I'm not sure how I will gear this time around yet, I just starting to look at the gear last night. Last season I went with the 2 set PVE (15% to AOE heals) and 2 set DPS (the shield probe set bonus was not worth it IMO), so I might take the shield probe set bonus now as well as specing in to the shield probe heals.
You can get around 450 Alacrity ,and still have a mix of surge and crit which is what I went with last season. Over 100 or so crit seemed to make a big difference. Anything less then 450 Alacrity and I couldn't really get a heal off in ranked while being focused. So until I figure out how I want to gear, I'm sticking with upgrading weapons , relic, belt & bracers.