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lightmage
I wouldnt go past rank 20 personally until I got empowered, but thats just my playstyle.

I tend to advocate people continue ranking. Not crazy power-ranking, but not actively stifling it either. Ranking past 10 shows you're not a wuss who's going to hide behind the PK code just because he doesn't have this or that commune. That said, obviously any empowerment class is going to be hamstrung without higher level communes...and it certainly doesn't impress an imm when you die every 5 minutes.