Welcome!

On looting - free for all and pick up everything with main. The only pain is if you decided to do collection quests. Usually what I do is leave on free for all, loot with first toon until he has all the quest items he needs, then start looting with second toon until he has all quest items that he needs, and so on for all five. It is still a pain though ;-) - thats why many skip collection quests. On the other hand it means extra XP for grinding and completing said quests.