I have begun to farm shards, for my alts in the future. Is it worthwile for me to spend more time in the instances to get xp and shards, instead of just questing to reach lvl 80?

What would you do? Focus on one team and get it to 80 as fast as possible, or maybe lvl through instances to get shards? (no boosting).

Currently I have both quested and run some instances (Utgarde Keep). I did utgarde keep 4 times this weekend. First time (lvl 71) it took me nearly 4 hours and I diden't down the last boss because the mobs keept respawning due to me wiping all over the place lol.

Second time with tweaked setup I did it around 1 hour and 30 min. Third time it was around an hour and only died 3 times. Last time was roughly the same.

When you equip heirloom stuff, is it bound to the character? or can I buy a piece and then unequip it and put it on another char on the same account?