Before I start, let me state that I have been playing Resto Shaman for the last 5 years,I have done raiding, RBGs I am currently 2369 in 2s and 2384 rating in 3s, so I feel like I am in a decent spot to talk about it.
Spirit Link Totem is an incredible ability, a sweet mechanic for sure. What is super annoying to me, however, is that it presents itself as an “Instant cast” and even mocks us stating it will “Immediately” distribute the health equally between members. This is untrue as the totem is dropped on the ground immediately, however, there is a 1,5-sec animation before the health is shared between members. (I play on a, last gen pc with 12ms) so I know it is not lag.
In regards to Earthen, a lot of people have already asked for new shaman animations, and Earthen is right at the top of the list of outdated visuals. For an ability that can absorb 83k dmg it is nearly invisible, and can only be detected by players who use WeakAuras. There is no incentive to stay in the earthen also, speaking to various 2700+rated players, earthen is a good ability but it is better to kite and risk getting caught than staying in the earthen as it will partially reduce but do no real shielding.
Grounding similarly to the Tremor totem has completely lost its value when compared to most other classes, more and more classes develop immunity to cc or fear, now even warriors and priests have it, meaning shamans have lost much of their class identity. Not only that, an ability like grounding, which lasts 4 sec can be destroyed in one strike or by any harmful spell, is nothing compared to Holy Ward, which grants complete immunity to cc for 15sec and has to be spam-purged as one has to first get through 6-10 buffs and can be masked/protected by spamming renew.
And if the Tremor is meant to counter fear, why does it not go hand in hand in cooldown with Psychic Scream? Even timing it perfectly, one can only Tremor every other fear, the opposite is not true, the priest can Shadow: WordDeath every Hex even having 5 seconds to spare.
Lastly, can we just talk about how Resto shamans are the only healers that have no spells at all usable while stunned? That is the biggest unfairness class-wise in the game; and if shamans are mastery of the elements why do they not have any resistance to elemental magic, fire, water frost, and lightning?