What essence should I have in an ideal world?

[Banaticus]

Let's say that I could have whatever essence I wanted (I can't, because I have neither a stable of crafting alts nor do I have thousands of gold to go buy my own essences, side note the essence system sucks), what essence would I want?

morale x8
tactical/physical mitigation x4
finesse x4
crit rating x3
I'm just making these numbers up -- what would I actually want?

[Arathaert]

To kind of extend the question, which armour set is "best" for minstrels? Are the set bonuses worth it or should I just go flower power or MT two-slot and call it a day? My mini is getting sorta close to cap and I'm curious what to start looking for. As far as stats, 40-50k tact mastery for healing, 50% crit def, maxed mits and crit, and the rest in morale, right?

[siipperi]

4x featured instance armor, 2x supreme blue raid armor. 2 osg PC reduction sets for swappies.

[Arathaert]

Is the FI set bonus really that helpful? (The stacking Inspire bonus) Also, I'm imagining that the FI jewelry is the way to go, along with two gold BB pieces for a 10% healing boost, right? That plus a few things on LIs or virtues would bring you to the t2 mit cap, or close to it, I'd imagine.

That leaves 28-29 essences to play with, if my math is right.

Critical defence on LIs plus a few other spots shouldn't require more than maybe one or two tops to get to 10k, and I know past around 38k (50%ish) you run into serious diminishing returns on tact mastery for healing, but the 10% bb jewelry will help make up the difference. I think the passive will on the armour and jewelry, along with LIs, should be enough to reach that or close to it with maybe a couple essences there. Maybe some crit rating (if not also done via LIs) and the rest would be morale, no? So, being generous, 8 essences to cap off various stats (mits, crit def and rtg), leaving 20ish morale essences. Handy thing there is you can just drop in major essences and that's 17k morale right there. Supremes would raise it another 2k ... I might even be satisfied sticking with major :P

[Nogen]

Hood of the Storied Mariner / Greater Hood of the Vigilant Watcher (Dol Amroth Quartermaster, Glírdor - Minstrel Armour / Throne of the Dead Terror T2 - Rakothas)
Ancient Wandering Bard's Shoulders (Featured Instances)
Jacket of the Storied Mariner / Greater Coat of the Vigilant Watcher (Dol Amroth Quartermaster, Glírdor - Minstrel Armour / Throne of the Dead Terror T2 - Gothmog)
Ancient Wandering Bard's Gloves (Featured Instances)
Ancient Wandering Bard's Leggings (Featured Instances)
Ancient Wandering Bard's Boots (Featured Instances)
Careful Cloak of the Citadel Guard (Reward from Book 4, Chapter 13: Time Yet Remains)

Third Exquisite Minstrel's Necklace of Helm Hammerhand (Merit Committee, Battle Decorations - High Honours)
Third Exquisite Minstrel's Earring of Helm Hammerhand (Merit Committee, Battle Decorations - High Honours)
Exquisite Anórien Earring of Succour (Anórien Jeweller)
Exquisite Anórien Bracelet of Succour *2 (Anórien Jeweller)
Exquisite Anórien Ring of Succour *2 (Anórien Jeweller)
Hilt of Earnil / Greater Bauble of the Pelennor Sage / Phial of The Anduin's Waters (The Silent Street T2C / Throne of the Dead Terror T2 - Gothmog / Roving Threat Quartermaster)

NOTES:
Physical Mitigation to 19.1k - 19.7k (T2 - T2 Raid)
Tactical Mitigation to 18.5k - 19.2k (T2 - T2 Raid)
Critical Defence to 10.5k
Critical Rating to 14.3k
Finesse, Incoming Healing, Resistance and Avoidances are preference/circumstance based, really. (Finesse swap-pieces for OOC Distracts, for IC Invocation you would want 10k; I would start considering Incoming Healing only if you can comfortably hit 40k morale before buffs, same goes for Avoidances with Evade as preference; Resistance will mainly come from Virtues/Will/Vitality and Food)

REASONING:
Yes, Inspiring Fellows *3 is good (a few threads already on the topic), especially compared to the other options you have for healing sets. With the +5% Healing Critical Chance you will have a total of 40% (traited properly), Greater Raid 2-piece has 8 slots but a lot more difficult to get compared to DA dailies...
Epic Battles Jewellery still rocks big time, so does Anórien Crafted jewellery for morale stacking (you can actually leave the complete jewellery set of your mini untouched from lvl 100 unless you lucky/good enough to get the Hilt or Bauble).

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Try to get your Vitality/Will/Fate stats boosted by Tomes - around +500 each will be quite helpful for mits/res/crit and morale!
At least 7 Virtues up to T19, preferably 12 - for mits, resistance and morale swaps as needed!
Carry loads of consumables (foods/scrolls/hope etc.) and a red cappy around for buffs to cap your stats!
Once you hit the desired amount of the stats, stack morale!

Happy Minstreling!