Shadower Skill: Assassinate

what's the mp thing?
If the shadower patch is coming in June, I don't really want to hold off on leveling things I need to.

So far - I have,
30 Bstep
20 SS (Can't seem to pass a SS30 for some reason)
20 Venom
1 Smokescreen
1 Assassinate
+a bunch of skill points left over
--> I also seem to have a problem with this. In a majority of the guides I've read, they say max bstep > max SS.
As far as I can tell, maxing SS only really saves you some potion usage as well as avoiding knockback some of the time.
Bosses have become easy enough (at least the ones I'm doing right now) that death generally isn't a problem.
Is Ht/CZak so hard that good parties are at risk of death?

How should I max my skills? Suggestions? Reasons?
Also, is Hero's Will worth getting?

Mp stands for multiplier, so if uncharged Assassinate would do 100k/100k/100k/100k, 8 seconds charge would do 600k/600k/600k/600k since charging more then 8 seconds in DS gives you a 6x multiplier.

Also, max SS, if you don't like high avoid, you shouldn't have picked a Shadower in the first place.

And since you already have lvl20 Venom, max that one too.

But the rest of the skills is up to you, just remember that when the Justice patch comes, all skills will be different.