My characters are hardly what I would consider stat [censored]s. They dislike armoring and pay through the nose for the service. Although they admire archery, they have never excelled at the discipline. As I indicated, their speed and acrobatics skills are mediocre. However, as ,mages, destruction is their bread and butter. I have always alluded to a sense of "swagger" that both girls have as they traverse Cyrodil and the gates of Oblivion. Achieving 100 in destruction was a mandate for their builds and they went out of their way to achieve it. The final push from 99 to 100 with Bralsa was memorable... and rewarding, as I remember her green triangle moving (seemingly in real time) all over the map as the characters tried to track her down for training. The game seemed to make this final push challenging, which is one reason why I remember it so vividly. And, I agree that the final reward was memorable. Their swagger is predicated in the work they put in for the achievement. I think Sean Penn summed it up best in the movie "Casualties of War."

"Yea, though I walk thru the valley in the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil";
"Becuase I'm the meanest muthaXXXker in the valley."

I don't use the trainers that much either but I hate seeing npc's dieing by something other than my hand. Especially if it's stupid npc syndrome. Stupid NPC: "Level 60 ogre just over that hill? No problem, a few punches to the head should drop it!"