The Spirit Realm

The issue with survivability doesn't derive from stealing the aggro from your tank on single mobs, for me.

Being a main healer I must at all cost avoid getting hit. If I do get hit, for whatever reason, it will not only be detrimental to my own health but to that of the whole group, sicne you can't reliably heal yourself and the tank while under attack.

There are several scenarios where you can't really help being attacked by mobs. And if this happens in content that is not trivial "for you", then this is where I think Shamans need help still.
The spell casting system doesn't allow much, refresh on spells, higher mob dps, higher chance to stun/bash/kick and all that have changed the game, yet the spells don't cast faster and you don't channel better either. You actually used to be able to negate the spell refresh time, which is not possible anymore.

The gap between tanking classes and us in terms of durability has widened on top of the slow mitigation that cut into our personal survivability in a way that is beyond reason and mobs are designed(in their damage output) to be a challenge for the tanks, rather than the caster.

There are people that argue that you shouldn't get hit in the first place, which imo is bullshit. You will get hit, especially if you are a healer, as you are the person constantly generating hate, that is picked up easily by a roaming mob that will then run for you and just you.

I still believe that many people don't realize the problem yet, because they do not play the game without a safety net(Cleric, Enchanter/Bard, Tank, Slower, DPS, DPS). Those who play primarily healers in their groups and like to explore new zones where not every pull and risk or whatever is known already, probably realize better that Shamans, and imo Druids as well, are not up to par with what is needed for today's healer role, but that different than in the past it's not the healing that is insufficient, but the ability to survive emergencies and exert their role "when the shit hits the fan".

I do have to wonder about you guys saying AG lasts 3 ticks, long enough to save you. The only time I have had it last 3 ticks was the time I tested it after I had pulled 5 or 6 othmirs while farming fur in Cobalt Scar. It ordinarily lasts 2 rounds (not 2 ticks: 2 rounds) when I am being smacked around by a mob that means business.

You will not evade me, Macnair!
You have been summoned!
Macnair is smacked x 4 for 5000 hp.
Macnair quickly casts Ancestral Guard because he is now at half health.

Macnair is smacked x 4 for what would be 5000 hp but it lands for 1250. (Macnair is now at 38 health; AG is used 3750 / 5000. Macnair hears the mob doing a Clint Eastwood imitation: "So what you got to ask yourself, punk, is this: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?")

Macnair has targetted himself and has started casting Yoppa's Mending.

Macnair is smacked x 4 for what would be 5000 hp but it lands for 3750. (AG is used up, 5000 / 5000, and less than 6 seconds have elapsed since the AG key was pressed. Where are my three ticks !?!? Macnair's health is at zero, more or less.) [list]If "more or less" means "less" in this instance, then Macnair is already dead, Yoppa's Mending does not land, and Macnair does not feel lucky.

If Macnair is not already dead, and if none of the mob's hits interrupt Yoppa's, then it lands for 3500 ish, and Macnair is back to 35% health. But he now has low hitpoint aggro plus the aggro from that heal, so he will almost certainly take one more round, and the mitigation from AG is all used up. Macnair does not feel lucky.

Now maybe it will be that my group saves me at this point: the tank succeeds in peeling the mob right then, and the ranger drops a heal on me. If that happens, then I do feel very lucky.

Notice, though. There isn't any 3 ticks of mitigation. Press the key as quick as you can after getting summoned: 2 rounds of melee, one tick, and AG is all used up.