Guild Wars 2

How should I trait my guardian for levelling?

Radiance due to the instant recharge on VoJ, Zeal for the damage, and virtues for the might on activation of VoJ (you can spam it eventually, its fun) and try to get pow/presi gear, spec for damage until 80, then switch it to whatever (tank/support)

Been leveling my guardian up solo, but one thing I can’t wrap my head around yet is when I’m supposed to activate my virtues – it just about always seems better to keep the passive effect than to burn the active. What is the correct way to use virtues strategically?

Dav.9152:

Been leveling my guardian up solo, but one thing I can’t wrap my head around yet is when I’m supposed to activate my virtues – it just about always seems better to keep the passive effect than to burn the active. What is the correct way to use virtues strategically?

Sometimes, it’s dependent on how you are traited. For example, if you have inspired virtues (adept minor trait in the virtues trait line), all your virtues give boons.

This is basically for solo play:
Virtue of Justice

• The passive applies a 1s burn (on every 5th hit) and the active applies a 5s burn (deals more damage).
• To combine your burns into a single chain, after your 5th hit (large blue flames around your weapon skill bar indicates VoJ hit next), trigger your active.
• If you have inspired virtues traited (adds 3 stacks of might on VoJ active), trigger your active before you do a hard hitting attack to get more damage.
• If you’re channeling Renewed Focus (elite), it doesn’t hurt to activate this, since it’s going to be recharged when Renewed Focus completes, anyways.

Virtue of Resolve

• You typically want to keep this passive as much as possible because free HP regen helps you stay alive.
• If you really want the extra heal, trigger the active while channeling Renewed Focus (elite). This should only happen if you’re in serious danger of dying.
• If you DO have inspired virtues traited, this puts a regeneration boon on you when you trigger the active. Again, you shouldn’t really activate this unless the previous scenario happens.

Virtue of Courage

• The passive recharges every 40s, so every once in a while your first incoming attack is negated. Don’t trigger the active for aegis if your passive aegis is still on, so you can at least get two blocks in a fight.
• By itself, the active puts up aegis, which blocks an attack. You want to trigger this to block a big hit that might down/severely damage you or put you in a bad position (i.e. being knocked back). Sometimes, this is essentially another dodge roll because it allows you to maintain your position by negating something that would have made you dodge.
• If traited with inspired virtues, you get a protection boon (damage reduction). If you know you want to reduce damage, trigger VoC’s active.

That’s just a general run-down of the virtues from my experience. Once you know what you’re fighting and what traits you have attached to the virtues, you can probably find more ways to use your virtue actives to your advantage.

P.S.: One of my favorite uses of VoJ’s active is to blind, apply vulnerability, apply burning, and apply 3 stacks of might in one press. With Renewed Focus, all of that is doubled.

@Lightrayne: Excellent. That clarifies things greatly. Many thanks.

Just remember, even though levelling, when in groups, the value of virtue activation goes up, as it effects others around you too.