Ideas for Improving PvE Replayability and Balancing Skills

My suggestion is to offer multiple skills (from ones already unlocked on the account) as quest rewards (the original skills acquired from the quest will also be offered), and the player chooses the ones he will learn.

Of course, there would be the problem of being stuck with skill choices that you want to change, and some form of "skill refunds" can be implemented to avert that issue.

As for the disparities in skill strength that would arise if players had their pick of skills, the underlying issue at hand is that skills are not equal at all (take Necromancer for example: so many of their skills are not even considered for use in any builds due to their uselessness and how other skills can do the same thing better, for example Vile Touch, which pales in comparison to other direct damage spells because for approximately Flare damage, it entails an abnormal cost of 10 energy, requires the caster to run up to the target, and includes a 4 second cooldown to prevent any decent DPS).

This is just my opinion, but I would find it highly satisfying for experienced players if they could choose skills instead of being forced to relearn skills on the predetermined skill path that they will never use (yes, there are some with no use at all).

However, my main request is that some of the clearly inferior skills with no comparative advantage be improved to an equal level.

I agree completely.

My take on it, which I posted somewhere a while ago, was to allow PvE characters to be created with 8 skills of your choice from your unlocked skills.

Alternatively, stick a skill trainer in Ascalon City that sells you your already-unlocked skills for 2 plat each or something. Or make the Priests of Balthasar perform that function in addition to their normal functions.

I fully agree that weak skills should be improved so that nothing is completely useless.