//Dark for Epic is perfect for synergy.
The reason that some epics have more powers is that in I13 the devs decided to retool many epic pools and "replace" the little used powers in these pools.
There was a great (and not unreasonable) outcry from the portion of the player base that actually used the little used powers and the devs made the smart choice and "added" the new powers to the Epics rather than replacing the old powers.
There may well be more added Epic powers to the not yet touched pools some time in the future.
-Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein.
-I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
-When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson
Depends on your style. I always take the armor no matter the set - but players choice, obviously.
Going Dark epic puts you INTO melee. If you like that play style, you'll love what the dark epic does for you. Oppressive Gloom stuns minions/lts around you (making you safer), you can Souldrain and Nuke - wheee - and then recover end from anything left standing (after a tasty blue candy) using Dark Consumption.
If you like to flavor your dark/dark towards controlling, Psychic might work best for you - it is full of wonderful controls... a (better) hold that you can stack with, sleep, confuse, and TK which is always fun.
Electric I personally don't feel the synergy. A little more stun if you are looking to stack it with Howling/Dark Pit, but it is lackluster. The ST immob can stack with Tenebrous if you have a particularly pesky AV, but I would rather let Fluffy do the stacking... Powersink is sweet, don't get me wrong, but I rarely need end that badly.
I went Power, because the PBU is supersweet for fear, healing, holding through to upping the damage. I also have a tendency to end drain myself in LONG fights (ie AVs, with no high damage AT on my team), so Conserve suits me very nicely. I prefer to use my cones, which requires a distance outside of melee to catch everyone but if you really, really just HAVE to smack someone around, total focus is a nice finisher :-)
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Depends on your style. I always take the armor no matter the set - but players choice, obviously.
Going Dark epic puts you INTO melee. If you like that play style, you'll love what the dark epic does for you. Oppressive Gloom stuns minions/lts around you (making you safer), you can Souldrain and Nuke - wheee - and then recover end from anything left standing (after a tasty blue candy) using Dark Consumption.
If you like to flavor your dark/dark towards controlling, Psychic might work best for you - it is full of wonderful controls... a (better) hold that you can stack with, sleep, confuse, and TK which is always fun.
Electric I personally don't feel the synergy. A little more stun if you are looking to stack it with Howling/Dark Pit, but it is lackluster. The ST immob can stack with Tenebrous if you have a particularly pesky AV, but I would rather let Fluffy do the stacking... Powersink is sweet, don't get me wrong, but I rarely need end that badly.
I went Power, because the PBU is supersweet for fear, healing, holding through to upping the damage. I also have a tendency to end drain myself in LONG fights (ie AVs, with no high damage AT on my team), so Conserve suits me very nicely. I prefer to use my cones, which requires a distance outside of melee to catch everyone but if you really, really just HAVE to smack someone around, total focus is a nice finisher :-)
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Quited for agreement. I have characters with both Power and Psychic, for the reasons stated. I play my Darks at range, so Dark Mastery wasn't for me, but it's very effective if you don't mind getting in things' faces (or them getting in yours).
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I have Psychic on one build and Elec on the other. I love elec so much I took 4 out of 5 powers. I stack holds (with Pet gaze), stack stuns (with Howling Twilight), recover endurance, and have resistance to the 3 most common damage types (one of which is stacked with Shadowfall) in the game. To say there is no synergy is to not try elec mastery. Ok maybe there's some overkill but it's just more tools for the trade. My reasoning for this is...
My two holds coupled with fluffy's hold begin to stack. Now if you have a controller (or overkill, another d3 with 3 holds) on the team and you're taking on an AV...guess what, you have a held AV. I can't recall how much if at all, PBU increases hold mag but this may be an alternative. I didn't take Dark Pit but am still able to stun stack which comes in handy for more control. I still melee but I am not bound to melee, have a lot of control (which comes naturally with dark miasma, as does the debuffing) and do plenty of damage. My D3 stands for Dark Debuffing Damager. Sure it's cheezy but it is what it is.
Here's what I think of the others...
Dark Mastery- Obvious thematic synergy. Great if you find yourself in melee and plan on staying there. I was convinced of how well it doesn't play with dark blast, specifically the cones. I can't remember who said it to me (maybe darkity) but playing a D3 should be more dignified than constanly hopping into melee to stun then hopping out to cast cones.
Psychic Mastery- Somewhat thematic synergy, especially if you try to mimic the council vampyri. I have the hold (again, stacking with pet gaze) and armor on one of my builds. Combined with shadowfall and IO bonuses, gives me 70% psionic resist (not that I was looking for these bonuses, it was a package deal ;p). It's not necessary but nice to have when everyone else is complaining about the clockwork king or mother mayhem. You'll be the last one standing (unless your team is made up of dark scrappers/tankers ;p).
Power Mastery- Like stated above, Conserve and PBU are what make this set. It also helps to have 30% resist to S/L before enhancements.
Dark for OG + Dark Pit, then Soul Drain & Blackstar in safety, then blue pill + Dark Consumption.
Power for PBU and the mega debuffs (and fear, holds, heals and whatnot) it brings. Oh, Conserve Power doesn't exactly suck either.
Can't go wrong w/either, but I'd lean towards Dark myself.
Runner up would be Elec for what I think are the best armor & end recovery tool, not to mention a stacking hold (Pet Gaze + Shocking Bolt) for bosses. Psy gets this too, but I like Power Sink way more than anything else Psy offers.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
I picked up Psy, and honestly, I'm not diggin' it. The hold is nice, but with a Pet. Gaze from both me and the dark servant, the bosses are pretty much locked down tight. Plus, all the minions and lieutenants are deaf, dumb, and blind in the TT, TP, and (on rare occasions) DN. So, not much use for it in the end. World of Confusion is fun to play with in Steel Canyon, making the purse snatchers "suddenly feel like fighting each other", but that's about all the use I get out of it. I can't even remember the last power I picked up from that set, so that should tell ya something.
This thread has enlightened me. I'm thinking I'll try out /Dark tonight. The Angel can handle the melee range I'm sure. She may be small and cute, but she's no delicate little flower by any means.
EDIT: /Dark - Tried it, love it! I think the time spent in melee range was exaggerated a bit in those earlier posts, but oh well. Oh the sweet crackling sound of Dark Consumption on a fat stack of mobs! Sounds like it hurts them a little bit. I am pleased with this. 
I took psy and dark on my darks, I actually prefer psy.
I tried PBU, didn't like it.
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I tried PBU, didn't like it.
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The truth is that I don't use PBU very often. Heck, I don't use Conserve all that often... but when running against tough AVs, especially solo, both come in very useful. This is also why I prefer conserve over powersink or dark consumption - I need my end back usually when there is only 1 really tough critter left, and both of the other two rely on many enemies around.
And, again, your play style strongly affects you epic choices, ESPECIALLY for D3s! A D3 can be one of the best controllers in the game, they can be one of the best debuffers in the game, they can run the beautiful balance point in between. They can even pull off being something of a lower damage, but very safe blaster (Deflaster? Blafender?) - and a lot of this D3 'flavor' can be enhanced by your epic choice.
Personally I went with the Dark Epic Pool powerset since my first lvl 50 was a dark/regen build. Plus my toon's name is Dark Cavicide so it seemed fitting to stick with a theme. My only advice with this set is you have to enjoy melee to get the most out of it. Otherwise stick with the power or psychic ones 
Don't discount Electric Mastery. It offers good resistances to the 3 most widely used damage types end game. You can also stack effects in the elec powers with those of your primary or secondary. And also, t-strike is cool.
Anyone with some experiences please let me know the plusses and minuses...
Why do some sets have 4 powers and some have 5?