I don't know what blizzard is doing anymore, from what I can see Balance Druid will be far superior then shaman at 80 in a pve build.
PvE Elemental Shaman talent build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=hEh0qsdetMxst0xxco
PvE Balance Druid talent build http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=0xG0uicsIdIVh0uZbxcub
Whats funny is the druid balance tree has so much good in it I wish I had more points to hand out where elemental didn't really have much to offer for pve.
Druids gain all these passive abilities and affects with this kind of build for conserving mana:
Moonglow 3/3 9% mana cost reduction
Dreamstate 3/3 regenerate mana equal to 10% of intellect every five seconds
Moonkin Form 1/1 Chance on critical spell to regenerate 2% of total mana
Intensity Allows 3/3 30% of mana to continue regenerating while casting
Omen of Clarity 1/1 Chance on spell hit to make next spell free
Shamans Gain much less mana management abilities and usualy for more points
Convection 5/5 10% mana cost reduction
Elemental Focus 1/1 When you crit next 2 spell's cost reduced by 40%
Unrelenting Storm 5/5 regenerate mana equal to 10% of intellect every five seconds
Shamanistic Focus 1/1 Reduce mana cost of shock spells by 45%
Ok lets compare, druids get 1% less mana reduction for a 3 point talent compared to our 5 point talent. For mana regen while casting druids get to keep 30% of mana regen from spirit which we dont get and there 10% intellect converted to mana regen while casting is just like ours except theirs is 3/3 ours is 5/5. Moonkin Form offers a chance to regain 2% of total mana which is only a chance on crit but throw in omen of clarity and I think they beat out our Elemental Focus. We do get 45% reduction to shocks but that affects only shocks and really it needed to be this way for us to be any where near viable in expansion with our Lava Burst Flame Shock rotation.
Now if you look at the balance tree again you can also see the tree is cluttered with damage increasing talents everywhere as well as haste and caste reduction. Increase spell power by 12%, increase damage by starfire moonfire and wrath by 10%, 15% of spirit to spell power, gain 20% more spell power for star fire and 10% more for wrath... these are the passive affects, not the procs and extra abilities...
For elemental shaman we get 5% extra damage with all of our spells. an extra 6% with lava burst, 24% more damage with Lava Burst crits, and 50% more damage from flame shock dot... we do have a interesting proc from lightning overload, and a free 450ish spell power from flame tongue weapon and Totem of wrath, but it doesn't seem to me that we will scale well at all.
Lightning Bolt has got to be one of the worst scaling spells at this moment and with a lack of talents to help it scale properly I don't think elemental has a chance of comparing to others in pve dps.
Yes I know shaman is a hybrid but guess what druid is a hybrid too and it seems they will have every thing they need to produce proper damage and compare to the raw dps classes.
I will admit I don't even play right now I am on my break but I am not stupid based on what I have looked up blizzard really has no clue what they want to do with elemental shaman at this point. Just looking at the trees I can see shaman is way behind.
I really miss playing this game but it just seems to me I fell in love with the wrong class cause it at this point is just getting the shaft.
(might be a qq post whatevers)