How important is it to train everything from a PvE point of view? I have played this game on and off for years but I always get drawn into maxing my TDPs. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing scripts but what ends up happening is my character advances slowly up the hunting ladder and I lose interest.

I guess I am asking if I train the minimal required ranks plus a few extra weapons that I find fun is it possible to reach higher circles(150ish)? It sounds silly but I feel like I am damaging my character if I don’t train every weapon.

Aselna

I used to run into the same issue, got plagued wanting to train everything. Every crafting skill, every weapon, etc., really bogged down my leveling pace for several years.

What's ironic is that back-training becomes a lot easier at high circles anyways. Higher mentals means better experience pulses, and in combat especially critters have huge teaching ranges. Between buffs, debuffs, and melee/missile mastery it's not a stretch to back-train weapons that are hundreds of ranks lower than a critter's advertised difficulty level.

I'd encourage you to maximize your minimalist training (i.e. it's quite easy as a Warrior Mage to mind lock 4-5 weapons before TM locks, instead of just doing the minimum 3), but being minimal and focusing on power circling is quite fine. I'd even go so far as to say I encourage it to a certain point.