I'm pretty set on shaman but hunter is my fallback option. I just want to know how realistic it is that if I'm in average guild am I going to be able to play the 30/0/21 and be able to heal in raids? If I'm in a melee group dropping windfury, why would I need the mana tide? I'm also curious as to how ele shaman are at dueling and farming out in the world.

I am still considering hunter because I like the efficiency at which they do everything from levelling to farming, plus they can PvP pretty decently in their PvE spec too. If I am worried about respec costs and stuff, should I just go hunter? I really don't want to be farming gold non stop just to be swapping between having mana tide and not.