New and Improved Skill Capture System

How often have you forgotten to bring a signet of capture when you wanted to capture an elite skill? How often did you think you probably didn’t need one or just couldn’t afford to bring one? How often did you have to remap to another town just to buy some signets of captures from a skill trainer? If you are anything like me you probably answered most of them with “pretty often” or something similar. Therefor I devised a new and improved skill capture system.

I introduce to you the ninth skill. It’s not part of your skill bar nor is it in any way changeable. I suggest we have a ninth skill just for signature of capture and absolutely nothing else. It has its own little box instead being part of your skill bar and similar to your skill bar and many other features it can be turned off when it isn’t needed.

Here’s how it would work, whenever you’d want to capture a skill you just press your ninth skill which reduces one skill point and the amount of money needed directly from your inventory, whilst it casts just as it normally would. You select the skill you want to capture and press the corresponding button to capture it. Now instead of the signet of capture being replaced with the skill you just captured it remains a signet of capture and the skill you captured is added to your skill list. This way you can capture as many skills as you want without having to bring any additional signet of captures. And this way you never can have more than one elite skill in your skill bar (which always seemed a little unfair to me). Now if you don’t have enough money or don’t have any skill points, the signet of capture is greyed out and can not be used. The signet of capture might have an additional information screen next to it about the cost of the signet of capture and your current skill points and money in your inventory.

I made a sample picture so that you might understand better how I’d imagine it. I personally don’t think there are many negative points to it or any way it could be abused. Let me know what you think I’d greatly appreciate it.

Also if any A-Net people are reading this I would completely wave away all my rights to the concept if you’d ever consider to implement it.

/not signed

Capturing elite skills without a full skillbar is part of what makes the skills so elite.

/signed

It would not be overpowered, because obviously if the Sig wasn't on your skillbar then you wouldn't have it [the Elite you captured] available for instant use.

LOL, I could capture every elite skill without any skill on my skill bar except for the SOC with henchemen. It's not like I'm going to solo ever boss I want to capture an elite from. But you are entitled to your opinion. Seriously no offense.

Sounds like a good way to make something easier that shouldn't be easy to begin with. Sorry but...

/notsigned

I never knew how hard it was to get a cap sig..

/unsigned

I personally don't see a need. And in the pic you post it looks like that litte ninth skill bow would get annoying. If A-Net implemented it I would probaly edit interface and take it out.

I'm probaly so against it though becuase I don't cap alot of elites. I only have 9 on my year old ranger.

/no

just no.

-.-

Elite Skill Hunter (5) all 291 elites here.

All I can say is you're lazy or ignorant if you can't map to buy a sig and/or forget to put one on your bar. Give me a break, this isn't the most original idea ever, and other times you can cap more than one elite in an area, not to mention after getting that elite you can still use it, meaning you can have more than one elite on your bar. oh em gee. You should be glad you don't have to map every time you want to change your secondary.

I'd like if they broaden the ways elites can be attained. Using cap signet are okay for the first ton of elites, but I would like if something new was added to change the pace.
Perhaps a quest line that rewards an elite skill in the final quest.
I don't know, but getting elites should be difficult whether it be sacrificing a skill slot for the capture signet or any other ideas.
I think the OPs idea makes skill capturing simply a question of having the money on you.

/not signed

Be glad with the system you have now. The system of capping skills before this one was a huge pain in the ass.

You used to have to cap the skill as the boss was using the skill you wanted.

Unless you are going on a cap run in the RoF and need to fill half your skill bar for one area, it isn't so bad. I think the current system is good enough (and a ton better than the system slayer was talking about). And think of it like this: as long as you don't leave the area, you can have up to 3-4 elites at one time depending on where you are and what you are trying to capture.

I wish they'd change it back to making players cap off the live boss as they used the skill. >.> I'd giggle for days.

/not signed
Meh, whenever a new campaign comes out, I make sure to take 2 cap sigs with me to every new area; one for my primary, one for my secondary.
As someone else rightly mentioned, that's half the challenge right there.
You essentially have to play with a gimped build, which adds to the challenge.

And I'm speaking as a 291 Elite Skill Hunter who capped Skull Crack when it was still available in the Northern Shiverpeaks (fighting a level 28 boss at level 16 was fun), and Battle Rage when you had to catch the boss using it.

Driving to school? You should have to walk 20 miles through the snow like I did, boy.

>.<

I actually got that joke.

As for this "Signet of Capture" thing of which you all speak of... I always combust when the ring absorbs... Erm... Nevermind. -.-

Not have more than 1 elite on my bar
Best time ever was capping monks on perdition rock with my necro having res- SS and 6 cap sigs.
Stupid ettin didn't spawn and I only had 6 elites at the end

Like what has already been said, just be thankful it's not the old system for capping!

What was great about that was the bosses never used the skills, I can remember helping some try to cap escape lol.

The only thing I would change is make the Cap Sig recharge when you get back to a town, the cost of an elite skill should be the grinding to get it not 1k and grind.

The reason they changed it was because it was broken. With the old cap sig you had to use it right as the skill was being used, meaning that any instantly used skills such as stances were impossible to capture..

I don't really see why people think capturing elite skills is hard in any kind of way. Capturing skills is easy as hell, there's absolutely no challenge in at all (other then not forgetting to buy or bring a SOC). My design is just less time consuming.

Either you capture your elites while passing through that area, and you have to research where alll the bosses are you need in that area (AKA time consuming) or you always bring 2 SOC which is annoying (but not challenging in any kind of way since you have 7 other people with full 8 skill bars with you so having 2 skills or not won't make a difference at all) OR you have to go back to those areas kill all those enemies again just to capture your elites which again is annoying and time consuming. Going to a town isn't difficult at all but it's annoying and time consuming.

I also don't see why absolutely everything about the game should be hard, some people actually play games to have fun. You want to have a challenge? Go solo clear entire UW or FoW, go solo clear Realm of Torment or Realm of Anguish. Also people that are saying having a lot of elite skills is great, I'd have to disagree most of the time you don't have points in the attributes of those elite skills making them pretty useless.

There is no challenge in capturing skill for bosses now or with my system, I was just trying to make a time consuming process a little less time consuming. Just trying to make an "ok" system even better, these aren't the dark ages after all. But rest assure it probably never will be implemented.

It seems like I'm beeing really offended but seriously I'm not :-) I appreciate all of your input.

I don't really see why people think capturing elite skills is hard in any kind of way. Capturing skills is easy as hell, there's absolutely no challenge in at all (other then not forgetting to buy or bring a SOC). My design is just less time consuming.

Either you capture your elites while passing through that area, and you have to research where alll the bosses are you need in that area (AKA time consuming) or you always bring 2 SOC which is annoying (but not challenging in any kind of way since you have 7 other people with full 8 skill bars with you so having 2 skills or not won't make a difference at all) OR you have to go back to those areas kill all those enemies again just to capture your elites which again is annoying and time consuming. Going to a town isn't difficult at all but it's annoying and time consuming.

I also don't see why absolutely everything about the game should be hard, some people actually play games to have fun. You want to have a challenge? Go solo clear entire UW or FoW, go solo clear Realm of Torment or Realm of Anguish. Also people that are saying having a lot of elite skills is great, I'd have to disagree most of the time you don't have points in the attributes of those elite skills making them pretty useless.

There is no challenge in capturing skill for bosses now or with my system, I was just trying to make a time consuming process a little less time consuming. Just trying to make an "ok" system even better, these aren't the dark ages after all. But rest assure it probably never will be implemented.

It seems like I'm beeing really offended but seriously I'm not :-) I appreciate all of your input.

I cap'd many stances with the old system, and they would be easier to cap now that there's a way to see when stances are used. It also helped that you could cap skills like hundred blades off noob bosses (Hundred blades was the warrior boss in the breach). [I do wish they'd add all the elites back to ALL Tyrian bosses because they need all the help they can get. It's not like people don't just get run to the end for elites/armor to use in Ascalon Arena anyway.]

The system itself was not broken (it's the same system we use now with a slight twist); the way it used to be was just horrid. I wish they'd add it back for a weekend so all the idiots who missed the first few months of the game (or betas for that matter) could see how things were; I'd giggle for days and days if they did. The drama it would cause on here would be overwhelmingly entertaining to say the least.

/not signed

so what ur saying is that they should also allow u to change ur 2ndry during a mission, quest, or pve to be able to capture all those skills. If your not implying that, then why need more than 2 Cap Sig's? Also, zoning and having to kill everything again just for a different elite is part of the game.

/not signed

What I like in Skill Capture system is the kind of hunt I had to set up for my first Elite Skills... For the first bosses I hunted for their Elite, I used to make special builds for the hunt and taking into consideration the boss and the mobs following him. God ! That was fun (and painful when I still was noob). I think Elite skills should be taken seriously. They are "Elite", not some "basic drops".

But i think that my girlfirend who still forgets her sig (I should stop laughing at her ) will love your idea !

Wait ! I have an idea !
Why not create a new "Elite Capture Signet" that doesn't fade away once used ? This way, the starter could still struggle for their first "Elite" and the old one could "farm" the remaining Elite without needing to buy some new signet. Maybe we could the "old way of capturing skills" when using this signet...

Btw : sorry about my poor english... My taylor isn't rich ^^

/signed i cant tell you how many times ive gone thru a bunch of enemies and finally to a boos and kill it only to find out i forgot to equip my soc

Capturing elites is not hard. There is no challenge unless you have no idea what you're doing. There is no reason to not make the system more convenient. It won't break immersion for PvE fanatics (as if things like attribute and skill points didn't already), and it will make the process less tedious for everyone. I agree with the OP wholeheartedly.

ROFL. Agreed. I got it: "Old Skill Capture Weekend!" What an entertaining event THAT would be...

/not signed

.....lmao

The next weekend could be Refund Point weekend!

God, I'd LOVE them to do this.
Look at Factions:
Fast levelling of characters, then once you get off of noob island, you can start capping immediately. You have a definite advantage over Tyrian characters.

Elona goes even further, allowing people to cap elites on noob island itself.
That's like skill capping in Pre-searing, for the Five's sakes!

They did it with Rotscale (he now has FoC), so why can't they bring back all of those other cool bosses?

Going back to the old capture system, the challenge of capping elite stances was fantastic. I remember a group of us going to cap Battle Rage at the top of Snake Dance (this was before they added the boss just outside Drok's), and having the monk bring Heal Area to make sure we could keep the boss alive for longer
Sure, that kind of challenge would be horrendous if you were capping all of the elites, but at least you could be proud of your achievements.
I remember posting that I'd capped Battle Rage and having lots of people say that I was lying and that it was impossible.

That's feels as good as being accused of using an aimbot in Quake 3

/not signed

Why fix something that isn't broken? If you forget a SoC, it's your own fault. I always laugh when I do that.

/notsigned

i forget caps sometimes (um, last night comes to mind), but i don't think this is needed

I don't see what the problem is with trying to make an "ok" system even better. Black and white TVs were "ok" they worked and there was nothing wrong with them, then they created color TVs and they were also "ok" and there was nothing wrong with them, then they created LCD and plasma screens. The current capture system is "ok" but it could still be better.

I say bring back the old method of capturing WHILE the bosses use them. Was entirely more fun when someone was after glad's defense and wound up with a normal skill... That made elite skill hunting ELITE.

/notsigned

My main problem is forgetting 2 swap my secondary proffession lol. But naa, dont make it easier for us! I dont like people taking the easy way out, if the skills worth having then its worth working for =]

Well, about skill capture, I guess it is good as it is.
What essential is, what happens AFTER the capture.

IF You change the area (aka go to another land), if You got 2 elites, the forst from the left - disappears. Leaving You with 7 skills.

This is bullshit. If You cap a skill, it should remain there until You visit any outpost/town.