Armor/Stamina worth it?

The final piece of my weapon analysis includes a subject that's a lot bigger than just weapons. It's a subject that most people don't think about too much. Stamina for healers. Is it worthless? It is essential? The answer to both of these is yes.

I'll start talking about the Primal Mooncloth set for priests. It's truly an amazing set. You get a lot of +healing and a lot of +mp5, especially due to the set bonus. Definitely better gear than anything you can find in Karazhan.

One of the reasons it has so much +healing and mp5, is because it has no stamina. If the set had around 30 stamina, which brings it up to around the level of int and spirit, it would have to lose 20 stat points. This means losing perhaps 40 +healing on the set, which is a serious nerf to the effectiveness of the set.

So why bother with stamina? There are a lot of fights that you should never need stamina for. Maulgar certainly not, where if you're getting hit, it means someone messed up. Most Kara fights don't require too much. So why nerf your other stats for stamina?

But what about the fights like Gruul? Where it's likely that you'll take a lot of damage all at once. Remember that a dead healer does no damage.

Most people mix and match their stamina and non-stamina gear. But say for example you have the healing shoulders from the Curator:
28 int
22 spirit
57 healing
10 mp5

And you have a chance at the tier 4 shoulders from Maulgar:
19 stam
30 int
22 spirit
53 healing
red/blue sockets, bonus: 4 stam

The two pieces are very close, but the 10 mp5 really pushes the Curator shoulders above the tier 4. However, it may be worth picking up the tier 4 shoulders, if no one else needs them.

I am of the opinion that healers, if they can afford the bag space and they have access to the gear, to have a stamina healing set, and a regular healing set. On the fights when survival is questionable, it's essential to have enough stamina to ensure your survival. On fights when you need to maximize your mana and healing efficiency as much as possible, and survival isn't an issue, stamina is an unwanted commodity.

Before you ask, yes I'm crazy. But on trash mobs in Karazhan, I'm always very happy to have my stamina set available to me. I use Item Rack to keep my sets straight.

I follow the same opinion on shields for shammies/pallies. There are certain fights when stamina and armor is essential. If you're going to be hit by a melee damage, throw on your shield. The nice thing about weapons, you can toss them on when you get agro on something if your reflexes are quick enough, and it may save your life. I don't know a ton about healing shields, but sometimes I wish I could wear one.