The Witcher - Talents - Yrden

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Yrden takes a bit more planning and tactics to use, but is an exceptionally useful sign. It has a lot of quirks:

• It stays until another Yrden trap is placed (a powerup Yrden blast does not dispel a placed Yrden trap) or it runs out of charges. If you reload a game, it typically disappears from sight, but it is still there.
• Enemies generally head in a straight line toward you so it's easy to lure them into a Yrden trap.
• It gives off a purplish light. If you don't have Cat or don't want to waste one in a small dungeon, you can place a Yrden and stay near it to fight your enemies.
• The power-up is a single hit wide-area hit that only starts powering up AFTER the usual start-up time. It is very easily interrupted so you want to have a Quen barrier up if you can manage it.
• Because it is so slow, you might want to just forget about trying to use it and save your Silver and Gold Talents instead of buying Expert, Specialist, and Master upgrades.
• A powerful combination is Powerup Quen -> pull enemies -> Powerup Yrden -> Igni if you can afford the Endurance cost.
• The power-up Yrden has very wide range at high levels. Because it affects a circular field, line of sight is not required. You could therefore hide behind a structure and hit targets behind it. 
• There are a lot of incapacitating upgrades.
• Get as many as you can so that each time the enemy is hit, there is a chance at at least one of the effects will affect them. Remember that Yrden lasts until its charges run out or you cast another. If an enemy is hit by Pain or Blinding, you can just wait (and recover Endurance) until they recover and walk into your Yrden again. Or, if your Yrden is running out of charges, you can take the opportunity to place another Yrden.
• Poison is a particularly powerful damage-dealer as it works on percentage of health.
• Blinding Sign is one of the few ways to inflict the Blind status and thereby let you use the Sinister I-III upgrade on Fast Silver.

Yrden is great to use when the enemy is too dangerous to engage in melee. Lead them to walk into your Yrden a few times and continue to weaken them with Igni. Between the two, if that doesn't kill the enemy, hit them with Aard when they are weakened. Typically a weakened enemy will not be able to walk through a Yrden, but will instead be pushed back, forcing them to walk through it again.
Silver level Yrden is powerful enough that Gold level Yrden is probably not necessary.

All the way through to the late game, Yrden remains a very powerful way to keep even bosses at bay, hurt them badly, or even finish them off.

The Witcher - Talents - Quen

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Quen has interesting nuances that aren't documented, but which can be real game-changers.

• You suffer no hit reaction when attacks are absorbed by the Quen shield. This is the basic reason to use Quen: To not be interrupted while you are doing something. You can suffer knockdowns and other status effects, however.
• If you already have a Quen barrier, right-clicking to re-cast it will instead drop your current Quen barrier (at no Endurance cost). You have to then right-click a second time to cast Quen.
• There is a limit to the damage you can do with powered-up Quen (50%). Beyond this percentage, enemies will no longer take damage from your Quen barrier, even if you re-cast it. Quen cannot therefore on its own give you any kills, but can very quickly weaken enemies because it works on (large) percentages. For example, at Quen level 5, an enemy that hits Geralt just three times will have lost the maximum of 50% of its Vitality. You can during this time tear down even more with Igni.
• Casting spells does not necessarily drop a Quen shield. The spell must hit a valid target, whether the target is affected or not (e.g., by Axii).
• Re-casting Quen (which targets yourself) will drop the current Quen shield right away.
• Casting Yrden to place a trap does NOT drop the Quen shield as it is placed on the ground but not targeted at a creature. It can be pricey to do, but this is one way to re-cast Yrden in the heat of combat as Yrden takes a relatively long time to cast.
• Casting any power-up spell or attack does not drop a Quen shield until you release the effect by releasing the mouse button. At that point, if the spell or attack hits anything, the Quen will drop.
• Shrike will not work while Quen is blocking damage.
• Giant Centipedes can be affected by a Yrden trap while they are tunneling underground.

Theoretically you should find yourself using Quen rarely because preparation and tactics should not be replaced by casting a shield to buy yourself time in combat to do your preparations. That said, you need to think about how you intend to use Quen -- and whether it will be often enough to justify spending more than Bronze talents. There are various applications:

• Attack - The power-up versions of Quen can do an astonishing amount of damage. The more Vitality the enemy has, the more damage they take -- and against a boss or really tough creature, it will do damage faster and more safely than with a weapon. You can then follow up with another spell like Aard to try for a stun, or Igni to burn off the rest of the Vitality. Because the power-up takes time and drops any existing Quen shield, you really want to set this up even before the fight has begun.
• Because Igni also works on percentages and is faster and more convenient to cast, you may want to leave Quen at Apprentice level (Bronze Talents) unless you have nothing better to buy with your Silver Talents.
• Specialist, Expert, and Master upgrades are probably the only reason to increase Quen to level 3 or higher. The other specializations in levels 3-5 are not particularly important.
• Preparation - As the glossary suggests, it can buy you time to drink a potion. But it can also buy you time to do other things such as move into range, pull a lot of enemies to bonfire them all at once with a single cast of Igni, or to lay another Yrden trap.
• If you don't need Quen for very long, then just Quen Level 2 (Bronze Talents) may well be enough.
• Level 4 Fighting Style - The Level 4 fighting styles all give you a different power-up attack that cannot be started without a target -- that is, unlike a spell, you cannot charge it up and then hold it until an enemy comes into range. You must click on a valid target and hold the mouse button down until it charges up. Quen can shield you while you are waiting for the power-up. The problem with this is both Quen and the attack consume Endurance so it becomes very costly. Casting Quen might even drop your Endurance below what is required to use your power-up attack -- it's hard to tell how much Endurance the attack is going to use because unlike Signs, there's no mark on your Endurance bar to show Endurance consumption; the attack will still power-up, but do nothing..
• Retreat - Cast it and run.
• You won't need Quen for very long so even a level 2 Quen should be fine.

The Witcher - Talents - Aard

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Like Igni, Aard is so powerful that you will probably start to feel embarrassed at using it. The basic use of Aard is to set up a target for an instant kill. If it is knocked down but not Stunned or Knocked Down long enough for a finishing move, try again later when it is weaker. Typically if you have improved Aard and further enhanced it with a Ritual of Magic, it will Stun the toughest non-boss monsters up till late Chapter 5, unless they are outright immune to Aard (such as Ifrits).

The power-up version increases the effective radius and the Intensity of the Sign, which can make the difference between success or failure, but it is slow to cast. You would probably be better off burning everyone with Igni and then casting a regular Aard on the weakened target you had in mind. I recommend you skip all the power-up versions (Student, Apprentice, Specialist, Expert, Master) and work on improving Igni instead.

Blasting Fist is obviously specific to the level 4 Strong Silver style, and unless you plan on actively using that skill, skip it.

Once you hit late Chapter 5, the mini-bosses and bosses have too much protection to use Aard for anything more than getting space (by knocking enemies back -- duration of the knockdown is too short for a finishing move) or getting in safe hits (by knocking enemies down or into a wall so you can attack while they get up). At that point, Igni takes over as your main damage-dealer.

The Witcher - Talents - Fighting Styles

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Overall, I like to use melee combat only against enemies that are easily defeated without a lot of Vitality loss, or if they are weak and can be easily finished off. Otherwise, signs are a better way to inflict damage as well as to do it from a safe distance. Prolonged exposure to melee combat only invites being hit by a dangerous status effect.

In the early game, you will need to use Strong or Fast styles against the correct opponent, or you are unlikely to hit at all. Group styles hit all types of opponents provided you have 3+ opponents. Sometimes, but not always, two opponents will be enough.
When Dexterity improves, you may have enough of an Attack rating to use the "wrong" style on a target. That is, you have a better chance of using Strong style against an opponent that normally requires a Fast style. Even Group style can then be used against a single opponent.

You can use Steel against monsters and Silver against non-monsters/humans, but the damage is much lower and the chances of a critical hit special effect such as Bleeding or Pain is either zero or very low. You still score hit reactions, however.

Therefore, IF you are relying on other means (such as Igni) to kill or severely injure enemies, then theoretically you could develop just Strong Steel or Strong Silver as your primary attack. You would have to wait until the late game to start using it against Fast style opponents. In the meantime, you would rely on level 1 styles on your targets.
There is little point in doing this at levels 1 and 2 because you will have enough Bronze Talents to buy all the non-useless Bronze skills anyway. You won't have enough Silver Talents to buy all level 3-4 skills, so focussing on just one or two attack styles at level 3 will free your Silver Talents for investment in the generally more versatile and useful Signs.
I recommend Strong Steel and/or Strong Silver because these cause Bleeding, and bleeding works on a percentage of current enemy Vitality -- The more they have, the more they lose to bleeding. Also, Strong styles do more base damage than Fast styles.

Another reason to limit your investment in weapon styles is because they cost a lot of talents for redundant effects. Each of the specializations at level 1-3 (e.g., Deep Cut for Strong Silver) apply only to the particular sequence of blows that the level adds. For example, Deep Cut II only applies to the attack sequence added by Strong Silver level 2. In contrast, investments in Incineration for Igni or Poison for Yrden applies to all types of enemies (as long as they are not outright immune).

Yet another reason to limit investment in high-level weapon styles is the flow of combat. Especially when you are fighting multiple opponents, you will often have to reposition, which breaks your attack chain. If the enemy parries or dodges, or if you are hit, your attack chain is also broken, making it harder to reach the level 2, 3, or 5 sequences unless you are fighting a single opponent that you can keep neutralized in hit reactions.

Bronze Talents
Cut to the Jugular, Deep Cut
The basic Strong attack already includes a chance to inflict Bleeding, but you will still want to maximize your chances of a bleeding wound because bleeding damage is calculated based on a percentage of current Vitality. As the game progresses, you will do more and more damage with bleeding because enemies have more Vitality.
Also, bleeding lets you limit your engagement against dangerous opponents such as Bloedzuigers as you can withdraw while they bleed, and re-engage only if they are not dead. If they are weak after bleeding, you can use a sign such as Igni to finish them off from a safe distance.
In the late game, it is definitely worthwhile trying a Strong style on any opponent to get them bleeding.

Paralysis / Crippling Pain / Sever Sinews
The basic Fast attack already includes a chance to inflict Pain. There isn't any priority in further increasing the chances of inflicting Pain because the Pain status is cancelled when the target is hit.
If you are chaining your attacks together, Pain means you probably can't be interrupted by the target. But since you generally cause a hit reaction in the opponent anyway, this is somewhat redundant. It can, however, help you ensure long uninterrupted chains on a single target. The damage output might still be slower than using a Strong style, however.
Where Pain really shines is when you are one-on-one and there are no other hostiles. When the target is in Pain, during the seconds that they stand idle, you can do something else like drink a potion.
To save some Silver Talents, you might want to skip the level 3 upgrade if you develop a Fast style to level 3. Since you have enough Bronze Talents for everything, you might as well pick up these skills at levels 1 and 2 at some point.
Sever Sinews increases the chances of scoring Pain on the opponent when they are very weak (25% Vitality). Obviously not important to get unless you have the corresponding Paralysis skill.

Critical Hit / Precise Hit
Maximize this. Precise Hits inflict massive damage based on a percentage of enemy Vitality. This is probably what happens when suddenly all your opponents drop dead even though damage with Group Styles is weak. It is still not as reliable as Strong styles for damage output, however.

Crushing Blow / Hail of Blows / Half-Spin, Mortal Blow / Flash Cuts / Tempest
These are the basic damage-increasing enhancements to the Strong / Fast / Group styles, and generally do not have a high priority compared to scoring a critical hit status effect like Bleeding or Knockdown. You will want to get them eventually, however, as a matter of course.

Bloody Rage

Massive damage increase when your Vitality is extremely low. I prefer to to use tactics that prevent losing that much Vitality, but theoretically if you are in a not-so-dangerous place and are willing to leave your Vitality low, this helps a lot. However, if you are in a not-so-dangerous place, then Bloody Rage probably wouldn't be necessary either. Skip this skill.

Trip / Knockdown

Critical to get very early for at least level 1 Group Steel and level 1 Group Silver. When you are fighting multiple opponents, achieving Knockdown helps you neutralize their threat and focus on any critically dangerous opponents first. Also, the Knockdown is usually long enough that you can use a Finishing Move on at least one opponent. It is pretty much pointless to upgrade Group styles to a higher level without immediately also getting Trip / Knockdown for it.

Patinado

Massive damage increase for Strong Silver IF the enemy is burning from Incineration. Incineration plus Patinado plus ongoing Bleeding from Cut to the Jugular all adds up to Agni and Strong Silver being important skills to improve. Since monsters tend to be more dangerous than humans, Strong Silver is probably the best choice of all the fighting styles to develop past level 2.

Sinister

Massive damage increase for Fast Silver IF the enemy is Blinded. There aren't many ways to achieve Blinding reliably or frequently, so you can probably skip this skill.

Silver Talents

Level 4 Power-Up Attacks
All the level 4 skills give a power-up attack that does massive damage. However, actually using these also costs Endurance, and there are much more useful things you can do with your Endurance. Just setting up the attack is tricky without Quen to protect you while you are doing it. I recommend saving yourself the headache and not developing any of these except as a stepping stone to the level 5 attack.

Level 4 Strong Steel is the only attack with swords that has the Dislodge Shield ability. This is normally available only with light axes. However, it is not generally a critical effect to have since having a shield doesn't help enemies against Igni, Aard, or Yrden. It does protect them from being constantly pushed back by combat, however.

Gold Talents

Level 5 Attacks
All the level 5 skills are a big attack chain for massive damage, IF you can complete the long chain to get there. We recommend spending your Gold Talents on other things such as percentile increases to Vitality and Endurance.

The Witcher - Talents - Intelligence

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Summary
Free (1 Bronze Talents) - Potion Brewing, Rising Moon
Skip (1 Bronze Talents) - Monster Lore
Skip (4 Silver Talents) - Knowledge of the Cleansing Ritual, Ingredient Extraction, Knowlege of the Life Ritual, Magic Frenzy
Low Priority (1 Gold) - Mental Endurance

Bronze Talents

Potion Brewing
Free from the Prologue.

Rising Moon
Free in Chapter 2.

Herbalism
Get this talent to start collecting herbs as soon as possible. You'll probably want at least Cat potions, and you'll want to make the free talent potions. You could buy all your ingredients from vendors, however, but at just 1 Bronze Talent, and just for the free ingredients to make emergency potions, this is a great early investment.
If you want to reduce time collecting ingredients from plants, you can use these mods to increase plant yields:

• Plentiful Herbs
• Even More Herbs
• Han Gives Han, Not Berbercane

Monster Lore
You can get the same information in Chapter 1 by reading books. Money is not really an issue when you can make money with easy fist-fighting, selling herbs, or killing monsters and selling monster ingredients.
To short-cut the process of getting money, you can use the genie in the "Many Items" mod to give you 10,000 gold as many times as you like.

Oil Preparation
Even as late as the start of the Epilogue, you do not need Potions, Oils, or Bombs in combat (on Hard difficulty), so this is low priority unless you insist on melee. If you do engage in melee a lot, then oils can be useful, and you can stack it with other temporary weapon enhancements like whetstones.
Our personal preference is to use the Signs to do massive damage or set up the enemy for a killing blow -- neither of which requires a lot of actual sword damage. Where it could be useful is if you run out of ways to reduce an enemy's health while making them vulnerable to Aard.
Killing lots of dogs in Chapters 2 and 3 will let you collect a lot of Dog Tallow, which counts as top quality (5-ingredient) blade bases.
If you do delay taking this talent, then cache all the whetstones and temporary runes you come across.

Silver Talents

Knowledge of the Cleansing Ritual
If you can make White Honey and Golden Oriole, then this is a poor substitute as you need to find a Place of Power to use, and often it is better to use the Ritual of Magic for the massive Sign Intensity bonus.

Ingredient Extraction
You will either grind through so many monsters that it won't matter, or you can substitute the ingredients with harvested plants. Where this talent can help is to relieve some of the tediousness of collecting monster components for contracts. Overall, unimportant.

Bomb Preparation
A very interesting alternative to Signs -- For a single Talent, you get access to a lot of spell-like effects. They don't last as long as Signs and you can't improve their Intensity, but you can replace development in many Signs with just one Silver Talent. Also, you are not reliant on Endurance, which further makes unnecessary the development of many Sign-based talents--A veritable arsenal can be prepared ahead of time as long as you can find/buy enough appropriate powders.
I recommend taking Bomb Preparation instead of any development of Axii, or the area-effect power-up Aard, both of which leave you vulnerable during the charge-up phase. Instead, you can safely drop a King and Queen (only three ingredients needed) or a Samum (four ingredients).
Stun from Samum is less powerful than a high-powered Aard and will probably be useless at scoring a long enough Stun for a Finishing Move on some of the stronger enemies in the game, unless it is significantly weakened.
Dragon's Dream is an interesting bomb because it releases harmless gas to start, and you can drop several in the same location before moving away to ignite it with Igni.

Focus
Definitely get this as it appears to help with the duration of Aard critical effects, and that can make the difference between being able to perform a Finishing Move. Also, any extension on the already powerful Incineration effect of Igni is just overkill.

Knowledge of the Life Ritual
The increase in healing rate stacks with other sources, but if you can get to a Place of Power you can probably get to a fireplace to meditate.

Magic Frenzy
Only a mild increase in Intensity if you are willing to let your Vitality go down to dangerously low levels. Skip this in favour of using tactics that won't compromise your Vitality so much. Also, using any sort of healing reduces the likelihood of your getting any benefit from this talent.

Gold Talents

Mental Endurance
Like Added Endurance, this talent helps you cast more spells without waiting for Endurance to recover. If you get one, get both for maximum benefit. Otherwise, this has low priority since you can just use Tawny Owl.

Intensity
No point not getting this. If you use any Sign with any frequency, try to maximize Intensity.

The Witcher - Talents - Stamina

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Summary

Free (1 Bronze) - Mutation
Skip (2 Bronze) - Heavyweight, Absorption
Skip (2 Silver) - Brawn, Altered Metabolism
Skip (1 Gold) - Potion Tolerance
Low Priority (Bronze) -  Poison Resistance, Endurance Regeneration
Low Priority (4 Silver) -  Endurance Regeneration, Pain Resistance, Revive, Stun Resistance
Low Priority (1 Gold) - Added Endurance

Bronze Talents

HeavyweightThere are various ways to deal with intoxication that you don't need this talent.

Mutation
Free in Chapter 4 (although you can get the required component in Chapter 3, you can't prepare Kikimore's Ire until Chapter 4).

Absorption
Places of Power are very useful but not strictly necessary. And in any case, it is unlikely that you will need one more than once per day (if you even use them at all). Even if you did need to use one more than once, you can just wait till the next day as time is generally not an issue in the campaign.

Poison Resistance
Poison happens surprisingly often, though sometimes in only very small amounts (e.g., Kikimores). That said, a really strong poison (e.g., a Basilisk) can be as bad (and as rare) as Bleeding. However, like bleeding, you have a potion to fix things in an emergency (Golden Oriole). Until you get that potion formula, you can stock Swallow for emergencies. Like all Resistances, get this at some point, but priority is very low.

Endurance Regeneration
You probably don't need this. If you need more Endurance in a hurry, just use Tawny Owl. Get this at some point, but priority is low.

Silver Talents

Endurance Regeneration
If you need more Endurance in a hurry, just use Tawny Owl. Get this at some point, but priority is low. If you do get it, then get the Bronze Talent Endurance Regeneration as well to really accelerate things.

Pain Resistance
Low priority. Just try not to get hit instead.

Revive
Like other Resistances, priority is low. That said, Stun is a dangerous condition which can lead to you being instant-killed with a Finishing Move. So definitely get this at some point, but not before getting Stun Resistance, which protects you from being Stunned in the first place.

Stun Resistance
That said, Stun is a dangerous condition which can lead to you being instant-killed with a Finishing Move. So definitely get this at some point. Priority is still low because you can use the Willow potion for guaranteed protection.

Brawn
The level 4 fighting styles all give you a power-up attack that uses Endurance. If you are not using those attacks, don't bother with this talent. If you do use those attacks, it is probably better to use Tawny Owl to keep your Endurance up, especially since you will also probably need Quen to shield yourself while you power-up the attack.

Altered Metabolism 
This triggers when current Toxicity is more than half, so setting it up can be hard, depending on how often you use potions or what potions you use (e.g., Petri's Philter, which has very high Toxicity). Not only do you have to drink a few potions just to trigger it, but there is the possibility of too-high a Toxicity from drinking enough potions to trigger it that you also lose Vitality due to the high Toxicity. Basically one way to look at this talent is that it nets you extra benefits for drinking potions like water. If you can make do with potions to begin with, then don't bother with this talent. Even if you do use potions, it is too tedious and risky to set up.

Gold Talents

Potion Tolerance
Interesting for the ability to have more potions simultaneously active. If you barely use any potions to begin with, the don't bother. If you are merely worried about toxicity, use White Honey instead.

Added EnduranceThis lets you potentially have one extra casting of a spell before your reserves are tapped. Similar to the Endurance Regeneration talents, use Tawny Owl instead. Get Endurance Regeneration before getting this talent. Very low priority compared to the alternatives available.
If you do get it, also get Mental Endurance from the Intelligence talent tree to maximize the benefits.

The Witcher - Talents - Dexterity

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Summary
Free (2 Bronze) - Flaying, Werewolf's Wrath
Skip (1 Bronze) - Fistfight
Skip (1 Silver) - Feint
Low Priority (1 Bronze) - Deflect Arrows
Low Priority (1 Silver) - Resistance to Blinding, Limit Incineration
Low Priority (2 Gold) - Vigilance, Precision

Dexterity is more important than Strength as the Attack bonuses help you use the "wrong" style -- e.g., Strong style on a creature that is normally hit better with Fast style. With a decent attack rating, you can start using Strong styles on all creatures and thereby take advantage of the higher damage from Strong styles and thereby save Silver Talents by focussing on one or two styles only.

Bronze Talents

Flaying
Free in the Prologue.

Predator
Free in Chapter 3. Significant roleplay choice required, but there is only a minor change in the story line. To get the required component for the Werewolf's Wrath potion no matter what, you could use The Healer Who Sells Werewolf's Wrath mod, which lets you buy the fur component in Chapter 4.

Deflect Arrows
Tough to use but since it stops 100% damage, you really want to get this at some point; but the situations where you really need this hardly ever occurs, so this is very low priority. If you just need something to protect you while you close on the enemy or maneuver around/toward them, then using Quen is more reliable (but costs Endurance). If there is only one archer, close with it quickly to make them back up (and they can't shoot while doing so) or engage them in melee. If you need respite, go for cover or run out of range.
You need to face the correct direction for this talent to work. Standing still also appears to help.
Overall you really don't want to rely on this or even use this as you have very limited options for attacking at long range. Igni and Yrden both let you attack at range, but you need to power-up the signs, and you cannot deflect arrows while doing so.

Repel
Aim for this after increasing your crowd-control and battlefield-control Signs. Passive parry helps you when you are in melee, and prolonged exposure to enemy melee is not recommended. And if you are avoiding prolonged melee, you might as well first develop Talents that help you avoid prolonged melee.

If you get this, get Position in the Strength talent tree to stack your parry percentage.

Fistfight
Fist Fighting is disgustingly easy if you know the trick (we talk about it in Gameplay Basics). This just lets you deal a bit more damage and end the fight a bit faster. If you are really in trouble in fist fighting, just use a Swallow potion.

Silver Talents

Resistance to Blinding
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority as general avoidance techniques are better than hoping for chancy resistance to activate. By the time you face non-boss enemies that can Blind you in Chapter 4, you should already have a good grasp of tactics and tactical options to not have to rely on this.

Agility
Similar priority to Repel. Dodge allows you to avoid all damage in a blow, so you will eventually want this.

Limit Incineration
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority, but at some point you will probably want to get it, as a second layer of protection against Incineration. Incineration works on a percentage of Vitality, so it's just as bad as Bleeding. However, you do not have a quick-fix potion for Incineration as you do for Bleeding.

Finesse
Pain is powerful, but it's use is really in leaving the opponent alone and doing something else, rather than following up immediately, since an attack on an opponent in Pain cancels the Pain effect.
As a matter of principle you will probably want to get this talent to stack your chance of inflicting Pain, but priority is low.

Feint
An interesting talent, since -- theoretically -- you can hit all types of creatures with all types of attacks. That is, you can use Group attacks on single targets, or Strong attacks on agile creatures that you normally need Fast attacks to hit. The difference is in your chance of hitting. What Feint helps you do is land effects on targets you can't normally affect -- like Bleeding from Strong attacks on nimble targets, or Pain from Fast attacks on slower targets.
We recommend staying out of melee so this has very low priority, and in any case your chances of hitting something are anywhere from very good to automatic IF you use the right fighting style so this could be classed as not important. In the worst case, use a temporary Rune.

Incineration Resistance
Like other Resistance talents, this is low priority as general avoidance techniques are better than hoping for chancy resistance to activate.

Gold Talents

Vigilance
This really appears too late in the game to be useful since by the time you get any Gold Talents (level 30), you should have developed good techniques for handling many enemies, and in any case being in melee is the inferior choice for handling combat. You will probably still want to get this talent at some point just out of the principle of avoiding hits, but priority is very low.

Precision
Huge bonus to getting Critical Hits, but with only Group styles. Very low priority since it only affects Group styles whereas Sign-based crowd control are under no such limitations and can deal a lot more damage and special effects. Also, you will probably also have Trip and Knockdown, and once a target is on the ground, you cannot hurt them with Group style (or any style) except to kill them with a Finishing Move.