AA dialog, what do I do with it?

so I picked a class, got em to level 11. one quest level 5 tells you to grab a skill from this dialog (teleport to city spell). So I grabbed it.

Now I'm wondering... what do I do with all these tabs and choices? how do I know what to buy? how do I buy them?.. How do I know WHEN to buy what? LOL..any guides out there that explain it?

You don't get "proper" AAs until 50+, and how you get them or what you do with them will depend on if you get All Access and use Auto-Grant... or not. The way it normally works is that you use the slider to split your exp between leveling up and accumulating AAs, then you spend the points on anything you want that you qualify for. If you have ever played Marvel Heroes, it's similar to the O.M.E.G.A. system there, except that they don't require you to split your exp gains.

Sounds like you got "origin" which will port you to your home city, Cresent Reach most likely. You can make a "hot key" if you click on it in the list and then put that hot key on your bar so you can port back when you want just by clicking the button on the bar.

Later, around level 51 you can start earning AA like Mocha explained. They help in different areas of your char, like spell casting, run faster, eat less, etc. If you click on the line item it will show you a description in the box at the bottom. If you don't see the box then you need to make the main screen that lists them bigger by pulling on the bottom. Remember the resizing, you may need it in other boxes Some need to be activated, like your origin, others are just going on in the background after you earn them.

Don't worry about the AA's until level 50+. The "origin" AA is a free one given to everyone at level 5. It lets a person return to where they first appeared in the world (most new characters Cresent Reach, older character back in the old world starting zones...)

From 50 to 65 AA's do not matter much at all, but they certainly help.

If you are an All access member, then you click on the Auto grant box and then you don't have to worry about AAs unless you want some of the tradeskill or special AAs which Auto grant does not give. There is no cap to the number of AA's you can get. (I believe currently over 10k AA's...) Auto grant ends around level 95 or 96

If you are a free to play player then you will have to "grind" out some AA's at some point. I believe the max AAs for a free player are around 250 unless old silver account which I think goes to 1000.

If you are a free to play player, and get to level 95 and then buy a 1 month subscription and then turn your autogrant on, it will give you all of the AA's then you can let your sub expire and still keep them you just will not be able to earn any more.

I don't think this is accurate, can someone else verify this?

And if you are a free account then you need to research your AA for your class very carefully so you won't be playing the only other Paladin in the game that didn't get his unicorn like me. I spent the AA on something else not realizing and like Yruc says free accounts are limited to 250 AA so no way I can ever get it unless I subscribe for a month or buy the AA increase option from the DB store.

It is accurate, you can go pay for one month, and auto grant your AA to that level. So don't do it at level 60 cause you'll just need to do it again at level 90 to get them all.

And I would be more than willing to do it and show you on my paladin with no unicorn if you want to fund it

I think it's totally worth it to get at least 1 month of sub/krono on each of your accounts. Most people just maintain a "main" account, or 2-3 for boxing purposes.

The idea of starting in the tutorial zone (Mines of Gloomingdeep) is to DO THE TUTORIALS! There should be one which explains how the hotbars work. Once you are out of Gloomingdeep and in Crescent Reach, you want to memorize the relatively short path from the city gate to the Blightfire Moors zone line to the book (on a pedestal) you click to zone to Plane of Knowledge. PoK has its own tutorial NPC with which you can review things like hotbars, and acquaint yourself with both the guild hall and the bazaar. You can even get a free house.

Don't even think about AAs you spend points to get until you've dinged level 50. The game will give you a few zero-cost AA abilities at lower levels. The Origin AA you get automatically when dinging 5 will be useful at several points in the game, so follow the tutorial instructions and make a hotkey for it, and put it on one of your visible hotbars. If you started in Crescent Reach, you can later visit your race's true home city and change your origin to there, if you choose.

There is so much to gain in the tutorial in gloomingdeep like the Cap'n says. Do the hot bar quest and this http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=103888 is your reward! Huge for rangers and most others. You can pop up to pok from gloomingdeep by saying I am ready to leave to Arias and return by saying "send" to Secalna Galnor in PoK.