Is psychic blast any good? Does the Pope have a beer with his Pizza?
I have seen lots of Empaths with Psi, it is one of the popular combinations. The snipe, Psionic Lance, is very long range, All Psychic blasts do damage that very few villains resist. It even has a good sleep I think.
look here http://cityofheroes.gameamp.com/coh/viewPowers/31.php
Don't know how up to date it is but it will give you an idea what powers you want to take.
also I would take it onto Test server to try out the respec a couple of times with different powers if you have never tried them before..
Another useful website for power descriptions: http://www.nofuture.org.uk/coh/powers/
I've pretty much abandoned my emp/psy at 24, so probably won't be of much help, but having teamed with higher lvl ones with my mains, I don't think you should really focus too much on the secondaries since you will probably not be soloing much. I did have the snipe slotted and I guess some of the disorient/immob might come in handy, but wouldn't worry too much about doing damage since you really don't want the aggro. I would suggest focusing instead on some of the pool powers (Leadership, Concealment, Teleport, etc.). Hope this helps...
CoX 50s: <ill/rad> <ice/ice> <fire/kin> <grav/sonic> <ice/storm> <earth/kin> <kin/elec> <cold/psy> <thugs/dark> <fire/dark> <dark/elec> <night widow> <EM/ninj> <mind/icy>
Hmm, I guess i should test this carefuly on the test server.
emp/psy is not a good combo 
I dont know why you say its popular, but by the looks I cant see a psy power that goes well with empathy.
I have met more emp/Psi than say Emp/Dark and emp/nrg (might be it was popular at the time I started and not so now). To be fair they didn't use as much of their secondary as perhaps I do.
It depends on your style of play. One of the guides described a pure empath or a balanced empath. One was purely team oriented and the other could hold their own/solo. I consider myself a balanced empath. I can't not let off a couple of blasts if it won't interfere with the team (sometimes even if it does 
)
Psi has the equivalent to my hold, snipe and cone blast along with the dodgy disorient, instead of the -Acc of dark you get a -rchg (I think), could really help the team. I would say give it a whirl on test. If you have played a blaster or controller at any point you should be able to judge the aggro you will get.
Note - I have heard this from others but have never done so myself you understand
If you do get aggro, run and jump over another team member (preferably a tough one ) and sometimes they lose interest.
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All Psychic blasts do damage that very few villains resist.
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Just wait till you hit 40, Psionic blas is a NIGHTMARE post 40.
ALl he carnies have high Psi defence, The clocks take hardly any psionic damage. Took me 20 minutes to kill a +3 blue clock boss solo on my defender ;p
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Psi has the equivalent to my hold, snipe and cone blast along with the dodgy disorient, instead of the -Acc of dark you get a -rchg (I think), could really help the team.
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Psi hasn't got a hold and the -recharge is barely noticable.
It's a fun set to make an offensive empath with, and one day I'll finish writing my guide... 
Emp / Psy is a good concept in the terms of storyline, the Psychic healer is a comon theme to see and an interesting concept, that is origionally why I chose mine.
The psy set is unfortunatly not as focused as other sets in its abilities it has no overall power such as the debuff for Rad or -Acc for dark, its common used attacks don't have the slow effect it is noted for. It has some good single target 'soft' controls in that its main blasts have some nice secondary effects but thats as far as it goes, this combined with the limited number of power slots in an average Emp build (there are just too many other useful powers) and the reduced power of attacks means that they are normally the last choice on the list.
If your looking for a more offensive set of powers I'd go with:
Will Domination: Nice damage, fast casting and a reasonable recharge with the added effect of sleep, not the greatest of control effects as they wake up as soon as you attack again but your staple attack.
TK Blast: Faster casting and recharge but slightly less damage than WD with knockback instead of sleep useful as a panic 'get away from me' button but can annoy teamates if used a lot.
Psionic Lance: Huge range, and very decent damage when slotted and exceptionally useful at lower levels for pulling and when solo not so great later I found my playstyle changed so that I never used this attack and if I did it was interupted so I dropped it, however if you want firepower this is it.
Subdue: Recently upgraded so its now a moderately useful power ok damage and a chance of immobalising a decent addition to your attack chain and semi useful in setting up containment for a controller.
Psychic Scream: A massive cone effect and ok damage as well the only reason this is below Subdue is the aggro it can draw the slow effect is barely perceptable too (as opposed to not at all).
If you want a slightly more Control slot up the secondary effects of your powers above (except the snipe) and add:
Scramble thoughts: Quick to cast and the damage is almost not worth the effort but slottted with a few disorient durations this power can be an effective control having your target staggering round while the team pummels them.
Out of the rest of the set Psionic Tornado adds a form of control in knockup and but I have never found it very effective and gets me killed fast from the AoE. The olny power I suggest you stay away from is Psy Wail it's a decent enough power with reasonable damage and an added safety button of disorient but the End downtime is an absolute killer as being Emp nearly all of your primary powers are rective and require you to have End.
Hope this helps some.
well post I6 my emp/psi could solo and kick major [censored] using telekinetic blast + both RA's etc up to 200 + dmg on lance, but cuse of ED it aint possible anymore and psi has become useless 
emp/energy is prolly best atm, as that can still do a fair bit of dmg to keep ya alive long enough to run off screaming :P
lol, im emp/energy and thats pretty much all it does... if you get lucky with knockback it just about gives you enough time to run away screaming... Soloing went out of the window for me with ED (wasn't easy before to be fair but ED was the final nail in the coffin)
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
Having accumulated a LOT of debt in the 40s when i couldn't find a team and attempted to solo, I'd agree with StatBoy. Concentrate on your primaries. ED has nerfed defenders secondaries SO much. Pre I6 i could 1-shot mobs of +1/2s, with maybe one or two weakened enemies left. Post I6, i can't 1-shot -1s, and only sometimes -2s (this is why Atmoic Blast). I'm emp/rad, so can't really say anything about Psi, but as an empath i always concentrated on the primaries. Didn't even consider slotting secondaries until i'd slotted all my primaries.
@Willow R
Main Hero:
Willow R (Emp/Rad Defender, lvl 50)
Matakoshi (kat/regen Scrapper, lvl 50)
Well, I saw the powers and I didnt like any of them. I am gonna continue without them, I just wish I have some other secondary power set. Currently lvl 37 yay
I want the blaster secondary energy set. that'd rock!
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
TK Blast also has the benefit of split damage, giving you Smash and the Psi element so for those who resist Psi, you get meagre damage inflicted on them.
Guys thx for your feedback. Right now i hit lvl 38 and took my last psi power, nova like attack. I took it just for fun, of course a haler should never use it.
I find my 2ndary powers very useless for me, so I guess its same for every empath out there.
Thank you all, case closed
problem is that the primaries took a major hit with ed as well heals are essentially half as effective...
Defiant
Proud Member of the Liberty Legion
Venture - Emp/En Defender
Seph - Kat/SR Scrapper
Blizzard - Ice/Storm Controller
Legionelosis - Rad/Rad Defender
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I find my 2ndary powers very useless for me, so I guess its same for every empath out there.
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I've never found my secondaries useless ... before or after ED... infact I love my secondaries almost as much as I love my primaries.
I find them useful and effective in lots of situations (though mostly the ones that require me to throw stuff at bad guys...)
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problem is that the primaries took a major hit with ed as well heals are essentially half as effective...
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the bonus is half what it was; the heals are a third less effective.
still too much though
I've a small amount of experience with both emp/psi and kin/psi (I won't post the number of hours on each but needless to say it's intimidating) - this doesn't mean I'm right but I'll gladly give my take on this situation, having been through many 'phases' with emp/psi.
I've been a pure healer, a complete offender, and all sorts of mixes of both (two respecs while playing through, four more since).
The first point I'd like to make, is that your role is whatever you make it. You're not confined to healing and buffing.
When on a team, you won't always be needed to be healing. You'll have your buffs cast, noone's taking much damage, and everything's happy - at this point the difference between a pure healer and a defender becomes apparent. The pure healer can't do much, except brawl and unslotted psychic blast - quite frankly you might as well not be there.
I believe it's important to strike some kind of balance. I'm not saying go mad, noone wants to see their defender keep running away because he's drawn too much aggro, but there's no reason on earth when RA's running and everyone's buffed and healthy why you wouldn't help the team take down the foes - it all increases the xp/min.
Psychic blast is quite ideally suited to this - your two major attacks (Will Domination + TK Blast) both have natty tack-on effects which leave your target (if it's a minion or a puny lt.) unable to attack back, in the former case because he's asleep, in the latter because he's flying through the air trying to spot his house. So you *should* be able to run a (however slow) attack chain with minimal peril to yourself.
I'd advise steering completely clear of the AoE's - Psychic scream and Psi tornado will bring a world of aggro down on you and Wail isn't the insta-mob-dropper it used to be pre-ED.
Subdue and mental blast are, frankly, puny. Subdue has a small amount of utility bringing flying foes down to earth - but such a limited utility is not worth a power slot, in my reckoning.
Psionic lance IS powerful. It's also the joint-longest range attack in the game (along with Dark's moonbeam). As you'll be mostly picking off stragglers with the blasters while the melee types grind the mob, psionic lance has a high amount of utility. It's also good for pulling.
Scramble thoughts is a purely utility power - you can't do any mentionable damage with it, but it'll keep a foe disoriented for a comparatively long time.
My recommendations? Go with TK Blast and Will Domination. Six-slot them both, one accuracy, three damage and two recharges, sleep durations or knockback distance depending on preference. This tools you up for any situation. Epics complement your arsenal nicely - mass hypnosis, dominate and telekinesis especially will turn you into a team support machine.
DON'T eat muffins while I'm developing you.
Pants! Turkey Magnates! A man in a box! Rogue AI! Come one, come all, to arc ID 10107 - It's [i]'Not as long as some other arcs'[/i]!
nice post Wilfred Made me think about changes
I will definetly use some of your suggestions in the next respec, currenty I have none but I will find one. As of now I am lvl 43 and still only healing, but 2 offensive powers wont be that bad, and they will be usefull in some situations. Especialy in those lvl 50 pvp zones that are coming soon.
Thanks Wil, I will write my feedback on this thread after the next respec.
Hello all, I am a lvl 36 empath/psionic. aT lvl 37 i would like to make a complete respec to my character but I am not sure about my 2nd power set. Tbh I never used any of that, I have no idea if anything will be usefull to me.
Do you think some power from psionic power set can be usefull for a healer?