Raedwulf
26 Oct 2008, 12:18
Virtues
With RoI, they've done a little more than simply raising the Virtue cap to 12. There are some significant changes, the most important being that, where formerly we had 19 buffs spread in various combinations across 20 Virtues (oCPR appeared twice), several buffs have been amalgamated.
The first thing to do, then, is to make sure we are clear as to how Virtues are structured. The old Ranged & Melee Vulnerability are rolled up into Physical Mitigation. Tactical Vul. & Shadow Mitigation become Tactical Mitigation. Armour Value is unchanged. The 4 Resistances (Wound, etc) are reduced to one buff - Resistance Rating. The 7 Base Stat buffs (Mor / Pwr / Vit et al) are unchanged. The 3 regeneration buffs are rounded out with the previously missing iCPR. End result - 15 buffs across 20 Virtues; 7 Base Stats as before, 3 Mitigations instead of 5; 1 Resistance instead of 4; 4 Regenerations instead of 3. Got that? Good!
The progression on the Base Stats looks exactly the same as before. If it's in the Strong position, you'll get +36 at 12 instead of +30 at 10. Resistances and, especially, Mitigations (apart from AV, which progresses as before) don't scale as well, on the face of it. However bear in mind that each now protects against several effects, rather than one, so we've not been hard done by. And that's the last time I shall mention "what they were"; let's stick to focusing on what they are...
So, 15 different types of buff available to populate each of 3 positions on 20 Virtues. The position in which the buffs are listed affects the strength of their effect, the first listed buff for a Virtue being the strongest, the last the weakest. Obviously your primary consideration in selecting a Virtue will be what is in position one. Equally though, you do need to bear in mind the contents of the moderate & weak positions. I am often surprised to find people equipping a virtue (usually because of a base stat bonus in the strong position) with two virtually useless buffs in the other two slots. The weak position, because the bonus is so small, really is a bonus – if you get something useful great, if you don’t, it’s not going to matter much; but in my opinion, you really do need to give due consideration to the moderate slot.
The permutations of the various buffs are fixed across the various Virtues – you can’t pick & mix your buffs freely. But, on the whole, I would rather choose a Virtue with my preferred buff in the moderate slot alongside a useful buff in the strong slot, than my preferred buff in the strong slot with junk in the moderate, especially with junk in the weak slot as well!
If that all sounds a bit abstract, consider Agility. It appears in 3 Virtues - Determination, Tolerance, Mercy (strong through weak positions). If you want an Agility bonus, you’ll not bother with Mercy (all those undead to grind!) for the measly amount you get, especially when Mercy’s strong position is occupied by oCPR; not particularly useful at the best of times. Determination, with a strong Agi buff, gives +36 at R12 (all comparisons will be made at R12, unless otherwise stated). Sounds useful, but it’s paired with iCMoraleRegen & weak Max Morale. Again, the amount of Morale you get is negligible in comparison to your total (the weakest end-game attack will hit you for more than the benefit), & iCMR is arguably the most useless buff of all. If I really wanted an Agi bonus, Tolerance gives a reasonable +18, and the iCMR in the weak slot is not much behind the moderate iCMR on Determination!! The strong slot is occupied by Tactical Mitigation. Tac Mit is often overlooked, since its benefits are not as obvious as Phys Mit, but it's useful nevertheless. So although you don't get as much Agi from Tolerance as from Determination, the former is, overall, more useful than the latter.
Steady the Buffs!!
So these are your 15 possible buffs, along with major partner buffs. The strong partner is the one which always appears above the buff, the weak is the one that always appears below. If there is a / involved on both Strong & Weak, then the first of each are a pair, as are the second. They basically fall into one of three groups.
Base Stat Buffs
Agility (Strong: Tactical Mitigation; Weak: iCMR)
Fate (S: Armour Value; W: Resistance Rating)
Might (S: oCMR; W: Resistance Rating)
Morale (S: iCMR; W: oCMR)
Power (S: Vitality; W: Armour Value)
Vitality (S: Tactical Mitigation; W: Max Power)
Will (S: Resistance Rating; W: iCPR)
The effects of base stat buffs are obvious & straightforward (& therefore a popular choice!). They can give a decent bonus even in the moderate position, but, as noted above, they should not be pursued at all costs. Bear in mind that, as a general rule, you are going to be choosing your equipment with a view to buffing your main stats & the law of diminishing returns means that, past a certain point, it may be worth dropping a base stat buffing Virtue for something else. Again as noted above, this is particularly true of Agility which has a poor weak partner (& junk in the weak position when it’s in the strong). Morale, similarly has poor partners either side, which is what makes Justice rubbish, in my opinion.
Curiously, I think that a “wrong” stat buff (e.g. Might for an LM) in the weak position is often more attractive than a right one. A +8 Might Buff from maximum Valour is pretty insignificant to a melee type; a +8 Will Buff from Idealism for a LM is just the same; but because a LM never sets out to buff his Might, which remains relatively low, +8 Might represents a proportionally greater incidental benefit. And the weak position buff always is, pretty much, incidental.
It’s perhaps worth reiterating the Base Stat benefits here. Might improves melee damage, Block, Parry, & Physical Mitigation. Agility does ranged damage, Evade, & Parry; increases your Crit chance & reduces Miss. Vitality improves Morale (3 Mor / pt), oCMR, and Resistance Rating; it improves both Physical & Tactical Mitigation too. Will increases Power (again 3 per stat pt) & oCPR, as well as Resistance, and depending on your class, your Offence Ratings as well (including Outgoing Healing). Fate increases both iCMR & iCPR, and your Crit chance. Increased Morale & Power are just that & nothing else!
Defensive Buffs
Armour Value (S: Max Power; W: Fate)
Physical Resistance (S: Resistance Rating / Max Morale; W: oCPR / AV)
Tactical Mitigation (S: oCPR / Resistance Rating; W: Agility / Vitality)
Resistance Rating (S / W: Too many to list!)
Armour Value is a Mitigation, not a Base Stat buff, so its effects are considerable. It is effective against all damage types, not just common, as once it was. A Valour bonus of +338 morale may sound like a lot, but one decent hit & it's gone. Mitigation (subject to any debuffs, naturally) is always there. Since Physical Resistance now covers both ranged & melee attacks, its value is obvious; probably even better than AV, though it depends on your armour type.
Tactical Mitigation covers any spell or cry type of attack. Less useful in the earlier part of the game; very useful in the latter stages. Finally, Resistance Rating appears a lot now, because it substitutes for the old Disease / Wound / Poison / Fear resistances (and it used to be in its own section of this guide). Since virtually every mob in the end-game has a special attack covering at least one of those, it's usefulness is obvious. Inevitably, though, you will slot some Virtues that include it, so whether you need to specifically focus on it is moot.
Regeneration Buffs
iCMR (S: Tactical Mitigation; W: Max Morale)
iCPR (S: Will; W: Resist Rating)
oCMR (S: Max Morale; W: Might)
oCPR (S: Physical Mitigation; W: Tactical Mitigation)
Finally, they've included iCPR on the Virtues list, replacing one of the occurences of oCPR. At 68.4 /minute, it's not massive, but every little helps with some of the power hungry classes out there. Since all 3 of the Virtues it appears on have nice buffs, it's always an attractive addition to your build. Load up with all 3, and you'll get a handy +145.8.
As for the other 3, I think iCMR & oCMR are worthless. You will get the same effect, to some degree, by buffing your Vitality or Fate. Fate especially, since it buffs both iCMR & iCPR, is far more useful than either of the morale buffs. If you want Combat bonuses, in- or out-, you can eat food. The numbers involved are pitiful. Strong iCMR grants a maximum 90 morale per minute; weak it’s still half that! Strong oCMR is no better; 647 / minute may sound good, but by the time you’ve got all the Fortitude ranks available, it's a patheticly small boost, in comparison with your morale pool & “natural” oCMR.
oCPR is not a great buff, but power levels are usually more of an issue than morale, & a boost here does shorten your resting time between fights. However, as with Resistance Rating, it's one you're not likely to trait for deliberately, and now that it only appears on 3 Virtues instead of 6, you're less likely to acquire some than you were.
A Virtuous Traiter (sic)
So now we come to the Virtues themselves & what I think of them. Three groups here also: the rubbish ones I never equip, the Virtues I might consider equipping for specific instances, & the Really Really Useful ones that usually occupy trait slots on some or all of my alts. One thing to bear in mind with the Virtues is how easy they are to level up. Some are almost exclusively levelled by Exploration / Achievement deeds (lore deeds e.g. collecting a number of pages, possibly from dead mobs, etc, are included in these). Since this is usually far easier to achieve than grinding mob kills, this tends to add to the attractiveness of a Virtue. Full details of all numbers, deeds, etc can be found from the Lotro Wiki Traits page (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Traits).
And Justice for… None…
Determination (Agi, iCMR, Max Morale)
Fortitude (oCMR, Might, Resist)
Honesty (Power, AV, Fate)
Justice (iCMR, Morale, oCMR)
Mercy (oCPR, Tac Mit, Agi)
Valour (Morale, oCMR, Might)
Either the strong buffs, or the combination of buffs, or both, make almost all of these Virtues unattractive. oCMR, iCMR, & oCPR are all bad choices for a strong buff, in my opinion, amd mostly they wind up with weak partners too. The power buff of Honesty (145 at max) is too small to be worthwhile (Wisdom will give you +36 Will / + 108 Power, with other benefits besides, for comparison); less than half the effect of Valour on Morale (+338).
Valour! How the mighty have fallen! Once de rigeur, back in SoA days, I wouldn't slot it at all now. I can get the same amount of morale from Zeal, with vastly better partners. Valour used to be a compulsory, but no longer. The benefit of a high Physical Mitigation is more useful than a relatively small boost to Morale. Basic maths, really - 338 is not a lot in proportion to a morale of 5-10+K which is typical of a capped alt. Since the effects of damage & healing over the course of a fight mean that an alt may effectively get through twice their morale, or even more, the mitigation is much more valuable. In this example, that would be 5% of 10-20K - effectively +500-1,000 morale.
Justice has always been a particularly over-valued Virtue, in my opinion. I think people look at the morale effects & think “Wow!”, but come on, people! Justice R12 gives +90 iCMR, +170 Morale, +324 oCMR. Insignificant (you can get +45 from weak position iCMR & it’s next to useless anyway), insignificant (+338 from Zeal or Valour, remember), & worthless (+324 / minute. Wow. My capped LM currently has 5.1K oCMR without this). As for Determination, as already stated I’d rather take Tolerance if I want an Agi bonus; I’ll make up the rest of the buff on equipment!
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not…
Charity (Resist, Phys Mit, oCPR)
Compassion, (Phys Mit, oCPR, Tac Mit)
Confidence (Resist, Will, oCPR)
Discipline (Might, Resist, Phys Mit)
Empathy (AV, Fate, Resist)
Honour (Resist, Tac Mit, Vit)
Loyalty (Vit, Power, AV)
Tolerance (Tac Mit, Agi, iCMR)
These are the tactical, rather than strategic, Virtues. By that, I mean that they are useful only sometimes; rather than having a constant, if sometimes more diffuse, benefit. An exception is Discipline, but Might is mainly a consideration for CHM & GDN - a CPT is probably more concerned about Will & Fate for boosting / maintaining their power, and since WDNs are also not intended to be melee dps machines, it won't necessarily be their main priority either. Tolerance is worth considering for a Hunter or Burglar, particularly in late-game - a reasonable Agi buff, combined with that strong Tac Mit; of little interest to any other class.
Compassion goes from from being rubbish to being worth consideration for some classes in some situations. oCPR isn't much cop, but that strong Phys Mit / Weak Tac Mit is quite attractive. Of the Virtues with Medium Phys Mit, I'm thinking Charity might even be better than Zeal for a Heavy - Strong Resistance, as against Morale, with equally useless Weak oCPR or AV; Lights might find Zeal better for the AV.
Empathy is not what it was, but it's still worth a thought, especially for non-heavies, where the AV bonus becomes proportionately greater. Particularly, it still grants a significant bonus for the 3 light armour classes. Loyalty used to be a desirable, it's still not bad, but the RoI changes have promoted others beyond it. Confidence remains a possible. For anyone short on power that is also looking for Resistance, it is definitely an option. Tolerance, as you've gathered by now, is OK if you want some extra Agi along with Tac Mit. Lastly, there's Honour. This is a much better Virtue than it was, but perhaps still not quite good enough for most.
Oh So Desirable...
Fidelity (Tac Mit, Vit, Power)
Idealism (Fate, Resist, Will)
Innocence (Phys Mit, Resist, Tac Mit)
Patience (iCPR, Resist, Phys Mit)
Wisdom (Will, iCPR, Resist)
Zeal (Morale, Phys Mit, AV)
Innocence remains the King Virtue, the one you will always slot. The changes actually make it even more attractive. The same is true of Wisdom - more Will, more power, more iCPR, and a little buff to Resistance. What's not to like?
Fidelity is worth little before you have a horse. Before L35 (the old level for the horse being available) you will rarely run across mobs doing Tactical damage, which is its strong buff. In the late game, however, it’s enormously useful, particularly so in Instances. Loyalty has disappeared from this group, to be replaced by Zeal - again, what's not to like? A decent morale buff, accompanied by much better partners than Valour has.
I've promoted Patience to a desirable now, too. It's that iCPR again. It's so useful for so many classes, and the Resistance & Physical Mitigation are always good too. As for Idealism, some people don’t feel Fate is particularly useful. Usually, that’s because they’re willing to discard Fate buffs in favour of iCPR buffs on equipment. However, I still regard a decent Fate buff from Virtues as very desirable – both iCMR & iCPR benefit, remember, as well as your Crit rating.
The one other thing to note about this last set of Virtues is that they are all almost exclusively Achievement / Exploration deeds, making them easy to acquire!
By Class
Possible set-ups for each class follow. The 5th slot I've basically treated as tactical i.e what you think you need most for whatever you're expecting to be facing. It's not the only way to build for PvE, but should provide you with a good foundation.
BRG - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Com / Con / Tol
CPT - Inn, Pat, Wis, Con, Com / Zea
CHM - Inn, Dis, Zea, Com, Cha / Fid / Hnr
GDN - Inn, Dis, Cha, Zea, Loy / Com / Fid
HNT - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Cha / Con / Fid
LM - Inn, Loy, Wis, Emp, Com / Con / Fid
MNS - Inn, Pat, Zea, Wis, Com / Con / Emp / Fid
RK - Inn, Com, Emp, Wis, Con / Loy / Zea
WDN - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Cha / Com / Emp / Fid
Innocence aside, Zeal is appearing on virtually every build. Wisdom is another I've always used heavily, and the iCPR instead of oCPR strengthens it. Patience tends to replace Loyalty, which I've used a lot in the past; Discipline remains good for CHM & GDN, though I prefer Patience on the power hungry CPT. Empathy & Tolerance have dropped right down my preferences - I'd rather have mitigations than AV, and Fidelity is better than Tol on anything except the BRG. The one slight surprise is that Honour looks a really nice Virtue now, yet only the CHM has space to slot it (maybe).
With RoI, they've done a little more than simply raising the Virtue cap to 12. There are some significant changes, the most important being that, where formerly we had 19 buffs spread in various combinations across 20 Virtues (oCPR appeared twice), several buffs have been amalgamated.
The first thing to do, then, is to make sure we are clear as to how Virtues are structured. The old Ranged & Melee Vulnerability are rolled up into Physical Mitigation. Tactical Vul. & Shadow Mitigation become Tactical Mitigation. Armour Value is unchanged. The 4 Resistances (Wound, etc) are reduced to one buff - Resistance Rating. The 7 Base Stat buffs (Mor / Pwr / Vit et al) are unchanged. The 3 regeneration buffs are rounded out with the previously missing iCPR. End result - 15 buffs across 20 Virtues; 7 Base Stats as before, 3 Mitigations instead of 5; 1 Resistance instead of 4; 4 Regenerations instead of 3. Got that? Good!
The progression on the Base Stats looks exactly the same as before. If it's in the Strong position, you'll get +36 at 12 instead of +30 at 10. Resistances and, especially, Mitigations (apart from AV, which progresses as before) don't scale as well, on the face of it. However bear in mind that each now protects against several effects, rather than one, so we've not been hard done by. And that's the last time I shall mention "what they were"; let's stick to focusing on what they are...
So, 15 different types of buff available to populate each of 3 positions on 20 Virtues. The position in which the buffs are listed affects the strength of their effect, the first listed buff for a Virtue being the strongest, the last the weakest. Obviously your primary consideration in selecting a Virtue will be what is in position one. Equally though, you do need to bear in mind the contents of the moderate & weak positions. I am often surprised to find people equipping a virtue (usually because of a base stat bonus in the strong position) with two virtually useless buffs in the other two slots. The weak position, because the bonus is so small, really is a bonus – if you get something useful great, if you don’t, it’s not going to matter much; but in my opinion, you really do need to give due consideration to the moderate slot.
The permutations of the various buffs are fixed across the various Virtues – you can’t pick & mix your buffs freely. But, on the whole, I would rather choose a Virtue with my preferred buff in the moderate slot alongside a useful buff in the strong slot, than my preferred buff in the strong slot with junk in the moderate, especially with junk in the weak slot as well!
If that all sounds a bit abstract, consider Agility. It appears in 3 Virtues - Determination, Tolerance, Mercy (strong through weak positions). If you want an Agility bonus, you’ll not bother with Mercy (all those undead to grind!) for the measly amount you get, especially when Mercy’s strong position is occupied by oCPR; not particularly useful at the best of times. Determination, with a strong Agi buff, gives +36 at R12 (all comparisons will be made at R12, unless otherwise stated). Sounds useful, but it’s paired with iCMoraleRegen & weak Max Morale. Again, the amount of Morale you get is negligible in comparison to your total (the weakest end-game attack will hit you for more than the benefit), & iCMR is arguably the most useless buff of all. If I really wanted an Agi bonus, Tolerance gives a reasonable +18, and the iCMR in the weak slot is not much behind the moderate iCMR on Determination!! The strong slot is occupied by Tactical Mitigation. Tac Mit is often overlooked, since its benefits are not as obvious as Phys Mit, but it's useful nevertheless. So although you don't get as much Agi from Tolerance as from Determination, the former is, overall, more useful than the latter.
Steady the Buffs!!
So these are your 15 possible buffs, along with major partner buffs. The strong partner is the one which always appears above the buff, the weak is the one that always appears below. If there is a / involved on both Strong & Weak, then the first of each are a pair, as are the second. They basically fall into one of three groups.
Base Stat Buffs
Agility (Strong: Tactical Mitigation; Weak: iCMR)
Fate (S: Armour Value; W: Resistance Rating)
Might (S: oCMR; W: Resistance Rating)
Morale (S: iCMR; W: oCMR)
Power (S: Vitality; W: Armour Value)
Vitality (S: Tactical Mitigation; W: Max Power)
Will (S: Resistance Rating; W: iCPR)
The effects of base stat buffs are obvious & straightforward (& therefore a popular choice!). They can give a decent bonus even in the moderate position, but, as noted above, they should not be pursued at all costs. Bear in mind that, as a general rule, you are going to be choosing your equipment with a view to buffing your main stats & the law of diminishing returns means that, past a certain point, it may be worth dropping a base stat buffing Virtue for something else. Again as noted above, this is particularly true of Agility which has a poor weak partner (& junk in the weak position when it’s in the strong). Morale, similarly has poor partners either side, which is what makes Justice rubbish, in my opinion.
Curiously, I think that a “wrong” stat buff (e.g. Might for an LM) in the weak position is often more attractive than a right one. A +8 Might Buff from maximum Valour is pretty insignificant to a melee type; a +8 Will Buff from Idealism for a LM is just the same; but because a LM never sets out to buff his Might, which remains relatively low, +8 Might represents a proportionally greater incidental benefit. And the weak position buff always is, pretty much, incidental.
It’s perhaps worth reiterating the Base Stat benefits here. Might improves melee damage, Block, Parry, & Physical Mitigation. Agility does ranged damage, Evade, & Parry; increases your Crit chance & reduces Miss. Vitality improves Morale (3 Mor / pt), oCMR, and Resistance Rating; it improves both Physical & Tactical Mitigation too. Will increases Power (again 3 per stat pt) & oCPR, as well as Resistance, and depending on your class, your Offence Ratings as well (including Outgoing Healing). Fate increases both iCMR & iCPR, and your Crit chance. Increased Morale & Power are just that & nothing else!
Defensive Buffs
Armour Value (S: Max Power; W: Fate)
Physical Resistance (S: Resistance Rating / Max Morale; W: oCPR / AV)
Tactical Mitigation (S: oCPR / Resistance Rating; W: Agility / Vitality)
Resistance Rating (S / W: Too many to list!)
Armour Value is a Mitigation, not a Base Stat buff, so its effects are considerable. It is effective against all damage types, not just common, as once it was. A Valour bonus of +338 morale may sound like a lot, but one decent hit & it's gone. Mitigation (subject to any debuffs, naturally) is always there. Since Physical Resistance now covers both ranged & melee attacks, its value is obvious; probably even better than AV, though it depends on your armour type.
Tactical Mitigation covers any spell or cry type of attack. Less useful in the earlier part of the game; very useful in the latter stages. Finally, Resistance Rating appears a lot now, because it substitutes for the old Disease / Wound / Poison / Fear resistances (and it used to be in its own section of this guide). Since virtually every mob in the end-game has a special attack covering at least one of those, it's usefulness is obvious. Inevitably, though, you will slot some Virtues that include it, so whether you need to specifically focus on it is moot.
Regeneration Buffs
iCMR (S: Tactical Mitigation; W: Max Morale)
iCPR (S: Will; W: Resist Rating)
oCMR (S: Max Morale; W: Might)
oCPR (S: Physical Mitigation; W: Tactical Mitigation)
Finally, they've included iCPR on the Virtues list, replacing one of the occurences of oCPR. At 68.4 /minute, it's not massive, but every little helps with some of the power hungry classes out there. Since all 3 of the Virtues it appears on have nice buffs, it's always an attractive addition to your build. Load up with all 3, and you'll get a handy +145.8.
As for the other 3, I think iCMR & oCMR are worthless. You will get the same effect, to some degree, by buffing your Vitality or Fate. Fate especially, since it buffs both iCMR & iCPR, is far more useful than either of the morale buffs. If you want Combat bonuses, in- or out-, you can eat food. The numbers involved are pitiful. Strong iCMR grants a maximum 90 morale per minute; weak it’s still half that! Strong oCMR is no better; 647 / minute may sound good, but by the time you’ve got all the Fortitude ranks available, it's a patheticly small boost, in comparison with your morale pool & “natural” oCMR.
oCPR is not a great buff, but power levels are usually more of an issue than morale, & a boost here does shorten your resting time between fights. However, as with Resistance Rating, it's one you're not likely to trait for deliberately, and now that it only appears on 3 Virtues instead of 6, you're less likely to acquire some than you were.
A Virtuous Traiter (sic)
So now we come to the Virtues themselves & what I think of them. Three groups here also: the rubbish ones I never equip, the Virtues I might consider equipping for specific instances, & the Really Really Useful ones that usually occupy trait slots on some or all of my alts. One thing to bear in mind with the Virtues is how easy they are to level up. Some are almost exclusively levelled by Exploration / Achievement deeds (lore deeds e.g. collecting a number of pages, possibly from dead mobs, etc, are included in these). Since this is usually far easier to achieve than grinding mob kills, this tends to add to the attractiveness of a Virtue. Full details of all numbers, deeds, etc can be found from the Lotro Wiki Traits page (http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Traits).
And Justice for… None…
Determination (Agi, iCMR, Max Morale)
Fortitude (oCMR, Might, Resist)
Honesty (Power, AV, Fate)
Justice (iCMR, Morale, oCMR)
Mercy (oCPR, Tac Mit, Agi)
Valour (Morale, oCMR, Might)
Either the strong buffs, or the combination of buffs, or both, make almost all of these Virtues unattractive. oCMR, iCMR, & oCPR are all bad choices for a strong buff, in my opinion, amd mostly they wind up with weak partners too. The power buff of Honesty (145 at max) is too small to be worthwhile (Wisdom will give you +36 Will / + 108 Power, with other benefits besides, for comparison); less than half the effect of Valour on Morale (+338).
Valour! How the mighty have fallen! Once de rigeur, back in SoA days, I wouldn't slot it at all now. I can get the same amount of morale from Zeal, with vastly better partners. Valour used to be a compulsory, but no longer. The benefit of a high Physical Mitigation is more useful than a relatively small boost to Morale. Basic maths, really - 338 is not a lot in proportion to a morale of 5-10+K which is typical of a capped alt. Since the effects of damage & healing over the course of a fight mean that an alt may effectively get through twice their morale, or even more, the mitigation is much more valuable. In this example, that would be 5% of 10-20K - effectively +500-1,000 morale.
Justice has always been a particularly over-valued Virtue, in my opinion. I think people look at the morale effects & think “Wow!”, but come on, people! Justice R12 gives +90 iCMR, +170 Morale, +324 oCMR. Insignificant (you can get +45 from weak position iCMR & it’s next to useless anyway), insignificant (+338 from Zeal or Valour, remember), & worthless (+324 / minute. Wow. My capped LM currently has 5.1K oCMR without this). As for Determination, as already stated I’d rather take Tolerance if I want an Agi bonus; I’ll make up the rest of the buff on equipment!
She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not…
Charity (Resist, Phys Mit, oCPR)
Compassion, (Phys Mit, oCPR, Tac Mit)
Confidence (Resist, Will, oCPR)
Discipline (Might, Resist, Phys Mit)
Empathy (AV, Fate, Resist)
Honour (Resist, Tac Mit, Vit)
Loyalty (Vit, Power, AV)
Tolerance (Tac Mit, Agi, iCMR)
These are the tactical, rather than strategic, Virtues. By that, I mean that they are useful only sometimes; rather than having a constant, if sometimes more diffuse, benefit. An exception is Discipline, but Might is mainly a consideration for CHM & GDN - a CPT is probably more concerned about Will & Fate for boosting / maintaining their power, and since WDNs are also not intended to be melee dps machines, it won't necessarily be their main priority either. Tolerance is worth considering for a Hunter or Burglar, particularly in late-game - a reasonable Agi buff, combined with that strong Tac Mit; of little interest to any other class.
Compassion goes from from being rubbish to being worth consideration for some classes in some situations. oCPR isn't much cop, but that strong Phys Mit / Weak Tac Mit is quite attractive. Of the Virtues with Medium Phys Mit, I'm thinking Charity might even be better than Zeal for a Heavy - Strong Resistance, as against Morale, with equally useless Weak oCPR or AV; Lights might find Zeal better for the AV.
Empathy is not what it was, but it's still worth a thought, especially for non-heavies, where the AV bonus becomes proportionately greater. Particularly, it still grants a significant bonus for the 3 light armour classes. Loyalty used to be a desirable, it's still not bad, but the RoI changes have promoted others beyond it. Confidence remains a possible. For anyone short on power that is also looking for Resistance, it is definitely an option. Tolerance, as you've gathered by now, is OK if you want some extra Agi along with Tac Mit. Lastly, there's Honour. This is a much better Virtue than it was, but perhaps still not quite good enough for most.
Oh So Desirable...
Fidelity (Tac Mit, Vit, Power)
Idealism (Fate, Resist, Will)
Innocence (Phys Mit, Resist, Tac Mit)
Patience (iCPR, Resist, Phys Mit)
Wisdom (Will, iCPR, Resist)
Zeal (Morale, Phys Mit, AV)
Innocence remains the King Virtue, the one you will always slot. The changes actually make it even more attractive. The same is true of Wisdom - more Will, more power, more iCPR, and a little buff to Resistance. What's not to like?
Fidelity is worth little before you have a horse. Before L35 (the old level for the horse being available) you will rarely run across mobs doing Tactical damage, which is its strong buff. In the late game, however, it’s enormously useful, particularly so in Instances. Loyalty has disappeared from this group, to be replaced by Zeal - again, what's not to like? A decent morale buff, accompanied by much better partners than Valour has.
I've promoted Patience to a desirable now, too. It's that iCPR again. It's so useful for so many classes, and the Resistance & Physical Mitigation are always good too. As for Idealism, some people don’t feel Fate is particularly useful. Usually, that’s because they’re willing to discard Fate buffs in favour of iCPR buffs on equipment. However, I still regard a decent Fate buff from Virtues as very desirable – both iCMR & iCPR benefit, remember, as well as your Crit rating.
The one other thing to note about this last set of Virtues is that they are all almost exclusively Achievement / Exploration deeds, making them easy to acquire!
By Class
Possible set-ups for each class follow. The 5th slot I've basically treated as tactical i.e what you think you need most for whatever you're expecting to be facing. It's not the only way to build for PvE, but should provide you with a good foundation.
BRG - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Com / Con / Tol
CPT - Inn, Pat, Wis, Con, Com / Zea
CHM - Inn, Dis, Zea, Com, Cha / Fid / Hnr
GDN - Inn, Dis, Cha, Zea, Loy / Com / Fid
HNT - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Cha / Con / Fid
LM - Inn, Loy, Wis, Emp, Com / Con / Fid
MNS - Inn, Pat, Zea, Wis, Com / Con / Emp / Fid
RK - Inn, Com, Emp, Wis, Con / Loy / Zea
WDN - Inn, Pat, Wis, Zea, Cha / Com / Emp / Fid
Innocence aside, Zeal is appearing on virtually every build. Wisdom is another I've always used heavily, and the iCPR instead of oCPR strengthens it. Patience tends to replace Loyalty, which I've used a lot in the past; Discipline remains good for CHM & GDN, though I prefer Patience on the power hungry CPT. Empathy & Tolerance have dropped right down my preferences - I'd rather have mitigations than AV, and Fidelity is better than Tol on anything except the BRG. The one slight surprise is that Honour looks a really nice Virtue now, yet only the CHM has space to slot it (maybe).