Honestly as far as how to spend your time its totally different for everyone. I personally like hunting weird rare crap thats not worth anything, and farming event items. Some people like playing the quests and getting the story, some people like time attack, and some people like challenge mode. But if you play long enough on the server you'll dip your toes into all of it. I'd suggest just finding which character you enjoy to play most first of all, then get that char geared out so you can use that as a foundation to get whatever other things you'll need in the future. For exp, just spam TTF to 100 then CCA to 200. For items, farm or ask around. Plenty of people are willing to give mid range or higher to newbies. If you want to max out your character (which you should), check out this thread: