A few questions about my Halfling WarriorFollow

I am playing a 13th level Halfling Warrior on the Mithaniel Marr server. I would be most grateful for some help on a few issues I have questions about:

1. A nice older player gave me a weapon called the Fang of the Garou. I am using it in my secondary slot since I now have Dual Weild. (My primary weapon is the Edge of the Proudfoot from the newb quests.) The Fang's description say that its effect is Lifespike (Combat). On occasion when fighting, I see a message that says something like I'm not high enough level to control an effect. I assume this message is referring to the Lifespike effect. But the item's description says nothing about minimum level requirements. Any idea what's going on?

2. I never trained Piercing above 1. Using the Fang (a piercing weapon) in my secondary slot never seems to cause my Piercing skill to go up. Is this normal?

3. I sometimes get attacked when resting using my Hide skill. I take it that my character doesn't know whether he has succeeded at hiding until a mob comes along. I recently played a rogue for a bit and I remember that when he hides, I get a message telling me whether the attempt was successful or not. Only rogues get that message?

4. How do you know what your max skill is for any given skill? I thought I read somewhere that it is something like (level + 1) * 5. Is that correct? Does it apply to every skill?

5. When binding wounds, is there anything better that you can by than just the plain old Bandages?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

The fang wont start proccing until lvl 30. That's what the message refers to, that you're not high enough yet.

As for the skill ups, since both the piercing and dual wield skills are so low at this point, not to mention that you're just simply gonna miss more with your offhand, it'll just take a little bit to raise it.

I'd train another point or 2, and be sure you're going after blues or higher.

Make a hotbutton that contains /target yourname

Put your actual characters name in place of "yourname"

After hiding press this hotbutton. If your target switches to yourself, you have not hidden, try again. If you get the message "I do not presently see anyone by that name around" or something to that effect, then your hiding was a success.

OK. I have finally managed to hit a mob with piercing damage so I guess everything is working. I just find it odd that it never tells me that I miss. I guess that you only get miss messages with your primary weapon.