Battle Cry oder Shout for Conc Barb?

[Skullstorm]

Battle Cry oder Shout for Conc Barb?

Hi everyone!
I'm currently building a concentrate barb based on Hal's guide. It mentiones that maxing Shout is highly recommended but wouldn't it be wiser to max Battle Cry? Not getting hit in the first place due to high defense is a good idea but what about monsters that ignore defense or use magical attacks?

I recently finished Diablo on Nightmare with a friend (he plays an assassin) and I was truly surprised how easy it went. Either his red lightning didn't do anything due to -% dmg (Shaftstop + BC) or he didn't hit me properly (I heard that this may happen if you stand close to him).

Also, what merc would you recommend? Prayer or holy frost? My friend already uses the might merc and I assume two might auras don't stack. At the moment I have a Blessed Aim merc due to some AR issues but with more points in BC blessed aim isn't necessary anymore...

Current level: 57

Current gear:
Plague Bearer
Crainte Vomir (for slowing down and weakening bosses)
Heart Carver (for find item and grim ward)
Magical bone wand with life tap charges (just in case I run into something really bad)

Shaftstop
Magnus' Skin
Wilhelm's Pride
Whitstan's Guard (pdiamond)
Rare fanged helm with +2 to all Barb Skills and one unused socket
Silkweave
Two rare rings with life leech and lots of other good stats
The Mahim-Oak Curio

I'm not very rich... I especially lack more powerful runes but I think this setup is sufficient, at least for the moment.

 

[Skullstorm]

Re: Battle Cry oder Shout for Conc Barb?

Damn, it should have been "or" not "oder" in the title .

 

[Melchior3]

Re: Battle Cry oder Shout for Conc Barb?

I maxed Shout for the "always on" defense and have some points in Battle Cry to lower monsters defense and damage. The linear returns from Shout seem more beneficial than the diminishing returns from BC. Also BC doesn't block or reduce magical attack damage, so I'm not sure what you mean there. I don't know whether there are specific monsters which ignore defence, but BC would certainly help there (as would Shaftstop) but I still don't think it's worth maxing it.

You should be fine as long as you keep your physical damage, leech, damage reduction and blocking up. And if you're getting hit alot while moving, dodge better or walk, so that blocking actually works (doesn't work while running).

Edit: wow I finally made my first post...I was sure I had done that
<3 Liq/RTB/Silo and whoever else knows me from other forums.

 

[galzohar]

Re: Battle Cry oder Shout for Conc Barb?

Battlecry isn't really diminishing returns... It increases a fixed % value per level. Granted it's a small number but the relative damage reduction gets better the more points you have in battlecry. Same for the defense reduction (50% defense reduction is equivalent to doubling your final attack rating when it comes to chance to hit calculations, while 90% is equivalent to having 10X attack rating).

The problem with battlecry is small radius and needing to apply it to every pack... If you can't survive the attacks that do come before battlecry is applied you're going to die regardless. While it will increase your damage/sec once applied, it also adds a cast or 2 on every pack slowing you back down, which can be beneficial or a slowdown depending on how fast you actually kill and how often you actually apply it (how many mobs it's hitting) and how much time you spend positioning to let it apply to enough mobs.

If anything, battlecry is not a "diminishing returns, leave it at one", as diminishing returns is the one thing that is NOT a problem of battlecry. It does have the other disadvantages I listed though.