Fresh 80's- How much do you spend gearing them up?

[Hachoo]

Edit: I also didn't want to run normal 80 instances at all - the gear drops are fairly horrible, the rep sucks compared to running heroics, and they don't give badges. I had extra money so I figured why not

Yeah, that's kind of what i've been thinking myself. Why bother running the things on normal when I'll get more Rep on Heroic? (why that is stuck above badges, I have no idea. Probably because I never got used to the whole idea of a badge vendor, but I digress)

Except Loken. Gotta go kick Regular Loken's head in a few times til he gives me his awesome trinket. Twice.

Seal of the Pantheon is unique-equipped, so you only need one of his trinket.

Be prepared for a wake-up call gettting TO Loken, however. Ionar is a bitch. I'd run Drak and Gundrak several times on heroic successfully, went into HoL (normal) and proceeded to get my ass kicked, repeated (like 10 wipes) by Ionar, the boss before Loken.

I was trying the run-away strategy for him and his knockback effects kept breaking my follow. Finally figured out to take my guys out to one of the balconies, healing stream * 4, and just stayed put healing thorough his Disperse. Loken himself was trivial and was kind enough to cough up the trinket. Haven't tried HoL on heroic; not sure I'm going to anytime soon.

To echo what's been said, I geared up all my guys pretty throughoughly with crafted blues/epics, especially my tank, before setting foot in heroics. Took my about a week after getting my second team to 80 cause I got the epic flyers first (to make the dailies faster). Straight to heroics after that; hadn't really run any dungeons to speak of in Northrend prior to that.

Ionar is actually quite easy with tank + 4 shamans. I will be making a video of heroic HoL soon to show my recommended layout (which I think I got from someone else here but it helps to see it in a video). Regardless, 4x healing stream + chain heals make this fight pretty easy.

[heffner]

I bought what I thought was reasonable gear from the AH. Any piece that is 100g and under is reasonable to me. All blue gear of course. I don't see the need to go balls out and get the best gear I can through the AH. I suppose with some research you can determine which ones will last a long while.

I always planned (and will start tonight since I Just hit 80) to do all normal instances. I need some upgrades (at least I assume I do, never really looked at the drops), but primarily because I am multiboxtarded when it comes to instances. I need the practice and I am assuming that if I know the fights on normal, it has to help on heroic to a certain degree.

[Multibocks]

I am making all my DKs on my second 80 team have Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting for tradeskills.... where is your god now?!!?

[Hor]

When I hit 80, I started knocking out quests in Icecrown and Storm Peaks, much like Hachoo the idea was get some gold, get some gear, and start rocking. Things have been a bit busy though, so I've only been doing chunks of quests at a time. While farming some Emblems from a Heroic everyday while I build up. For gear, my suggestions are as follows, all are BOE Craftable epics and shouldn't be too hard to get.

Main Hand: Titansteel Guardian - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41384
Offhand: Iron-bound Tome - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38322
Chest: Revenant's Breastplate - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43461
Legs: Windripper's Leggings - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44931
Feet: Windripper's Boots - http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44930

It's tempting to say, "it's not mail, it's not worth it" but this kind of thinking won't really help you max your nuke potential. Itemization for elemental mail gear is kinda ... non existent. So, getting leather, even cloth gear is a real option. You might consider even getting Ebonweave Gloves, however I wouldn't simply because you'll likely be getting gloves from Emblems soon enough. I personally value crit over haste, hence the choice of Windrippers Boots over Revenant's Boots. Likewise, you could save up for the Zom's Crackling Shield, which is very nice. However, it's a BOE world drop, compared to the inscription crafted book. The book has more spell power and crit vs the MP5 on the shield. The real thing to consider is price/availability. On my server you can get the tome for about 400-500g vs 2.5-3K for the Shield. Overall, a decent choice imo. With this list, and quest blues you'll get from knocking out Icecrown, etc. You should be set.

[Khatovar]

I made a point of having tradeskills covered between my teams. Blacksmithing & leatherworking geared up our pallies, druids, shammies and hunteres very nicely. My pally has enchanting, one of my shammies has inscription. Several of my toons have JC. So that covers random enhancements, too. Each team had an enchanter, a skinner, an herbalist and a miner. What they picked up along the way to 80 covered gearing both teams very nicely. All I had to buy was a few orbs to get my healer and his tank kitted out enough to be heroic ready to get my own orbs.

So all in all, maybe 1k, but that geared 2 healers & 3 tanks for heroics. And that's when orbs were still ~250g each. Ouch.