Burnt out on Melee

Im looking for some guidance here. My two over-40s are a BS/Invul Scrapper and a Illus/Rad Scraptroller, and my up-and-coming is an Elec/SD Scrapper. In a recent push to try and get to50 much too quickly for my playstyle, I've gotten a little burnt out with melee fighting. So to take a little break, I'm looking for a combo that can still contribute heavily to damage but can do so from range. The blaster seems like the obvious choice but I don't like the seeming pointlessness of the secondary sets for a ranged build (maybe I'm just missing something, though). So I'm looking for a ranged combo that can deal good damage (either ST or AoE, doesn't matter) and, most importantly, someone who will hold my interest *while* I level, not just at level 50. Any feedback or ideas would be really appreciated.. thanks

What you want is:

Fire/Ice Blaster - Best of both worlds. Wonderful damage from range, with lots of AOE power. /Ice gives you plenty of tools to keep them away from you. Shiver makes boss fights silly and Ice Patch is a keep away from me power.
Fire/Ice is the only Blaster I don't actually Blap with, thanks to the utility of the secondary.

Energy/Energy - Once you learn to use KB as a mitigation tool this combo really shines. I can juggle most any opponent, minus AV's and GM's so that they never have a chance to attack. Ragdoll makes it even more useful (Yes I played before ragdoll...) Now, /Energy is the king of Melee thanks to Bonesmasher and Total Focus but you don't have to use them all that much, just as a get outta my face tool when needed. Using Power Boost and Boost Range would make this a wonderful combo for ranged.

Archery/Mental Manipulation is a nice combo for ranged play as well. With numerous cones and AoE's to throw around, not to mention the mini-nuke rain of arrows!

A warning though: If all you've played are melee and support toons, Blasters will take some patience.
Unlike the defense heavy classes, Blasters excel in using tactics and observation to know when and where/how to best use your powers. You have to think on your feet constantly (Which is why I can't really stand Melee, never in any real danger, just click click click bore fest but that's another rant.)
Blasters require tactics, postitioning on the battlefield, using LoS etc. You'll be faceplanting quite a bit while you get the playstyle down. Once you get in the groove though....
You may never be able to stand playing anything else ;p

I'd opt for a Crab Spider. Lots of ranged AOES, good survivability, pets. Or a Coruptor or Defender. Their buff/debuff powers will always keep them interesting and always welcome on teams.

If the goal is to stay at range while contributing a lot to the team (either through your damage or buffs/debuffs), Crab and Fortunata are excellent choice. Your survival is good enough to take alpha on a large team.

Crab has excellent survival + very good aoe damage. Crab's ST damage is a bit lacking but it makes up with pet damage and resistance debuffs in Venom (and more if you put AH proc in other attacks).

Fortunata has decent controls and very high survival with Mind Link. While ST damage isn't great (not bad though), you can still offer good team buffs (double assault, double maneuver) and decent aoe damage.

I quite enjoyed my Fire/Traps Corr in the day, the damage from Fire is pretty nice. I've heard that Fire/(anything) is pretty good on Corr's (and I'd imagine that to be true), but Traps is just all sorts of fun.

I'll have to say */dev and */ice are probably the best blaster combinations for a pure range fighters, but if your too used to melee play, you'll be face planting a lot on a blasters.

Corruptors, especially fire/rad, pretty much live in range, and can contribute a lot to the survivial, and damage of your team. /rad debuffs are pure range, and fire/ has about the highest damage, both single target and AoE.

I feel your pain, I have four level 50 scrappers, and really dont like playing any of them very much, especially on the new content for some reason.

My favorite char is my Nrg/Nrg blaster. He was my first 50 and is always who I go back to. That being said, I wouldnt role one of them again. Solo he is fun, but grouped, he is work to not be a pain to others. On the new content, he just feels blah. It makes me sad, but I just dont think he is something I want to have for the end game now.

Im playing a Fire/Dark corr right now, and is lots of fun. I can actually rush in with Fearsome stare, Darkest Night, or just blast away with great AOE's or nice single target attacks. There is just more variety, which is not always good, but for me, it is more fun at this point in the game for me.

I think at this point, I would only play something that can serve more than one role, so Doms, Fenders, Corrs or trollers.

Blasters have always been my first choice, but even though I think of myself as a competent blaster player, I find them more and more frustrating.

Good luck on your choice.

Thanks a lot for all the feedback guys! I rolled an Energy/Energy Blaster last night, and I'm going to try and focus on just taking the ranged attacks. Maybe 2 or 3 melee KB attacks just so I can *keep* those pests at range, lol. I've also heard great things about Fire/ corruptors, and I've never even played a Fire powerset, so I think I'll have to check that one out too. I've never gotten a villain past 25, either, so maybe a Fire/ Corr's the one to do it with. Thanks for the ideas, everyone, I appreciate it

Energy/energy is a fun blaster set. You are correct about melee. Some of the melee attacks are terrific 'finishing shots' (I hear the narrator say "Flawless Victory" sometimes when I finish with a good energy melee smackdown.) In the low levels, work on your rhythm. You can get good self-preservation from the knockback. I really like torrent for ripping through aggroe'd groups of minions. Alternating the knockback or energy/energy between multiple targets is fun and productive. With practice, you can actually contribute to keeping foes in a nice kill zone, too.

Many people would suggest, as would I, Fire/Dark corruptors for sheer tar patch>fireball>rain of fire AoE badass fun. The dark secondary provides a lot of great self-preservation features, too.

I have no doubt Fire/Dark would be fun, and I'm still really interested in trying it out, but just for discussion's sake, does anyone know anything about Fire/Sonic? I feel like the -Res on the Sonic debuffs would work really well with the already high damage of Fire.