If my ultimate goal to raid current content, how much of a time commitment is the AA grind at 110? I'm aware that autogrant will assist, but what's the ETA on the remaining 3 expansions worth of AAs? How about gearing/flagging? Or could you get "carried" and avoid the majority of this stuff?
RoV hosts open raids in Bristlebane that accept just about anyone. A lot of servers have raids for this that you can just join as a fresh 110 character. Your contribution will be modest and you'll be spending a lot of your effort trying to just not die because your gear/augs/AAs will be trash (along with your own skills because you haven't gotten used to them yet). To go from that state to being acceptable to more serious raids will generally require a tremendous amount of time, but you might shortcut that if you find a guild that has an exceptionally high need for a given class. If you ask around you might find a guild that needs bards (for example) so badly they'd be willing to bring you in if they thought you were reliable and talented.
That really depends on you. How much time do you have to play? I started a second Zerker April 3, 2018. Before beta started for TBL, I was done all heroic AA, Max AA, Level 110, and had all the best hDEX augs. I play a LOT. I spent a ton of time doing the old tasks in CoTF, TDS, TBM, killing every named in EoK/ROS and then just grinded out the AA in Sathir's Tomb.
AAs depend largely on the class. Different classes have different quantities of "required" AAs. Monks, for instance, have about 36k AAs total. "Required" ones? Maybe 25k? Other classes are going to be substantially more. Gear depends largely on the raid force you're applying to, as well as the timing of it. If you're apping at the start of progression, you're going to be left behind for gear until the full force (54+) has their gear. Sure, you'll get the odd rot item, but for the most part it'll be slim pickings. However, if you app during the farm period, when people are typically done gearing up their mains, you can pick up a full suit of gear in a single night. I've done it. Spells / discs included. Flagging, don't worry about. The 85/15 rule will let you sneak in. Getting fully flagged takes very little time anyway, especially with back flags dropping. Augments will be your crux. To get a full set of augs, you need to camp a lot of named, run a lot of missions / quests, and get a lot of currency to get it from vendors. Type 5s take up a lot of time. You can get a "passable" set of type 5s from TBM fairly inexpensively. Previous expansions have lots to offer still. Heroic AAs, augments, gear, and lots of xp. The higher you get, the easier the previous expansions become. Like Tucoh mentioned, there are open raids that accept warm bodies. Hopefully you can find yourself a mentor for your class as well. Maybe a team will take you under their wing to show you the ropes and get you up to snuff. You've made a great start by asking for advice here. As rough as the "elites" seem, there are very few who wouldn't offer up help to someone who needs it and asks for it.
Great question and good answers. The answer really depends on how good you are at making friends on the server you choose to play on. If you try to work your way up just solo/molo'ing its going to take you several weeks/months going from 85 to 110. If you make friends and get into a steady group every night you'll cut that time drastically and be able to get rotting gear. The hardest part is TBL gear is all 110 and the AE's are going to one shot you. If you get into a guild and/or can find a good PL'er to take you on as a project I've seen characters go from 85 to 110 over the course of a week and get a full set of T2 TBL gear.
As others have noted class choice is probably the largest factor two fold. First you have to have a class that is desired for raids on your server and second not all classes are equal in effort for maxing out. Knights probably require the most effort and will probably be the most obvious if you are under geared/powered against a tough raid boss. I only raided for about a year and it was obvious who the main guys were and I can tell you that even though they would give some new guy a shot at tanking if they hit the deck fast I don't recall seeing many of them given a chance for round two unless there was an absolute shortage. With that said I raided as a cleric and my cleric was a box cleric with no epic, pretty stock gear including missing tons of augs and my knowledge of playing a cleric was very limited. People were ok with this because they needed healing and I was willing to learn. I read some guides, took advise from others and tried to my hardest to top the healing parse. My daughters were born and raiding had to come to an end but if you pick a class that is in demand and show a willingness to learn and play your class well I think you will be welcomed once you get your levels.
Best bet is to speak to the guild you wish to join. Find out what they require you to have. We don't have a number of AA requirement but we do require you to have certain AAs maxed. If you are levelling up I would suggest you hit every quest and mission in every expansion since CotF and get the heroics. HAs are pretty good for levelling up till you get to 106, so try and get the dailys every day. Keep an eye on you AA count as you do quest some give AAs ad rewards and you may hit the cap, if you need to spend some try to go for the TBM ones onwards as they aren't autographed.
A guild can get a new character to raid ready in a week. By yourself starting from scratch, probably 6 months or more.
If you want to play a healer I'm sure my guild will be willing to put in the effort to get you raid worthy quickly
