[quido]

The situation in a raid really depends on who else is there. At a Vox raid I go healer mode and strap on all my lame wisdom gear and patch heal. If you're the only shaman, obviously there's not enough of you to go around to be swinging all the time. It's been my experience that as one of two shamans, you can swing occasionally, again depending. Clearly buffing your raid and debuffing mobs (slow, malo) takes priority over swinging a mighty hammer. And that's the thing - you're not always in 100% DPS mode. If we're clearing Hate/Fear, I'm not casting DoTs on trash mobs unless I feel like flexing a little bit and maybe KSing the kill group. Yeah, this hammer is the pinnacle piece in a ridiculous DPS package, but it can also be a means to generate a fair amount of damage free of the cost of mana.

When I first really put this hammer to use I changed my last name to Aggroripper. One debuff, let alone two, can easily rip aggro from a tank. Part of being a good shaman is gauging at which point you choose to slow/malo the mob. Clearly a blue revultant rat needs to lose more HP than a yellow mob to get you into the safe zone. There's times when you get lucky proccing and rip aggro without any debuffs. Well, shit happens. I personally think it is not a bad strategy to temporarily rip aggro away from the tank and eat some of the damage. Shamans have awesome HP regen, so that HP that we regenerate instead of getting healed saves clerics mana. Furthermore, I only swing the hammer when I'm at an acceptable mana level. If my mana is getting taxed, I'll pop a squat for a minute or two and build it back up. But in general, because of our HP regeneration and our ability to cannibalize (which I will often do between swings), maintaining an acceptable level of mana is rarely a problem.

Edit: I don't know the exact DPS I can generate. And yes, often it is burst DPS. I can't go all-out on every mob double-DoTing like a rogue can poking. But it is a serious amount of damage. Let me show you sometime =)

Also, this hammer is a great tool for powerleveling a twinked DPS class. Take a 20 rogue to SolA gnomes, tank and swing until you get a proc or two, own. A monk needs a few more levels but I've done both. I'm just saying! People gave me so much shit when I pieced together a dexterity set and started swinging. This is because people are used to Kunark. People seem to think everything in classic should be more like Kunark. "Sit down and med, SHAMAN! Know your place!" Yeah, this hammer at the end of Kunark isn't going to be what it is now. But in classic this is some serious shit. I'm not twisting anyone's arm to sell this thing. I think eventually someone will come along who sees the value of this item. If not, whatever really. It's not like I went bankrupt purchasing this thing.