[BlackBellamy]

hopefully the shaman will be valued by others for grouping.

In lower level groups you might be primary healer, back up otherwise. Everyone loves shaman buffs especially tanks. Your main job will be to slow, and if there is no chanter than also haste. At all other times you'll probably be dancing to get mana back.

I doubt I will look to join a guild right away unless people here think it is a good idea, but towards end game I definitely want to raid with a guild that is dedicated to that sort of thing.

You want to get into any large starter guild soon. Check the forums. That extra channel is going to help you build your rep and make friends and the chatter will help you know which other guilds are good. Any raiding guilds that form early will be a core of friends from Blue. Those guys aren't going to take just anyone when the price of including a screw-up is so high.

For instance I'm totally unfamiliar with third party means of communication that guilds us these days.

Your guild will tell you and help you set up.

Is it necessary that I min/max the character?

What, in terms of stats? For the end game it totally doesn't matter because with items and buffs you should be able to cap out all your necessary stats. So starting stats only really matter when leveling up, early to mid game. In terms of the age-old wis vs sta debate, here's what each gets you. Sta gives you more hp. It's not much, but you never die because you run out mana. You die because you run out of hp. Yes I know you can convert mana to hp, but that assumes you're able to cast a heal and not running for the zone. If you're the type of guy who dies with mana left, you probably need more life. Wis gives you a higher mana pool. This is only important in situations where you med up to full and burn all your mana to zero. If you start the fight full and end half full, your wisdom is wasted. So in the vast majority of grouping situations, you won't need a higher mana pool. You will need your mana pool in certain raid situations, but by then you should have a nice wis armor set to swap in just for that one fight. If you're the type of guy who likes to burn all their mana to kill that one mob, wisdom is for you.

I ask because I'm not sure I want to be a troll, and that seems to be the favored race.

The Ogre is the best end game race if you want to solo high-level stuff. This is because you absolutely have to land your slow and a resist will kill you if you get stunned. After the stun duration you will attempt to cast again and even if it lands your health will be so low that you will probably lose the fight or have to run. And if you get stunned again while trying to recast it's game over 100%.

The native regen on the Troll is small but...you convert health to mana, so there's that. It would mean slightly faster soloing but you have that extra experience penalty so it evens out. It does give you higher group efficiency, but it doesn't scale well at higher levels. You'll want those regen items regardless.

Barb levels the fastest. Once you hit 50 that won't matter at all until Kunark comes out and then it will be immaterial again at 60.

If you are min-maxing, for high level soloer and off-tank raider take Ogre. Otherwise Troll.

Having said all that, the best race for shaman is the one that looks and sounds the best. Unlike for example the Warrior, the race choice here is wide open. The differences are not material. What is material is that you're going to listen to your guy get hit and grunt and you'll watch him run and jump and sit, and you want a character that you will like looking at because you will be listening and looking at that shit for a long long time. Go check out some screenshots of different shaman races with epic armors and stuff and see what you like, then create one of each race and watch them do some stuff and pick one.

Some final notes. The shaman is gear dependent. If you want to solo well, you will need high AC because you will need to take hits. So this limits your choices because you will have to pass up good stat items with worthless AC. Also, you won't be soloing much in the mid-game. You can do it early in your career, but once the mobs start hitting hard it's group time for you. This will last until you get to your mid-30s and even then you won't really shine until you cap out.