Honestly, just don't be afraid of either storing a concept that doesn't fit right, or dying stupidly in a hunting accident. I sometimes churn through 5 or 6 PCs before I find one where I feel the urge to log in more than once every few weeks.
My other suggestion is not to make a high concept PC with lots of goals and ideas about how they should fit into the world. My best successes come from being a blank slate, absorbing what is going on in the game, and reacting to it, forcing my PC to morph with the goings on.
My other suggestion is not to play a Magicker, at least, not when you're trying to get back into the game. It can be an alienating experience where you feel like isolating yourself, while to me, injecting more PC to PC interaction can sometimes be enough to pull me back in.
To address your 'epitome character' more directly -- You will always feel you have played the epitome character, until your next epitome character. Sometimes when you play your epitome character, you realize that it's actually rather dull and there's a fear that you'll never reach that peak again. Whether it be a leadership PC, or a skilled combatant, or a well connected aide. I would say overcoming that fear or reluctance is what makes the game great -- taking the risk in starting over, and seeing if the next story is your next peak to best.
Good luck.