shout or iron skin

[Youlan]

Since i started my baba i heard sum ppl saying maxing iron skin is better than maxing shout. Any suggestion which 1 of them i should max?

[xxxkillerxxx]

Since i started my baba i heard sum ppl saying maxing iron skin is better than maxing shout. Any suggestion which 1 of them i should max?

Shout all the way. Same defense bonus (10%/slvl) but adds duration to itself+bo and synergizes berserk for free.

[Dadou]

And serves to your groupmembers as well

[jaxz]

skin for people who always forgot to recast. no comments...

[xxxkillerxxx]

skin for people who always forgot to recast. no comments...

Haha but that means you forget to recast bo as well = baaaad... might as well learn the hard way ^^

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Shout is better in every conceivable way.

1. The first point spent in shout gives a bigger bonus than the first point spent in iron skin. After the first point, both shout and iron skin give the same 10% bonus per additional point spent. So point for point, your defense will always be higher with shout.

2. Iron skin only helps you. Shout benefits you, your merc, and everyone in your party within the range of casting (which is a bit larger than the entire screen).

3. Iron skin synergizes with nothing. Shout gives a 5 second duration boost to battle orders and battle commands with each point spent, thereby increasing the duration of both skills by 100 seconds when maxed. And shout doesn't even have to be recast THAT often. At level 20 - and that's a conservative number once you consider that most barbs carry around a pair of echoing weapons on switch and have other +skill gear - it lasts for nearly four minutes. Plus, it gets a 5 second duration boost from each point spent in battle commands and battle orders - so that's another 105 seconds for most barbs. You can easily get it to the point where it lasts for a good 5 or 6 minutes with very little effort.

[Doppel]

But doesn't iron skins defense bonus get boosted by shout? (wich would mean that a level 10 shout with a level 10 iron skin would lead to a bigger defense then a level 20 iron skin or a level 20 shout)

[MrKaxe]

With most (conventional) barb builds you will be maxing Shout anyway due the bonuses Aldeth listed and the last (5-10?) skill points you can gain (after maxing all the other skills) will get sunk into Iron Skin for a bit more of a defensive boost...

[Halciet]

But doesn't iron skins defense bonus get boosted by shout? (wich would mean that a level 10 shout with a level 10 iron skin would lead to a bigger defense then a level 20 iron skin or a level 20 shout)

Nah, +defense bonuses are additive, rather than multiplicative. As such, they both stack at the same point.

-Hal