Need Help Choosing Last 2 Shadow Warrior Skills

[AzureKnight 0]

OK, so as the topic implies, I need help deciding what my last 2 skills will be. I posted about this once before (on another forum, I think) and didn't get a satisfactory answer, primarily because I don't think I was clear enough about my intentions. First let me say I'm looking for input from experienced, end-game users (Niob and HC players). I mean no offense to anyone that doesn't fit that description, but I feel you can't confidently comment on the matter without having the experience to back it up with.

 

I'm currently playing on 360, level 44 SW on Silver campaign with intentions of taking this character all the way (no HC for us 360 players, sadly). My char is a sword'n'board tank with end-game survivability as my emphasis. As such, here are the skills I've chosen (in no particular order):

 

• Death Warrior Focus
  Malevolent Champion Focus
  Armor Lore
  Constitution
  Shield Lore
  Concentration
  Tactics Lore
  Swords Lore
  

 

I am having difficulty deciding what my last 2 skills, as I'm torn between Combat Reflexes, Spell Resistance and Toughness. At first glance this seems like a relatively easy choice to me, as CR and SR both reduce the chance to be critted, whereas Toughness provides mitigation and improved resistances. Depending on what school of tanking you subscribe to, you might argue in favor of Toughness over either CR or SR, since it's guaranteed damage reduction and improved resistances. I'm no stranger to the concept of Effective Health (used to tank in WoW. I'm aware it's a completely different game, but some concepts hold true nonetheless), and I definitely believe in the power of a huge hit point pool combined with tons of armor. So, you don't need to sell me on the merits of guaranteed damage reduction. However, I am also a firm believer that spike damage (crits) kills and is a far bigger threat than steady incoming damage that can be compensated by a large hitpoint pool, high armor class, high HP regen and consumables.

 

So on to the questions. I guess what I really want to know about is end-game damage, combat arts and spell resistance. I've seen it stated before that combat arts are considered spells and that creeps use combat arts, too. I've also read that on higher difficulty levels (gold, plat, niob), the creeps use combat arts more often. Or perhaps more often isn't accurate. Perhaps they don't do them any more or less often, but they are instead simply more dangerous due to scaling? Is this true? If it is, then it would seem that the Spell Resistance skill would be pretty useful. I'm aware the GR and Willpower give me spell resistance, but to my knowledge, neither reduces crit chance.

 

For the moment it seems like Combat Reflexes and Spell Resistance are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, Toughness is undeniably good, but I only have room for two more skills. What do you guys with experience think? Am I way off? Did I miss something? Lay it on me, please. Thanks for your time ladies and gents, I look forward to your responses.

[Sych 0]

There is an entire section of the forum dedicated to the Shadow Warrior and any associated strategies:

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showforum=377

 

You may have better luck there.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Thanks Sych. Moved to Shadow Warrior Section.

 

Cheers

 

 

gogo