Your thoughts please

[Willibold]

At present my bard is a warchanter, and through the levels has been fairly successful.
As I approach the higher levels i am becoming concerned that Ironskin Chant is maybe becoming a waste of space.
Is it a waste as I fear it may be at higher lvls or am I missing something?
Should I look at going Virtuoso,or spellsinger?
I would value some help from other forumites.

[Willibold]

ok, so no thoughts at all?

[cru121]

Yes, DR 5/- is less useful in higher difficulty content. I rarely sing it on my bard, mostly only when there's nothing to do while waiting in a quest.

However, there are other things warchanter brings, so look at those before respeccing to virt/spell singer. Stronger Inspire Courage is nice, the Greater Heroism song is nice; weapon proficiency is nice, medium armor is nice, 10 bonus hp are nice.

[barfuss]

as cru121 has already pointed out, there are more advantages to the WC than just ironskin chant.
my WC also has a different build and other feats than my SS bard, so i wouldn't switch around PrE just because that one song is not quite as relevant in higher levels than it is on lowbies.

[Nitesco]

Basically you want to play Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics(if you have an Epic Elyd Edge) and Inspire Recklessness, in that order. After buffing Greater Heroism, Blur, Freedom of Movement and Good Hope. Finish with Rage and Haste. Everyone will love you.

[Astars]

Basically you want to play Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics(if you have an Epic Elyd Edge) and Inspire Recklessness, in that order. After buffing Greater Heroism, Blur, Freedom of Movement and Good Hope. Finish with Rage and Haste. Everyone will love you.

Don't forget the 5 songs for the 5 stats, only then they will love you (forget about dex song)

Cheers

Ast

[pseudomasochist]

Basically you want to play Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics(if you have an Epic Elyd Edge) and Inspire Recklessness, in that order. After buffing Greater Heroism, Blur, Freedom of Movement and Good Hope. Finish with Rage and Haste. Everyone will love you.

In my experience, everyone else will also be halfway through the quest.

Maybe I'm just lazy about buffing but my usual sequence is: Greater Heroism, Blur on non-casters, FoM if appropriate for the quest, Inspire Courage, Ironskin Chant, Rage, and Haste. Even then, people often run off before I'm done. (Yes, I know, buff on the run.)

Back to the original topic, Ironskin Chant is still useful in high level content. Current epic hard trash average maybe 30 damage per hit so DR 5/- helps unless one gets the same from gear and the less damage monsters inflict per hit, the more significant those 5 points become.

As already noted, Warchanter also has other benefits such as improved Inspire Courage and Song of Heroism which is quite nice to have in dispel-heavy situations. Rather than focus on one song when choosing between the bard prestige classes, look at what each brings to parties. Warchanters are better at buffing beaters, Spell Singers benefit casters more, and Virtuoso... well, two out of three ain't bad right?

[Willibold]

ty for your input folks,have reconsidered my position and am staying warchanter.
Thankyou all.

[goodspeed]

yeps those songs are enough to jack your dmg and to hit up to be on par with the other guys. Where as your shooting the other guys right through the roof with all those battle songs. I originally made a bard/fighter split for the past life of fighter but I loved the **** songs and displacement so much he's been at 20 for a bit now.

Working him up to 25 now to.