It's not the archtype, it's the powerset

I find that I don't like certain archtypes so much as I just really enjoy the buffing/debuffing powersets. I feel like most the time no other set contributes to a team more. Controllers are my favorite, but I love defenders, corruptors, defenders, and masterminds too.
What I'd like to ask is how do you think you get the most out of each set? what archtype benefits most, and what powerset is best paired with each buff/debuff set?
I'll note that my all time hands down favorite toon is an ill/storm. Nothing is as satisfying to me as throwing out PA and laying down a fresh patch of freezing rain. And with the new KD proc for tornado it's just that much more awesome.
/end sleep deprived post

The greatest superteam supergroup I ever participated in was called Brutal Speed, where everyone had a choice of either a brute or a corruptor:

Brutes: Must be Electric or Fiery Armor
Corruptors: Must be Kinetic
Everyone must take Leadership abilities

It was absolutely insane - probably the fastest leveling I've seen outside of exploits, with everyone double speed boosted and fulcrum shifted, aoeing everything like crazy.

My favourite sets are Control sets, after that it's Assault followed by Support. So for me it's very much the AT - Dominator is by far my favourite AT. I do like Controllers but my preferred style of play is solo so I don't make them very often.

...come to think of it, someone needs to create that Brutal Speed experience again sometime.

For years, I played mostly support toons, for the very reasons you cited above.

Just recently, rolled an MA/SD toon, and I'm lovin' every second. I forgot how much fun it is to just kick things until they're dead.

I have grant cover, and two AOE kd powers, for the odd time I feel the need to help the group.

But I mostly kick stuff.

I look forward the the new Martial Combat set, looks fun. Must remember to pick an Ancillary Pool with a self-rez, I expect scrapperlock translated to Blasters'll give me plenty of opportunities to use it.

Don't get me wrong, I have a few 50 brutes that I adore, but overall i feel I contribute the most when buffing.

there is no question that buffs and debuffs matter the most to teams. And due to the purple patch rules, if you get to high end performance buffs are better than debuffs - except -regen for AV's and GM's.

Rad, Kinetic, Dark, Thermal, Cold are all good sets with Rad and Kinetic probably the best for support. And the only "bad" set is FF and that is really just if everyone has IO's for +def already.

my favorites right now are
fire/rad controller
dark/sonic defender

I should play a kin again sometime but don't have anything I want to pair it with

VEATs and kinetic characters?

Yeah, you should have seen us though - stacked fulcrum shifts on AOE brutes on top of stacked speed boosts...

Off Topic:

*reads Dechs' sig*

........dammit

The sets I always find myself player are pet sets. But in this case, it IS limited to one AT.

Because there is nothing more amusing than watching a genin crane-kick a 20 foot Warwalker in the face.

Fire/Rad Controller(s). A real bucket of synergy. Get a whole team of em, then see what they do

Imagine choking cloud + hot feet x8 plus all those debuff toggles. Oh man... *runs off to play his fire/rad*

I'll second what Dechs said about kinetics, you really do only need one per team to floor the dmg bonuses of your team, in the case of a mostly brute team I can see 2 at most if your goal is to stay at damage cap with very little downtime. Now if you were to play a large outdoor map and pair off a brute for a /kin corr into 4 groups then see how fast you could finish it, that might be interesting.

Typically though, debuff sets, particularly ones that have -res are going to noticeably stack better for clearing mobs/content.

Hey Jay, Brutal Speed wasn't just limited to fire and elec armors. I remember some stonies, most significantly Tribal. I was a kin and remember vividly the change in sound when sb wore off.

I do agree it would be fun to redo, especially now with the sb buff being aoe. I've said it before, but that team exhausted me from Kinetics for about a year. Good lord the whining that would happen when a brute had to go SBless for 5 seconds.

As for redundancy, that would only present itself with the 3rd kin. With the Brute damage cap at 750% (650 + base), when brutes slotted damage to ED they still had 550 to go. One best case FS would net a buff of 240. That's best case without taking 5% misses or whatever else can cause less than 10 siphons to hit. This team played without the benefit of IOs (they just came online when we started) so we weren't FSing every 20 seconds like a current Kin can. But hey, what do I know? I was only on the team.

I noticed that you said you liked your Illusion/Storm Controller. Something I'd recommend trying is Earth/Storm... If you don't want to repeat storm maybe Earth/Trick Arrow, Earth/Sonic, or even Earth/Dark. Earth Control just offers amazing control and debuffs, well paired with another debuff set. Earth offers -Def like crazy and -to hit in Earthquake.