Totems to use in groups

[seeth07 1]

I thought I would start this thread up to help inform you shamans out there about which totems to use when while grouping for instances.  I have my theories of which totem sets are best to keep down in certain group make ups but I'm sure there will be a discussion to follow that goes against what I'm about to list and thus why I wanted to start this thread.  So here we go....

Water totem - I ALWAYS drop mana spring.  The tiny hot from healing stream just isn't worth it.  You have chain heal to heal your melee dps taking any sort of aoe damage.  There are some instances where your poison cleansing and disease cleansing totem are useful.

Fire - There are no totems that are worth keeping up full time (with one exception that I'll cover later under air).  Searing totem on a boss encounter can push a little extra damage if needed (although usually not even worth doing).  Fire nova can help when AOE is needed.  There are a couple bosses with frost damage that you could argue the use of the frost resist totem.

Earth - I ALWAYS drop strength of earth.  Tremor is required on certain encounters that have fear/charm/sleep.  Earthbind can be a saver to allow you/your tank to kite in an emergency situation.

Air - I'm sure this is where arguments will come into play because you have two very good air totems.  This is what I personally do: If there is a hunter and no other melee in the group besides the tank, I drop grace of air and give the tank flametongue totem.  All other instances, I drop windfury.  Grounding totem is used on occasion to prevent such spells as a silence.

Keep in mind that this isn't a guide for totems to use while raiding.  There are other totems in your arsenal that are situational and really help benefit the group your in while raiding.

[gotmilk0112 10]

Grounding Totem makes Emp a joke. He uses an ability that does like 1500 damage and stuns, but Grounding Totem will absorb it. If you time the totem CD correctly, you can absorb almost every single one he does.

[Egregious 1]

The answer is always use the totem that fits the group. If the tank is squishy, I drop Stoneskin. A lot of melee, SoE. If I'm fine on mana, Healing Stream. If not, Mana Spring. Granted I keep Mana Spring down nearly 99% of the time. On average your totem lineup is going to look like SoE, Searing Totem, Mana Spring and Windfury. Searing Totem is also incredibly helpful for aggro snap. If a boss resets its aggro table, keep a Searing Totem down near it. This way the totem will grab aggro over a DoT or another player giving the tank time to adjust.

[Timergu 0]

Just dont break cc with fire totems. 

Interesting idea using agi and flametongue totem. I hadnt thought about that.