...I generally knew I'd win, or be able to escape if losing. The folks I'd have liked to healing curse were the elf dagger STSF's and those who could protect from bash and heal (I wouldn't have worried about HC'ing invokers/transmuters/necros so much, since it'd take them longer to heal up and I could crushingblow/pummel past bash-shields).

I longed to HC Niheriva, for instance, since I knew he had like 700 hp and w/o flee/word/heal he was meat (or at least gone long enough for me to take the Orb or whatever) but I just knew he'd save far too many times to make it worth trying. Better to bash and hope that his enhanced shield block still made it hard for him to deal with the bashy goodness.