i was wondering, after about a year ago of quitting. is it worth coming back to? how have the recent patches changed it, my main villian was a stalker, so im mostly interested in how they changed. also, i've been hearing about an archonos solider, being like a "hero class" what do i need to play one? and are there generally more, or less palyers lately?

i cannot really answer your questions as im not to sure. i  have been back for a week now and have seen lots of players on freedom. i have a dominator and have been enjoying it much. have not played on my account since cov was released and with my new pc it runs and looks great. winter time is a good time to come back...well for me in snowville canada it is lol...

..bump

Thanos, I don't really have much to offer, except that I've been playing for 46 months. I've tried stalkers, but my highest is only lvl 11. I just don't enjoy them like I do scrappers or brutes.

The Arachnos Soldier you're thinking of is the Villain Epic Archtype (VEATs) that are now available. The two VEATs are Wolf Spider and Blood Widow. From the CoX site:

Villain Epic Archetypes
Infiltrate the Arachnos organization from within! Upon reaching level 50, Villains unlock two new Epic Archetypes; Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows. They have their own unique storyline and missions, power combinations and costume sets. Branching powersets allow the Wolf Spider to specialize as either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider and the Blood Widow chooses from the Fortunata and Night Widow branches. Each brings with it unique costumes for your Arachnos duties, as well as your newfound role as a Destined One.
 

Both VEATs can be played as male or female, if you were wondering. Like it says, you do have to be level 50 to unlock them. I don't have a villain up that high, so I can't tell you much about them. However, they do seem to be fairly popular.

i got my mastermind to 50 and tried out the veats, personally i was not impressed compared to the peacebringer and the other one, the epic types arnt as amazing.

Stalkers got some love to boost their survivability in a stand-up fight. I've really enjoyed the changes, and I play a lot of Stalkers.

The Arachnos agents look like fun, but I haven't tried one yet. I like the idea of branching powersets and the costumes are pretty slick.

The population is still good, and they've made a lot of changes in the last year. Come back and give it a try for yourself.

I came back just two weeks ago and I'm liking it alot the Freedom server is pretty well populated.