Pre-Heroics Gear:
"Too long, didn't listen" (tldl) version: Treat gearing for heroics in Cataclysm like you did gearing for raids in Wrath. Run instances a lot and get the drops and faction rewards before you put a serious amount of hours into the heroics themselves.
The guild message of the day for several days was a suggestion to complete your leveling in the Twilight Highlands (TH) zone. (Note: I would even go one further and suggest completing all of the quests in that zone until you have at least gathered all of the rewards that are Best in Slot (BiS) for you pre-Heroics even if that is after you ding 85.) If you didn't get a chance to do that, it is highly recommended that you check your favorite wow information sources (blogs, forums, person-in-the-know in the guild) to see if the BiS items for you pre-heroics come from quest rewards in the TH zone. If they do, get there and get them.
Those same sources will also give you a sense of where to find most of the normal instance drops you need. For the most part, I would expect them to be in Halls of Origination, Lost City and perhaps Grim Batol; if you have not yet discovered those instances, go do that to make grouping and queuing easy.
The final pre-heroics gear sources are faction reputation rewards and crafted gear. You can check for faction rep rewards with your trusted sources, atlasloot or wowhead.com amongst others. For who can make which crafted items in guild, open the guild pane ('j') and look at the professions that craft your needs. You can search to see who has that pattern specifically. You can also see who is leveling close to the right skill level to make your item(s) if there are none already there and help them. The auction house right now is pricey and it makes better financial sense right now to supply a guild member with the mats to craft your piece than to buy it on the AH - unlike the last few weeks we saw in Wrath where people were selling off crafted items lower than cost to make them.
You have to be geared as close to BiS (pre-heroics) to have the game even let you into the heroics and certainly for you to be able to contribute and not be a liability to the group. Due your due diligence and get the best pieces of gear you can get within reason and within the expectations of the group that you are running with (some won't mind, others working on bosses deep into the heroics will want you geared).
Strategies:
TLDL: Chat with fellow guild members who have been doing the fights a lot recently.
There are few if any strategies posted and published right now. Most guilds are working through the fights and are not sharing strategies because they are trying to get realm firsts in the raids and do not need to help others get to the raid stage. Having said that, there are several members who have been at level 85 since the first few days and have a lot of experience with the early bosses in the heroics. In Heroic Deadmines, we are working on Admiral Ripsnarl - hence we have a lot of experience with the prior bosses and can happily share that for in house knowledge.
Clearing:
To manage expectations, in the beginning, plan to clear bosses - not instances. This is very similar to stepping into ICC for the first time: you hoped to clear a boss or some bosses; however, did not expect to clear the entire instance. Same here. While they are called 'heroics' - these are not the heroics of your Wrath grandfather. Yes, you will be doing 'progression' in a heroic! At least in the beginning you will.
So many classes have crowd control now that it is almost inexcusable to wipe on a pull after not using crowd control. We have all read about and heard how these heroics were going to be much, much harder and that healers would have a hard time with mana and tanks a hard time with survival. Use crowd control and avoid stressing the healers (don't stand in the bad). If the fights are taking too long, your dps needs more gear. If the tank is dying too quickly, the tank needs more gear. If the healer cannot keep the tank alive, the healer needs more gear. These are straight forward. However, one of the ways to compensate for any of the above, is to reduce the number of mobs that are pounding the health out of the tank at a rate that the healer cannot replace fast enough. Crowd control. Thus, set up your groups accordingly - you will want at least two cc'ers.
Knowledge Management:
When you learn a new way to do a fight or a way to pull / etc: Share that in guild chat with others. Share your knowledge so that more guild members can gear and clear. Be attentive to what the other roles are doing and pass that information on (e.g. if you see a tank do something that was very effective, pass that on if they are not in our guild and if they are, encourage them to share that tip with others).
Heroics are very demanding and they take a long time right now. We are very fortunate to have absolutely amazing and fabulous players in our guild that bring a great attitude and sense of humor into these demanding and stressful situations. Don't be afraid to ask for help or laugh at when the group failsauces. It's good times in there, however come prepared so that it does not just wear on your repair bills!
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