Erratic1

When the namespace gets suitably colonized, variations of the simpliest form of any name are going to be explored. 'Frostbite' is a pretty obvious name. As example, I would expect 'Frosbites', 'Frostbitten', 'Frostbit' all to have been taken. This is my character 'Ghosthammer'. You might expect that to be a pretty rare name. I can tell you there is at least one server where the name was taken by someone other than me--which I discovered when I tried to transfer him to another server to play with friends there. But hey, neither that other person nor I attempted to lockdown the name on every server, so if anyone wants to have their own, they can try on three other servers.

Back on live and I had both Graviton (my first, post-beta, character) and Vae Victis. Never thougt to use my forum name as the name of a character. Hmm, possibly would make a good villain name.

Or the report provoked a sigh, roll of the eyes, and dismissal.

Not going to be upset if the name goes back into circulation. Its been cose to 5 years since it was last played?

Amazingly, my first name is shared by tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. That does not make it any less my name. My father and I shared the same first and last name. He generally went by the diminutive form and I by the full form to distinguish ourselves. I know he once, in business, had to call someone in the same profession who had the same name. Given the relative rarity of my surname, that was pretty amazing. And yet for all those people who do have both the same first and last name, I am pretty sure we each feel it is our name and don't feel such an ownership stake as to need to own it in every context. I am just not seeing why you are feel such ownership of what happens on servers you don't play on. But hey, maybe you do actually play on all servers. In any case, you don't have to justify to me. I just see it as oddly possessive.

Not a complaint, but why on Earth would you want/need the same name across every server?

Okay, now that I've given you the skinny, if you are stll on board with playing a Brute... A theme also involves one of the origins. For my most recent scrapper, I wanted to play Ninjitsu for the crit from stealth ability, and I had enjoyed War Mace on a previous WM/Shield character. But a ninja with a hammer? How to reconcile that? Ninjitsu already is verging on spiritual and hence magical territory. So I made him into a collector of mystic artifacts, less for the sake of it than as a means to flummox non-magical types with unexpected abilities. Ghosthammer is a thug, but a thug who became a henchman for an actual magical villain, learned the ropes, and then disposed of his former master in favor of pursuing his own ends. My Rad/Shield scrapper? He's got an atomic shield inherited from his hero grandfather and has the Technology origin. Bio? Are you a mutant? Perhaps you were modified by Science. You can build about either Defense or Resistance, but there are tradeoffs. Defense has the upside of not only preventing damage but also secondary effects like endurance drain as those require being hit to occur. Resistance has the perk of not having a lot of effects which lower its effectiveness, leading to a cascade to failure and massive damage coming in. It also resists said effects. Then there are mixed and layered sets like Bio, Rad, and arguably Invulnerability which mix and match between the two and bolster via other means (healing and absorb shields). While any armor and be paired with any offensive set and a workable character made, choosing a combo where the two sets support the other's shortcomings is where you get start to push things to the next level. Got an offensive set which is hungry for endurance? Pair with an armor set which provides endurance. Don't have a heal in your armor set? Grab an offensive set with healing. Battle Axe and Titan Weapons both will pair nicely with either Bio or Radiation Armor. Want a theme? Titan Weapon + Radiation Armor, take the Technology origin, and costume yourself as a mech. Or as a cyborg if you want to have some human bits showing. Or perhaps you're a bioengineered soldier from a post-apocalyptic alternate universe to explain your Science origin based Battle Axe/Bio character.

Oh gosh...Rad/Shield has high endurance demands (Rad) and no way to generate it inherently (Shield). That is your central problem. Shield is great in terms of survivability, once you push your defenses up, particularly by purchasing the two +3% Def IO enhancements. As memory serves, there is some limited endurance boosting and healing you can get via procs in the right spots in Rad Melee. In fact, I have a Rad/Shield Scrapper--Shield Charge is more potent on a Scrapper than a Brute because of the nature of the pseudo-pet it is implemented as. You want survivability and damage, go Tanker. Brute starts off great, not needing damage enhancements slotted to deal out damage early on. But then you plateau, especially as you have to start pumping enhancements into armor powers so you can survive. Tankers easily max out their survability and then can turn their efforts to improving their damage output. Moreover, they have enhanced area with their area attacks, able to hit more targets. And since you're going to survive, if you do make a Shield Tanker, you have more guys around you further increasing your damage via Against All Odds. Oh, and I did I mention being wanted by teams? Yeah, you came to the Brute forum and are being told to play a Tanker. It's a regular occurrence for good reasons (heavily denied when the matter comes up by the usual suspects doing so).

Do I really need to link all the incredibly common videos of Brits actually trying biscuits and gravy (or really any American cuisine) and loving it? I am sure there is at least an order of magnitude difference in such things despite there being five times as many Americans who could try British cuisine than vice versa. Edit: Guess I should give you a link to Brits just short of losing their mind over biscuits and gravy: Pretty sure the entire reason the British Empire existed was the desperate search for actually good food to eat.

I am not taking food naming instructions from people who are delighted by beans on toast. ABSOLUTELY NOT!

While it is probably not as ugly as say Rad Melee/Dark Armor, I will admit on my WM/Nin Scrapper, endurance was a bit of a problem until he got Nin power which gives you endurance. Dark Armor does about the opposite of providing endurance, drinking it instead. You have a couple of options: You can rely on the Epic Energy Mastery set to get you by until Incarnates come along. Before either, you will likely be a bit mana starved. You do not have to stick with Energy Mastery, it is just there to get you to where you're going (Tar Patch in Dark Mastery is a tempting choice unless you are truly sold on Energy Mastery). You can start slotting set IOs early with an eye toward Endurance Cost reduction. I would suggest going for the 2 pc Unbreakable Guard bonus in as many powers as you can--which with the Rule of Five, can get you to 12.5% global endurance cost reduction. Heck, make it easy on yourself and do not even worry about slotting more of than two of the set in any given power until later. You can also aim for the 5 pc bonus on from Reactive Defenses slotting into Weave and the 5 pc bonus from Preventive Medicine slotted into Dark Regeneration. Theft of Essence in the final slot of Dark Regeneration can also help. Also do not forget the endurance boosts from Performance Shifter, Numina's, and Miracle. A less cranky and bitter me would probably work on a build for you.

It is very tight range (like multiple guys right up on you).

I am certain I was not stranding around in combat waiting for the power to cycle in the combat log below: Mid's says Shatter has an arc of 45 degrees.

More the slotting.