Stormsoul, Elemental Shaman, ain’t missing anything apparently, by not being level 80. If I were level 80, folks would be pointing fingers and saying “You call that DPS?”
First, there’s no gear. Read the “Dear Scott” letter over on WoW Insider.
While I have had no problem with this, we are running into a problem where there is very little spell mail armor, and so our shamans are feeling a little left out when leather Boomkin gear drops and the lone druid in the raid automatically gets it even though there is very little gear for themselves.
I’m feeling that very thing now. I’m level 77, doing level 78 quests in Storm Peaks, started the Sons of Hodir quest line, and I’m *still* taking plate quest rewards to sell. The stuff they’re offering that I could wear still hasn’t managed to provide +Spell Crit or +Spell Power to this mail wearer. And if I were instancing, I could do with leather maybe, but soloing I need the protection of mail. My Tier 5 gear is still looking better then what’s coming available to me. Unless I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. But the comment from a raider, who’s seeing drops, kind of confirms what I suspected. Now I do have my eye on some Faction related gear. There’s 2 maces, for example, with the Wyrmrest mace actually better in every way to my current mace. (Requires Exalted and Lvl 80 though.) That and gloves, helm, legs, and shield are out there to kind of shoot for (the mace being the only complete upgrade, everything else upgrading certain stats, lowering others).
Second, the developers recognize the Shaman Elemental DPS is too low. Ghostcrawler, in a post dated 19 Dec, said
Q u o t e:
I was wondering, if you could, either confirm or deny that the developers feel that
1.current(live) elemental shaman are doing dps that is too low. And
2. afther the PTR buffs that elemental shaman will be doing intended dps – (and if that intended dps is on par with other dps classes.1. Yes, it is too low on live.
2. I can’t speak towards the PTR specifically. It takes awhile to create a build, so they are often a few days (or longer) behind our changes. I can say that in our internal testing all of the changes together gave Elemental something like a 10 to 12% dps increase for Naxx 25 geared characters in full raid buffs. Elemental dps should be very close to Balance druid dps, which we used as the standard we wanted to reach.
Sweet. I’ll be nearly as good as a Balance Druid. Once I’m in my Naxx 25 gear. Until then… And except the current raiding program is about DPSing down Trash Mobs, and a Magma Totem probably can’t hold a candle to Hurricane. (Yes, the totem I drop and then continue my single target DPS while Hurricane is channeled.)
Now if Santa was bringing 3.0.8 today, though I doubt it, I’d be feeling better about things. A little.
Kinless Chronicles 
Maybe its just me (pretty sure it is) but I don’t feel lacking at all on my shaman. Granted I’m only 68 at the moment but I’ve been leveling as ele since level 1. I got my brother to start playing and he rolled a paladin and has been leveling as prot and the synergy between the 2 classes is just insane. Maybe its because I haven’t played in a pure dps role in a group but the ability to heal in a pinch is better then any other class in the game. At 80 I’ve seen the ele shaman keep the group alive long enough to finish a boss when the healer goes down.
I’m really excited about these buffs and I do think they are needed but it will only serve to make me feel like the class I’m playing is even more powerfull.
I’m doing fine solo. Completed the Nesingwary quest chain in Sholazar Basin only dying once, and that was to the final fight with the Brood Mother.
But my DPS hasn’t increased since when I left Outlands.
And the expectation is that it should be double what it was for heroics and raiding.
That’s to say, 7 levels later and it’s only gone up incrementally. I’m supposed to be doing 2,000 DPS at 80 to raid.
But then I read there’s no gear drops, and Blizzard admits the class isn’t producing the numbers it’s supposed to.
It’s a great class. It’s the first of my characters to 80. Enjoy yours, as I do mine, just color me a bit disappointed at the moment.