The Spirit Realm

It is all about balance. Shaman can squeeze into many roles and that makes them more valuable. Our cures really are amazing, and I personally think that's where shaman shine.

IMHO, panther is what has "made" shaman. Before when you had more than 2-3 shaman at the raid, they sat on their asses bouncing dots off the mobs..

Ayes, Shaman can be used for quite a few roles now days ... there are the buffers, curers, Rampage tank healing, Off Tank healing, Spam healer for main tank, Group healer, Melee DPS enhancement (panther, champion, Epic), Pure DPS (might sound strange, but we have used Shaman on DPS for Yar'lir, Vule, Vishimitar, Sendaii, and the DPS shaman often have 4-8 DoTs running, etc), Tanking (have been in positions where I have had to pick up Tanking for Vishy Drakes, or Jelvan Rampage, etc) ....

We may not specialise in any one particular area, but can cover some areas adequately to change the outcome of an encounter ...

Tek

The shaman bloat you observed in high end guild rosters is probably decieving. If you look at Gale of Destruction's roster you'll see 16 shaman (10% of our guild). However, only 5 of those are actual players. The other 11 are bots that don't actually raid with us very often. There are only one or two bots that are even geared well enough to participate.

I don't really look around at the other guilds rosters of shaman, but I know my old guild rarely had more than 2 on at any given time since PoP, even when we had 9 on the roster, and its down to 2.5 on their roster now. Burnout is a killer.

Shammies have lots of roles on raids.

1) Healing battery. We cycle mana very quickly. Greater Rabid Bear + Spirit Channelling is a great way to cycle HPs to Healing. (only do this in situations where your not at high risk of getting nailed with a nasty AoE, but in situations where the MT is holding most of the damage. GRB + SC + canni your tail off is great.)
2) Patch healer. Our fast heal is very efficient with IH/CH.
3) Group Healer. Epic Clicky+AAid+SS, 3 ways to HoT, 2 of them mana free. Shammies can HoT/patch while cleric focus on CHs. (You can also be a back up "Keep a HoT on the MT" person, while clerics focus on their healing rotation)
4) 3 types of dots. Got lots of mana, healing is under control...throw some dps on the mob.
5) Panther, Panther, Panther... the best group for shammies is 1) MT, 2) DPS and/or pet class, 3) DPS and/or pet class, 4) DPS and/or pet class, 5) Cleric, 6) you. Thats alot of cheap, aggro free dps.
6) LS is nice buff on MTs for hate generation.
7) Our buffs/MGBs are desirable.
8) In a pinch, when you have nothing better to do, you can be dps too. Dots+Pet+AADogs+Panther+GRB, spank that thing down. (Try getting panther on as many AA dogs as you can before charging in, for some extra fun). This is particularly good for strats that need burst dps.
9) Yea and don't forget we can slow and debuff.
10) We're flexible and can change roles based on different raid strats.

I doubt there are too many other classes that have that much to offer.

I almost forgot. Remove Greater Curse and Blood of Nadox/AA Group Cure.