Shaman talents

The three shaman talent trees roughly mirror the three roles a shaman can play: Elemental (ranged magical damage), Enhancement (melee damage), and Restoration (healing). In short, a shaman can act as mage, priest, or rogue. The two main drawbacks of the class are low mana efficiency (in the two caster roles) and poor aggro management (in the two DPS roles, especially Enhancement). The talent selection process for a shaman is actually quite complex and has started quite a few passionate discussions.

Talent Overview
Things to keep in mind when considering shaman builds:
 * Even without spending talent points, all Shamans can buff their group for many purposes (e.g. a Restoration Shaman can drop Windfury Totem just like as an Enhancement Shaman).
 * By spending talent points, shamans increase the efficiency of these group buffs, and some buffs can be gained only by spending points.

The leveling spec chosen by most shamans is Enhancement. The main advantage when leveling with this build is that it requires next to no downtime. An Enhancement Shaman relies mostly on melee damage, and spends only low amounts of mana during combat, keeping the mana pool as an emergency reserve, and to heal up between combats.

Elemental is typically the tree of choice for PvP shamans who want to deal damage. It's also chosen by many "hybrid" players, because it offers a nice equipment synergy with the Restoration tree. Shamans may consider to give up Totem of Wrath in order to get Nature's Swiftness (shaman ability) from the Restoration tree. Note: As of patch 3.1 Nature's Swiftness shares a cooldown with Elemental Mastery making this talent build far less favorable.

Restoration is the Healing tree, turning shamans into very capable healers for PvE and PvP alike. The Resto tree is also frequently chosen to spend the remaining points of an Elemental or Enhancement build.

Elemental
Elemental is the Shaman's caster DPS spec. It specializes in dealing damage from afar. Some notable talents are Elemental Mastery allowing the shaman to instant cast a damaging spell, and Thunderstorm which is infamous for throwing members of the opposing faction to their death.

Enhancement
This tree offers the ability to dual wield, making Shamans the third highest dual-wielding class in the game in terms of damage output (when it comes to dual wielding), above hunters but below rogues and fury-spec warriors. Highlights include Thundering Strikes and Stormstrike.

Restoration
Restoration leans heavily towards turning the Shaman into a healer. Nature's Swiftness is an extremely useful talent for any build, Mana Tide is of nearly legendary fame, and Earth Shield is a very good 41 point talent. Fully talented Chain Heal is the best multi-target heal in the game.