Regarding the mentor, it's possible that he will be completely removed from the game.
As for the "Livny" skill, it works exactly as described. Skilled racial + "Livny" is 4 perks. I doubt that's better than:
- the combination of skilled darkness + area-of-effect slow (reduces initiative to 30% in a 4x4 area)
- the combination of skilled attack + ranged attack (+30% damage)
- the combination of skilled defense + evasion (-30% damage)