Talk:Braum/@comment-28642928-20160820184111/@comment-4091261-20161208041811

Maxing would make sense, if  didn't drop in cooldown. However, it does. That means that the ratios per second are still rising.

That with the addition of the strong damage aspect of the ability and the ability to start the from a distance is more than enough reason to max it first over the shield. Don't get me wrong though, there are scenarios where it is good to max the shield over the poke. One such example is that the enemy has a lot of sustain and poke.

If the enemy is just going to heal off the damage you poke at them and they are going to zone too much from poking, then mitigating this through a stronger defense is a better approach as an heavy all in would be the only useful way to attack the enemy.