Additional question, is it worthwile for a priest to study oratory at the academy? how does that really affect preaching?
I don't know about priests, but I can totally speak for diplomats and ambassadors in the middle 2013 period. I got one to almost top skill in a year and a half of praising and badmouthing pretty frequently, never using academy save for checking my skills every now and then.
I would say it is only worth to use the academy if you have absurd amounts of gold at your disposal. Otherwise, just practice (in your realm when possible, as I seem to recall that it was free if you were between your frontiers) and let it grow naturally.
And it is just incredible how much can do a single Ambassador with top skill. In two sessions of 12 hours I could pretty much make an opinion of any given realm from hate to love or the other way around. It felt pretty badass to use Ghaundan's jedi mind tricks like that
