Guild Wars 2

I understand that different builds/weapon sets/game modes may alter your choice but in general, when do you activate your Virtue of Justice?

1. Never—What? I have an F1 button?
2. As often as possible (keep it on CD)—My finger hurts, ouch.
3. At the beginning of the fight—We don’t need no water…
4. When the enemy’s health is low—Aww…you so dead.
5. When friendlies are around—Hey, you guys, help me kill this guy.
6. When the opportunity is right—Now is the perfect moment!

Generally when there are allies around me. Otherwise it’s more useful kept passive.

Well I keep my virtues as a panic button, I hit all three and then activate the renewed focus when I’m in trouble.

I mostly play WvW and in those moments where I’m outnumbered and about to die, it has saved my skin more than once.

Mine is traited to give 3 stacks of might, blind, 3 stacks of vuln, and of course, its default stuff.

I guess number 6 would be my best description because with the traits above, I can make a choice of which ability I need for the opportunity:

• When something needs to be bursted down
• During a time warp to increase team DPS
• Negating a specific harmful one-hit attack from a mob
• When burning is needed (i.e. tar elemental in Arah P1 or boosting an ally’s damage via condition count)

My traited VoJ is rarely kept passive in team play as its active is way more valuable with the traits.

If you’ve not traited for virtues, then you really don’t need to bother and just keep it passive.

However with 15 points into Radiance you have Justice is Blind ( AoE 3 second blind ) and Renewed Justice ( cooldown is reset every time you kill a foe )

5 points into Virtues gives Inspired Virtues and 3 stacks of might to nearby allies. If you run Altruistic Healing you also get healing for every ally who gets those boons.

If you have points in Zeal for Fiery Wrath’s +10% damage for burning targets, then you can pop it if you want to front-load some burst

This means you should pretty much spam it to death ( although there’s no point in activating blind if you foes are already blinded, so keep an eye on their conditions ).

edit: lightrayne beat me to it ;-)

Since I don’t have renewed justice, I like to pop VoJ about midway through the fight when my enemy’s health is low for some late-fight burst. It usually catches them off-guard.

depends on situations
on an 20 vs 20 fight, if i use 0 /0/10/30/30 , at the begin of the fight and as often as posible
if i use 0/0/30/30/10 , rarely
on small scale fights, when i want to take advantage over the fight

TallDan.6350:

Well I keep my virtues as a panic button, I hit all three and then activate the renewed focus when I’m in trouble.

I mostly play WvW and in those moments where I’m outnumbered and about to die, it has saved my skin more than once.

Haha same!

i use it as another heal

A mix between #2 and #6. And sometimes #1.

As a 0/0/30/30/10 who mainly just dungeons on the guy, I use it on cooldown. The more might the better. A bit of healing to go with it is just icing.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong

Their isn’t a straightforward answer to that question: it depends on what your build is, the mob, if you have a team, etc…

Simple rule: Use active VoJ if:

1) you build for burning
2) you have Rad 15 and Virtue 5
3) you have a team

I run around often in a condition damage build and with Virtue 5 so using active VoJ at the beginning of every fight is a no brainer for me.

Since mine is traited for 3 stacks of might, I’m continuously spamming it! With 15 points in Radiance…even better

It’s directly proportional to group size. So solo I don’t bother much and in large group I’m constantly spamming it, especially with renewed justice. A lot of people getting burning attacks everywhere is far better than every 5th attack of yours setting off that dinky burn.

For a 10/30/30/0/0 build I tend to use it when I am about to burst people in Spvp/WvW, as burning adds 20% damage to my attacks, and I would rather try to wait for them to waste condition removal before I burn my best source of burning. (har har) In Pve I just spam the hell out of it since it refreshes on every kill, and in Dungeon I just spam because the total duration from each person attacking the boss ends up being longer than the CD anyways.

4. When the enemy’s health is low

The Guardian generally has a tough time keeping up with foes running away, and this is where Virtue of Justice is perfect to use. Usually foes will have already spend all their condition removal by the time they are running away, and that makes the extra seconds of burning hurt a lot.

I try to use it as often as possible, and occassionally when the time is right, so a combination between 2 and 6 I guess. As it gives me might and retaliation and it blinds nearby foes on top of the strong burn I want to take advantage of it as much as I can. Sometimes I want to time it correctly to blind that thief trying to get a cloak and dagger in on me.

This is as far WvW is concerned anyway.

I have that trait that increases damage by 10% when an enemy is burning, so typically I activate it either once an enemy has dropped below 75% hp in pvp, and/or right before using my scepter / torch combo. The #4 on torch adds to the burning duration of the VoJ activation so that’s a whole lot of free damage for me.

If there are allies and enemies around i always have it active, blinds, might, group flame dmg and a heal, lovely.

It’s awesome when I am using my farming specc in ORR
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgqCXGyIEfIFRuA7DAs6R8un9wUoxMC
or
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYgqCXGyIEfYFRuA7DAsSR8uHmCNmxrCUE

depending if I want more precision

Activating Virtue of Justice will not only Burn but stacks of Might as well as applying an AOE Blind which in turn also adds an AOE Vulnerability (3 stacks also add Vuln from Symbols I get about 10 – 15 stacks depending how long foes are in my symbol of Wrath) and to top it all off, each time a foe dies, VoJ resets.

Run up to a group, Binding Blade, pull them in with BBs secondary, Symbol of Wrath (Retal + AOE Vuln)(Writ of Exaltation makes sure all foes will fit within symbol), Leap of Faith (activating an AOE Blind (activating 3 stacks of AOE Vuln) VoJ (Burn, AOE Blind/AOE Vuln) Whirling Wrath (against a group of foes that now have about 12-15 stacks of Vulnerability on them)
This tends to waste the blind a bit, but with the inital burst of damage you are going to drop at least one foe, resetting VoJ for another Burn/AOE Blind/Vuln
When skills are on CD, I will swap to Staff or Hammer (whichever I have equipped as my secondary) and wreck house until the swap CD is up and repeat.

There are quite possibly better setup, but I enjoy this as I tend to be able to use all of my skills making the fight more enjoyable than spamming just 2 keys.

I have traited for extra boons on use plus blind and invulnerability on blind and refresh on kills, so I an #2 all the way.

AgentChaos.4932:

i use it as another heal

When I need to take the pressure off me and on to my target. Burn + normal dps helps kick up the consistent dps a bit.

7. Ideally, every .25 seconds.

i only play guard in dungeons:
all the time, whenever its off CD (my only trait for it is the might; no blind or insta cooldown)… but it doesnt hurt my fingers

I keep it on cooldown

3. At the beginning of the fight—We don’t need no water…
5. When friendlies are around—Hey, you guys, help me kill this guy.
6. When the opportunity is right—Now is the perfect moment!

These. Mostly in boss fights, or if I’m about to expend our only underwater elite. At the beginning of a boss fight, when a boss can’t clear the burning condition, VoJ can stack on a lot of damage.

2, 3, 5, and 6. I have 5 points in Virtues just for the boon boosts, and right now I’m using 30 Radiance, so the blind and constant burning is always helpful. Not using your virtues is pretty much a waste, even in solo play. Do it right, and you really can block and outheal some really lethal attacks.