Highly recommend either a transmission jack, or at least a home made adapter to your floor jack...
Bearing puller isn't needed, it's a nice to have but... Wet paper towel works great, don't pack it with grease and hammer, that just makes a mess, the paper towel works great, if it spatters at all its just water, and it cleans up nicely when you pull out the wad of paper from the flywheel.
and I've never had to drop the exhaust to pull the tranny, there should be an attachment point by the transmission mount, just pop the pin out of the bushing and easy.
GL