Totems always worked better with the ranged spec of shaman since you didn’t have to chase things down all the time. Surging totem could have been so much better where it does ranged attacks and if anything gets close it does an aoe.
Farseer would have been better for enhancement because the ancestors could have joined you in melee combat or backup casters and if you did a wolf build it could have been extra thematic to it. Heck they could even expand what the spirit animals look like and moved it all to the barber like they did with warlock.
Feels like the ball was dropped on this choice as the surging totem is clunky to use in melee and the Farseer ancestors don’t feel as impactful and is more of a knock off mirror image. But I guess they didn’t want to put effort into making them be able to use weapons and go into melee for one spec and stay a caster in another spec so they opted for the easy way and will forever feel like a stain on what could have been great.