>A couple of points of justification.
>
>1.) Getting enslave to a high enough percent to take the edge
>without using skill learn in conjuction with certain quests
>that give skill learns is a wild time sink. Over two orcs I
>spent hours spamming it to have it go up a net of 2% and over
>entire lifetime of both chars it went up about 10% naturally.
>So after hundreds of hours I wouldn't have been able to take
>the edge without skill learn, learn rates got better recently
>but at least 4 other people had similar issues with getting
>the skill up so I am pretty sure I am not crazy (my bet would
>be low int plus nuking of skills based on level of enemy used
>against plus needing mobs to be pretty lower level then you to
>use it)

This seems to be entirely level dependent. Get in the 40's and it goes up just fine, even without trying.

>2.) Slave selection is rough from 35-40, like very slim
>pickings. Around 42 it opens up a bit more in terms of volume
>but even at 51 the geographical location of mobs you would
>want to enslave vs where you would want to use them mixed in
>with the mobility restrictions of having a slave can make it
>bothersome to roll around with one.

My personal feelings on slaver is that it is a must, but only because Orc NPC's are such ####ty slaves, for several reasons...

1) They seem to have PCish HP. Instead of a Giant or Dwarf NPC with 5k+ HP, they have maybe 1.5k
2) They tank with their faces. Literally they tank worse than any NPC I can think of off hand. Coupled with low HP, this means you get like 2 rounds out of them tanking.
3) They don't do cool orc stuff nearly often enough. None of them are adapted (I don't think), they don't spam bash or crushing assault or any of the skills you'd want an orc to be doing in combat.
4) The super-cool orc NPC slaves (AP from underdark, Undead from Barovia, Skjald from Kiadana) are totally underwhelming and/or broken (I'm look at you bard that doesn't sing). Getting them to do something useful in the 4 rounds you've got (2 with you in front and 2 with them) is bad odds.

Compared with a giant you *know* will entwine (and has enough HP to soak up rounds even at hero) or a polearm spec that can tank a rager for 10+ rounds the Orc npc's are really just complete #### in comparison.

My suggestion would be to very seriously look at the Orc NPC's and see if making them not suck in comparison to giant slaves would be more interesting.