i dont think we going to have spell power in gear anymore of any kind only weapons if im correct, our gear will only have stamina intellect and spirit as our raw stats and then it will have either combination of mastery+haste/mastery+crit/ haste+crit

I'm with you on this one. Collecting different gear for different specs, or for PvP, that I can understand, because it makes perfect sense. But collecting a different set of gear just because sometimes you need more haste and sometimes you need more crit? That sounds like theorycrafting gone horribly wrong to me, and I really hope we don't have to do that.

I'd been looking forward to giving life as a paladin another shot in Cataclysm, especially after learning about Holy Power and about healing in melee. But if I have to spend all my time gathering gear just in case I need slightly more of a certain stat... well, above all things, that doesn't sound like much fun.

No offense, but paladins haven't exactly been hurting the last couple expansions on being able to get their hands on spell plate, although admittedly it hasn't always been the exact stat mix they wanted (it never is, for any spec); reforging will help.

No, it's been far more the case in my experience that the availability of spell plate is a problem for everybody who isn't a healadin. The first couple times it drops, yay! the healadins get one. Then the folks specced ret/prot. And then once those've got one for their never-to-be-used hypothetical holy spec, it keeps dropping, taking the place of somebody else's upgrade.

Check it out some time; there's just as much healadin plate as there is prot or DPS plate, setting aside tier gear. Just about everybody hopes they come up with a solution to this issue that doesn't involve a) wearing mail, leather, or cloth on a healadin (devs say: paladins should be in plate) or b) turning DPS stats into caster stats (devs say: having a healadin being a force for melee damage is overpowered, unless they're bad healers. And nobody wants to raid with a bad DPS that can almost heal. Or a bad healer who can almost DPS. Take your pick.)

@Zalvi24

The base stats on caster gear are intellect and stamina.

The bonus stats (what can be modified with reforging) include mastery, spirit, crit, haste, and hit. Not that I expect there will be any caster plate that starts with hit.

@ MusedMoose

I have two sets of gear for holy at the moment. Granted, out of those two sets, there are maybe 3-4 pieces that are different when compared to each other. The one fight that I change the sets for is Dreamwalker. Now with a 30% buff - it doesn't really matter what your thoroughput is - even on heroic...but before the buff - changing even 3 items was huge. I trade out gear for more haste (I have enough haste to make everything on GCD). This allowed me to get the maximum possible of heals off before I had to re-enter the dream.

But anywho, I don't think it's theorycrafting "gone wrong"...I think it's all about min/maxing your character for specific fights to benefit a group of people. While being slightly inconvenient for you, it will allow you to progress further and faster and you'll be getting gear anyway, so what is there to complain about?

@ the author --

You mention that lower tier may be better, and you are now enjoying some of the benefits of 277 gear. While I do not have a lot of 277 gear, I do have all 264. I found it kinda weird to hold onto any gear that was lesser than that. I've always been a crit build (OMGs he doesn't have raid wallz!) - and I found that my output and effectiveness were greater while making haste/crit priority over mp5. I literally never run out of mana unless I foolishly miss the timing on a cooldown (4 piece bonus, wings, pot, LoH yourself, Divine Plea, etc). Mp5 on live is a ridiculously useless stat in my honest opinion. Maxing out intellect, haste, and crit (my mana pool is 47k in raid) is the best imo.

Finally, I use the 264 libram. In most fights. Why do you ask? Because it's guarenteed to be up at all times. In our 25 man raid setup, the tank dying because I'm not healing him with HL spam is highly unlikely since there are two other holy pallies also healing them as well as 2 other healers (shammies or druids). A nice shock here and there with a 30% buff is ~15k for me now (with all that crit) so it basically acts just like a miniature holy light without a buff...except it's instant....

Uh, this isn't as uncommon as you think. Though it's undoubtedly more common with tanks; ie having an armor set, block, stamina, avoidance etc. In fact, I wish MORE tanks approached encounters from this perspective, putting some thought into their gearing to maximize their effectiveness, often making encounters noticeably easier on healers :)

Unfortunately, the gearing scheme right now for most players is Gearscore = win :(