I'm sure most Shaman who care about arena PvP have read Push's thread, "Need help in PvP? Ask Push!". It's a great thread, in it he gives some fantastic advice for budding Shaman (particularly enhancement Shaman). The information in the thread is so great, that I created an ebook from it. What follows in an excerpt from that book.

At the end of this post is a link to download the ebook, completely free. All Shaman need to read this, you WILL learn something!

Update 13 Jul: The ebook has been updated to include an introduction from Push himself. I also removed one image to reduce the file size and improve download speed.

Update 14 Jul: More  updates! I've reordered the advice into 5 chapters (1:General Advice, 2:Gear, Sockets, & Enchants, 3:Spec Advice, 4:Matchup Strategies, and 5:Comp Advice). I've also added some new advice from Push, it can be found in the Matchup Strategies catgory. Enjoy!

Who is Push?

Push is a Shaman on the Dark Iron server. He’s one of the few enhancement Shaman that have been successful in the arenas, regularly posting arena ratings over 2100 without win-trading. He’s been gracious enough to have taken a great deal of time helping the Shaman community improve their arena skills.

Q & A with Push

How often do you use a shield when against a good rogue or warrior team?

Great issue. I get this a lot. Your goal is to put the other team on the defensive; putting on a shield makes that difficult, but there are times where it is definitely appropriate.

My 2v2 is with a Resto Druid. If there is a Rogue, and only if there is a Rogue, I may use my shield (Vengeful Gladiator's Redoubt, enchanted with +12 Resilience [http://thottbot.com/i33735]). If the gates open and there's stealth--on goes the shield. Generally, my Druid goes Bear Form. There are two types of Rogue teams: double DPS and single DPS (duh!).

Double DPS Rogue Teams

If I'm getting focused: whether it's a Shadow Priest, Frost Mage, or Warlock, I always keep the shield on. With Poison Cleansing Totem spam, Abolish Poison, and your Druid's CC on the Rogue, it shouldn't be hard taking down the cloth DPS with the shield on.

There will be barely any healing reduction on you, so it'll be nearly impossible for the other team to take you down. Make sure to avoid Fear on your Druid, and you should have no problem taking down the cloth DPS while never coming close to death.

If you're not the primary DPS target: unless you sense they are switching off your Druid pretty permanently, you won't need your shield at all, so switch it off ASAP. Because they presumably were on your Druid to start, you should already be destroying the caster.

Frost Mages can be iffy of course, because of Polymorph, but effective Grounding Totems and Earth Shocks will delay good CC on you so much that your Druid shouldn't have a problem kiting while you slowly kill the Mage. Really skilled Frost Mage + ShS Rogues can be difficult on occasion.

IMPORTANT RULE: (applies to any team with melee on your Druid, not just Rogue teams...): make sure you supply slows on the melee target for your Druid, and call them out on Ventrilo. With EB Totem and Frost Shock slows, it should be a joke for your Druid to kite/line of sight whatever is trying to kill him.

Single DPS Rogue Teams

Everything is the same, except there are appropriate times to take your shield off, even if you're the main kill target, which is 95% the case when facing Rogue + Disc Priest/Resto Druid. Base your decision on how the HoTs are stacked on you, how much the other team is on the defensive, your Druid's mana pool, and your GCD sensitivity.

In general, avoid having to use a shield as much as possible, especially in the smaller brackets.

In 3v3, unless I have a dedicated 2 melee on me, I rarely equip my shield because it's not needed.

In 5v5, equipping a shield is far more common and acceptable. Considering the prevalence of melee-heavy teams at the top-brackets these days, a shield is a great tool to mitigate incoming damage while still accomplishing many of your main goals, from purging to interrupting.

Though shields immensely help, still try your best to avoid having to use them. Ask your healers for feedback on how difficult a victory was where you did/did not use a shield, and make judgments based on previous fights.

Download the Ebook; Free of Charge!

After reading that excerpt you have to be itching to read the ebook! The book is 23 pages of pure Shaman Arena Perfection from Push himself, absolutely free Click this link to download the ebook, Shaman Arena Perfection. A huge thank you goes to Push for making this information available, and being kind enough to let someone (me) package it up neatly for readability.