the facts that i can cast shout in the air and that it has excellent range have helped me quest, apq, and ks or kill at low level areas so much that i would never give up shout. i can usually keep up with i/ls doing same quests, and kill certain maps faster than them. my shout does 1.5~3k.
i never use my max armor crash because i kill the only trainable monster that uses def up (skeles) so fast that i dont care. i dont ht yet, but i soon will and for that i dont need max crash and bishops can take my place anyways.
dont go crash over shout. bad idea. i regret leaving relax at 11 instead of crash.