Can anyone confirm this?

Is it true that, because of Tomes, more 'advanced game (PvE)' skills are being nerfed? I heard that you can gte any skill with a tome and 1000 facion now, simply by unlocking it at a priest and then getting it using the Tome. This leaves another question: If you can afford Elite Tomes, would it still be worth the time and trouble to go into far away areas to cap a single Elite?

No its not because of tomes that skills are being nerfed...

Yes you can aquire skills using tomes and faction from the priest of balthasar. And yes if the elite you want is known to be in a far off location, or that group of mobs is a pain, then yeah its worth it to buy an elite tome if you can afford one.

its really only worth buying a tome in a couple conditions...

1: the sell price is reasonable..... you can buy any normal skill for 1k after buying a few others and the prices maxes out as such. so never never never never....nevereverevereverever buy a normal skill tome for anything more than that.

2:if the sell price is higher than the cost of a skill....is the additional money worth your time? basically is your time woth to you an extra plat or two when buying elite tomes? i typically bought elites after they released for 5k....no haggling no nothing...5k or no deal. basically because the easy elite skills i already had and the ones i was going to use the tome for are hard to cap or far off into the game.

and as yichi said thats not the reason skills are being nerfed....i wont point fingers *coughpvpcoughsmore* =D
and yes you can unlock an elite skill with balth faction then acquire it via elite skill tome and the same with normal skills (or just buy the skill from a trainer after unlocking it) that update was a very very nice one ^_^

Alright, thanks. this just saved me a week of traveling towards the mouth of torment

I ALWAYS sell my elite tomes
1 elite ele tome = 12 signet of captures

If you have more skill than money sell
If you have more money than skill buy
^^ Joke ^^

And buying an Elite tome doesn't mean you can have that elite you want. You have to have already unlocked that Elite before on the account. Otherwise the Etime tome will not give you that skill.
The regular tomes are really only good for newer characters that haven't gotten to a place where they can get certain normal skills, but again, you have to have unlocked that skill on the account or you can't get it either.