Honestly, the game is still balanced around SO enhances, so craft the IOs you want to use now, plan for a build at around 40 and get it done mostly by 47 so you can finish up at 50.
Permahasten isn't really that great these days. 3 Recharge Redux IOs at 50 will get you like... 97% recharge time on Hasten, plus you can slot some Posi Blast IO sets in your Targeted AoE powers like Explosive Blast, Energy Torrent... and you can slot 6 Kinetic Crash IOs in the powers that do minor damage and major knockback in order to get some more IO recharge bonuses. Kinda slot-heavy though. Honestly, I'd go the defense bonus route with some recharge on the side. The longer you stay alive, the more damage you'll do.
Some people don't like snipes... especially since Energy Blast's snipe has a knockback component that can still trigger on a miss and pull an entire nearby group. I always take snipes on my blasters, but that's just me.
For a defense build, I managed to soft-cap with taking Stealth, Maneuvers, and Hover, plus slotting 4.5 full sets of Thunderstrike, a set of Explosive Strike in my TK Thrust, a full set of Trap of the Hunter in my immobilize, a full set of Mako's Bite in my melee attack, a set of Lockdown in my hold, and a Steadfast Protection Res/Def in my epic shield, and the purple confuse set. For powersets with more than one melee attack like Energy Manip, you could do more sets of Mako's Bite and not have to spend as much.
If you like, you can check out my guide I just wrote for my Psi/Mental Blaster.
My Blaster Guide. I'm gonna be posting some example builds in Mids data chunk form if you want an idea of how to plan and slot.
Characters
Bound Kitty: Cl/Regen Scrap lvl 50! Unified Kitty: PB lvl 50! Jenoma: Eng/Pain Corr lvl 50! Operative Jenoma: Fort lvl 50! Alicia Steele: KM/WP Scrap lvl 50! and others on Pinnacle/Virtue! @Bound Kitty on Live/Beta
You can't really go wrong slotting six Thunderstrikes in your single target blasts. They give ranged defense and accuracy, have great enhancement values, and are relatively cheap. Beyond that it all depends on what you want to do and how much inf you have to spend... you can get a very nice build with softcapeed Smashing/Lethal defense (good for blapping) and decent recharge but it'll cost a lot of inf (2-3 billion or so). You can also just frankenslot (mix IOs from cheap sets for maximum enhancement value with no regard for set bonuses) and get the equivalent of about 9 SOs per power dirt cheap.
The first thing to do is download Mids' Hero Designer and play around with it to see what you can do. Then log in to the game and check the market, realize how overpriced that build you just made is, and look for something you can actually afford... 
(Seriously, we've had a lot of inflation so if you've been away a year and a half you'll probably be a bit short on inf.) I'd start out frankenslotting, since you can do that for a few million inf and be much better off than using SOs. Then as you play and build up a nest egg think about what playstyle you like best and save up for a build that supports it. Once you hit 50 you can make a lot of inf fast, and even before that you can run TFs and tip missions to get merits / alignment merits (if you have Going Rogue) you can use to buy expensive IOs to craft and sell on the market.
Oh, and if you have Going Rogue you may want to go villain long enough to unlock patron pools... the Scorpion Shield power is the best defense power a Blaster can get. Just be sure to spend any hero alignment merits forst since you lose them when you change alignments.
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
Some context - I've been out of CoX for a year and a half and I"m getting back in the saddle, with my prime, NRG/NRG/Force Blaster.
Lots of stuff to re-learn/learn anew.
I've gone through some of the more recent guides and threads on here and I have a basic question.
I've got two IO Sets, Freebird and some set for my sniper attack. I have one free respec. What's the best way to proceed (still have Stamina, need to respec to get inherent stamina at some point).
Should I create a build to fit the IO's I have now, build up recipes\sets then respec later, or should I build for the future?
Some other questions I could use clarity on:
1. Permahasten is still a goal right? 3 x Recharge?
2. I notice some NRG/NRG builds not taking sniper attacks?
3. I need more defence as I'm fine being a blapper. What primary or secondary powers should I not take in favor of +Defense builds, eg, Fighting\Boxing\Weave?
For #3 in the past I've always focused on smart blasting in groups or pushing out enough DPS\blapping + inspirations to eek through tougher fights if I have to.
Any tips for a death from above, range\blapper would be appreciated. IF there's a pointer to a more recent guide (newest was from early 2010 looked like) that too would be great.
Thanks.