Get some more details on the roles you can play once Champions Online goes free-to-play next year.

Champions Online is going free-to-play next year, and with it comes the introduction of the Archetype system. Cryptic already compared the pre-defined builds to the paid free-form heroes in the first part of its Archetype rundown, and the second part reveals the eight Archetypes players can expect to see at the F2P launch. Here's a breakdown of the Archetypes by their roles:

• Avenger: The Inferno, The Soldier
• Guardian: The Savage, The Grimoire
• Protector: The Behemoth, The Glacier
• Brawler: The Blade
• Sentinel: The Mind

These roles are fixed and cannot be changed on the fly. Here's Cryptic's take on the system: "We've aimed to make each of these Archetypes feel like they had a niche slightly smaller than that defined by their role. For example, The Inferno is very focused on AoE powers, whereas The Savage has some AoE damage, but is much more focused on single targets."

For more in-depth details on the Archetypes, check out Cryptic's new Archetype descriptions page. The free-to-play beta just kicked off today, so don't be surprised if some of these details change before the new service launches in 2011.