It's a bit confusing now because the Alliance War ranks (which award those skill points) move independent of the Assault/Support skill lines in your skills menu. Both are driven by AP, but it used to be that they 'dinged' at the same time. Now the system levels Assault/Support WAY faster, so they're offset. But this is good...it takes 85,000 AP to unlock Assault/Support 5 and Vigor...it used to unlock at 800,000+ AP.

AP

Alliance points are the currency of PVP. When you earn AP it flashes in the lower left of your screen, and is added to that character's currencies.

AP drives both your Alliance War rank, and it also levels the Assault and Support skill lines. Note - AP does not level the skills themselves. These level via XP like all other skills. You can unlock Vigor (assault 5) and then slot it and go do anything in the game to level vigor.


Alliance War Ranks

This is character based. Each of your characters need to play pvp to earn these skill points. Don't worry! There are so many skill points in the game that you can unlock everything you want without PVP-ing on a character. I have eleven characters who don't PVP, and they are all master crafters with 125+ points in crafting, and with multiple weapon lines, and with absolutely everything they need unlocked. If I really needed points I could go grab the first 10-15 from Alliance War pretty easily, but I've never had to PVP to get points.

You describe a character who was mysteriously already rank 2. My best guess is that you entered Cyrodiil and did the beginner quest, which leveled you up and offered a point at quest completion. You were probably confused and thought it was a skill point quest and not a rank skill point.

Your rank levels based on an algorithm set to AP. There's not a lot of indicators in-game to show where you stand. The best you get is on your campaign menu. In the lower right you will see your current rank, and a meter showing progress to the next rank. When that meter is full, that's when you get your skill point and new rank.

I believe that this chart is still totally accurate:

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Alliance_Points

It's a bit confusing. The most important thing on it is the value for "AP to next rank". This tells you that a brand new toon is a citizen, and needs 700 AP to become a volunteer. This means your little meter on the campaign menu represents 700 AP. If you are rank 11, Corporal Grade 1, it's 193,600 AP to the next rank, so the meter now represents that much AP.


AP tips for beginners (in case it helps)

There is a buff called Blessing of War that offers +20% AP for one hour. You get it by killing any delve boss in Cyrodiil. This really adds up! Familiarize yourself with a delve and it's bosses (they all have multiple bosses with weird spawn patterns) and keep the buff active.

Inexperienced players can earn most of their ap by assisting in keep/resource captures. A capture offers everyone a lump sum, so don't worry if you aren't 'pulling your weight'. Follow your team during a push, and make sure you are 'on property' when a keep or resource flips.

There are five repeatable quests on boards at your base. When PVP-ing, it pays to carry these. They reward 500 - 4000 AP depending on which one. If you pick up one of these that is impossible (like capturing the furthest, hardest keep on the map) feel free to abandon the quest and pick up another.

There is also a system of 'battle AP'. When a fight is conducted on a property, a 'bank' of AP builds up based on how much is earned by your team during battle. If a team successfully defends, they get the bank divided between them after the battle clears. If a team successfully captures, the bank is divided usually with the capture reward, but sometimes it takes a little longer. IMPORTANT: to get on the list to get a share of the battle AP, you need to help in that battle before the battle clears. You help by damaging an enemy (you don't have to kill them), healing an ally, or repairing a wall/door. It might be a good idea when you arrive at a battle to first take a second to repair a wall somewhere to ensure you're on the list.

Under the new system (Update 18) you DO NOT need to stay on property until the battle AP is rewarded. This used to be the case. You will stay on the list for a battle until you step on the property of another asset of the same type. In other words, you participate in a battle at Black Boot keep and your team successfully defends. You're on that battle list until you step foot onto the property of a different keep. You may go to a farm, mine, mill or outpost and stay on the keep list. You can move around, just don't transport to a new keep until you see your battle AP come through.

The only time this usually comes into play is huge, long battles where it might take the system 10+ minutes to reward the battle pot. If you participate in a massive battle and your team wins, try to stay away from resources of the same type until you see a chunk of AP come in. I earned 27k for a big defense this weekend, it took a while to award. If I'd immediately transited to another keep I'd have lost it. so it's worth watching and making sure you aren't losing your battle AP.


Hope that helps. If you have questions, use @davey1107 in your reply and I'm happy to answer anything that is unclear.