I had a long winded post laid out explaining why I think the new guide count has dropped so dramatically, but the forum ate it.
So, rather than retype, here's the tl;dr version:
Inventions added massive complexity to the guide writing business. Everyone wants 'builds' now, more than they want descriptions of powers, synergies, tactics or how a set feels. The writing part has sort of gone by the way side in favor of pages and pages of Mid's builds. More and more the answer to "What about this set?" has become "Open up a character planner and see for yourself." So there have been fewer and fewer of the traditional guides that talked about how a set plays, rather than what the numbers are.
/oldmanrant
I did my part and made an electric melee / Shield brute guide about a month ago. I'll make a super strength / shield guide in a couple weeks.
I should probably update my first guide. I've made a lot of changes to my build since then.
I've been thinking about making a FF/NRG defender guide. I've had alot of fun with mine.
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I've been thinking about making a FF/NRG defender guide. I've had alot of fun with mine.
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I wouldn't mind seeing that. I'll have to pop in from time to time to check and see if you have one up. 
QR
You can look at guides for the primary and guides for the secondary to get much of the info you want.You do not need a guide wrote for the exact combo.
Take your example of Archery/NRG,there is a few Archery guides for blasters.Also quite a few for /NRG.
They may not cover the synergy from the sets together both you will still be able to gleam a lot of useful info.
No disrespect but you got to do some of the leg work yourself.
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No disrespect but you got to do some of the leg work yourself.
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Appearently you missed this part of what I said then.
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(I have 1 archery/NRG Blaster I'm wokring on. I plan on removing 2 of the melee attacks from the tray and slotting up Mako's Bite, Crushing Impact, and Kinetic Crash in the melee attacks-- post lvl 30 that is, for the melee. )
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Meaning: I am working on a guide. So, I guess that would mean that I am doing the leg work. No disrespect.
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I had a long winded post laid out explaining why I think the new guide count has dropped so dramatically, but the forum ate it.
So, rather than retype, here's the tl;dr version:
Inventions added massive complexity to the guide writing business. Everyone wants 'builds' now, more than they want descriptions of powers, synergies, tactics or how a set feels. The writing part has sort of gone by the way side in favor of pages and pages of Mid's builds. More and more the answer to "What about this set?" has become "Open up a character planner and see for yourself." So there have been fewer and fewer of the traditional guides that talked about how a set plays, rather than what the numbers are.
/oldmanrant
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/this. I really have to agree.
Of course, the flip side of that is that "builds" don't help you know WHY you want those powers, what to expect from them in lower to mid levels and such. "Build" posts are far less useful, IMHO. Let me know what to expect during DO levels. Let me know what powers work together, what to expect with SOs and plain old everyday IOs ... not purpled out on a multi-billion INF build.
I inferred you were working on a build for him not a guide.
Apologies.
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Of course, the flip side of that is that "builds" don't help you know WHY you want those powers, what to expect from them in lower to mid levels and such. "Build" posts are far less useful, IMHO. Let me know what to expect during DO levels. Let me know what powers work together, what to expect with SOs and plain old everyday IOs ... not purpled out on a multi-billion INF build.
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Yes!
When I'm thinking about making a new character, especially those first 4 or 5 months (which wasn't long ago) the old-style guides in the forums were invaluable to me - especially on how to allocate slots which I think is the most likely place for a person to screw up.
I still don't really comprehend the builds-style of guide and find them useless since they give me no sense of how the thing plays and how to generally slot 1-49. All it tells me is what the goal is at 50.
My only problem with the old guides now is that I've slowly come to realize that a lot of them are completely outdated and in some cases the newest powers aren't covered at all.
So these days I don't bother looking up a guide unless there is something really strange about the set. Instead I go to the wiki, pick the two sets that match my concept, review the powers and when they are available, make a vague game-plan, and then learn as I go. That's a lot easier now that I sort of understand the combat concepts and mechanics of the game.
It also helps that I have a Veteran respec sitting on each character. I don't feel so much like I'm flying without a net like I did in the beginning.
I don't want Set Builds. I only want Leveling Builds. I guess that makes me the minority. 
*sigh*
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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
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I still don't really comprehend the builds-style of guide and find them useless since they give me no sense of how the thing plays and how to generally slot 1-49. All it tells me is what the goal is at 50.
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This. Most emphatically this.
When Im looking for a guide I want to know how things work together as I work my way up in levels.
Builds are fine for chars AT 50, I want information useful for the trip ;p
I should mention that I DO enjoy the guides that have a breakdown of powers in the set.
I'm one of those people, though, that needs to see the end result, visually. Give me a leveling build to take me from 1-50, so that I can have something to look at as I read your guide and views on the powers.
I've been playing for just over 3 years now, and I don't have a single character loaded up with Sets. As a matter of fact, I only have one character that has any sets, and those are the +Jump and +Stealth IOs slotted into Super Jump on my 50 MA/Regen Scrapper. Every other character has TO/DO/SOs, depending on level, or Common IOs.
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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
Okay, I understand that the guides for builds we have took some time and effort. I thank the players who did all that. I shutter to think of the time it would take to make a guide for EVERY build in the game. But, there are some builds I would like to see a guide for.
)
I'll give an example as to why I ask for more:
If I wanted to make an Invul/SS, Fire/Fire Tank or a Fire/Kin, Fire/Emp Troller, then I need not look too far due to the millions of guides to choose from. I understand these are common, faves, FotM, but sheesh! A little diversity, please?
2 guides I would like to see (If someone would be kind)
Fire/NRG Tank
Archer/NRG Blaster
(They don't have to go up to lvl 50. Just enough to get an idea of power selection and slotting)
(I have 1 archery/NRG Blaster I'm wokring on. I plan on removing 2 of the melee attacks from the tray and slotting up Mako's Bite, Crushing Impact, and Kinetic Crash in the melee attacks-- post lvl 30 that is, for the melee.