Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I just started the game last week. I have decided my guardian is going to be my main. I have a quick question about the virtues, the F keys.

I noticed they put a boon at the right and stay there all the time after I press the f keys. I get the feeling I’m suppose to do something more with them though but I don’t usually press the F keys in combat because of the slow cool down rate.

What am I missing here or not doing and what are the best ways to use virtues and when?

Thanks and happy guarding.

Hello there,

And welcome to GW2 and to the guardian profession foruns.

First I’m sorry for my english, as it is not my first language. :

Well first of all you need to know what are virtues and what do they do as a passive and as an active skill.

to better learn that visit: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Virtue

The thing about virtues is, as long as you don’t activate them you will almost 100% of the time have a better result as far as your guardian ( solo) goes as they apply a constant effect on you like the health regen of virtue of resolve, or the 40 secs aegis from virtue of courage or the burn effect from your every fifth atack from virtue of justice.

So why use them you ask?

well as a guardian you’re a people person and you will often party and virtues can be real life savers to some of your party member, for eg. a party member almost dying? activate virtue of resolve and you will heal the players arround you and yourself sacrificing the health regen for the reamaining of the cooldown, or for eg the virtue of courage that gives aegis to all the surrouding party instead of just you every 40 secs. that’s one free block that can really save your kitten or your team.

As far as virtue of justice goes it can indeed help since if you activate it while other players are arround you they all get a 5 sec burning effect for their next atack so imagine 5×5=25 secs of burning instead of the 1sec you usually get your fifth atack.

And as you progress in your trait line you will also get new perks to make virtues even better, for eg. inspire virtue that adds one extra boon to every virtue activation as it follows:

Justice: might
Resolve: regeneration
Courage: protection

Hope it helps to understand a bit more about virtues. at the end of the day, you need to acess the situation and see when it’s better to keep the passive effect on for yourself or sacrifice it for the remaining of the cd to help other arround you.

At first / at base, a lot of the virtues aren’t quite worth using, and instead are better left as passive bonuses. They tend to shine in groups though, from the very start.

A few use situations for solo play:
Use F2 if you’re really low on health to try and buy enough time for your heal skill.
Use F3 to block a big attack that you can’t dodge or block. Even though the recharge is a lot longer, having the Aegis proc once every 90 seconds for the Big Hit (especially things like knock-downs!) is worth more than having it proc twice in 90 seconds on tiny hits you don’t really care about.

Beyond that, you’ll find that how Virtues play can change significantly depending on what traits you have for them. Things like extra boons when you use them, or having F1 refresh its recharge whenever you kill something, can make them a lot more active.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to explain that for me. I am L18 right now and was wondering because I never seemed to need to use them aside from having them passive. It seems like they are best suited for groups and in kind of emergency situations or when my party needs a quick boost in a fight.

I have not done much in groups so far. I tried WvW once and got killed pretty quick. I’ll play around with them when I’m in a group again to figure out the timing for them and such.

Once again thanks. Oh and Komayo your English is very good.