OH yes they can. Anyone remember the parallel situation in 1.0? Kentry leading the warmasters? How quickly that balance of power shifted when he didn't play for, what, a week? A few new people got into Savant, myself included. First real PK character I'd ever had. Ended up having tons of forum posts whining about invokers being overpowered because of him. Trust me, it can happen.
EDIT: I realize things now are different from 1.0, this is simply meant to be an example of a similar situation.
Yeah. I did say, though, that it might just be me that hasn't picked PK up fast enough to make a significant difference. 
I made that point based on my personal experience, that as a lone caballer for the majority of the time, I learnt a lot but not enough to make a significant different to how well I did against the big dogs at the time.
Dey
I personally think you improved exponentially during your time as Luris. Just because you're selling yourself short, doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Warmaster in my opinion is a well rounded cabal, And if people roll up afew Blademasters and get them inducted, the Savants will start having a hard time, I remember Taeim holding his own against the new appointed Leader of Savant. plus those hard yards as a inductee and member can be easily done without magic, There is a nice perk that can give you better protection than a vial would ever give, Its up to the players to put in the hard yards to get them up and running again.
it does take just one character to get into the flow of being a decent PKer. provided, that is, that said player does his homework (i.e. reviewing logs, finding why you lost and why your foe won, knowing the lands backwards and forwards, researching items, researching classes, researching races, changing tactics, adapting to enemy tactics, learning how to chase effectively, knowing when to flee... i could go on and on) and actually putting time and effort into developing and improving yourself in the PK aspect.
problem is, a lot of people do not want to do this. they want to go from suck to sugar instantly. and when they don't, they tend to shift the blame from themselves to something else. nothing is free. you need to earn it.
i learned like this. my first character made it to 50 and got into Savants. i got trounced from one end of the land to the other by Grishnak and his WM horde. i died many times. but you know what? i took it in stride, did the neccessary homework, and bingo, i saw improvement on THAT character. i started to hold my own more and more during each encounter. i learned how to run, i learned how to re-equip effectively and timely. at the end of that character's life, i beat Kentry one on one. for a complete noob at the time, to beat a very good player (Auzzie has mad skills) something about what i'm saying must be true. and from then on, i applied those new found skills to each new character i made. it was because of losing and losing big time, that helped me have multiple triple digit kill characters.
i've said this many times before on old forums (right, Tymox?). YOU WILL DIE. SUCK IT UP AND LEARN FROM IT. NOTHING IS FREE. YOU GET WHAT YOU PUT IN.
i learned like this. my first character made it to 50 and got into Savants. i got trounced from one end of the land to the other by Grishnak and his WM horde. i died many times. but you know what? i took it in stride, did the neccessary homework, and bingo, i saw improvement on THAT character. i started to hold my own more and more during each encounter. i learned how to run, i learned how to re-equip effectively and timely. at the end of that character's life, i beat Kentry one on one. for a complete noob at the time, to beat a very good player (Auzzie has mad skills) something about what i'm saying must be true. and from then on, i applied those new found skills to each new character i made. it was because of losing and losing big time, that helped me have multiple triple digit kill characters.
For the longest time I had the problem of getting almost to 50 withought dying then getting killed 3 or four times in a row then getting mad and rage deleting my char. I have lost count of how many well trained chars I lost doing that. iusedtobesomebody is very right in the respect that if you dont throw yourself out there to learn you will not get anywhere in regards of PKing. Roll up a char you could care less about slap up some tiny bit of RP then Challenge everyone you can at 50. Assuming they dont come after you first ....heh.
You know, whenever anybody mentions fighting Kentry, I still get slight shivers... freaking crush vuln HURT then.
Well, when a zerk is tossing six mangles through sanc to a gnome a round when he's NOT raged, it's kinda sick.
as nasty as Kentry was... Grishnak was nastier. i -hated- every time he would log on. but he taught me the most. a love/hate thing. heh.
basically, i didn't like WM leaders from 1.0.
at all.
Was Kentry a giant-sized Undead Zerk or something? Or am I just..making this up? I don't know where I got the idea that he was Undead from... 
Dey
Oh, I know he was, but I didn't have to deal with him. Baan saved me that beating long before I got into Savant.
Of course, what was even worse was knowing that Calandra outmeleed him once.
Kentry = Stone Zerker -> made Undead during Dreadlord/Theran Wind plot.
and contrary to popular belief, it made him weaker.
Gaining hide was a nice perk though.
Gaining hide was a nice perk though.
Am I missing something here? ...an Undead Zerk...with...hide?
Dey
Oh, I know he was, but I didn't have to deal with him. Baan saved me that beating long before I got into Savant.
Of course, what was even worse was knowing that Calandra outmeleed him once.
Calandra was, well, Calandra.
and towards the end, i watched Baan fight him -numerous times-, and killed him, what? twice? those battles were some of the best i've ever seen. the tactics on both sides were... excellent.
and as for the hide thing... all Dreadlords/Theran Wind got one extra skill of their choice for the length of the plot only.
Dreadlords and TheranWinds were each allowed to pick a skill/spell that they would be given. Kentry picked hide. All the Dreadlords were either undead or demons, and he ended up undead.
Calandra was, well, Calandra.
and towards the end, i watched Baan fight him -numerous times-, and killed him, what? twice? those battles were some of the best i've ever seen. the tactics on both sides were... excellent.
Oh, absolutely. Those battles were EPIC.