New concept character needs secondary

I've never played a blaster and was going to set one up prior to the new issue coming out. I have the costume, name and concept picked out, basically a winged, arcane Electrical Blast blaster who flies and uses lightning.

1. What's a good secondary that fits with a magical/arcane character concept (i.e., not devices or martial arts) that works well with electricity?

2. Is electric/electric sapper-like enough to actually gain any level of control by draining opponent energy?

For #2.... it can be, but as a blaster, it's faster to just kill stuff. Draining works when done as a group and you're keeping everything down - solo, though, no.

For #1 - Elec/elec is fine. It really depends *what* you want, I suppose. And where you'll be comfortable. Elec/Dark or /Mental for more ... arcane-y effects like fears, perhaps?

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If you're going for a magic theme, maybe wait for I24? There's going to be a new pool power set: Sorcery, which adds some nice magic spells to your repertoire. Or you can always spec into that later.

As for secondary, you could also go with Energy Manipulation, and just take the self-buffs (Build Up, Conserve Power, Conserve power, Boost range) and RP that as self-buff spells. However, it lacks the control that Elec Manip has.

Alternately, have you considered maybe a different archetype? Electric control has animated gremlins, the buff/debuff sets have some nice "Spells" (Elec/Storm is already the combo that the witches in Croatoa use), unless you're just gonna be an attack mage =)

Electricity Manipulation works pretty well with Electrictiy Blast - it turns you into a viable sapper of sort.

Fire Manipulation may be worth thinking of. You get two fiery sword attacks which may suit your concept, even if you need to color them blue to match your electrical powers.
Mechanically, you get a lot of in close area damage - its not as survivable as Elec x2 but it pumps out the damage.

Electric / electric is already viable for making mobs hit less hard and less often, when grouping. In i24, it's likely to become even better.

In i24, blaster nukes will do less damage, but they'll recharge faster and they won't crash your endurance. That's good news for Thunderous Blast, the electric nuke, because it can be a very effective sapping tool.

Also, the changes to blaster secondaries to improve absorb / heal capabilities for blasters pretty much needs to mean that blasters will be tougher. This makes sapping more viable, in general, as you're more likely to survive long enough to pull it off.

When you add these two things together, electric / electric sappers could see a surge in popularity.

Sustain is a form of downtime reduction, I guess you could say. I think both of those powers simply give a Recovery/Regeneration buff - Lightning Clap is something you could use with no enemies around, and also gives you a "get away from me" power.