New efforts!

[Shibboleth]

Certainly Black Ice wasn't available. I eventually came up with a workable, if less fitting, name for the character.

'Black' anything seemed hard to get. A number of my characters had 'Dark', 'Ebon', 'Onyx', etc in their names because 'Black' was taken.

[chuckv3]

Other than the 20-character limit, I had only one name I wanted and couldn't get, and it was so obvious that I honestly didn't expect to get it.

Besides that, I had no problem generating names (all without L337ing or XXXboxingXXX). This will certainly be less of an issue when the game comes back, since we will start with an empty database and far fewer accounts than NCSoft had at shutdown.

Adjectives and a Thesaurus are your friends!

[Brigadine]

I am all for the unique names... THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.

[Ironwolf]

Other than the 20-character limit, I had only one name I wanted and couldn't get, and it was so obvious that I honestly didn't expect to get it.

Besides that, I had no problem generating names (all without L337ing or XXXboxingXXX). This will certainly be less of an issue when the game comes back, since we will start with an empty database and far fewer accounts than NCSoft had at shutdown.

Adjectives and a Thesaurus are your friends!

Not to mention an English to Latin dictionary......

[Felderburg]

ahh, Felderburg must be one of them, grab the garlic :P

I just mean I'm not sure whether the name 'Achilles Heal' indicates the healer is the weak spot of the team, or whether the team has an Achilles Heel without one.

Inmplayed an empathy pretty well, with an emphasis on getting buffs up and healing if / when needed. I even got some attacks in! I was emp / psy, so the knockdown and end drain (er... was that the secondary effect of psychic stuff? Stuns?) could be used to strategic effect.

[Arcana]

Certainly Black Ice wasn't available. I eventually came up with a workable, if less fitting, name for the character.

'Black' anything seemed hard to get. A number of my characters had 'Dark', 'Ebon', 'Onyx', etc in their names because 'Black' was taken.

Actually, it always seemed to me that Dark* was taken more often than Black*.  Mauve* was generally available.

[blacksly]

Certainly Black Ice wasn't available. I eventually came up with a workable, if less fitting, name for the character.

'Black' anything seemed hard to get. A number of my characters had 'Dark', 'Ebon', 'Onyx', etc in their names because 'Black' was taken.

Well, besides any direct link between a superhero (or villain) and Black Ice, that particular phrase is also used in weather and in Shadowrunning. I would be quite surprised if it HAD been available long after the start. Especially with the obvious fit to a Dark Blast/Storm or Ice Blast/Dark Miasma character, which would have been available at the start.

[Vee]

I just mean I'm not sure whether the name 'Achilles Heal' indicates the healer is the weak spot of the team, or whether the team has an Achilles Heel without one.

I meant the former, but then again by 'healzor culture' i was specifically alluding to people who tried to play emp holy trinity style, which you obviously did not.

[chuckv3]

I just mean I'm not sure whether the name 'Achilles Heal' indicates the healer is the weak spot of the team, or whether the team has an Achilles Heel without one.

Inmplayed an empathy pretty well, with an emphasis on getting buffs up and healing if / when needed. I even got some attacks in! I was emp / psy, so the knockdown and end drain (er... was that the secondary effect of psychic stuff? Stuns?) could be used to strategic effect.

Yeah, Emp/Psy was good! I also liked Emp/Energy, since knockback could definitely come in handy for "defense" of one's squishier teammates by knocking loose goons back toward the tank.

[Shibboleth]

Well, besides any direct link between a superhero (or villain) and Black Ice, that particular phrase is also used in weather and in Shadowrunning. I would be quite surprised if it HAD been available long after the start. Especially with the obvious fit to a Dark Blast/Storm or Ice Blast/Dark Miasma character, which would have been available at the start.

Blasters didn't have Dark to start with and Defenders, who had Dark, didn't have Ice to start with.

My Sonic/Dark blaster (the only blaster build I ever found enjoyable enough to stick with) had the name Justice Denied. Fit the theme of being an avenging spirit with her shriek of the dead and the various dark sfx. Fortunately with that type of theme there are a lot of names to work with.

[Arcana]

I meant the former, but then again by 'healzor culture' i was specifically alluding to people who tried to play emp holy trinity style, which you obviously did not.

Technically, I'm not sure it was even possible to play Empathy "holy trinity style" - Empathy heals in City of Heroes were so powerful compared to how strong healing typically is in MMOs that to literally play Empathy trinity-style by focusing almost exclusively on keeping the team alive through healing would basically involve turning on auto-follow, auto-queuing Healing Aura, and going to get a sandwich.  You'd probably be doing more healing than the most powerful healer in almost any other MMO.

If my Radiation Controller basically did that, she'd be pumping out something like 80 h/s or more in an AoE.  To put that into perspective, that's about half the strength of capped regeneration for a scrapper which not even most toggle-IH regens actually achieved.  An Empathy defender in the old days with nothing but SOs could have gotten to at least 45 h/s with no difficulty.  There aren't many healers in MMOs that can generate enough healing to go from zero to full on the order of thirty seconds for an entire team non-stop with literally no effort and no attention to build.

In most trinity-based MMOs, that's practically cheating.  In City of Heroes, its eh, what else can you do.

[Vee]

Didn't stop people from being so set in the mindset that they didn't notice they could be making sandwiches.

[Paragon Avenger]

Woot!
I got reply 20,272!
I win!

[Twisted Toon]

What?!? Healzorz can make Sammiches?!?!?  :o

[Paragon Avenger]

Wasn't there a sam-mich controller, no, mastermind.

[JoshexProxy]

Didn't stop people from being so set in the mindset that they didn't notice they could be making sandwiches.

yes indeed, who doesn't like a good Hero? I love making Heroes gotta have lots of salami and mayo with a good strong cheese.

hold the ham with the jiggly cartilage though, it ruins it. and hold the lettuce that's so thick average teeth can't bite through it and the whole Hero falls apart, and for heaven's sake if you're gonna put tomato on it make sure it's not one of those sloshy soup tomatoes, it needs to have more fiber, no one likes a messy hero.

[LaughingAlex]

What?!? Healzorz can make Sammiches?!?!?  :o

Didn't you know?  They were often making afk making sammiches, and then afk reading a book.  Follow and healing aura on auto man.  So why really play?

[Thunder Glove]

Makes me wish I'd played (or had a chance to play) my Necro/Pain MM more.

[LaughingAlex]

Technically, I'm not sure it was even possible to play Empathy "holy trinity style" - Empathy heals in City of Heroes were so powerful compared to how strong healing typically is in MMOs that to literally play Empathy trinity-style by focusing almost exclusively on keeping the team alive through healing would basically involve turning on auto-follow, auto-queuing Healing Aura, and going to get a sandwich.  You'd probably be doing more healing than the most powerful healer in almost any other MMO.

If my Radiation Controller basically did that, she'd be pumping out something like 80 h/s or more in an AoE.  To put that into perspective, that's about half the strength of capped regeneration for a scrapper which not even most toggle-IH regens actually achieved.  An Empathy defender in the old days with nothing but SOs could have gotten to at least 45 h/s with no difficulty.  There aren't many healers in MMOs that can generate enough healing to go from zero to full on the order of thirty seconds for an entire team non-stop with literally no effort and no attention to build.

In most trinity-based MMOs, that's practically cheating.  In City of Heroes, its eh, what else can you do.

I think healing was as high as it was in city of heroes/villains was, because even in huge amounts it wasn't enough by itself to keep anyone alive.  The core reason was enemy damage was also very high and you had to mitigate it first.  Someone even told me city of heroes in a lot of ways was a tactical game; you had to be very quick and decisive to win because if you purely reacted to everything you'd lose.  You had to make some choices on just what you were going to do every 5-6 seconds, and that snap decision nature I think is probably why we all liked the game whether we really realised it or not.  And also why when some of us try other mmorpgs, we get bored fast.  They give you all the time in the world to react, some of them(I won't name the one I shall not name here) even go as far as lowering the enemy damage so much as to give you well over a minute to react before your destroyed.

City of heroes you were lucky to have 10 seconds initially vs some mobs(most the time an alpha could down you in only a few on higher settings).  But you multiplied that time with buffs/debuffs/cc.  Yet even then if you took a big hit after all of that well healing was strong enough to deal with the bits of damage that did get through.  Because city of heroes was more tactical in game play.  But everything was balanced around being proactive and acting ahead of time on the mobs.  Seizing the initiative and taking it on the mobs with smart power use(and taking them ahead of time) won every time.  Alot of people trying to play the game trinity style probably never really got that, so when someone dropped from full to zero they'd show frustration(or receive a lot of it from bad players of a similar mindset).

City of heroes was made for people with reasonable reflexes ranging from ages 20-70, in other words, human reflexes.  Most mmorpgs are made for those with the reflexes of a snail that's modestly drunk :).  You don't have snap decisions to make anywhere in them.  Which is likely why many of us just don't seem to like them.

[Minotaur]

Actually, it always seemed to me that Dark* was taken more often than Black*.  Mauve* was generally available.

As somebody who has permanent facial hair so can't do Movember, I made Mauve Ember as my tribute.