I was having fun for a while but I'm getting very discouraged with this game lately.

Too many bullies out there. Too hard to survive once you hit the mid-30s and up ranks. I put hundred of hours into a character, role, exploration, quests and skills, and then get pk'ed so many times in a row that it's just not worth continuing on because of my constitution and practices are all burned well before I hero. Okay, so I suck and I don't know all of the intricacies of the game...what should I do to figure this out? I can't seem to find a race/class/cabal that doesn't feel weak when I play it (despite getting my ass handed to me by others when they seem to do the same things), which is clearly my lack of knowledge of the game.

I just have to say, the help files suck in terms of actually helping a person figure out how to defend themselves or fully utilize skills/spells/stats, etc. I guess the immortals are too busy killing me with all of their beefed up characters, and programming all these complex things behind the scenes...would sure be nice to see some more detail about how things work (in an organized way; not "go search the forums"). I guess some people like it all to be hard to figure out because it works to their advantage, but it's simply not welcoming to new players. I'd consider myself a moderately knowledgeable player at this point, but I just can't seem to make a strong character or feel like I'm not at a constant and major disadvantage due to the black box nature of the game.

Honestly, some real detail in the helpfiles about how things work, how they are affected by different stats, etc. and how to defend against them would be EXTREMELY helpful for the few newbies that actually seem to play this game. I'm all for complexity and awarding those that put a lot of time and energy into learning the game, but there needs to be a bit more help for newbies out there.

If anyone has suggestions on the best, most efficient way to learn this game other than spend a billion hours playing and reading forums, I'm all ears. I'm willing to put in my time, but want to actually have a real life too...maybe that's not possible?