Hmm, the encyclopedic knowledge is probably the part that probably stymies new players the most (at least it stymies me
). Separating what choices in pretenders, spells, items are the best versus choices that are mediocre or "just for fun" is a pretty hard job in the beginning. Whatever part of he game you are in, it seems like there is a main line of most effective choices that most experienced players, and then maybe a set of choices that do the same thing, but are less efficient to varying degrees. The challenge for new players is really separating the best choices from the chaff. Until then, it's really easy to make suboptimal choices and not realize it under it's too late.