If I’m familiar with the powers I’ve chosen, I’ll plan it out entirely in mids before creating the toon and working my way to 50.
If it’s a new power to me, or even a power I’m gonna play differently, Ill just play and level it up naturally. That way I can figure out which powers are important to me, and which I can do without.
Either way, I use SO’s all the way to level 50 - then I respec to fix anything that needs fixing, and buy IO’s