Cloak of Shadows def bonus question

[Crystalion]

The defense bonus for Cloak of Shadows starts at +10%, then an additional +3% per skill level thereafter without a hard cap. Paladins and Barbarians will remain the only characters that can obtain 20k defense by themselves, but Assassins can still hit the 10k mark with Cloak of Shadows and a Defiance merc.

Actually, since Assassins specializing in Dragon Talon and Blade Fury are somewhat weapon choice insensitive, using (possibly a cube elited) Ribcracker makes some sense. At +100% DR this outstrips even 20 points into Cloak of Shadows, assuming that it also is applied as an item, not skill, step boost, and thus multiplies with a Defiance Merc.

Still, though it is a problem, I kind of like the fact that the Assassin has trouble being as (physically) sturdy as the other melee classes (and I don't think the CoS improvement is either unwelcome or comes close to making up for that). The hidden boost of - phys damage% with Fade suggests both Fade and CoS were tweaked, as you suggest, by design, to try to boost the survivability of a the melee Assassin a bit.