I have a level 34 shaman and omg so boring. My bars are already full 200 different totems, the water totem took hours on its own. I hate having to drop totems all the time when questing, feels very cumbersome, plus the amount of macros needed already is insane.
Hats off to whoever mained Shaman in Classic, you have my respect.
I spam lightning bolt until melee range, then swing and flameshock.
It does get boring. Honestly, healing was more exciting. Elemental Mastery makes it a bit more fun
Yeah, I enjoy healing and support on my shaman. I have a mage for spellcasting!
You dont need to use totems while leveling except for things like Grounding Totem, Earthbind, and the fire totems.
Most things will die before you get the full benefit of the buff/healing/mp totems.
You should only use buff totems if you are going to be standing in that area for more than a few pulls, or if you are fighting an elite quest mob.
Ele kills things faster, but you need to drink a lot, enhance kills slower on average, but once you get a strong 2H, you can go several pulls before needing to drink if you only use autos and SS, and just heal when low. Rockbiter and Windfury are about equally effective for leveling (WF is more burst, RB is more consistent).
Ok but how do you manage totems there are so freaking many I only have so much bar space and keys I like to use for binding
If you don’t already use Bartender4 I recommend it. You can add hotbar paging to your main action bar and put the totems on the other pages.
Another thing you can do is make macro using mod keys to determine which totem is cast.
A 3rd option is to download FloTotemBar which moves all the totems into 4 bars that you can mouseover and click.
shift modifier keys for more keybinds is the way to go.
While leveling you only need either str totem or earthbind. And maybe fire for extra damage. Use 2h and smack things with wind fury.
Occasionally shock
Most totems aren’t needed to level.
Press chain heal gg
I use a macro that casts my totem’s in a specific order when I need them. Have 1 for Windfury Totem, Mana Spring, and Strength of Earth, then another with Healing Spring, Stoneskin, and Agility. Only takes up one or teo slots on my hot bar. I still keep lots of them on standby over on the sidebars though
You can mix in whichever totems you like most, but it’s very mana inefficient to use them all the time. I only really use them against elites, or in dungeons. Shamans were known to require a lot of key binds, but it’s not to hard to work around with macros and such
Use conditional macro that toggles a single button use by means of the CTRL, Shift and ALT buttons.
This way a single button can be used for a few different totems.
You will find with practice that it’s both intuitive and speeds you up.
I had a macro 1 button for my core totems and keybound earthbound, grounding totem. Clicked the rest 
. (Back in retail tbc)
It’s a feels bad in pvp with totem stomp macros. Makes me wish totems had unique names
Grab an add-on, similar to Totem Timers. I’d also suggest an add-on for your bars, and consolidate some abilities into modifier macros, or cast sequences (lightning shield into weapon enchant).
You don’t have to.
Just pull with bolt, while they’re running in, Flame Shock and continue to shock/totem between swings, depending on mana.
If you have a totem that lasts a while, pull mobs to it.
If you’re bored of that, you can jump into a group content as a ranged DPS, or even a healer.
Totem stomp macros haven’t been a thing since Wrath when Blizz nuked that interaction (and classic uses the modern API).
The closest that you’ll get is target mouseover macros, which isn’t nearly as braindead.
Shaman is a breeze to level, but I can see totems in particular being cumbersome and overwhelming. I would download Totem Timers addon. Most of them have a dropdown menu of all your totems, so you can set the ones you want to a keybind.
The key to shaman leveling is frontloading your mana onto a mob and finishing it off with melee, giving you time to regen. A typical pull, assuming Enhance, is:
Apply Rockbiter
Cast 1-2 Lightning Bolt
Cast Earth Shock/Frost Shock
Searing Totem
Auto Attack
Ideally you would have killed 2-3 mobs by your Searing Totem before it expires. You should be able to keep a steady pace and drink every 3-4 mobs if done correctly.