I didn't know how to vote, the wording is confusing to me sorry. To answer your question, how someone would perceive difficulty today depends on when they played before, and which skills you/ they wish to develop in today's game. For a blunt comparison, skills are much, much easier today than when you first played (pre-T2A). But systems are a bit different, and if you're having trouble, that may be why. You'll also find today, that most gain "bugs" and consequent techniques once used no longer work (e.g. you can't parry a blade from a tower). For someone who came in shortly after the UOR publish, things might be a little harder today than before, "power hour" yielded to the "guaranteed gain system" (GGS), which really doesn't mean all that much except for a .1 every day or two (skill dependent) in some of the more powerful skills at higher levels. I think it was also during that timeframe that you could melee a guildmate to GM in a few hours, that's gone as well. There's also whats called an advanced character token that is sold by EA, that can set key skills for ertain classes automatically into the 85ish range I think. None of these skills take more than a couple hours to hit like levels however for seasoned players, so it's really a personal call as to whether or not these may be desired. Having babbled too long already, just bear in mind that some skills were intentionally slowed, but only to about the levels when you first played, for taming, bards, and thieves/ supplemental rogue skills. Another thing to bear in mind is that getting to GM is no longer a requirement, jewelry and certain items increase skills and stats, and many of the newer skills don't need a "GM" at all to function well - big changes from the pre-T2A days. By the same token, depending on what a character will do and their class, given skills may need to go above GM, but that's a lenghty discussion also. No resaon to tie up the boards really, if you want to drop a PM with the skills you want to add on each character, I'll be happy to provide my 2 cents.