Fastest Way to be Ready for Shadowlands? Gear Info request

[Holycloud]

Good morning,
Im a parent of 2 young kids (1 and 3) and recently with their sleep schedules have been able to play some WoW again! I've been having fun getting to 50 but am looking for a few answers on gearing since my time is extremely limited right now.\

With 9.0 has anything become available? Should I wait for the next patch; will their be catch up gear or can anyone point me in the right direction? Google has given so many results ranging from early BFA to last patch I figured Id ask for help.

[FurryBush]

Some catch-up gear is coming available later in the pre-patch for the pre-expansion event. Fairly sure it's iLvl 100 - not spectacular but good enough for leveling in SL.

[ranzino]

Some catch-up gear is coming available later in the pre-patch for the pre-expansion event. Fairly sure it's iLvl 100 - not spectacular but good enough for leveling in SL.

ilvl 100 is nyalotha normal niveau. pretty good for next to nothing effort aside of idling in icecrown and poking rares every 20 minutes
just for info: SL beta premade chars start with ilvl75 and those survive too.

[Bloodyleech]

You pretty much wont need any specific gear to start when Shadowlands releases. It's still easy to get 85 gear - and 100 gear, as the other posters already said, as soon as the event starts.
Just remember to unlock worldquests (all 3 alliance factions, one in each zone, to friendly rep ; all 3 hordezones invaded) > go to Genn to unlock Nazjatar and follow the questline till you get the legendary cloak. This way, you'll have some very strong slots and an upgraded neck.

[Nevcairiel]

As others have said, you don't "need" anything spectacular, expansions are pretty standalone now, even professions you can just pickup instantly since the BfA changes.
But if you want to get a bit of a leg up on the leveling, do the pre-expansion events once it starts, it'll be the fastests and easiest way to get some gear to make leveling smoother.

[ranzino]

pre-event is not available on PTR for some time, so we are a bit in the dark whether or not the event will take place with same questline and items as tested by us some weeks ago. the quartermaster back then was stocked with 9 gear items ( each cloth, leather, mail and plate respectively), but without neck, rings, trinkets and weapons.
perhaps blizzard changes something, so we do not rely on the rares completely for said missing item types.