Verene

So I discovered that the Whispers top is an even better match for the Orrian leggings than the temple karma top. <3 my pretty little necro.

So the whole light 42k temple armor top and Orrian skirt is a pretty common combo I've seen. I don't have enough karma for that at the moment (damn you obby shards), and in trying to find a different top for the meantime, I think I found one that looks even nicer with that skirt, having just gotten it for my necro.

Whispers light top, Orrian skirt, and...I don't remember the gloves.

Gave her new colors...and of course, flower backpiece. Best thing ever.

Trick for the CoE golem boss: piercing attacks and positioning yourself next to a turret. Kill the turret to remove the boons, hit the boss, everyone wins. Same with with the Butcher in HOTW path 1, except with him you can actually pull him to a totem and hit both at once with melee.

Anyway, yes, I will make a conscious attempt to remove boons from certain enemies. Dredge are annoying as crap, so I'll strip theirs as much as possible. The CoE/HOTW bosses mentioned above. Any enemy that has any boon that makes things annoying (protection, regen, retaliation are the big ones - might if it gets over a certain amount).

Honestly, I think the biggest problem here is that 1) PUGs are lazy and hence want to burn through things with the least resistance, and 2) people aren't willing to really learn their profession. Ranger, for exactly, is in fact very, very good at DPS, if you trait things properly. As is mesmer - and with mesmer, you're going to be able to boost your damage a significant amount by traiting into the vitality trait line, as there's some really good phantasm traits in there.

Also, full zerker gear/build is simply something that is 1) not fun for everyone and 2) not viable everywhere. If you're putting everything into attacking, you're likely going to have low health...good luck with those conditions. Also, prepare to be bored. I only do full DPS on my mesmer because playing a melee caster requires more than just mashing your skills. My warrior could do more damage, if I decided to use a GS...but why would I do that when I find other weapons so much more fun to use? My guardian could do damage, were I willing to re-trait and use a GS...but why would I do that when I enjoy playing boonspam support/healing on her so much? Why would I do that when boosting everyone else's survivability and damage output is in the long run much more useful and efficient?

People have different playstyles; PUGS don't like to think outside the box. This is nothing new.

MrIllusion, on 12 May 2013 - 12:19 PM, said:

You realize that the two aren't mutually exclusive, right? I play a mesmer with a (mostly) berserker build - I use sword/focus and GS. Focus skill 4 is a pull. Any decent mesmer can yank a protector right to them and then have their most damaging skills available immediately.