This has to deal with the changes to the learning rates of the cityties/bind path blackjack skill as well as the city ties acrobatic skill.

Since i've received blackjack i've been attempting to work the skill while ranking (about 60% of the times I go out i'd say, when I have a warrior tank to rescue me) as well as using it extensively in pk situations. The skill reached 84 by about level 33 and then hit a screeching halt. Over about 130 hours of playing time since i've learned the blackjack skill it's only reached 87%, grabbed a lucky 3% on a level gain.

Acrobatics has proved nearly immovable. In about the 90-100 hours i've had the skill it's gotten better twice, up to 79%. Part of my daily routine as a city ties thief is to steal from those high level shopkeepers and that's where the only two improvements have come. At one point I bribed a warrior with 50 gold and a nice sword to spend some time helping me work acrobatics. In about 30 minutes of practice, which was nearly continous due to a couple of black hammer pendants and high dexterity, I hadn't gotten one improvement up from 77%. I fight a lot of bashing mobs while ranking and fail stealing


I feel i've made a big attempt to specifically practice these two skills on a non-duergar thief, yet they continue to frustrate me. The very nature of the skills makes them more difficult to focus on when compared to some equally slow improving skills such as flurry or your defenses. At this rate I expect to possibly master blackjack by maybe 250-300 hours and don't forsee acrobatics ever hitting those last 5-10 percent. Is this the way things were intended or would you reconsider the rates on these changes. I might just be getting unlucky with blackjack but the acrobatics rate reminds me of when the shapeshift spell was first implemented...