Telepathy 101

The 101 series is a short information segment providing some in-game information on some of the starter tier skills for various power sets. This will give a little insight into use early character building so people don't get stuck rerolling due to high retcon prices.


Suggested Role
The Telepathy tree has a lot of healing and party abilities, that makes it a perfect tree for a support character.  Don't be fooled though, as many of the skills have the ability to do amazing damage. 



Suggested Super Stats
Due to the high amount of healing in the tree, Presence is a definite super stat.  The second superstat you choose depends on how you want to play your character.  If you want to tank, pick Constitution.  If you want to DPS, pick endurance.  If you want to support, pick recovery.  Key secondary stats are Recovery and Endurance with a touch of Constitution.

Primary Stats: Presence and Recovery, Endurance, or Constitution
Secondary Stats: Recovery, Endurance, and Constitution

Powers
Psi Lash - Energy Builder
This is a mediocre energy builder, but if you plan on taking a lot telepathic attacks, the Psychic Reverberations Advantage gives a 15% chance to reduce their Ego resistance significantly. 
Pros: Ranged, decent speed
Cons: Low damage, doesn't buff out-of-set damage
Result: 4/5 Excellent energy builder for a Telepath, but I wouldn't grab it out of set.

Ego Blast - Basic Ranged Attack
Ego Blast is a standard charge attack that does decent damage and applies a weak hold to the target.
Pros: Long Range, Additional Hold
Con: Weak Hold (0.75), 2.5 seconds for full charge.
Result: 3/5 This is a very solid power, which makes it one of the best "No Requirement" powers in the game.
Note: Mind Opener advantage is somewhat useless since each rank increases damage by 20% continuously instead of 30% while Telepathic Reverberation is up.

Ego Sprites - Tier 1 Close Area Attack
Ego Sprites puts a DoT on the 5 closest enemies within a 25 ft. sphere.  Good damage with the possibility of minor healing with the Slave Mentality Advantage.
Pro: Low Energy PBAoE, works well with Telepathic Reverberation, Fire-and-Forget
Con: Short range, max of 5 targets, DoT damage prevents spamming
Result: 3/5 This skill used to be broken so the healing it would do was massive.  Now the heal is kind of small, but the damage is still pretty decent.
Note: You only get health from Slave Mentality if the enemy isn't dead after 10 seconds.  Might be more worthwhile to get Rank 3, since this power set has other powers for healing.

Empathic Healing - Tier 1 Healing
Empathic Healing allows you to maintain a high amount of healing for a reasonable amount of energy.  However, damage interrupts this skill.
Pro: Good healing, low energy
Con: Easily Interrupted
Result: 3/5 This skill is too easily interrupted to use consistantly at low level.  If you have a tank friend who's great at holding threat, you'll see more out of this skill.  Pass on this now and pick it up later for a heavy healing build.

Telepathic Reverberation - Tier 1 Self Buff
This power used to be broken.  Now it is amazing and is a required power for tanking/DPSing with a Telepathy Build.  It provides energy whenever you hold or attack a held enemy.
Pro: Great source of energy, works on DoT ticks on held targets
Con: Takes a second for the animation to deliver energy.
Result: 5/5 If you're playing primarily Telepathy, this skill is a must.  Get it once you have consistant holds, like Ego Storm.

Ego Sleep - Tier 1 Crowd Control
This skill will hold the target when tapped, and hold the target and nearby enemies when maintained.  While the hold is powerful, it's also broken on damage, so this is not so useful for PvE.  In PvP, however, it could find a niche. 
Pro: Strong Hold (2.2), Low Energy Cost
Con: Breaks on Damage
Rating: 2/5 Since it breaks on damage, it's practically useless for PvE. 
Note: With the Advantage that causes fear, this could be a nice tap hold to enable summoning or locking down healers.  I would rate it higher if I did PvP.

Ego Placate - Tier 1 Crowd Control
This attack "Placates" the enemy (it won't attack you) until it's damaged.  It also reduces the amount of damage the enemy does and can reduce the enemy's resistance with the Svengali's Guile Advantage. 
Pro: Low energy cost, decent debuff with Advantage
Con: Breaks on damage.
Result: 2/5 If content was harder, this would be a good utility like Walock Curse of Elements in WoW.  However, it's just a poor hold that only works in PvE.
Note: If raiding became like WoW, at least 1 person in each raid would be required to have this ability to reduce tank damage and debuff resistance.  Don't hold your breath (or this skill) waiting for that to happen.

Summary
The Telepathy set can easily fit into any of the roles, but since it has the most heals available out of all classes, it probably acts best as a support role. The early tier powers may seem somewhat underwhelming, but the higher tier powers like Ego Storm and Collective Will make the early levels worth getting though. 
 
Level 1: Psi Lash, Ego Blast
Level 5: Ego Sprites
Level 8: Summon Nightmare
Level 11: Regeneration or Psionic Healing
Level 14: Psionic Healing or Ego Storm