Ranged damage that packs an OOMPH!

Looking to create a new character and need some suggestions.

* Money isnt an issue
* Want ranged damage as much as possible
* Looking for that "Damn! Just dropped the hammer on that dude!"feel to his attacks.
* No sonic

Going for the character equivalent of a big bad battle cannon blasting away.

Kind of like when a fury fueled WM brute hits something, you can just feel the OOMPH!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

For straight all-out damage, you aren't going to get better than Fire Blast, and it is completely ranged except for Inferno.

Though, the "big bad battle cannon" reminds me more of Energy Blast. Personally, I love this set because of the knockback (most hate it for that reason), since it tends to keep enemies at range. Not to mention, the knockback gives the impression that you hit them harder than you actually did, since they are sent flying backwards. It even has a power built specifically for getting an enemy away from you (Power Push). Once enhanced for damage, and with decent recharge, you can put up some impressive orange numbers.

Ice blast can accomplish something similar, since hurling ice chunks at your enemies certainly sounds painful, it has great single target damage, and with 2 ranged holds, will help you maintain a ranged offensive.

As for secondaries: I vote Energy Manipulation (for the multiple click powers and early Build Up), or Ice Manipulation (Ice Patch and Shiver will keep enemies at distance).

I'm going to second Fire Blast and Energy Manipulation, for basically the same reasons.

However, my Fire/Energy blaster isn't built for pure ranged damage. I took and slotted the melee attacks, and if something is dumb enough to run TOWARD me, it's going to die even quicker. My Hasten is perma (a couple seconds off right now, but when I finish slotting the two purple sets the build calls for, it will be), meaning I've got so much recharge that I can use Build Up or Aim on every group (I alternate between them).

I personally chose to take CJ/SJ and slotted for S/L Defense, but if you plan on staying at range, I'd suggest taking Hover/Fly and slotting for Ranged Defense instead.

If you're not dead set on being a Blaster, I've heard good things about Fire/Dark and Ice/Dark Corruptors. Apparently Scourge, Tar Patch, and a rain power work VERY nicely together.

A corruptor will be more effective as a pure ranged character than a blaster. A blaster will be at it's best when you incorporate it's melee attacks. A corruptor, depending on what powersets you choose, will be just fine at range, and potentially outdps the blaster due to more utility at range.

Fire/Dark, Fire/Cold, Fire/Storm, and Fire/Rad corrs are all very strong corr builds that can all work quite well at range and hit very hard.

As Roderick mentioned Scourging Rain of Fire + your choice of Sleet, Freezing Rain, Tar Patch, or EF/LR melts pretty much anything. There there is Blaze which hits like a truck for single target damage.

Seems like he's asking less for damage, more for something that LOOKS like it hit hard. Following that, I would suggest Energy Blast with Electric Manipulation. Why EM? Thunderstrike, that's why. It will look and feel like hitting all your enemies with brick walls and watching them fly away.

Ranged Damage eh, as in you don't want to close to melee ever? Most Blaster secondaries will force you to do that in one way or another, but you could just make a Fire-Fire and abuse the fact that Ring of Fire has better DPA than quite a few Blaster primary attacks.

Blaze -> Flares -> Ring of Fire -> Flares

That's an easily attainable attack chain as far as recharge goes, so you can spend all your mad inf on cappin that ranged defense. As far as other powers from Fire Manip... obviously you need Build Up, and you'll probably want Consume even if it is melee. Taking Fire Sword would give you a slightly better attack chain as an option that involves melee, but once you cross THAT line it becomes an argument as to whether or not a better Blapping set would help you more, and then we get off-topic.

Really appreciate all the great feedback! I'm trying a few things right now - NRG/NRG is a blast (oh boy...ya, I went there) so far!

Thanks again

The big problem I have with NRG/NRG is that a peacebringer human/dwarf is going to outshine the blaster in survivability without sacrificing alot of damage.

The peacebringer's attacks look alot like NRG with knockback, and at the high end you can get perma inner light, and perma light form for bonus dmg, mez protection, and 85% rez to all except psi, much higher hps, and an awesome heal.