A controversial suggestion

[GSM]

sorry but i agree with bog

This is unironically how I learned to fight on Na'Ria, Shevaun and SCARLET KING NRVNQSR, and learned how to fight overall. Sparring for me didn't do much other than solidify that someone else of a roughly equal level/higher level than yours can and will probably beat you down over and over again, given they spar more than you. I have very few restrained fights for that reason, plus? Sparring away is usually boring, for me, with little RP in it and little to do but just practice your skills.

On Na'Ria, I'd often go to wars after doing a few fights to do a check-up and wake myself up more than actually genuinely practice- I was already familiar enough with how my build operated 20 dangers ago, a war is just another danger with higher stakes. With Harper, my sparring sessions were often cut short, and I just ended up not really engaging with the fights for very much, opting to just go do something more productive. SCARLET KING NRVNQSR was just meant to be a build test that I was prepared to die for trying, only to find success with it. Even for the war on Shevaun, before I went to fight Lykon, I sparred a grand total of once after making some radical adjustments to my build. When there's a genuine fire under your ass, sparring is just going to mess with your verbing prowess if you have no idea what you're up against.

As an additional confession? Before I went to fight Lykon in the most recent war, I thought I had my bar set up. But after losing round 1, I decided to do something a little unhinged- and bought Flashbeam to replace something else on my bar, since I had the spare RPP. At best, it would've been a gambit that let me win the fight overall- at worst, it was how I died. I won, barely, even without being able to see invisible Spirit Melds and Occult Energy Shields- which I've expressed before is a problem that needs correcting.

I don't hate restrained fights. I think they're silly for what I want to do- tell a story, either through a fight's results or through otherwise interacting with the world. Sparring does neither of those for me. Removing them is counter-intuitive, but there definitely is something to be said about skill gaps definitely existing, and they do exist, because some people genuinely are on the game for many many hours a day to pump their mechanical skill, whereas I can only be on for a select few hours at most, if at all, on given days, and have to allot my time wisely. If someone wants to do 300 restraineds to finally figure out what the fuck they're doing with their skillset and bar? More power to them. Not for me, however.

TL;DR light a fire under your ass for fights. Sort out your skill issues on your own time, however you want. Leave all avenues open.

Do what's best for your story.