Let me get this straight

Okay so I come back from the desert in October and I plan on upgrading my suspension and brakes. I'm pretty new to car modding so tell me if I'm right or wrong. First, if I drop the car I need to get my alignment done then I can put some new rotors, brakes, and rims on and be good? For the suspension I was going to do the "hotchicks" stage 1 setup but do I need to get new struts/strut bars or anything along with that? Lastly, is there anything else I'm missing here that goes along with the suspension that I can upgrade?

Lets see... if you get the hotchkis kit, it has the springs and sways. Match that with a good front upper strut bar (trd or hotchkis) and you'll be golden.

Get an alignment. You won't need any special camber kit, but get it aligned to the toyota trd specs.

Brakes: since its a fairly newer car you can get away with just replacing the rotors with slotted ones. Get a good set of brake pads (EBC pads are excellent.). You can go 1 step further and do stainless steel lines but not necessary.

Hope that helps.

That's good but what about buying aftermarket struts?

With hotchkis you'll be ok with your stock ones. Anything lower than 2 inches you'll put your struts at risk.