From the perspective of a 28 rad/fire and a 38 dp/em.
I honestly think that if you take EM there's zero reason to skip both blaps and plaster people with them. They hit too hard to pass up on the damage when something gets close to you, and bone smasher seems to stun a lot more often then it used to compared to 4-5 issues back.
But then there's that little gem called boost range. After picking it up I have a hard time letting anything get into blap range as I go piercing rounds, dual wield (1 dead) pistol, executioner shot (2 dead) and then usually just hammer minion number three with attacks as they recharge. It's kinda strange in a way, if i try to use total focus I actually seem to be slowing down my damage output. Course total focus isn't slotted yet..that may have a hand in it.
Though rad only has one real cone aoe to try and get the most out of boost range, but in a group setting you probably could get a lot out of it. and working with hail of bullets has showed that boost range could really amp up a PBaoe too such as irradiate. Paired with cosmic burst and the T1 and T2 attacks though? I'd say you could really hammer out the single target damage. Then anything that gets close eats a 1-2 blap sandwich, and that's before total focus is in the mix if you do take it.
So my answer? Focus on both, you've got sets that can easily, and my blaster philosophy is kill em at any range you can rather then try to shoehorn yourself into just one style. But if you're tight on power picks irradiate if you wanna blap more, electron haze if you prefer range. Proton Volley and Neutron bomb are a bit meh. Not fond of snipes, and the bomb's animation time is just a bit slow for it's damage.
As for the other energy tricks, I'd say take conserve power till inherent fitness maybe, but then respec out of it. If you take medicine though power boost is a must for the heal buff. Gives a real good buff to any epic set with a defense armor too for a few seconds.
Poolwise? Fighting imho is useless when I have more attacks I want to take (which is pretty much every blaster I've ever rolled) and I have this thing against taking it for extra IO sets to try and softcap defense. May be in a minority on that but to me the point of blasting is damage, if i want defense I'll go roll a tank, and it's partly where I may use the invention system but I REALLY dislike some of the ways it's turned cox into a certain other 500 pound gorilla in the mmo room. That and I have this concern that between the defense caps now plus the upcoming incarnate boosts blasters might get a lil too tankmage for the devs tastes. Even if it does take a metric ton of influence for the kinetic combats and other sets.
CJ/Acro? If you plan to melee at all it's an absolute must for the immob + minor hold resists, virtually every blaster I've made uses them, course I love to melee so again personal bias shining through.
Medicine? Two routes, go force mastery so you can pop PFF and then use aid self from inside it. Or plan to slot a full three interrupt reducers (or two 50 IO ones) along with heals. Short of being DoT'ed you can usually get it off between most attack chains from mobs then. Little known fact too, aid self packs a built in stun resist, so if you self buff before some fights *coughmaltacough* it gives a bit of an edge, abused the heck out of that pre defiance.
Speed? I try to find some way to always fit in hasten. It's just too good to not do so, and with the new defiance it makes blasters that much deadlier. That and it's fun to pretend i'm a brute and see how high i can get the chain going.
Otherwise if you do want defense, nothing wrong with stealth, and you can slot a luck of the gambler global recharge boost in it same as combat jump. Assault is a pretty good one slot wonder as well. Same with tactics with if you have a spare power pick, though that one does need a couple extra slots to really shine.
Annnyway, hope some of that ramble helps. =p
Currently leveling a Rad/EM with a focus on being able to function both at range and in a "blapping" sense. Number of questions;
1) Am I better off focusing on range or blapping? If so, I would imagine blapping might be the best route, if only because both Electron Haze and Cosmic Burst could easily be worked into a single-target close-range attack chain along with the ubiquitous EM melee attacks. I guess my main question here is: is it worth trying to be versatile with this power set combo? Or should I just focus on one or the other?
2) I'm having trouble picking power pool sets. I understand Fitness will be inherent with the next patch, so I won't include that for now. I'd like to take Super Speed for aesthetic purposes (that and Hasten is always welcome), but what else is good? I think I'd like to focus on defensive abilities as best I can, but is there anything else I might be missing that's essential?
I'm leaning towards Speed (for SS/Hasten), Fighting (for Tough/Weave), Medicine (for Aid Self, might not be required though). Drawing a blank on a fourth one (so used to just taking Fitness!); maybe Jumping just for CJ/Acrobatics?
Anyways, thanks in advance to any replies that come in.