Spoiler
Show
Level 1
-Crystal Shard or Energy Ray: flexible offense, good damage output, limited range...
-Vigor: the 5 temp hp/power point is too good to pass up. You could feasibly tank pretty well with this power alone.
-Astral Construct: nab this at 5th level (or 3rd), and beat the Shaper at his own game.
Level 2
The selection's pretty crappy for level 2 powers. One might be better off with more 1st level powers, such as Defensive Precognition or Force Screen. Some potential options include:
-Bestow Power: normally crappy, Wild Surge's free augment points could turn you into a 'psychic battery' of sorts if your party includes other psionic characters. Still, it's kind of a boring, thankless job.
-Damp Power: perhaps the best defensive power for this level. If you're going to play rocket-tag, best know how to lessen the pain...
Level 3
-Dispel Psionics: this pretty much has to be it. You could potentially become a counter-spelling fiend. It has the most utility, and benefits from Wild Surge.
Level 4
Again, kind of a lame level. You might want to take a lower-level power you missed. Touchsight comes to mind.
-Wall of Ectoplasm: surprising utility and battlefield control.
-Dimension Door: hard to deny its usefulness. Tragically, neither of these powers can be augmented, though the boost to Manifester Level still helps.
-Schism: grab this at 13th level (or earlier) via Expanded Knowledge, and break the action economy.
Level 5
Another lame level. Many 4th and 3rd level powers are looking tempting.
-True Seeing: non-augmentable, but very useful. If you grabbed Touchsight, though, this might not be as useful.
Level 6
-Disintegrate: metapsionics well, augments well, very useful.
Level 7
-Personal Mind Blank: best defense available. Non-augmentable, but who cares?
Level 8
Eh... again, not too exciting.
-Bend Reality: for versatility, this is very good, but the XP cost sucks...
-Greater Teleport: sure?
-True Metabolism: looks good for tanking, but by the time you get this Vigor is just as useful.
Level 9
Ooh! You get 2! But they remain kind of crappy!
-Assimilate: non-augmentable, but stylish, and if you kill something with it hooray.
-Stygian Conflagration: the only good negative level bestowing power.
-Affinity Field: probably the best choice, but you walk the razor's edge of stinky cheese and major headaches.
Other useful powers to pick up from Expanded Knowledge:
-Energy Missile: more flexible than Energy Ray in most circumstances.
-Reddopsi: can be a laugh riot.
-Fly: stay out of danger! No augment, though.
-Mass Time Hop: pretty much useless... but you can time travel to the FUTURE! Glee!
-Hypercognition: Defeat the plot!
-Quintessence: Perhaps the most flavorful power in the game? Read theoretical physics threads and use it to destroy reality using a quarterstaff and a pair of Ring Gates.
-Dominate: Psionics does it better than Magic. Make your DM hate you.
-Psionic Lion's Charge: If you want to try to do melee, this might be your friend. Still, you're better off playing a Psychic Warrior.