mind u BF is a prereq of blade shield, BF is used as a defensive skill, sometimes u CANT tank things thus u must weaken them first to stand a chance to kill them, 1 point into DF is all u really need, with casters and melee chars have max black the reality is most of ur dflights WILL NOT hit but is only used to get to the guy, and u have 19 pts to spend elsewhere. for the issue of ur +2 skills vs deadly strike, lets say marars givs u 30 to all and u have 45 resist to fire, and a good fb sorc comes along and manages to shoot u, u would probly only be able to trake 1-3 at most assuming ur life is around 2k while maras would increase wb ur attack damg etc, cb is only as affective if their BASE life is high, the lower the less effective, shadow warrior is nice for its def bonus, but still doesnt come close to a sm its basically more life, resists and damg just for defence