My advice for the newer player would never include "seek sleeks and preps".

I would say that there are protective wands that will be useful if you ever find them.

Advice-wise though, I would tell someone to concentrate on learning the layouts of a few areas perfectly. That alone is often enough to keep you alive against even a vet. If you can move perfectly around the battlefield, or the holy grove, or even eastern road, you will immediately reap the benefits as you can move to those areas when threatened.

Worked for me, anyway, when I was new. I might have only known 5% of the mud, but I knew it at least as well as any, and probably better than most vets. I mean, be honest, how many vets can navigate perfectly around the battlefield and run someone down who is able to cut through the hedges etc.?