Shout+Battle Orders?

[TrapperC]

Hi

I'm fairly new to online play and I'm making a IK barb. All the build guides say to put 20 pts into Shout and 20 into Battle Orders, but I can't really understand why the 20 pts into Shout are important.

On the skill tree the only benefit that I can see is that the duration of BO is increased by the pts in Shout.

Is there some synergy that I am unaware of?

[chien]

It also increases duration of Battle Command (only need 1 hard point there) and increase the defense a lot.

Chien

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Shout also gives a damage synergy to berserk. You probably want a point (and only one point) in berserk anyway, and 20 points in shout really increases it's damage.

However, the biggest benefit of placing 20 points into shout is to actually use shout as a skill. Standard tactics are to cast battle commands twice (the first casting ups battle commands level by 1, increasing it's duration), immediately followed by casting battle orders and shout (order irrelevant for the latter two). With all of the +skills you get from the IK set, 20 hard points invested into shout should get you a defense bonus of around +400%.

[AgentMarth]

Standard tactics are to cast battle commands twice (the first casting ups battle commands level by 1, increasing it's duration), immediately followed by casting battle orders and shout (order irrelevant for the latter two)

I also wonder how many people pay attention to this fact.


Anyways, synergy to Berserk aside, the Def boost alone is worth it. There really isn't much else to max on a WW IK Barb anyways, so why not be more friendly to party players, and yourself.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

There really isn't much else to max on a WW IK Barb anyways, so why not be more friendly to party players, and yourself.

I didn't think of this before, but that's a good point - if you weren't going to max shout, what was going to be the alternative? Do not even consider placing more than one point into iron skin unless you already have shout maxed. Shout is superior to iron skin in every conceivable way. Iron skin gives a bonus of 30% at level 1, and 10% per level thereafter. Shout gives a bonus of 100% at level 1, and 10% per level thereafter. So shout always gives 70% more on a point for point comparison, and helps not just you, but your merc, and everyone in your party, and it only has to be recast once every few minutes.

[TrapperC]

Standard tactics are to cast battle commands twice (the first casting ups battle commands level by 1, increasing it's duration), immediately followed by casting battle orders and shout (order irrelevant for the latter two). With all of the +skills you get from the IK set, 20 hard points invested into shout should get you a defense bonus of around +400%.

Ah, I see. I was under the mistaken impression that you could only have one Warcry in effect at the same time. That sounds like a very good strategy, I'll be sure to use it.

I had been thinking of putting those extra pts into Frenzy. I'm lvl 54 and have maxed out Mace Mastery and WW (which I haven't even used yet except as a novelty). But I'll definitely be putting them into Shout now.

My thanks to you all for the responses.:smiley: