Fusion_7

Not if people know that the most common names most likely would be taken. Most intelligent people who play MMO's will probably assume that the spelling of Fhenix is a take on Phoenix. Of course I would have used Phoenix if it was available. I think you missed my point on what I was trying to say in my post. I would go back and re-read again what I said and soak it in better.

I'm going to start this off with a piece I wrote awhile back in City Life - CoH & CoV Discussions Titled "Good Character Names Are Running Out Huh?" by Samuel_Tow

I think one of the funnest parts of the game is in naming your Toons. As you can see, based on my signature below, I have a few toons with very different names. For example, my level 50 Controller Dark Braven, I originally wanted to call her Dark Raven,..and we all know that name is pretty much taken. So, I had to pull up Dictionary.com, spell certain words by removing the "R" in Raven and see what I could come up with. After further thought, I then said to myself, my toon will be Brave and have a Dark side to her. So, I just combined Brave with Raven and got Dark Braven. For my other toon Zambrosia, I orginally wanted to name her Ambrosia, which is greek for food of the gods. Nope, already taken. So, using my Braven technique, I just dropped the "A" and added a "Z" and got Zambrosia. Ta-Da!

I also use a lot of greek goddess names for reference in naming my toons. The easy part is all my toons are women and I always take careful consideration in wanting to give them the best name and to make it easy for anyone who has to type my name in to send me a tell. Fusion 7 was my first toon and I used a number with the name as the name Fusion was already taken. In my toons description, I said it would take all 7 nuclei to combine to form a powerful explosion for her wondrous Nova. So, I was able to tie the name to the toons personality and attributes.

For another one of my toons, I wanted a "cat" theme with her so I ended up calling her "Cattalina". Originally wanted to spell it as Catalina like the island off of California but it was taken so I just added another "t" to make it Cattalina. You know it sounds like Catalina, it has a "cat" reference to it and is still pronounced the same way. See how that works? My last toon I rolled, Fhenix, I wanted to call Phoenix, the bird that rises from the ashes,..you can see the fun in this I hope. Picking a name to fit your toons personality. Anyways, after several, and I mean about a good hours worth of time, after several attempts I finally came up with Fhenix for my Fire/Kin Controller. Easy to spell, and when you look at it, you know it will sound like "Phoenix". Problem solved. Recently when I was building a new toon for Praetoria, I built a Domintor. I wanted to call her Dominitra but that name was taken. So, I changed the “i” to an “e” and got Domentra. Still sounds the same but I just had to compromise since the original name was already taken.

I think it should be the players right to claim the name for as long as they want it since they were creative enough to come up with it. I also think you can get by without having to add periods or Xx by the name to change it up. Just follow how I did it above and you should have no problem finding good names for your toons.

Good character names are not running out, just peoples imaginations. As you can see from my post, with a little thought you too can make a name for yourself.

"Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap". It is nice to know that someone finally noticed the hard work we Stalkers do. It does seem that the majority of the accolades go to the Tanker and of course, somewhat rightly so since they are the ones that draw the majority of the aggro so all the squishies can pound away with their ranged attacks. I would say out of my 13 toons I have so far, My level 50 Enrgy/SR Stalker is probably in my top three of my fav's to play.

The past week, I just ended up moving her Hero side to try her out. The biggest thing that I love with Stalkers is the advantage to almost be 100% hidden and still have the ability to attack, which is unique to Stalkers. When soloing and going for the quick kill of the boss, it is also nice to "stalk" your way through the mobs without getting killed.

I would be curious to know how much "damage" a Stalker can do while in hidden mode as they lay an Assassin's Strike versus a Tanker, Brute or a Scrappers most lethal blow? I'm not talking AoE damage but pure undaunted lay to rest one hit knock out punch damage. If someone has those numbers I would be interested in seeing those. When I normally use my AS, I also turn on my Build Up prior to using this attack.

You know, after about 500 posts, you'd think I would have figured that out...lol! I was killing myself trying to look-up these codes when now I have a tool bar on TOP of my text box. Thanks much.

Ahhhh, thanks!

Guinness World Records for Gamer's just called, they wanted to congratulate you for having the most characters in a MMO game.

You know when you have not had your coffee yet you will sometimes have words misspelled..heh.heh. Porthole and Portal. Okay, maybe we should be glad that Oxford is now doing away with their printed dictionaries...lol.

This I know. What I meant when I said RWZ portholes was when going through those portholes, if you immediately turn around once your enter the Vanguard base, the porthole will show the opposite zones. I guess what I need to do is run to the other side and exit back through the right porthole rather than just turn around.

And as for the Ouroboros Porthole, then is it my understanding that until we can complete the "full" alignment and when I say full, I mean that your Villain bar is full and your full title is now a villain and conversely your hero bar full and your title bar now is hero, that we will always get the reverse zone from Ouroboros? And thus, if we intend to use Ouroboros, not to have any tip mission we intend to do? I guess I need to read more up on this.

Aha!!!, I knew there was something amiss here...heh.heh. Yes, this being my "first" melee type toon that I built and I am "more close" to the action, the fact that I only slotted SO's and not IO's that are knockback friendly and the fact that I built this toon as a fire/fire Scrapper that does not offer the best in knockback protection, would definitely explain a lot here. I have no complaints with my build as a fire/fire and love the damage output, thus I will most likely add the necessary IO's to help with the knockbacks. I mean when you got Yellows and Whites knocking you down, then it's time to re-evaluate...lol.

Awhile back, I wrote a piece in the Tankers forum called "I'm a Gazelle, Not a Gorilla". What that meant was I never felt comfortable playing Tankers or Brutes. In that piece, I mentioned that I was more of an "offensive" type of player versus someone who likes to draw the aggro and take a pounding but will most likely sacrifice offense over defense. My philosophy was get in and kill as fast as you can without taking too much damage. I didn't want to stand there for five minutes "key mashing" my way to a kill, even though I'm not taking much damage as a Tank or Brute. Because of this, I was also skeptical of ever trying a Scrapper build being that I always felt that Scrappers and Tankers went hand and hand. I even built a few Tankers only to delete them after about 20 levels because I just didn't like they way they played.

Well, about a month ago, I decided to pull the trigger on building my first Scrapper. I went with a Fire/Fire build. She is now level 41 and I have to say and to my surprise in team play and in solo play she is very fun to work with. With her primary Fiery Melee attacks in combo with her Fiery Aura powers, she is able to hold her own in battle very well. I would say the two biggest "keep me alive" type powers that I really could not do without are Consume and Healing Flames. Consume will suck the end from foes and Healing Flames does just that, heals you in that time of need. For Fiery Melee attacks, one of her more used powers is her Fire Sword Circle which gives a nice PBAoE for moderate damage.

I'm not bashing Tanks or Brutes here. I think it all comes down to your playing style. As I mentioned above, some people like to be the toon that draws all the aggro and is not necessarily concerned about doing a lot of offensive damage "quickly" as survivability and durability is more on their minds OR maybe you are more of that type of player who likes to go in for the kill, maybe have more quick offensive attacks at your hand and are not too concerned about taking some hits sacrificing defense, then maybe you should go Scrapper and try it out. I have also been the Tank substitute on some teams when we didn't have a Tank. That was fun, diving in the middle of a large group and whaling my Fiery Sword Circle around. It kind of gives you a little rush..heh...heh.

Out of all my toons, Arachnos Widow, Blaster, Controller, Corruptor, Dominator, Mastermind, Scrapper and Warshade, I would say for a Very High Damage, precise single target attack, this one on my Stalker does it best. My Blasters Nova is my best AoE weapon but for sheer single target attack, I can say that AS is very powerful. Before I normally use it, I would activate my Build Up (if it's fully charged) maybe pop a couple of reds (depending how tough the foe is) and then of course be in "hidden" mode which is what makes this power work so effective.

As paragonwiki describes it: "A signature Stalker attack. This attack does moderate damage on its own as a frontal attack. However, if it is executed while you are Hidden, this attack will do tremendous Smashing and Energy damage as you waylay your unsuspecting foe. This attack may be interrupted if you move or are attacked while executing this power."

I have been in mish'es where I was the one to sneak up behind the AV and use AS to take the initial blow. Of course, one blow on an AV won't take them out but it will sure help knock down his life bar a bit. The tricky part is after you strike, to get the heck out of the way for the tank to draw aggro back, otherwise you will have an AV chasing you around until you can hide from site and go back into "hidden" mode. You would also hope your teammates will draw some aggro if the tank doesn't do it right away.

I have also noticed a weird kind of phenomenon that sometimes happens with this power. I would describe it as a "wiff" where you hit nothing but air...lol. You, of course, can reload again once AS recharges and go at it again. The good thing is you will still be in hidden mode so you won't be exposed on that miss. The big key thing here is to aways try to be in hidden mode to get the most from AS. It is intended to be used best while hidden and to do the most damage. Lol, you know after re-reading your question again, I though the OP was the Stalker, then I realized the OP was the Brute and the OPs friend as the Stalker...heh..heh. The OP should start up a Stalker and try them out. And if anything, at least you know a bit more about AS right? Hope this helps