Iron Will + Never Give Up VS S-ATK UP?

[Xaelouse]

If you do a lot of unsafe stuff and/or play FI, get Iron Will

[Netro Shine]

Honestly though, there's no reason not to put 1 SP into Iron Will regardless of the rest of your build since that 1 Skill Point gives you a 30% chance to ignore death which is something you didn't previously have. If you're skilled at dodging or have massive defenses, you may find that Iron Will turns out to be dead points spent since you'd hardly ever come close to dying.

There's no real objective capacity in which you can calculate which route is better. Higher S-ATK improves your damage based on the other offensive multipliers you have, and Iron Will looks nicer the lower your defenses are and depending on the type of player you are. You'll have to look at how you perform in combat to see if you may want more passive defenses, active defenses, or you can convert those defensive points into offensive ones. But that one point into Iron Will is a safety net for sure, and putting 2 into Iron Will and 1 into Never Give Up is a 3 SP investment for that chance the RNGs will save you with a 20 second invulnerability period if they do; well worth such a puny investment.

[Chigun]

Automate prevents death more often than iron will (at 100% proc rate). If it's about staying alive, I would prioritization that first. Then maybe what others suggested with the 2 points into iron will/1 into never give up... would save enough SP overall to get the S-atk boost now that level is up to 75.

[Nitro Vordex]

Friend debating which is better. More opinions matter than our three, and I want to know which is truly better?

What do you mean better? Like in survivability or in damage? If in damage, I'd go with S-atk Up, because IW procs + Lag = no bueno. Relying on nearly dying (and a 75% CHANCE) with lag and hitstun not working right, that's a terrible way to get damage. In survivability, it's still not much better, but it can keep you alive. I've had Iron Will trigger five times in a row on Elder, which was hilarious. Conversely, I've had it do absolutely fucking nothing the rest of the time on other bosses, usually because of lag or hitstun.

tl;dr situational, depends on what you're going for.

[Tivor]

Personally, Iron Will is more useful to main Fighters than to everything else, because of Limit Break and skills that go well with it. A automate build would be less efficient in that case, since the mates probably would not heal enough if your HP is at maximum 25% of your full HP. Flash guard probably would also help if your defenses are already high enough, since it's a multiplier.

The s-atk you gain from s-atk up 3 is nice, though. If you're more worried about full dmg than being able to withstand more damage (and/or the occasional chance to avoid death), it's not a bad choice.

[red1228]

I personally like being invincible for 20 seconds with +300 S attack for a minute... but as others have said: Iron Will + NeverGiveUp works better with a Limit Break Fighter build. There's also the chance that lag or unique hitstun will fuck you over. I (jokingly) suspect Dudu & Monica are secretly in charge of Iron Will's trigger.

That aside, it takes 15 SP to max out Iron Will & NeverGive Up. Which gives you a "situational" +300 S Attack. But for 16 SP, you can get a constant +124 S Attack (or 30 SP for a constant +225 S Attack).

If damage is your ONLY concern, I would probably suggest the S Attack UP path. It's a smaller boost, but its always on. The IW+NGU path is a bigger boost, but only happens when you're at a disadvantage & it can fail (it shouldn't 75% of the time... but this is Sega/c we're talking about here).

[LonelyGaruga]

SATK Up 3 gives +100 atk.

You'd be better off grabbing iron will.

S-ATK Up 3, as you said, is 4-5% damage. 5-6% for 16 SP isn't a good deal, but it's better than something that should trigger maybe once a week of full playing.

Hunters have huge base HP and Automate Halfline. Don't see why Iron Will is necessary when your character already has great defensive qualities.

If you're skilled at dodging or have massive defenses, you may find that Iron Will turns out to be dead points spent since you'd hardly ever come close to dying.

If you aren't skilled at dodging by the time you're level capped, you should probably quit lol.

[SakuRei]

I say all points in IW + NGU are wasted unless you completely solo EVERYTHING. In all instances you have the ability to be revived when dead so what's the point?

It's absolutely a 100% priority on Hunters to max out Iron Will and Never Give Up. It doesn't matter if you get revived most of the time, you'll need the invincible frame time and survivability. No offense, you're much of a useless Hunter class without those two buffs. As said as well, you'll need survivability in Ultimate Quests. Even if you subclass Hunter, those two buffs are still useful than putting all points on S-ATK up which S-ATK Up 1~3 only gives 225 S-ATK... You just literally waste 30 points on 225 S-ATK which there are Units and Weapons that have abilities and souls to even pass that S-ATK increase. And NO... doubling it with the units and weapons with S-ATK increase + wasted 30 Skill Points for 225 S-ATK is still a stupid thing to do for a Hunter Tree.

[Rien]

S-ATK Up 3, as you said, is 4-5% damage. 5-6% for 16 SP isn't a good deal, but it's better than something that should trigger maybe once a week of full playing.

Ever since I dived into UQ, it triggers every day. At least once every UQ run, even, unless I'm maining Ranger.

Actually, even if I play ranger.

[LonelyGaruga]

Get better units? Affix for stamina? Play better? Hard to imagine how you're dying so much when you should have 1000+ HP, Automate Halfline, and Massive Hunter (for Ra/Hu). Add on Deband Cut/Toughness from any Techers present, along with Resta/Megiverse support, and you should be literally undying.