After consulting my guild (Venom) and thinking about my past experiences playing multiple MMO's (WoW, EQ 1 & 2, SWG, and GW) the correct course of action for skills would be to have a Tier System basically where every player would be able to use all the skills available to their respective class.
Tier:
Apprentice I
Apprentice II
Adept I
Adept II
Master I
As one gains levels and reaches the level where a new skill is acquired one would gain the ability to utilize that spell at the Apprentice I level. So no more skill points. Now you might ask "But Xanthia, how do I upgrade my spells or combat arts?" Skills and Combat Arts can be purchased up to Adept I. So basically you can go to a NPC or Vendor and purchase Apprentice II or Adept I. If you want to get skills higher then that you would be required to complete dungeons.
These skills should be found as loot from mobs. However, these should be from bosses only, and should be rare.
(For the Casual Players)
Not trying to skip points or not complete my thoughts but I know some of you are sitting there thinking "Great, this crazy healer wants to make me grind to get skills or farm more then I am now!"
But I'm not. To be competitive in PvE (Player Versus Environment) Adept I would be the standard. It's like saying you would be able to complete a zone composed of players in all Adept I skills.
(For the Hard-Core Players)
If you embrace the tip of the blade, or the harshest of environments you would strive to obtain an Adept II or Master I version of some or all of your skills. The adept II would be a rare drop and would only come from Bosses. (This would address another post concerning bosses dropping some form of loot) However the number of bosses in the upper tiers of the game drastically needs to decrease. The skill of these bosses needs to be much harder so that earning one of these upgraded skills should be a good achievement. The Master I version of the skills should be from only the final boss of the world, like only the Frost King (Final Boss of Lost Expansion), this would also require that you start from the beginning of the world and not being able to just skip right to the end. Those players who obtain these skills will have a significant advantage in the zones and would benefit more then those players who were only able to obtain an Adept I of the skill.
(For the Casual Player)
Because the Master I and Adept II versions of skills would come as a drop from bosses, a casual player would still be able to obtain these skills, the probability of one receiving them would be less then that of a hard-core player, but this is logical because they are able to play more, but a casual player can still compete in PvE because of the Adept I version being able to be purchased.
I would LOVE FEEDBACK from the community members and DEV's!!!!!
I think this is an excellent idea to implement in future content.
