Re: Delirium and Syntheses)
In the last year or two, two changes in particular affect this discussion -- I've managed to get an Assassin up to pretty top shop in about ten days played (with parry).
1. New smaller creatures all over the place around Allanak (rats, vultures, scorpions, chalton).
2. Recent changes to sparring code.
1. Like I said already, there is a critter in the city that will let you grind your dual-wield to at least (advanced).
2. What recent changes?
[citation needed]Anyway, this is all sort of a derail, but (whether it's true or not), I think overall combat ability plays into backstab effectiveness, so it's at least partially relevant? At this point, I don't really care. People are going to believe what they're going to believe, and there's very little you can do to change their minds.
And no, sparring isn't -always- trash. If you have someone in your clan who already has insanely high base defense, and an outstanding agility stat, and they're willing to do nothing except act like a critter for you to grind on, then yes, sparring will work just like critter grinding. But that initial PC that you're grinding on? They probably had to critter grind to get to the point where they're a useful sparring buddy, so the general principal is the same, it's merely a step removed. If you take two noob warriors, rangers, assassins, whatever, and just have them spar each other and nothing else, they'll reach a stochastically-insurmountable plateau, unless you have godlike patience.
Unless there's been some magical change to sparring in the last 6 months that I haven't played.