At the lower levels, you just heal and SoW. You don't really get your group-centric spells until level 29 - greater healing, quickness and a real slow. Slowing isn't even worth the mana until 40+ unless you duo with a melee, and no content before Velious actually requires slow. It's worth doing in the higher levels, just not critical for the most part at this point in time.
From 30ish and onwards, you step more into the buffer/debuffer role because you actually get buffs and debuffs that matter. You'll still be expected to heal more often than not, and shaman is a better group healer than cleric until CH comes into the picture. There's hardly any difference between shaman and cleric heals in terms of mana efficiency, just size because the cleric probably has access to the heal one tier above what the shaman has. Since cleric heals aren't technically better to any noticeable degree until the upper levels, the shaman's much faster mana regen makes him a better healer. It's only because they're usually asked to buff and debuff that they don't fill the main healer spot at the same time, because that's almost impossible.
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