This has been suggested before as customization options for the existing Powersets. And, as such, I completely support it! I am very opposed, however, to making NEW powersets that use weapons to do these same things.
Heck, I'd be happy if they just did this with the Blaster's Devices secondary.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
I made a suggestion earlier about adding in staves as an optional power animation, but yea, I guess I can see the logic behind letting them use bows or guns as well.
I'm not sure if this has been suggested or not, but I figured it was interesting enough that I may as well suggest it again.
Y'know all those classic powers? Fire, Ice, Elec, Energy, Dark, etc? What if we could shoot those same powers out of rifles, bows, and staves of magic?
It'd be pretty basic. For any power that has the 'weaponize' option, the appropriate costume piece can be selected in the costume-creation tab. Then, when it comes to the actual power customization, you can choose to have it cast normally, or cast through the costume piece (split into Bow, Rifle, and Staff).
Wouldn't that be neat? I think it'd really open up some new character options without having to put in a whole lot of new animation effort. You could easily use the same animations from the beam rifle, assault rifle, and bows and simply have the casting point be the nozzle of those weapons.
The staff/wand would be something new. The staves could be simple poles, arcane weapons, technological wonders, or natural artifacts, and the animations would range from raising the stave high into the sky to summon down power, or swing it forward to do a quick attack.
Either way, I think it'd be really neat to have these extra weaponize options for powers. It could work for so many different types of ranged abilities, and I think it would give Blasters, Corruptors, Defenders, and maybe even Controllers and Dominators some customization that was normally reserved for the melee sets (weapon options, that is).