Keep in mind that fast recharge means low damage, which means low DPS for the given attack animation time. Weak attacks like Flares and Neutrino Bolt are usually not popular.
Blasters also got their fast recharging attacks changed when they got the new Defiance. Psi Dart is a damage scale 1 attack for them, with 4s recharge and 5.2 End. Flares does ~1 scale damage as well, but its recharge and End cost are shorter since the damage is mostly its secondary effect. Blasters were essentially given exactly the same Tier 1 and 2 attacks so their ability to use them when mezzed would not vary across Power Sets.
Since Dominators don't need to have Flares' damage be 1.01 due to Defiance, they could have it boosted. However, it looks like the devs accidently dropped the secondary damage. And Psi Dart just does more damage overall, probably to help balance the loss of damage from PSW.
As for Defenders and Corruptors, they never got their Tier 1 and 2s changed because the devs said they didn't want to change any existing powers outside of Blasters. Defenders and Corruptors don't even get Psi Dart. (Corruptors don't get Psi Blast period)
That doesn't explain the Energy changes though... 6 and 10 second recharge instead of 4 and 8 like every other Energy Blast set?
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636
I was looking at the new assault set numbers on Test and as a bit puzzled. In particular, things like moving Flares to a 4 second recharge a Power Bolt to 6 seconds just seemed... odd. Why the differences from the Blaster / Defender / Corruptor versions?
Then it hit me... it looks like the new assault sets are being balanced like the melee ATs! Essentially we're getting ranged attacks that follow the same conventions as Brute and Tanker attacks: various recharge numbers (usually between four and twelve seconds), no extremely fast "spammable" attacks like the old Flares and Psy Dart... if you pretend the blasts are punches instead the numbers look right at home.
I wonder if this was a conscious decision, or merely a result of being rushed for time because the changes got moved up? It would be faster to balance everything as if it was a melee attack instead of trying to separately look at the blasts and melee attacks...
Cascade, level 50 Blaster (NRG/NRG since before it was cool)
Mechmeister, level 50 Bots / Traps MM
FAR too many non-50 alts to name
[u]Arcs[u]
The Scavenger Hunt: 187076
The Instant Lair Delivery Service: 206636