The Elite Skill system as it stands.
goku19123
As it stands, one must use SoC's on boss monsters in order to obtain elite skills. There are those who think this type of system ignores the skill > time spent playing paradigm (giving the player with more time on their hands, more strategies to utilize). The casual player, who is interested in the PvP side of the game, now has to hunt for the skill(s) they want - this effectively makes a casual gamer's session of play not fun, as an entire session could be devoted to hunting down that one monster and trying multiple times to capture one skill. While it is understandable that time sinks are necessary to keep the hardcore PvE players happy, this system creates a strain on guilds whose focus is PvP; coming up with new team builds and trying them out just got a lot more painful. I'm not sugggesting to dump this system, as some may prefer it; I'm suggesting that something be added to the system in order to obtain elite skills another way. In addition to capturing elite skills from bosses, make elite skills purchasable from Skill Trainers. Now, when buying from the Skill Trainers it has Primary and Secondary skills seperated, I would suggest making another division for elite skills, under the secondary skills list. Moreover, to maintain a balance between those who capture elites and those who may purchase them, have the cost of elite skills start at something around 500 gold for one elite skill, and for each consecutive elite skill purchase the cost climbs - as it does with regular skills. Purchasing them still should cost one skill point, but the cost go up by 500 gold for each purchase (500,1000,1500, et cetera). This would add another time sink to the elite skill system aside from hunting, but yet another way to obtain elite skills for the casual gamer who doesn't have time to hunt the bosses but who may have the gold for it instead. It would even be viable to start the first elite purchase at 1000 gold if necessary; but there needs to be another way to get elite skills so that the casual PvP'er can keep up still, and I think an addition like this would maintain balance and make more people happy (after all, 3000 gold for a skill is quite the time sink).