There has been a bit of discussion about these topics, some in public and some between smaller group of players. In my opinion these things, as they are now, push the game into unhealthy state, and some improvements could be done to improve to overall balance of game play. I'm not gonna go too in depth with explanations, and I don't want to push any changes unless majority thinks the same, but these are my thoughts from a players perspective.
Chaos Castle and Ice Arrow skill has had a lot of attention recently. I try to play every cc daily and from experience I can say that regardless of winning or losing, it's just not fun to play against. And from what I have understood, the server aims to give a fair chance for any class on anything they do (with some variety of course), but playing against Ice Arrow in cc is nowhere near 50/50, tops 80/20 I would say.
Damage Decrease (+dd) is another thing that bothers me. Maybe it's just because I play MG and DD counters my ass big time, but still I think that having the option to gain 60% of the damage dealt to you decreased by excellent/harmony options is just way too much. To put it another way, this makes it very inefficient to build your character to deal tons of damage since most of it is going to get absorbed, and it heavily favors agi/speed based builds. Of course there has to be a way to counter high damage dealers, and in my opinion 40% dd would do that just fine. It would also leave more room for +ref and +hp builds, as for now those seems to always be the secondary options.
You should be able to build unique stats for your character according what you want to use the character for, and there should me multiple sets to choose from to support these builds. Now easily over 50% of the players, no matter the build and usage of the character, just simply has to wear +dd set because it's so over tuned compared to other options available.
Only problem with Soul Barrier is that you don't have to go for agi build, so called support sm, in order to gain efficient shield to play with. Basic value for barrier is 6%, with 20 ML points you gain additional 13% increase, with current agility formula(agility/62) you easily gain another 10%. That's already 29% absorb without even thinking about if you want to play as a supporter or heavy damage dealer. With 620 agility, you should be easily able to get ~1500 energy, which gives you 6% additional barrier. That is total of 35% absorb with a simple build that also gives you decent killing potential since the formula for max damage is ene/2. My point is that with the current ratios, there is literally no reason to aim for the supportive build since ++30% shield is so easily achievable without hurting your damaging abilities.
If you don't agree with my lines I'd like to hear your point of view, but mostly I'd just like to see you voting so that we can hear the voice of many. Peace.