Seldom

I had a funny concept character once, a pacifist widow. The idea was she refused to do attack anyone despite being inducted into such an organization.

It didn't work. The buffs an arachnos can provide (2xleadership) are all very nice, and medicine can help as well, but even with good recharge medicine won't keep a team alive. The manuevers/mind link are handy, but not enough to completely pull your weight. I did a couple bank missions where my team died over and again, decided to swap to another character and the difference was vast. The other character? My night widow, with his attacks and tricks. I had inferior support, but could finish off targets along with the team, and since targets were dying faster, the team survived far better.

Arachnos are high damage/toggle support for a reason: they can assist by not just prolonging ally/self survival, but by shortening how long enemies live.

...Just like defenders. Spiders simply skew a bit towards the latter.

The controller forum might help you out a bit more on this one. Just saying.

I'll add another vote for illusion/empathy. Why?

Pet-centric/summoned control works well with an active secondary. Why? you may miss having strong influence in fights, but this aspect means your pets help mitigate/distract so you have more space/time to work.

The pet aggro/ally-based approaches work well with invisibility, as you will stay hidden easily and not draw attention.

Blind/spectral wounds are fast, so interspersing them with some heals is easy.

Both illusion and empathy benefit from +recharge bonuses very well, giving you pets more often, and buffs for more team members.

Downsides: phantom army can't get your tasty buffs, empathy can offer nothing to make the army work any better through debuffs. You have less control, so you have less ability to soften damage with lockdown, putting more stress on your secondary. As such, you have to be strategic about you holds/confuses in tight spots.

I realize now I should have followed direction better in adding myself to the roster- updating lists per other replies as well:

Team 1
1) @Amygdala - Ice/Thermal Corruptor
2) @Captain Drej - Thugs/Pain MM
3) @BigMoneyHustla - Ice/Fire Blaster
4) @ResplendentMs - Emp/Dark def
5) @Cherry Cupcakes - fire/dark corr
6) @MAH - Emp/Psi Def
7) @Ascendant Destroyer - Elec/Elec Blaster
8)@Hospy - Robotics/Force Field MM

Team 2

1) @Cobalt Azurean (Elec/Elec Dom [probably])
2) @Zubenelgenubi (BLASTER, baby!)
3) @ChicagoDoodler (Mind/Psy Dom)[tentative on attendance]
4) purplemanwolf (MA/SR scrapper) [tentative on attendance]
5) Stray Kitten (scrapper?)
6) ZeroForce (blaster?)
7)
8)

Team 3
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

*Edit* did they properly fix the 'avoids the green stuff' to not count pets hit?

Since this is Containment/overpower vs. Domination:

Mind control wins for dominators. 8 out of 9 powers can be boosted, while mind/ has several powers that do not set up containment at all, and the sleeps give it only once.

Fire control is odd: The containment makes this a better damage primary for controllers, but domination makes flashfire more dependable. Because fire control has so very few controls, and very limited layering, Fire/ dominators can be a lot safer than controllers.

Plant control: See above. Like fire, plant/ puts much of its stock in one unstackable AoE mez. This makes the power safer for a canny dom who can get better mileage out of it when they wish than for a controller who rolls the dice. The higher damage immobilize does far less for the dominator, though, and the pet-centric approach can lean toward the buff/debuff controllers.

Earth/Ice/Electric: The lower damage gives less containment for controllers, but the sets have numerous powers that don't benefit from domination either. Dominators can supplement the lower damage with their secondary, but that has nothing to do with the inherents.

Gravity relies on pets and 'damage' control powers in ways that are less advantageous to dominators, and play to containment.

I'll try to make it, though I'm afraid my commitment must be tentative at this point.

@ChicagoDoodler, Mind/Psi Dom

Just saw this: pretty darned good movie, overall. The plot offered no surprises but I knew the comics, so that doesn't help, but the overall character arc was a bit predictable. Not in a dumb way, though. The characters were well acted, the actors gave them decent depth and feeling. Evans made a cap you could admire and empathize with, and the love interest had good chemistry. Side characters had good moments to stand out, making their existence more than just simple background/plot devices. (Wel, Bucky was a bit on the plot-devicey side) Weaving was an interesting villain, and made what could be a flat *insert evil laugh* "I am evil nazi!" into a believable individual. The tech looks both advanced and era correct in most cases, not something that is easy to pull off. The flow was such that the hours flew by, and left me wanting more.

Stay for after the credits, as per usual.

But yes, they work. I just started a family account with going rogue+4 months for $40. (This includes the 'complete edition' going rogue goodies, architect edition, and the pocket D/good vs. evil add-ons.

For secondary/third/fourth purchases, I have no idea. as the original can be bought for $2, they might avoid this.

I believe Captain Photon spoke in jest, but point taken.

As to the light/dark empathy/pain. Part might be to distinguish the two, which are otherwise VERY similar, part VERY likely to be the dev's ideas on themes. See: Why ice can only be color whitish/desaturated/pastels.

Yeah, ever since I saw my buddy's energy aura brute smacking one mob around while a nearby mob disregarded him, I had to scratch my head and ask "Why can't me stalker do that?"

I think it's partially from the initial design of trying to be sneaky, and being 'found out' for doing the 'obvious,' but by this time I can only think it's because the devs have tweaked the AT, and aren't in a hurry to do so again.

Stalkers have the trouble of being an archetype designed towards extremes, but they seem to be balanced away from them.

From what I can tell, it looks like the archetype was supposed to be the unseen, elimination archetype: weak when noticed, but capable of avoiding detection and dispatching foes quickly before they being taken down themselves.

...but the high ST burst damage had to be limited, so the burst powers all have timers. (Re-hide timer, placate timer, assisin strike cool down)
...but the burst damage had a ceiling, as eliminating some of the harder targets in-game in seconds, where extended battles were meant to happen was against game design. Burst damage must then be low enough that the hard targets can still fight back.
...but not all encounters can allow a player to sneak past, when a battle/repercussions are meant to happen, and some foes must sense hidden targets. You can't have entire stories where the caveat is "...and that would have happened, but they never found/caught the character, they were too sneaky."
...but their burst damage needs to be based around not being seen, otherwise what's the point of a sneaky archetype?
...but the stalker must be able to stand up to this sort of fight, or they'd lose.
...but they can't stand up too long, or they aren't the 'vulnerable but deadly' archetype.

Stalkers are a case of a specialist that cannot seem to be a specialist because of balance concerns, but can't be a generalist either. This seems to be why the devs have a hard time balancing, and seem hesitant to commit to go either way.

My 'main,' Mind/Psy/Soul dominator: (+3) A-4 J-3 I-3 D-4 L-3
my secondary, Fire/Fire/Fire dominator: (+2) A-3 J-3 I-1 D-4 L-0
Ill/Emp/Psi controller: (+1) A-3 J-2 I-1 D-0 L-0
Arch/EM/Mun blaster: (+1) A-3 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
Inv/SS/En tanker: (+1) A-3 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
EM/Dark/Soul brute: (+0) A-2 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
[^difficult to find villain WST's forming for alpha tier 3, waiting for co-op week]
Crab soldier: (+0) A-2 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
[^difficult to find villain WST's forming for alpha tier 3, waiting for co-op week]
Bots/FF/Mace mastermind: (+0) A-unlocked-0 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
Kin/elec/elec defender: (+0) A-unlocked-0 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0
Rad/Kin/Mace corruptor: (+0) A-unlocked-0 J-0 I-0 D-0 L-0

So far, destiny tier 4's are worth it. Judgements seem fine from the start, and by tier 3 I feel no need to go higher. Interface depends on the proc and character, though in many cases tier 3-4 is desirable, but not as much as with destiny. Lore is nice when I remember they exist, and may be used now that more themes are available. other than that, it's just a level shift.

* Inserts shameless PLUG for suggested judgement powers here*

I'm pretty sure kinetics' siphon powers with AoE splash are using pseudo-pets. The enemy is hit with an effect, and only then does the splash spawn, and does so on your foe. Since the initial power is an enemy, and the splash centers on said enemy, the +endurance is centered around the 'caster' of the splash effect: your enemy.

Dark regeneration centers on yourself, and seems to be using a far simpler AoE mechanic that is a straight hit and heal rather than anchored pseudo-pet. Either way, it centers/anchors on you rather than an enemy, so you get the effect.

Kinetics can be very weird.

To the more practical end, people are familiar with archetype names. Changing those just adds an extra layer of confusion. ...And let's be honest, in almost all the time in CoH/V, archetype names are a meta-game designation, having far less to do with your character and/or their personality than telling other players that you control/debuff/blast/melee/etc.

Since predators are sneaky, and use lasers/claws/blades, I'd lean toward banes/night widows. Night widows use claws, but you might have to skip psy attacks unless you tweak the idea a bit. Banes use a mace, but have stealth gadgetry, lasers, and more of a 'tech' vibe.

Heh. This opens a whole can of worms. What then happens to inherents? Does a heroic corruptor still scourge? Is a villainous defender still 'vigilant?'
Does the text have to change on all archetype/inherent power descriptions?

*shrugs*

I find most names to be generic enough that it doesn't bother me. There's nothing evil about being a 'brute.' Stalker maybe a little, but dominator certainly not. They dominate, in a good or bad way. Defenders seem the least generic, coming off as protective nice guys, but even they can be explained as helping for purely selfish reasons, if you need.

Since 'fun' is hard to quantify, i'll give you a couple I'm familiar with.

(Note: I'm passing the dark/dark brute, scrapper, stalker, defender, corruptor combos to get to some of the less obvious pairings.)

Sonic attacks/Dark miasma corruptor. (Or reverse for Defender)
Huge numbers of soft/hard controlsl, debuffs in everything. debuffs. AoE stun. AoE sleep. AoE Knockback. AoE fear. Single target hold. Single target stun. More damage with every attack dealt. An AoE -res effect to pair it with. Tons of -tohit, some nice healing, -dam, and a pet.

Fire blast/Dark miasma corruptor.
This is especially popular due to a bug that has left rain powers at blaster damage- and rain of fire still scourges for corruptors. AoE debuffs/control with the best available AoE/ST damage attack set with scourges. This is for the ranged offense dark player.

Energy melee/Dark armor brute. The ST stun king for melee, with great single target burst damage. High endurance, high mitigation. Great if you like downing a target, and don't mind weaker AoE.

Stone Melee/Dark armor brute.
This takes advantage of the oppressive gloom stun toggle/ fault AOE stun combo. Fewer stuns to stack than energy melee, better AoE.

Fire Melee/Dark Armor brute/scrapper
This uses dark armor's high/diverse mitigation to help with fire melee's lack thereof, thus letting you survive well while destroying things.

Katana (Ninja blade)/Dark armor scrapper/stalker
Quick attacks to allow healing where needed, defense to add to all the dark mitigation. Scrappers get a negative enrgy toggle to help with lethal resistant foes, stalkers appreciate the defense that can help them avoid losing their hide at bad times in combat. Cloak of fear stacks with the assassin strike fear effect. (Note: for those out of the loop, both mez auras now properly suppress while hidden.)

Stone Armor/Dark melee tanker. (Or reverse for brute)
The Toughest armor set, with a endurance recovery tool and fast self heal. Perhaps capable of being the toughest self-reliant survivor in the game possible. Not that great on damage, particularly AoE, but you get a good, nonstop string of punches for a single target. The -tohit helps stone's defense too.

Dark melee/Fire brute.
Two heals. Two endurance drains. Two buildup-ish powers. Two rare damage types, and fiery embrace is one of the few boosts that stacks with fury, and can put you over the damage cap. This is a click-heavy combo, but gives you many valuable tools, and the secondary helps make up for the primary's lack of AoE.

As mentioned, City of heroes supports a variety of 'hidden' symbols, an easy way to enter them (in windows) is via the alt+numpad method. (See Impish's link) I love these in mission architect and for emoting. I myself like the song notes, for a character/NPC singing.