So what are people using for custom Palutenas? I feel like the best in each category are:
1. Auto-Reticle
2. Angelic Missile
3. Jump Glide
4. Counter
1. Explosive Flame: I was a big supporter of Autoreticle for a while, but I've been warming up to Explosive Flame. It's less useful for harassment than Autoreticle is, but it can still punish an approach if well-spaced, and the unblockable quality is really nice. I'm surprised by how many people will walk right into it.
2. Superspeed: The GOAT as far as I'm concerned. The utility of Superspeed is out of control. You can (jump) cancel it into almost everything, use it to escape, to combo, to intimidate. it's even useful for recovering sometimes. It's by far the best special that Palutena has. You even carry momentum into jumps with it! Although Reflect Barrier is really useful (and fun) against projectile-based characters. And it's
perfect for trolling Villager.
3. Jump Glide: The first custom that I fell in love with. I've been doing some experimenting with Rocket Jump, since it combos with Superspeed, but gliding close off the ground and approaching with Palutena's pretty damn good aerials is incredibly fun, and actually pretty safe if you're not being crazy about it.
4. Counter: With the infinite Lightweight glitch, I technically know that it's almost objectively superior. In fact, Palutena's Counter kinda sucks. But I'm just not that comfortable turning off all of Palutena's speed limiters with Lightweight on. The handling on her once she's sped up like that (especially in conjunction with Superspeed) is just tricky to me, and Counter is a good crutch.
And the stages thing... what even is a good Smash stage? Maybe I've been fed gruel my whole life but I can't see where Smash 4's stage design failings lie in comparison with previous entries. What would a good stage be?
More seriously, my criteria for a good stage for Smash is: interesting platform arrangement, unobstructive hazards, a minimum of gimmicks, and that it looks cool. Sometimes gimmicks work, like with WarioWare. Most of the time, they just tend to aggravate me, though. Anything that I feel like is a distraction from the act of characters fighting bothers me, especially if it's something the stage just dumped in my lap and not something that I couldn't feel totally responsible over.
4 WiiU's stage list is pretty good, though.