Absorb pain is an incredibly powerful heal. Regen aura properly slotted gives IH-level regen, and fort is a pretty nice defence buff.
Those are youtr main survivability boosters in addition to the two main heals. But empathy really isn't all about healing, it's got strong buffs as well.
Defenders as a rule are not healers, they are buffers and mob debuffers.
Your Healing Aura, Heal Other and Absorb Pain are quick, great health buffs for team mates. If you feel that you are not getting the best from those powers check your slots and enhs that you have in the powers, check the forums for build types and recommendations.
Keep with the toon and work with him/her for a few more levels and then consider if the toon is for you. Dont forget to keep your mind open as well, not every power of a certain AT will suit someone that loves playing that AT with the variety of powers.
p.s. Welcome to the forums Sorvah.
@Eiceman
Morphius - MA/Regen - Union
Taelan - Ice B/Ice M - Union
Hellyon - Ice A/SS - Defiant
Bubbletastic - FF/Energy B - Union
I love my Emp/Rad (lvl50) and yes you will find at higher lvls heals are not in great demand (unless you are in a SG like mine). But your buffs will always be needed.
Happy to be on Defiant.
Global name @mereman
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Every kind of defender is to it's own. On top of what's already been said, don't restrict /Rad to just solo. I personally have a gripe with self-proclaimed 'pure empaths' or 'greater than thou' empaths, because the -res on /Rad powers is very very nice, just like all of the debuffs from defender secondariers if you can fit it around Fort and RA 
Basically, come lvl 30ish, you will tend to rely on your heals less, and your buffs far more, as most of your teammates are more well rounded, and benefit from being more survivable, instead of relying on being babysat by a HA spamming empath.
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because the -res on /Rad powers is very very nice, just like all of the debuffs from defender secondaries
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I think you mean -defense which is also an extremely useful secondary effect.
Octavian Vanguard
@ohmsEU and @ohms 2
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Time to leave to wow and holy trinity mindset and adopt the CoH way. Instead of the WoW way, -Tanker soaks up aggro and damage, healer heals tanker and others kill the foes- there are loads of ways to make a team work in CoH.
In the lower levels, the healing of lost health is a common way of playing the game, at higher levels this becomes a lot different. This is because there's so many ways which you can use to decide a battle.
Things like
-prevention of damage , controllers making sure spawns can't do damage, or for instance blasters blowing up entire spawns before they can do damage.
-minimizing damage by having good defense or resistance.
-giving people high regen so the lost health points come back quickly.
etc. etc. etc. in a lot of play styles there's no need for healing, lots of play styles benefit from a form a healing. This is what makes CoH so versatile.
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because the -res on /Rad powers is very very nice, just like all of the debuffs from defender secondaries
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I think you mean -defense which is also an extremely useful secondary effect.
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Sorry, confused it with /Sonic :P
Empath's are buffers.
Powers like Clear Mind and Fortitude go a long, long way to improving survivability. Think of CM as something like Fear Ward (but better as it'll protect against stun [daze] etc...) and Fortitude as a ghetto PW:Shield (as it's not quite as reliable as it's Def based rather than absorbing damage) but it also has a hefty +Damage and +ToHit bonus thrown in.
And dont forget RA, AB... empath's healing importance is quickly shadowed by buffs as you get levels.
Aye, at the the higher lvls if an empath joins the team, i prefer he tosses his buffs about rather than healing. Often when an empath has to rely on his heals to keep a team alive, there is something wrong in the team. As stated, your other teammates will have nice ways of circumventing damage being dealt in the first place, and it hurting less when it IS dealt, meaning heals are less important. Like, but not limited to:
blasters - "you (enemy) die before I die", i.e. dealing a massive amount of damage to your enemies, making sure they are dead before they can do anything. They lack mez-resistance however, so they love CM. On top of that fort greatly boosts their killing capacity (tohit, damage and defense to prevent being hit). Most blasters are end-hungry cause of this though, so recovery aura is nice. And of course after a nuke (the last power of a blaster's primary, which is a massive cone/aoe damage power) drains all of their endurance (well most of em do anyway), they love you casting adrenalin boost on them after. I'd say blasters are the AT that profit most from an emp, but ymmv.
controllers - a mezzed opponent cant attack me. They'll lock down an enemy preventing them from doing damage, together with placing them nicely for AoE attacks (well if its a good troller anyway). Seeing most of these lack mez-resist as well (aside from /FF and /sonic who got resist to mez aside from fear/sleep), they'll love CM. Also trollers might be bit end-hungry at times, so they'll love recov aura. Dont forget these guys get defender secondaries as well, so they might be emps themselves 
Tankers - They got their own mez-resistance, so most of the times they wont need CM (unless fighting mez-heavy opponents that'll rip their mez-resistance to shreds, but these are few and far between). They want to be more survivable though, so they'll love fortitude, especially ice armor tanks. A few of them can be endhungry, so once more recov aura is nice. However they'll love regen aura on top of that cause they'll soak up the damage and want it healed back asap. Think this is the only AT that might still rely on your heals a fair bit compared to buffs.
Scrappers - These guys love fort just like blasters: damage and increased survivability. It kinda depends on their sets what other buffs they might need, think the variety of the sets with scrappers in relation to needed buffs is biggest of ATs, but once more ymmv. As an example, a claws/regen wont need recov aura most likely, while an end-hungry maniac like spines/dark will want both recov aura and AB if possible . Also their reliance on heals varies per set. Suppose i cant say much bout the "general" scrapper.
Defenders - well, your fellow defenders.. they'll often be at the back alongside you buffing your allies and debuffing your opponents. They'll want CM as aside from aforementioned FF and Sonic defenders (which want CM as well btw..) they got no mez protection, and if a mean opponent turns its sights against a defender, there isnt much he can do. I think fort shouldnt generally be prioritized to other defenders as i think blasters/scrappers/tankers benefit more from it. Other than that i suppose also defenders will still rely a fair bit on healing for when the faeces makes contact with the oscillatory device.
On top of this all, everybody loves recov and regen aura basically
Of course this is a very, VERY general summary and it will differ time from time, team setup plays a big role. For instance a team heavy with acc debuffs will need fort less for the +def factor. Its just meant to illustrate how your buffs can make a big difference compared to your heals. It's how the saying goes, it's better to prevent than to solve problems. So as others said, lose the WoW mindset, adopt the CoH mindset, and enjoy the game as an empath
PS. above "summary" is just my opinion, not meant to start a discussion who should get priority with what buff or whatever. Its there for illustrative purposes.
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
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Defenders - well, your fellow defenders.. they'll often be at the back alongside you buffing your allies and debuffing your opponents.
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Defenders alongside you at the back?
You mean....
Empaths at the back?!?!
Surely not... somewhere between melee and ranged is often a better spot in my experience. Lets those auras (empath and leadership.. you do run leadership don't you?) hit as many people as possible.
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my toons
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If you're standing at the back healing, there's something wrong. There's a little-known cheat the devs coded specially for empaths...
If you don't want to cheat, don't read the rest of this post.
...
Still herE? OK. Right-click 'Heal Other', then left-click the secret option 'Remove from tray'. Do this for all of the powers that are green. Now move your attack powers into the spaces vacated by them and if anyone asks you to heal or buff you need to copy and paste this line -
'OMG i bin palyin tihs chracter 4 aegs i tihnk i no hoew 2 do my job', and hit enter.
The words 'Cheat Mode Enabled' will now flash up on screen, and your gameplay will have become approximately 30% more fun, although efficiency of the team may drop by as much as 89.4%. But what do you care - you're having Funs now.
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]!
I always wondered why you typed up 'OMG i bin palyin tihs chracter 4 aegs i tihnk i no hoew 2 do my job' all the time. Din't realise you were accessing an uber cheat 
Anyway, one thing that puzzles me about this cheat. If a Empathy/Rad defender removes all the powers that are green from his/her power tray does that just leave brawl, temps and pool powers to be uber with? Does it actually work for Empath/Rads??
heh, well maybe shouldve formulated it a bit better. didnt really mean the physical back of a team per se, more back as in not directly interfering with the enemy (in case of buffers)
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
Wilfred welcome back I've missed your wit 
BTW I just tried that cheat..
... I got kicked from the team and my SG
Happy to be on Defiant.
Global name @mereman
Member of P.E.R.C. Representing Defiant
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I like to keep my empath at the back. Outside the range of any aoe mezz with an occasional (rarely needed to spam for more than a couple of heals) heal aura. I like to fortify those most likely to get aggro. Rather than some peoples ideas of tank and 2 scrappers, it could be tank, controller and debuffer but usually the 3rd is the suicidal one of any AT.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
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Posting instead of essay writing - yey!
I recently started an Emp/Rad (emp for the healing, rad for the soloing) defender and I have to say its my fave AT so far, the problem is I dont exactly feel like a healer at the minute. Granted I'm only level 10.
I used to play a priest on WoW and I had a whole array of spells and tricks to keep people alive, with this guy I seem to have 2 powers that are really all thats needed - heal Other and Healing Aura. Looking at the list of powers in Emp I dont really see anything amazing either.
Is it just a case of being too low, or are there other power pools I should be looking at?
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Thats because you are not a healer, you are an empath. And other people will point out whats the deal with keeping people alive.. Empaths are extremely good at it.
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I always wondered why you typed up 'OMG i bin palyin tihs chracter 4 aegs i tihnk i no hoew 2 do my job' all the time. Din't realise you were accessing an uber cheat
Anyway, one thing that puzzles me about this cheat. If a Empathy/Rad defender removes all the powers that are green from his/her power tray does that just leave brawl, temps and pool powers to be uber with? Does it actually work for Empath/Rads??
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Does if they have Thunder Strike and Powersink. Well kinda
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Remember, just because you are a good empath it wouldn't be fair to the others by keeping them alive all the time. They all need their debt badges after all.
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.... I like to fortify those most likely to get aggro. ...
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I rather do tank, then the two people most in need of acc/damage boost. (Mostly an AoE blaster, although accuracy on AoE controllers is also very much appreciated.)
You don't feel like a healer because there is no such AT in the game. You're a defender; you're job is to keep the team up and fighting, or reduce the damage capabilities of the enemies and healing powers (note, powers, not spells) are one of the ways in which you can do that. You can buff your team mates damage and damage resistance, their endurance recovery, as well as decreasing the damage and accuracy potential of the attacking enemies.
When you have all those abilities at your disposal, why on earth would just want to be a "Healer" ? 
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Posting instead of essay writing - yey!
I recently started an Emp/Rad (emp for the healing, rad for the soloing) defender and I have to say its my fave AT so far, the problem is I dont exactly feel like a healer at the minute. Granted I'm only level 10.
I used to play a priest on WoW and I had a whole array of spells and tricks to keep people alive, with this guy I seem to have 2 powers that are really all thats needed - heal Other and Healing Aura. Looking at the list of powers in Emp I dont really see anything amazing either.
Is it just a case of being too low, or are there other power pools I should be looking at?