>See, my problem seems to be though, that I get hit so hard
>even before the 100 hour mark that I start to loose interest.
>I don't know what it is, but it always seems like someone
>either has the more bad ass sword than I do, the more bad ass
>armor, the more bad ass everything, and I can't compete with
>that no matter how much skill grinding I do. So what do you
>reccomend in that regard?

Honestly? Set your sights lower, for now.

There have been a small handful of people over the history of CF who were mostly beating ass by their second or third character. They're very much in the minority. If you're writing a post like this, you're not in that group.

But most people aren't. Make peace with that, and move on.

You're not going to make a hero who also beats ass in PK in one go. One of the things I really like about PK in CF is that it plays out really differently for different classes at different level ranges. This is one of the things that makes the trek towards hero with a new character fun for me. This also means that even if you whip ass at PK at level 15, your first hero will probably be slapped around silly.

Therefore, I suggest either:

A) Focus on heroing first. You're going to get beat in PK. That's okay.

B) Focus on PK first. Level a character up to 11 with a role that will draw a lot of conflict, and start killing as appropriate. Once you feel unbeatable, level up a little more and repeat.

Probably, (A) is a better bet for you.

Once you're hero, you won't have that hero virginity boogeyman haunting you anymore. What next? If your exploration skills aren't super hot, this is a great chance to get a better handle on some of the low-midlevel areas and even some of the high level areas. You'll die doing this. That's okay, too. You'll keep the knowledge for your next character.

There's a big advantage in ten different ways to knowing areas really well, and that never comes from looking at someone else's map or following someone else around it. Those things can be training wheels, but they're not helpful or practical when your next level 12 guy is blinded in Forest of Nowhere and needs to run to the nearest healer blind with someone occasionally catching up to him and bashing him. There's no substitute for personal hands-on experience here.

I could write a whole post on newbie PK mistakes that it sounds like you're making. Maybe a little later.