I am deliberately not looking anything up on the raid. I have only seen the teaser that followed the Twitch reveal yesterday (was nothing more than a trailer). I want to go in blind as well.
Well that is 3 of us then
I missed VoG as by the time I was high enough level people had run once or twice already. CE, while not as good as VoG, it was interesting trying to work it all out. TBH if, as Bungie claim, TTK raid is more like VoG then I don't expect we can work it out as I don't think most people will spend 16 hours or however long the very first VoG completion took 
As Davey said TTK stuff will replace anything you have now though there is still some general guidance but most of it comes down to personal preference. For example if you want armour with INT (for faster super) DIS (grenades) or STR (melee) depends on how you like to play. It can also depends on whether you only play PvE or play both PvE and PvP. I think most people who have been around a while have multiple sets. Same applies for armour perks i.e. there is no point having a perk for carry more ammo for auto rifles if you never use auto rifles. About the only guidance that is universal is try to get boots that allow you carry more heavy ammo. It doesn't really mean much for heavy machine guns but means you can carry 2 or 3 extra rockets.
As for firetimes, I don't think Bungie will add match making to end game content. A lot of people argue against it but TBH all the problems of why not to have it are all countered by simply doing what most people do now and have a full fireteam before starting events. If you want to join raids, ToO, PoE etc. keep an eye on the Destiny Raid and PvP thread. There is enough people on both consoles that it is rarely difficult to get enough people together.
I shall stick a post in the raid thread to get a full group together for a blind run with time TBA.
