Energy/Energy VS. Energy/Fire

My first lvl 50 was an Energy/Devices Blaster that was maybe the second character I ever created in CoH. I chose devices because, at first, all the bombs and gadgets sounded cool, and that was way before you could check out at least the look of every power during character creation. Along the way, I was able to work devices into my character's origin, but at the same time, I'd always wanted him to be a much more aggressive Blaster. From Devices, I mainly utilized the buffs like the stealth and Targeting Drone, which I love, but the rest of the powers don't appeal to me anymore.

So, I was thinking of making an alt of this character just to experiment with how things could've been. /Energy Manipulation was the obvious first choice, since my character already manipulates energy with his primary. But then I started considering /Fire...The look of the Energy Manipulation powers never appealed to me for some reason, and I thought adding a fire element to him could be really fun (also considered /Mental and working it in as another aspect of his Energy-based powers, but I think I'm looking for some good melee options). Like I said, the character's personality and such has evolved to where I guess, in spirit, he's more of a blapper.

Any opinions/suggestions would be great.

Thanks!

/Fire brings a lot of AoE damage and can add to your ranged damage with Ring of Fire. /Fire doesn't bring a lot of survivability, although teams can make up for it (the larger spawn sizes can also make melee more dangerous when teaming). /Fire is great for blapping because it adores being in melee range (but keep in mind this is dangerous on a blaster without help). The knockback in Nrg/ can work against the melee nature of /Fire, although it can sometimes be used to help (it is more often a negative than a positive, IME, but not terribly unmanageable).

/Nrg provides great single target damage powers as well as solid single target control. It has some nice utility in Conserve Power and Power Boost (Boost Range is good too, but not as much if you want to be punching stuff anyway). /Nrg is the safer route.

Mental - Psychic Scream + Energy Torrent gives good range AoE output and good control. Subdual will not interfere with any knockback from your primary (which conversely means you have no way to prevent the knockback either, double-edged sword thing here). Mind Probe + Power Burst is a good combination to help take out Lts quickly. Knockback staggers the incoming damage, which helps the +regen from Drain Psyche work. Psychic Scream + Torrent + Explosive Blast is great damage and will put any survivors on their backs.

Hmmm....you have me rethinking /Mental. I might just have a make a toon for /Mental and /Energy, and see how it feels for a couple of levels. Appreciate the help!