I've weighed in on other discussions and it seems somewhat redundant doing it here but here goes:
Capping your wisdom as a shaman isn't difficult. Capping your wisdom as a MELEE shaman is a bit more difficult. I've always been a champion of sticking your points into wisdom at start because i actually favor the melee shaman. In terms of gear, you're allowed more flexibility if you actually go wisdom rather than stamina. As was stated, return on sta>hp for shamans isn't anything to look forward to (it's actually quite pathetic) and your items that add pure +hp will always outnumber it by far (a single item can double the +25 points into stam at beginning but having +25 wis means you get to wear more +hp/ac/dex items, because let's face it, can you name a single item with a load of wis that a melee shaman should be wearing?).
In classic, melee shamans are somewhat gimp. The gear they get is decent but not fantastic and the spell list is crippled by a major lack of torpor. What the pure +hp boasters forget to mention is that as a shaman you can help with heals after you malo/slow/cripple. What? You mean I have to use my mana after that? yes!! If your mana pool is too low you will quickly realize it in a raid setting where you find that you're wasting time clicking that JBB when you could be healing. If you run out of mana mid-way through the fight then that time wasted cannibalizing you could have been throwing out more heals. Druid/shaman heals provide a fantastic buffer between the cleric CHs and come kunark people won't be looking your way for DPS.
Generally speaking, a raid shaman will want a good balance of +hp/mana and a healthy amount of resists -- the latter goes without saying. A melee/solo shaman will want a more favorable amount of +hp/ac/dex than wis/mana (though this can also depend on the mob that you're fighting).
I'm a champion of multiple gear sets. Remember, shamans are very versatile and in order to fill those roles you need quite a bit of gear. +resist raid gear (mana/hp), a +hp/ac set and even a +cha set. Right now i fluctuate between 175ish wis and 200 depending on whether i'm wearing the tank gear or the +wis stuff, all the while wearing a full black sapphire set and wielding a barbarian spiritist's hammer. This means that at I have enough mana to heal and enough dex (190ish?) to get in there and throw in some great DPS even while wearing the wisdom stuff.
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