Interesting points about the mage team, I'll probably create another mage on my main account using grant levels.

My main char is a holy priest so I will probably use that to heal in heroics to start with as she significantly outgears them. Should make up for the poorly geared tank and make things a bit more fogiving when I'm learning the ropes.

Having a team spread out over the different gear groups (cloth/leather/mail/plate) makes sense, but should only be a problem initially whilse they gear up through heroics. After that getting gear through vp etc won't be such a bottleneck.