Everyone says a buffed up muter out-tanks people, but I get hit by unarmed easy kill mobs basically every swing while wielding a staff. At this point I get maybe 4-5 rounds against a mob before needing to rest. At this pace it's entirely not worth continuing.

Here's the question. Say you're in the 40+ range and your parry and weapon skills are pretty much at 75%. Do you just delete? I'm coming over to the camp that says that you must max your skills at low levels or you're in for dozens of hours of practice later. I always thought the game really couldn't be that poorly designed, but I dunno, I'm thinking maybe it is.

So how do you master defenses in less than say, 2-3 hours as the above character? Oh yeah, and no a/b/s, slave healer, infinite gold, or other unreasonable things.