Farewell, enhancementFollow

I am about to take my enhancement shamman to OL. My plan was to grab some gear, keep him enhancement for a bit for a final run of mass killing in the BGs, then at 61-62 respec to resto and see how I like that. But, procrastinating at work, I just looked at rewards for Horde quests in Hellfire Penninsula. I didn't see a single mail item with strength. Everything had either +spell damage or was hunter gear with agi, sta and ap -- not the end of the world, but still. And no weapons at all that he could use. Swords, fast axes/maces and caster gear only.

Does it get better in OL? Should I run to zangar and do some of those quests for better rewards? Or should I just accept there's no good gear out there and switch to resto now?

Get used to wearing rogue gear if you want to be enhance, from 70 until Illidan there are a grand total of maybe 10 pieces of mail gear that are actually worth equipping.

The weapons are harder. I grabbed a slow mainhand from the AH and am offhanding a slow dagger with Flametongue; not ideal but it works, and I still tear through things decently well. If you feel the need, you could always grab an offhand from the AH as well. At level 65 you can get the fist weapon from Ring of Blood and at 66 is a vendor-bought fist for mainhand from a guy in Stormspire that will last you until 70.
Another option is grabbing the level 60 PvP ax (2.9 speed O_O) and mainhanding it until mid-60's somewhere before relegating it to the offhand until you get the offhand from BG's or Heroic MrT.

Personally I think you're just being way too picky... There is nothing wrong with the Hunter-esque mail. It's our highest available armor with all the stats you need. You won't even notice the trade of STR for AP unless you're in a party/raid with three Paladins (since you should be getting BoSalv and BoM before BoK). There's no reason to prefer STR otherwise.

As far as the weapons go, 2.6 one-handers are obviously optimal, but you can get by with faster weapons until you find some better, slower ones.

I leveled to 70 as enhancement and am still enhancment. In the beginning, I would just check AH as often as I could, or was in org/uc, to see if there was anything better. I would specifically look for fist weapons, as most of those are 2.6 speed and do decent damage. When I was was around 66, I did the ring of blood and got that nice fist weapon. After that, I suffered through many many many nights of bg's to get the 36k honor necessary to get the s1 main hand fist weapon and one hand mace. I love being an enhancment shammy.
AS far as str goes, yeah, there aren't a bunch of mail with str on it. However, you can enchant for str on bracers, hands, and potency on both weapons.
Along the way, I also collected a nice set of healing gear. You spoke about respeccing to resto soon. With the healing gear I have, mostly greens, quest reward blues, and the essence focuser, I have near 1k healing. Sure I don't have earth shield, but have been able to act as main healer up to shadow llabs. I really like the shaman's ability to do a variety of thimgs.

The main reason I prefer Str gear to AP/Agi is because Strenth benefits BoK much better in raids. Shaman get 2 AP for every point of Str. Depending on the gear you find, sometimes you may find that the AP/AGI bonus is too high too ignore on an item. I raid with a Tankadin and a Healadin, so I'm constantly set with Salv and Kings because, well, Im enhance and I dont (normally) /oom to require Wisdom. Also, I prefer the Kings to Might because I get the Stam, Intel, Agi (read More Crit %), and Str.

If your looking for gear, don't shy away from Leather. And not just rogue leather either, there are _some_ Feral Druid pieces with good amounts of Str for you if your interested.

As far as your weapons, your pretty much out of luck. I suggest you go to wow-loot.com or another similar gear list site and look into options. There is not much for a little while. Don't get the mentality that "Greens are not ok." Until I got the Ax in MgT, I was running a Green OH fist weapon with mongoose. If you are not certain how to weigh the stats on an item, check out www.elitistjerks.com, they are great for doing all the horrible math that just makes your brain shrivel up and implode. Not that I am by any means completely geared (I still have a few poor items), but you are welcome to use my Shaman as a "how to/ how not to" gear if you would like.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Velen&n=Caladan