Role of the Elem shaman in 5v5 (2345?)

[H2O_Cele]

My team consists of holy pally, holy priest, elemental shammy (me), warrior, and warrior/mage.

Up until 2 weeks ago I was restoration and the priest was shadow. We were having difficulty keeping our priest up in most of our matches. We were winning about 50% of our matches, and decided something needed to change.

So I switched recently to elemental, a spec I've never played until just 2 weeks ago. Immediately started playing arena without playing around much. In fact I can remember respeccing to elemental and getting queued while adjusting my action bars.

Our first week we won 2:1 game ratios. Doing decent I suppose for the amount of experience on our team. However, I'm not convinced that I'm doing things correctly. Often times out of habit, I find myself needlessly healing players, forgetting I have a priest and paladin behind me. My dps is a rollercoaster in most matches, whereas sometimes I am able to do my whole burst and other times i'm either getting locked down with little means of escape or I'm habit-healing.

So, for elemental shamans who do 5v5, what's my priorities, whats my main objective, etc. When should I heroism, when should I purge, when should I blow EM or NS... etc.

I've been playing alot in BG's just to familiarize myself with LB spam, but I can't say I would ever have the opportunity to spam in arena.

Also, what meta gem do you recommend for elemental shaman in 5v5?

[Henkish]

Here's how I play:

Make sure the warrior(s) and your focus target is purged so you can easily remove any freedoms/bop's or any other gamebreaking spells pretty much instantly. It'll save your teammate or kill the opponent if done correctly.

Lock down the paladin, making him throw half as many heals. Kill totems/purge/fire a bolt in between. Dodge manaburns.

When the cc/interrupts are there, pop EM and and gib the sob. Save NS for a kill or a save.

About Bloodlust/Heroism, don't wait too much with it but don't pop it the moment you engage.

Simple isn't it :)

As for meta, there is only one availible: the 5% halfcast gem. It's the best by FAR.

[Supa]

kiting is very key, purge off all buffs on focus target and then purge bof's or any buffs on the melee classes on you.

Most likely they would go for ur priest first.

REMEMBER use rank 1 lightning bolt and rank 1 shocks....they are your best friends =)