How much slash? All warriors I know that are fully trained in armor and hunt the Rift have 4 or 5 ranks, and I would too if I was 3x, but I'm going to have 200 ranks on reaching Plane 4 and I'm wondering just how much benefit 3 vs. 4 vs 5 provides in practice. I know from experience with other characters that the death rate from crawlers plummets by a factor of 100 between 0 and 5 ranks, but don't have a good idea of whereabouts along the progression of skill the critical points are. Is the main benefit of 5 ranks over 4 that is lasts longer, or that it allows a certain amount of padding to be used without compromising the crawler protection or is it in 50% vs 40% slash resistance? And similarly at 4 vs. 3.

I'd expect anyone 3 or close to it on Plane 4 to have at least 4 ranks slash, but what do those with only 200 heading there for the first time get?

"It's also worth noting that you can't max a resistance type AND another skill, no matter how many armor ranks you have. Personally I have 5 ranks of slash protection and 4 ranks of support." -- Kerl

GMs! Auction-item idea alert!

Self-Knowledge +1 rank of 'Armor' skill!

<Personally I have 5 ranks of slash protection and 4 ranks of support.>

3 ranks of support I hope, unless you are getting armor points from enhancives?

<Self-Knowledge +1 rank of 'Armor' skill!>

I've seen the idea for CMAN self knowledges before and while I'm sure pures would be the main draw, can never have enough cmans (or I guess armor or shield skills). +1

Slash is fatal at crit rank 5, 6, or 8 depending on location. Amputations occur at rank 7. How much slash specialisation prevents against each of these results from crawlers?

50% I know prevents rank 6 but allows rank 5 because I've suffered rank 5 crits while wearing Roblar's fittings, is 40% the same (5.4 and 4.5 each rounding to rank 5) or does it risk head/neck as well as eye fatalities? Does 20% prevent torso death crits or is 30% required? (7.2 rounding to 7 or 8?) Does 30% keep arms attached or is 40% required? (6.3 rounding to 6 or 7?) Or would crawlers actually do rank 10 capped at 9 normally so its the first 10% doing nothing rather than rounding up the crit that allows an eye death crit with 50% resistance?

Is the reason for training 5 slash/3 support over 4 slash/5 support about not having your head bitten off or about about how long the fittings last or about being able to use flared or crit padded armor?

Damage padding is a bad idea, but does the resistance reduction from crit padding get enough compensation from the crit padding when slashed by a crawler?

>It also pays to max train in armor, CM, and PF.

and presumably max train perception, enhance to a 140 AGI, stick to MBP and buy the imitation gnome SIMUCOIN potion, these all being about whether you dodge it as it spawns in the first place?

Armor would have about 1/4 the effect of PF and perception is also secondary to PF on SMR though I forget what the actual ratio is.

I'd still like to know if anyone has tried it with 2 or 3 ranks because the migration time on armor skills is horrendous if I need to do the test myself. I am pretty sure 2 isn't viable, but the experience as to how it wasn't viable would help me judge whether I think 3 could be. That you don't notice a difference between 4 and 5 suggests 3 might be viable although more painful.