Well, you certainly didn't explain yourself well then, because if I knew that's what you were asking I would have told you to do this:
//set %var blabla $!nick blabla
That does the same as the $eval with level 0 does.
//set %var $!nick $!+ .
or
//set %var $($nick $+,) .
(You don't need to specify the 0)
All you needed to say was:
I don't want $nick to evaluate. and everyone would have understood