>Put another way, if I told you that if you spent 30 extra
>hours practicing, it would boost your PK percentage on that
>one character by 2%, would you do it? Why or why not?

-Hell no. You got me wrong here. I don't care about my PK ratio. I
mean, sure, it's nice to look at it after you delete and go, "Damn,
I didn't know I did that well in PK's," but it doesn't keep me happy
in that Claudia Schiffer kinda way. In truth, I hate practicing, but
there are *certain* things that I do like to have above average.
If I'm a warrior, I want to get sword, dagger, axe, mace, hand to hand,
and spears all to 90%. I seldom succeed in that, because it sucks. But
if I have a mage character, I am going to want word of recall mastered.
No, not 99% (because that has killed me numerous times), but 100%,
because when you actually die because you lost concentration at 90 to
100%, well, you just kinda smack yourself and feel dumb. I don't like
smacking myself, Valg.

>My experience with mortal Valguarnera was:
>- Master didn't have a leader for a long-ass time, and I spent
>a lot of time sitting at 20 (the highest level they'd induct).
> I solo-ranked a big chunk of that because it was the first
>time I'd ever played a mage character, and I wanted to get a
>feel for how everything worked. ("Huh. Sleep sure
>lands a lot more if...") Any skill/spell I had at 20 was
>probably pretty high.

-Hey, we had Hifflio didn't we? Or is my timeline jacked?

>- After I got inducted, I was thoroughly bored of practicing
>spells. I worked my way to 47, and didn't perfect anything
>except Word of Recall. mostly because it cost 5 mana at
>the time, and I had a 23 INT plus Tome. I think that
>took 20 minutes. I know I hit Spectre with a mid-90's
>Parry, 80-ish Teleport and Crimson
>Scourge, 71% Power Word Kill, etc.
>- I logged every time I died. I realized as a heroimm that
>zero of those losses were from failed spells or skills. I
>could have had 150% Parry and it wouldn't have
>mattered. They were due to getting outnumbered, being in the
>wrong place at the wrong time, making bad or risky choices,
>etc.

-Sleep is the one that mattered most there, and you had that under
control. On the rest, I agree.

>It's a lot more fun to
>interact, observe, reward, etc...... when the players are
>actually doing something.

-Like dying to the guy that practiced? j/k hehehe

>I'd believe the whole "I'm nothing without my 100%s!" argument
>if I didn't constantly see the following:
>- Skilled players with horrible %'s mowing down their range.
>- "Skilled" players with 100% everything getting killed
>because they made bad decisions (*).
>- Logs where the peanut gallery screams "your skills are
>awesome/crap and that's why you won/lost", and I check, and
>the guy's skills are crap/awesome, causing me to chuckle.
>Nepenthe invented that art, and damn if it doesn't keep
>delivering the laughs.

-Eh, can't argue that. Tactics are the ####, but we all slip on the
doodoo sometimes.

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Copyright infringments will be prosecuted to the full extent of the
angry mob outside my house. I think they are using pitchforks. What
kind of lame-ass American Gothic crap is this? No one uses pitchforks.
Hah! That torch almost caught my pants on fire. Almost, bitches! You
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ARGH! *!@#$^&......

Hello? Can anybody hear me? I-...I am alive...but I am very badly burned...
*BLAM*
*bows*

Bizarro I'm helping!