Oh, something I don’t think we’ve explicitly mentioned–you can right-click on the icons by their names, and select numeric stacking, which will make multiple instances of the same effect appear as one icon with a number on it. That may cut down on the number of icons a bit in some cases.
Also, most of the mez icons are variations on a little human figure with a cylinder around part of it. (Immobilize has a cylinder around the feet, stun has it around the torso, hold has it around the whole body, and sleep looks like hold with dotted lines.) Fear and confusion are different (with a skull and a head surrounded by little bubbles), but they’re also pretty rare; you’ll learn which enemies use them as you play, and can watch for them. Enemy attack icons also have their own colors usually–you can learn what color the icons for particular enemy mezzes are, and watch for the color. I think most mezzes tend to be pinkish (which is associated with psychic effects, for some reason), followed by dark blue or gray.
At 18, you almost certainly want to take Recovery Aura. It’s a great power for you, and wildly popular with teams. It gives everyone in range a huge boost to their endurance recovery.
At 20, you have a number of choices. I like Stamina in my empath build, but that’s largely because I activate powers pretty much non-stop–buffs, heals, attacks, mezzes–and like to use Telekinesis (which is really endurance-heavy). If you decide you want Stamina, though, you can easily put it off for a while, and just rely on Recovery Aura.
The Empathy powers that are high priorities by 20 (IMHO) are: Healing Aura, Heal Other, Fortitude, Clear Mind, and Recovery Aura. Absorb Pain and Resurrect are available, but I strongly dislike AP, and I feel that the rez can be delayed somewhat (it appears at 22 in my current build).
I think you would do yourself and your teams a disservice to completely avoid your blast set. Even if you’re not concerned with dealing damage, there are powers in it that can be very useful to a team. Tenebrous Tentacles should be available to you, and it is one of the best powers in the Dark Blast set. It immobilizes minions and lieutenants for a very long period with a single application (and can be used to keep bosses immobilized indefinitely with repeated shots). It also applies a -9.38% ToHit debuff to your targets, making them miss about 19% more often (mob ToHit base is 50%). A 19% reduction in damage from mobs means you have 19% less healing to do, keeping your team safer and your endurance from bottoming out during RA downtime. Let the mobs clump up around the tank or scrapper, then hit 'em with the hentai blast to lock them down and debuff them.
Short version: I would recommend Tenebrous Tentacles at 20. That’s what my current build has at that level. You can put off slotting it if you like, with just an accuracy in the default slot, but I think you’ll eventually want to slot it up for damage (the immobilize and debuff are good enough unslotted). The Tentacles/Night Fall combo is one of your major sources of damage later in the game.
