Different Types of Power

So last night I was chatting about the city with a friend and got asked "Which character is your most powerful?" My first response was "powerful in what way" and I had to really think to decide on a person who was most powerful overall (and I'm still not positive I was right.) This pleases me greatly.

So typically powergamey most powerful would be my character that could eliminate large spawns quickly and with little danger. So looking through my characters, I have several that can do one or the other, but none that can do both. On the other hand, I have characters that are powerful in ways that don't fit in to that mold. I used my empath as an example. Solo he's nothing special. He can (and does on occasion) solo all right, his damage is nothing special but it gets the job done and he's reasonably safe but he's not up to taking hits from most elite bosses. However team him up with a buddy? The teammate can go from baseline mitigation to dodging most every attack throw at them while getting a damage boost and a (mostly irrelevant at higher levels) accuracy boost. Additionally he can keep their blue bar full so they don't have to slow down, and on the off chance they DO take a meaningful hit, he can heal that. Admittedly he can't buff a whole team that high, but it's pretty nice what he can do for allies.

So I ended up deciding my controller was probably the most powerful overall. She's got the ability to mez, team buffs that while not up to the empath's height are definitely noticeable, and she can soak hits like a beast (and by soak I mean dodge.) Her single target damage is decent but her AoE is pretty low, she's got the mitigation that she could take a large spawn by herself, it just wouldn't be very fast. Her choice as most powerful was kind of amusing. Controllers have a reputation for being the most overpowered archetype (at least for hero side) but on the other hand, she's using powersets that are considered underperforming. Who knows, things might change. I've got a new brute that's really fun so far and maybe someday he'll take the crown. At my rate of leveling he should hit 50 within a couple years.