EDIT: Holy crap, you guys are actually reading and using this guide. I suppose it's a bit out of date. I'll touch it up when I get back from raiding tonight. Also my character's new name is Arcsson, I'm not some pretender trying to take credit for Doctaur's post.
I originally made this guide shortly after starting Karazhan, mainly because I noticed a lot of Resto specced Shamans attempting to run Kara in very weak gear mainly because it was just too hard for them to pick up healing pieces without dumping buckets of time and money into what amounts to a set of blues. This guide is intended for Shamans who want to heal Karazhan, but are unsure of how to upgrade their gear to do it.
Here is a link to the raiding gear guide by Skyhoof from Cenarius:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=93032583&sid=1&pageNo=1
Some facts and tips you should know about our +healing gear and how to choose it.
1) There is no green Resto mail from questing. None. Until you start doing lots of instances, most of your Resto gear is actually going to be Elemental gear. Real, true-blue Resto mail is very few and very far between, so any green or blue quest reward with +damage/healing on it should be savored until a dedicated +healing alternative presents itself. (There are green items that are now somewhat desirable for Resto, such as "of Healing" random enchant items, but the lack of stats makes these items less than worthy of a Karazhan Resto set.)
2) Any item with Intellect, +Healing, and Mana per 5 seconds on it should be considered viable for Restoration. Stamina is preferable to other stats if you have to choose between something (For example, in the case of the Avian Cloak of Feathers vs. the Cloak of Whispering Shells, the Whispering Shells has Stamina whereas the Cloak of Feathers has Spirit, so take the Whispering Shells). Now that we have 50 mp5 on Water Shield and another 50 from Mana Spring totem, stacking MP5 isn't as important as it used to be, so finding the items with the high +Healing value has once again become the name of the game.
3) Spirit and Spell Crit should be mostly shunned, unless no other options are present. Spirit does nothing for us when we're in the 5 second rule, and Spell Crit only even "kinda" helps if you have the Ancestral Fortitude talent (Which you should, if you're rocking a standard 0/5/56 build). Also, Spell Haste isn't useful to an entry-level Resto Shaman at all. You should be more concerned with longevity and +healing than with the negligible increase in speed you get from Spell Haste.
4) The Aldor faction is heavily recommended for Resto shamans. The +29 Healing enchant will partially offset the lack of actual +healing on most of the gear you'll be picking up before doing Heroics. Almost every piece of Shaman gear comes with MP5 in remarkable quantities, whereas actual +healing gear that doesnt also have +damage is incredibly tough to get. Plus, there are a couple of good recipes for Healing items, such as the Royal Shadow Draenite and the Silver and Golden Spellthreads. Later on, your faction doesn't make nearly as much difference, but once you first hit level 70, faction items and enchants will have a large impact on your gear.
5) Sockets are your friend. For some socketable items, you don't always need the socket bonus, if for example it's something like Resilience, Spell Crit, or Spell Hit. Therefore you can put whatever gems you want in those sockets that will up the stats that you're lacking the most, which should be +healing in most cases. The result is a "Ghetto Resto" item, one that doesn't appear to be intended for Resto at first, but with the correct sockets, can be close to as good as anything else readily available to you.
For example: The Stormfront Gauntlets ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=27428 ) have a red and a yellow socket. However, the socket bonus for using the correct colored gems in each slot is +3 Strength, which is completely useless for a Resto Shaman. In that case, two Teardrop Blood Garnets can be used to increase the +healing amount on these gloves, ignoring the socket colors for this particular item.
6) The ideal Main Hand/Off Hand setup for a Resto Shaman is a One-Handed Mace and a Shield. Shamans have no means of shedding aggro like the Priest spell "Fade" or Paladin's "Divine Shield," so we basically have to survive getting hit until the tank can regain aggro from us. Mail is only part of the solution to this, so having the extra armor and block from a Shield is essential. This is also a good reason to strive towards using Mail in all your slots instead of Leather or Cloth, since that will make your gear setup a bit more viable for PVPing in Arenas which is also another decent source of Resto mail.
7) Since real Resto mail is so hard to come by until level 70, Miscellaneous gear will have to make up a lot of the +Healing that you sacrifice by using Elemental gear in place of Restoration gear. For that matter, take Necks, Trinkets, Rings, Cloaks, Maces, and Shields that add as much +healing as there is available to you, and make up the other stats like Int and MP5 with your mail Shaman gear.
8) Even though it seems like you're desperate for +healing, don't start blowing your cash on Blue quality gems when it's only a small upgrade to a Green quality gem with the same prefix. A 2 gold Teardrop Blood Garnet which gives you +13 healing is monumentally more cost effective than a 40 gold Teardrop Living Ruby which adds +18 healing. There's a 38 gold difference, for +5 healing. Not worth it until you start picking up Epics. If you're sitting on a pile of money for whatever reason, or you're an Enchanter with mats to spare, you might consider enchanting your blues to up your +Healing value, but only if the item you're enchanting is worth it.
9) Because we have the talent Nature's Blessing (
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=30869 ), in some cases a high Intellect value on an item is a reasonable substitute for actual +healing. For a quick and dirty estimate of how much +healing a particular item will add after the talent bonus is added, divide the INT value of the item by 3 and add it to the item's +healing value. This won't be exact by any stretch, but it's easy math to do in your head until you have time to whip out the calculator.
For example: The Void Slayer's Tunic adds 88 +healing and 21 Intellect. The Harness of Deep Currents adds 68 +healing and 30 Intellect. However, after multiplying the INT values of both items by 0.3, the actual +healing sum of the Void Slayer's Tunic is 94, and the Harness' is 77.
Quest Gear:
Hellfire Peninsula
Landslide Buckler -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29917
Stormstrike Vest -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31719
Verdant Handwraps -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28070
Terrokkar Forest
Sethekk Oracle's Focus -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29814 - Sethekk Halls
Auchenai Boots -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=28177 - Shadow Labyrinth
Caverns of Time
Tarren Mill Defender's Cinch-
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29319 - Old Hillsbrad Foothill
Nagrand
Oshu'Gun Relic -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25634
Metallic Headband of Simm'onz -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25820 (ARE YOU READY TO SWEAT)
Clefthoof Wristguards -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25592 (Elemental gear, but it's the best you're going to get until The Black Morass or Attumen the Huntsman in Karazhan, so pick 'em up and live with them.)
Mogor's Anointing Club -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25759
Totem of the Plains -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25645
Earthen Mark of Health -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25564
Ogre Slayer’s Pendant -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=25776
Blade's Edge Mountains
Natasha’s Guardian Cord -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31691
Netherstorm
Void Slayer's Tunic -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30298
Celestial Jewel Ring -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29334
Heavenly Inspiration -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30293
Area 52 Defender's Pants -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=30019
Shadowmoon Valley
Shamanistic Helmet of Second Sight -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31107
Ceremonial Kris -
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31013
