tanks/healers in sticky situations. Of course, we bring Bloodlust... but who doesn't these days? What else.... hmm. Oh, free Brez! (although, ideally, it shouldn't have to be used).
For more fun and exciting discussion of the awesome prowess of the elemental shaman, talk to me on Mumble! Seriously... once you get me going on the subject it's hard to shut me up...
I live in Cincinnati. We have an accent??
I assume this is in reference to the stated raid times. If that is the case, then I will never have to miss, or be late to, a raid due to work related issues.
My WeakAuras list could slay dergons all by itself. You should see it in motion...
