So like, hi and stuff.
Sweet, now that we're acquainted, let's get to it.

Pros:

Self-sustain heal with low cd for easy early jungle
2 CCs that cannot be cleansed
Very powerful ganking potential
Insanely tanky lategame
Controls teamfights if skills are thrown correctly
Great at towerdiving after 6
[Insert "This champ looks so cool" reference here]

Cons:

Weak early-game
Very slow in the jungle
Can have a very hard time when being counter-jungled
Does not have much damage output when ganking
Extremely Mana dependant
Fat cow

Err... Smite + Flash, nothing else. (Not even Exhaust)

Start with heal to save a pot at blue.
Cap W for it's CD, followed by Q for same reason. Also, an early rank 2 on E will really help with early jungle sustain.

Pretty mandatory for alistar, you may change the AD marks for some Atkspeed marks to proc your Mandred's. Mpen is a no.

Simple:
Offense - lulz.
Utility - All common sense, I take movespeed over Mana regen to get to lanes I want to gank faster.
Defence - Anything not taken is not worth the point, cc reduction is too good to pass up.

Pretty much explained it all on the top of the page. Be sure to have enough gold for a ward or two every time you recall. Warding buffs and jungle entrances is key.