I have played one in the last 6 months and had absolutely no problem with it at all.

Although I can see where it would be read that way. What I was *trying* to say was that for non-hth spec people of all classes... hth is a serious pain in the ass to practice. You don't parry, you hit for ####, and it doesn't seem to improve as fast as other weapons (for me at least). For instance, I recently had a character that had sword and hth at 75% and I practiced both at the same time (with sword in offhand) and I had sword at something like 95% and hth hadn't hit 80% yet.

I think H2H not having a dual weild bonus (unless that changed in the recent years) and not having the practice weapon bonus is the only thing that might make it seem like its slow going to perfect it. That being said its not quite as easy as 1-2 hours as nep suggested unless he was using it while leveling in a group or tanking really buff mobs. But its still easy enough, as recently 4 months ago I perfected h2h with a fire ap in about 4 hours of downtime.

kads

My experience as a player always suggested it was MUCH easier to learn than any weapon. I've frequently got it to 100 in 1-2 hours.

RNG, I guess.

Why is it immune to the learning-from-tanking bonus? You can learn other weapons by tanking them but not h2h.

I don't know if it is, but, if it is, it would have to do with the vast majority of mobs using hands as their primary weapon.

So we're back to the overpoweredness of not having to rest as much while ranking?

I just think if the vast amount of NPC's use hand to hand then it should as a bi-product be one you should know pretty damn well if you're constantly tanking. Different ways of looking at it I guess.

Given that most people, including myself, when practicing H2H, use a shield.

How about if your Not using a shield, you get a bonus for
"both" hands, just as if you had two swords wielded you would
learn sword faster, as opposed to one.

I think it's more than realistic, and practicing without a shield
has it's drawbacks, and hopefully after fncr, could have it's
mitigating benefits as well.

A certain level of challenge is good for the game. Excessively quick heroing isn't, for a number of reasons which should be obvious.

Specifically, a gradual skill improvement system which is resistant to gimmicky exploits, among many other things:

1A) Favors characters with longevity. We like this.
1B) Discourages deletion, voluntary or via cheating.
2) Makes mental stats significant.

These are all huge factors.

Not that Hand to Hand is a difficult skill to master, but I don't foresee it getting easier.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Fighting an dark elf with a sword vs. fighting an orc with a sword, you are still going to pick up some tips on how to use a sword that you can apply. Fighting another hth specialist would teach you the hand to hand skill, but a blood beast chomping on you?

Not all of mobs that get the hth skill would fight in such a way that you could get tips on how to fight yourself. Until/if they were coded separately, I can understand not gaining in hth from fighting mobs.