I look at it this way. I spent over 300 hours waiting on a lich quest once before, and in my opinion since that was my goal it was a waste. This time I ranked incrediably fast, and I spent a lot of those hours on duty. I am betting only about 25 of those hours AT MOST were spent ranking. For example, I went from 34-47 in about a 6 hour period. Once I got off my ass, I gathered my items fairly quickly.

Now, having gone thru the pain of never getting a quest before I chose to not "waste" so much of my time should I fail. That is exactly what happened, I didn't waste as much time. I really doubt more hours would have affected the outcome all that much. Sure they might have given me like 10% more or something, but to me 200 hours sitting at spectre isn't something I want to do. Especially for a measly 10%.

I can't disagree more with hours affecting your chances unless it was a significant boost.