As someone who played an Ogre Shaman as my first character on this server about a month after it opened(ie; totally untwinked), here is what I suggest. For the most efficient use of your mana/health, use a hybrid of root rotting and meleeing. If you go strictly root rot your mana at this level will be mostly drained after a single fight. Conversely, if you try to melee the entire fight you may save some mana but your health will suffer(depends on twink level). Either way it's inefficient as you will have too much downtime. The answer is to combine them. Basically you root rot to soften them up a bit first while you med, then you engage them in melee for the 2nd half of the fight.
One way is by root rotting them completely until they get about 50% health, then engage(this way you only have to do 30% damage while in melee since they run at 20%). I always tried to find the most efficient way at any given time, so in my case I'd usually open with a slow then let them engage me. While engaged in melee(big 2h weapon) I'd stack my dots on them and after they're all doing their work I'd root then back off and med. Since you've already started your dots the root has a better chance of lasting full duration while you get some med/regen time. If all goes well they should be at least half dead before root wears off and then you simply finish them off without anymore mana.
With this method you can probably get more kills in the same amount of time as the other methods while still keeping up your offensive and defensive spells. Root rotting at lower levels is not good for a shaman since at higher levels you will be taking some hits at some point in your career and suffer due to insufficient defensive skills. My Ogre Shammy melee'd all the way to 50 without issues. Using the above method I had no problems with specters or most other higher level mobs. With the gear that exists from kunark available this should be even easier than ever.
You will also find as you reach a new level you can adjust your tactics. You may find you can get away with only a single dot to keep more mana, maybe you can use a weaker slow, etc..
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