Are skill books not needed after big bang?

The only thing I didn't like about skill quests was low drop rates. (hi, formula for black cloud and Hero's Will quest) I remember how much I raged about the Assassinate quest, but I felt accomplished after I figured out spamming DS works. They give good EXP, and the storylines were actually somewhat interesting. Killing ninjas to tame them? Cool stuff mang.

So then what were people saying about skills that drop from Zak? Those still exist, right? Can you karma those after BB?