Most primaries allow you to play at range so pick one you think sounds fun. The only primary that I would avoid would be Fire as its area hold requires you to be in melee plus it has hotfeet which is another power which does the same. All the other primaries have targetted aoe holds although i would say that Grav is arguably the best primary for a ranged dominator - mainly due to wormhole being such a great ranged power, you dont even need line of sight for it to work.
All the secondaries have melee powers. I would definately avoid Psi as its best powers force you into melee, drain psyche and psi shockwave. I would never consider playing a Psi and dropping those powers. You could have a decent ranged toon if you picked any of Fire, Energy or Ice.
Fire has three ranged blasts, a build up power in fiery embrace. You would miss out on combustion and the end drain power (i forget the name) by staying at range.
Energy again has three ranged blasts with the advantage of being one of only 2 secondaries to get power boost. Domination + pb + your aoe hold is sheer brilliance. You would miss out on bonesmasher and total focus by playing at range. Although tf is your most damaging attack it really isnt great for a dom to be hanging in the air for that long (especially if the mobs arent mezzed 
)
Ice has three blasts again, a cone and access to power boost. You could build a solid ranged dom from ice imo. You would miss out on ice sword, ice sword circle and greater ice sword by staying at range.
I cant really comment on thorns as its the only secondary i havent played to a decent level.
Doms have seen a lot of improvements since you last played them, most notably domination builds faster the larger the team and domination grants mez protection (the only AT to get mez protection at lvl 1 
).
Hope this helps you pick your dom.
/psi is probably the best secondary for range.
However dom melee attacks do about 15% more damage than ranged attacks.
I really should do something about this signature.
I would agree with above, but would suggest you reconsider. Doms play best by mixing ranged attacks vs Dangerous, unmezzed enemies, and melee attacks vs less dangerous / mezzed enemies.
Im a bit of a dom-aholic. They are a difficult AT to play, and have real subtelty and depth to them. Missing out on melee attacks means you wont really mine their intrigue, IMO.
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/psi is probably the best secondary for range.
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You cant be serious? Playing a psi without mind probe, drain psyche and psi shockwave would be madness imo. Psi's strength lies in being in mellee so that you can get a great buff from drain psyche then spam PSW like a madman.
Well, in this case I think you both may be right as in: Yes, /psi offers good ranged damage and would probably be a good pick for a non-melee dominator, but /psi also has excellent powers that require you to be in melee and not taking those powers hurts.
As a result I can only advise against playing a non-melee dominator or at least warn that a non-melee dominator will - everything else being equal - always be inferior to his "no holds barred" counterpart.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
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/psi is probably the best secondary for range.
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You cant be serious? Playing a psi without mind probe, drain psyche and psi shockwave would be madness imo. Psi's strength lies in being in mellee so that you can get a great buff from drain psyche then spam PSW like a madman.
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There is a difference to what Praf wrote and what you imagined he wrote.
To be in melee or not to be?
Now and then is the answer.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
Praf, picking /psi and staying at range is like picking /fire and skiping blaze (even more I think...)
To stay at range, try to find a solid chain at range... Actually, the best options are /ice and /fire, since both can have a fast activation/solid dmg chain at range...
Ice: Ice bolt, Ice blast, BiB.
Fire: Flares (actually playables since anim time reduced), fire blast, blaze.
Think that ice has PB (more control), and fire has FE (more dmg), so choose in the way u preefer.
For primaries, any1 is fine, try to avoid maybe ice/ or fire/ since the AoE holds are PoBT. If u want to have a pet, I would go for plants/ or grav/. If not, go for mind/.
Praf, do you have a /psi domi? While /psi may have the longest ranged attacks (100ft compared to the usual 80, its ranged damage is pitiful, unless you count the 25ft of PSW as ranged damage. Subdue aint bad, but mental blast is poor, and psi dart is well, pathetic, and yes the snipe is high damage, but in the time it takes to fire off one snipe, i could have hit 2 PSW (with my current build). /psi domies belong in melee range, to not use the melee powers would make you, well pathetic in comparison.
For staying at range, ive seen both Fire and Ice domies do very well, and could imagine that nrg could do well too. It also depends on your primary. Ice aint good for staying at range, cos of its pbaoe nature. Mind/ice or mind/fire would work nicely for ranged imo, as for the rest, have a look and see.
But really, a domi is much like a blapptroller in playstyle, if its gonna hurt you, mezz it and blast it from range, if its mezzed, go womp on it by smashing it in the face with something cos it cant fight back. But its up to you how you play.
Er, Shannon is right. I said /Psi has decient ranged attacks. I did not say it doesn't have excellent melee attacks. To skip the melee attacks on any dom secondary is to gimp yourself.
I really should do something about this signature.
THORNS
if u look at mids, thorns is the only set who powers r mainluy ranged, u have a couple of melee/close range but most r good set of range and has no snipe though.
for i12 im making a earth thorns dom, on paper sounds sweet and seen thorns in game and seems powerful-slow/immbol/good damg. pwnage at its best
So after swearing off dominators after being woefully disappointed with them after CoV launch, I'm thinking about creating a new one.
However, the whole melee aspect of the assault sets never sat well with me. I don't particularly want to go into melee, ever, and when I did so on my old dom in teams it often ended in tears.
So I'm wondering, what dominator is best for ranged damage? Any advice, or should I just roll a /dark corruptor for blasting and controlling?