Post by Robyn
Hiya ;) I have to say i chuckled at your post, tho I've met a few folks in your position... don't worry, the basics are not that complicated.
At the core of the thing is that as a mage your role is doing damage, and so you should be looking for gear with: +spelldamage, +spellcrit and +Int in roughly that order. If you start raiding you'll also be expected to have a decent amount of +spellhit.
Since mages have no healing spells +healing items are useless to you. Spirit is only slightly useful, since all it does for mages is regen health and mana while you're not in combat, and you get free food and drinks for that (and Evocation).
Stamina just gives you more health, which means that if you play in groups it's not a good stat to pursue... as long as you don't die too often, you don't need more stamina, and often more spelldamage is more useful because you have skills like Frost Nova and Blink to keep distance from monsters anyway.
If you do a lot of PvP things change a little, and stamina (more health) and resilience (resistance to criticals) start to matter more, because they keep you alive long enough to kill the other guy ;) You should also make sure you know First Aid to the max level you can, since bandages are a good source of healing for you.
In terms of trinkets, these three are decent starting trinkets for you, and reasonably easy to get solo:
Ancient Crystal TalismanVengeance of the IllidariPower of the High ChiefYou might want to read the stickys in the mage forum here on Wowhead, there's good advice there on talent builds as well...
Post by Whix
Seriously, though what is it about an item that makes it "healing" gear
Healing gear has more +heal than +dmg. Caster gear gives equal amounts to both. For example,
Whitemend Hood is healing gear, +79 heal, +27 dmg.
Spellstrike Hood is caster gear, +46 to both dmg and heal.
You want caster gear. However, there are times to take healing gear. If there is not a healer in your group who wants the piece and it is otherwise an upgrade for you, there is nothing wrong with using it. That extra healing doesn't hurt you. But you should always be on the lookout for gear with more +dmg and the other stats that you need.