Vamp,
I said the same thing, well, until about level 800. I blew thru many of my rivals and ended up clanning with most of them. For random battles, I would always send messages of "nice battle", followed by "..heal, let's battle". It was my way to encourage a clean battle. If I had enough or had to go, I ended with the "thank you" message (hopefully to continue on a later day). Generally, most people avoid jerks (I know I did- I didn't like them leveling off of me, lol). I despised the hit and hide styles, I countered them and refused to have them level off of me.
I hit really fast, and I recall one random battle, I out-hit him/her 5 hits to 1, so in the in the middle of this random battle... I ended up slowing down because I felt guilty getting so much xp out of this one person, lol. It was just my way of showing good faith. I ended up leveling over 100 levels during a one week period, with just this one person.
After level 800, you will notice a huge drop in rivals. But if you respect your limited rivals, you will continue to rise rapidly. De-clan as needed, always with a courtesy message first, this makes a huge difference.
After level 1000, consider joining a strong alliance. In all great wars, the stronger alliance will always win. Battle strategy 101 
Last edited: May 14, 2010
