Being skilled means you have more ways to win. Not all of these ways strike people as obvious (hence why everyone isn't super leet). There have been exampled of pretty much every mage class played to sucess without wands (most of which not by me). If one person can do it one time then the ability for it to happen has already been established.

You might say my ability to pincer down even very skilled shifters out of form in the hero ranks is luck (in regards to finding them shifted). I would counter that I know better ways to get at people when they are vulnerable then the next guy.

With AP' especially being super conservative is not really helpful. Keep in mind only some AP builds have good laging potential. The rest have to fight more like mages for the vast majority of their life. It is a lot easier to take out foes who don't word/teleport/quit as soon as you enter the area. Big APs can either creeper their way up or they can snowball really fast. My personal opinion is that the snowball could happen easier then the creeper but fewer people give that route an honest try.

Keep in mind my definition of success is one where number of deaths is irrevalent just number of kills. So what if you lost 20 unholies on the way its about hitting that high mark.