When I started playing I went from Origin story to character creation, so I wasn't too mindful of "The Perfect Build" and to be honest I don't want a powerful character that is nonsensical. (Really, the idea of Spider Man shooting lasers out of his eyes, or the Invisible Girl with an assault rifle just wouldn't make for a good story to me.)
So I play an electricity girl as both primary and secondary powers. I've found that vulnerability to lethal damage is really high for me, and what you say about ranged damage of villains just isn't something I see. I've had 80% of my health evaporate with a thug using an empty the clip power with a machine gun while I ran by him just trying to get to friends.
So I think if you are talking about some kind of "ranged means less damage" rule of thumb, you must be using some defense baseline that just doesn't exist for many of the superhero archetypes.
Thank you for listening!
