i had a 50 emp/psy some years back...sadly he got deleted when my bro went ona rampage. but i never really felt underpowered. psionic tornado is just amazing in my books. psy dmg DoT aoe with knockup. i actually skipped the snipe tho, im not too fond of snipes in general and psy tends to have awesome range overall anyways. if was felt slow to you i never noticed it myself b/c i was too busy healing/buffing and attaching when i had a couple seconds to spare.
@Injenius~Virtue
Stonefather - 50 Stone/WP/Soul brute
Sable Affliction - Earth/Dark/Fire Dom
Wild Cipher - Beast/Time MM
On my FF defender I can rotate psionic tornado, psychic scream and repulsion bomb. Between the knockdown AND the -recharge, it's a LOT of mitigation. Maybe if you picked up something like telekinesis from the epic powers you could add some more goofy mitigation to this combo.
Triumphant Defenders Forever
Psylenz FF/Psi, ArticQuark Storm/Rad, Symon BarSisyphus Bots/psn, Max VanSydow Thugs/Dk, Cyclone Symon Bots/stm, Blue Loki Ice/Cd, Widow 46526
HelinCarnate:OMG it is so terrible. I have the option to take 3 more powers but no additional slots. Boo F'ing hoo.
My main is a Emp/Psi but she's buffed up on her Empathy side. The Psi side is lacking in awesome enchancements but she can pack a fair punch, Psychic Tornado is actually my personal fave Psi skill, what about it makes you say it's slow? If you mean the animation, then yes it is a little slow, I often wonder if my girl will get her arms up in the air to launch the tornado or run out of steam before she gets there lol. However I must agree with BlissfulChaos, I probably don't notice it too much since I am so busy healing and buffing.
I also like Psychic Tornado, 'cause of the DOT effect, while it's doing damage I can go back to healing/buffing, and since it's a pretty fast recharge I get to use it again and then go back to healing and the circle begins! 
Global - @Lummi
I play too many defenders... (:
::Member of New Age Heroes and The Hidden Hand::
I don't see myself healing too much on my Empath, as I do buffing and blasting. As for Psychic Blast, sure the ST stuff is nice, and Psychic Scream is real nice, but Psionic Tornado can do the soft cc with knock up, damage, +recharge, and if you put the forced Feedback proc into it, it can buff you too!
50s: Bla- Arch/Mental Cont- Mind/FF, Earth/Cold, Ill/Therm, Earth/Rad Dominator- Plant/Psi, Elec/Earth Corr- Fire/Storm, Arch/Sonic, Rad/Kin, Beam/Sonic, Psi/Time Stalker- Elec/SR Def- Storm/Dark, Emp/Psi, Dark/Elec, FF/Arch, TA/Ice, TA/Elec, Kin/AR, Cold/DP, Traps/Psi Scrap- Fire/Shield Tanker- Dark/Mace, Ice/Kin Brute- Claws/WP, SS/Energy, BS/Elec
Ok. My main (Who was not supposed to be my main but now apparently is my main /Rant End) is empathy Psi
Empathy I get, and Im pretty decent with it.
What the heck is up with Psi? It seems ok, but sloooooowwww! Psionic Tornado is...well...I dunno? It just does not seem effective at all.
My other powers are ok, but Will domination, Psionic Lance and Telekinetic Blast seem great. Scramble thoughts is ok too for most situations. I just feel like I rely a lot on my snipe.
Anyone else find this?