Practice. With practice the motions become second nature and how much to turn the nipples to effect the wanted result if far better known. The only thing a truing stand does is make the wheel holding and possibly the eying of the indicators easier. Since it is the skill of the wrench holder and not the wrench that counts... I will say that having a nice solid, repeatable truing stand and a separate dishing tool is nice it is completely unneeded for a good wheel result.

If you start to look for a stand I suggest focusing on the stability, solidness, of the stand. These characteristics stand head and shoulders above the bells and whistles like dial indicators or linear motion sliding surfaces. And don't trust any claims of dishing functions as a feature of the stand. Even the shop grade Parks, Vars and such are not reliable in their dishing adjustments not changing. Andy