Champions Online provides an almost nauseating amount of choices to the
player on how they wish to construct their character. With the ability
to choose powers from multiple power sets, no one hero is quite like
the other. Thus, it becomes more difficult to create a hero that
fulfills one of the time-honored basic roles (tank, melee dps, healer,
and ranged dps) of MMOGs. All superheroes in Champions Online will have
a mixture of at least two (or more) of those roles combined. With that
being said, fear not, faithful readers, we will do our best to provide
a build that fills one of the hallowed roles of online gaming. In
previous articles, we have looked at href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/builds/meleedps"
target="_blank">melee dps
and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/guides/builds/meleetank"
target="_blank">melee tanks,
but now our attention turns to one of the most irritating foes (if
you’re trying to kill them in pvp), the ranged dps. The
ranged dps is built to dish out incredible amounts of damage from a
distance, thus destroying your enemies before they reach you. Time to
reach out and double-tap somebody!

As usual, I must state a disclaimer to this article. First, this build
is only a suggestion; it is not written in stone. It is not the best
build out there, but it is a good one. Some matrix-like gamer (those
who don’t see graphics but only numbers) can make the
ultimate min/max build. The powers and abilities listed below are
suggestions. If you don’t want to take something, then
don’t. Always remember that it is style="font-weight: bold;">your
character. If you’re not having fun playing the game, then
why play? In addition, please remember that a future patch could
drastically change the powers and abilities listed below. To paraphrase
Jethro Tull (I know I’m dating myself badly), “the
sand castle codes were swept away” by a patch.



This ranged dps build is based upon several power sets, primarily the
munitions, archery, and fighting claws power sets. There is also a
little telekinesis and force power sets sprinkled in. Why are there
some fighting claws powers, you ask? Well, despite its reputation as a
melee power set, there are some excellent ranged abilities as well.
Please note that not every power listed will be a ranged power. There
will be a couple of melee attacks as well, and to answer your question
as to why, the reason is that sometimes your enemy will get up to you
and you’ll need something up your sleeve.

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POWERS



Kinetic
Darts

Advantage: Incisive Wit

This power serves as your basic energy builder. The amount of damage
you do with it is not important. The only real importance is the amount
of energy you build with this power. Kinetic Darts (according to
various forums) has one of the better energy building rates in the
game. The incisive wit advantage grants a chance for an ego surge,
which can result in you getting ID Blades if you use ego weaponry. All
of your melee abilities are ego weapon based, so this advantage can
help you increase any melee damage if need be. In addition, ego surges
can help you get out of holds faster. This build uses Dexterity and Ego
as the main stats, so any increase to your Ego score is beneficial. In
addition, ego surge will put you into ego form.



Two
Gun Mojo

Advantage: Rank 2, Crippling Challenge or Accelerated Metabolism

This power is a great ranged attack. First, it is low cost energy-wise,
but does good damage. It can also be used on the run, which means
it’s great for chasing down your foes as they run in fear.
The accelerated metabolism advantage can give you energy back from
successful attacks, whilst the crippling challenge advantage is a great
block breaker, even though it does increase your threat. It’s
up to you on how you wish to go with this one.



Ego
Blade Frenzy

Advantage: Rank 3

This power deals continuous damage to all targets in front of you. In
addition, there is a chance to inflict an ego leech to every target
hit. If a target that is affected by ego leech dies, you gain energy.
If you are in ego form or have an ego surge (ala Kinetic Darts), you
can activate an ID Blade, a second blade that increases damage and is
scaled to your ego.



Regeneration

Advantage: Rank 3

This power is a passive defense ability that increases your healing
rate. Everybody needs a good passive healing ability. Living longer
rocks!



Taser
Arrow

Advantage: Rank 3

This power shoots an arrow at a single target and hits them with
electrical damage. In addition, it drains some energy from the foe and
can stun them. If you charge the attack, you increase the damage and
hold time. Other holds could be used such as Ego Hold, but I chose this
one due to its longer range.



Force
Shield

Advantage: Force Sheath, Rank 2

Your shield block power that reduces incoming damage and grants you
energy. Force sheath is a vital advantage (if you have a build that has
Force Shield, then you need Force Sheath) in that it continues the
effects of Force Shield for a few seconds after you stop using the
power. This ability is great if you need to get some energy quick and
somebody is trying to pound you. Little do they realize that
they’re digging their own grave.



Killer
Instinct

Advantage: None

This innate passive ability grants you energy each time you crit with a
munitions power. The energy given to you scales with your Ego.



Shuriken
Throw

Advantage: None

A great ability to irritate your foes, especially in pvp. This power
has a range of 100 feet and has the capability to generate a small
amount of knockback. Its main use is to interrupt your foes from using
a hold on you. See them preparing to do a hold, whip out a shuriken to
interrupt it, and then apply your hold to them.



Sonic
Arrow

Advantage: Rank 2, Sonic Dissonance

This ranged attack damages a single foe and is capable of stunning
them. The sonic dissonance advantage makes this an AoE effect power,
damaging multiple foes that are in proximity to your target.



Ego
Blade Breach

Advantage: Rank 3

This power can be used as either a tap or charged power. This power is
a good tap power for damage purposes. Plus, it adds a debuff to the
enemy, making them less resistant to your blade attacks. This debuff
can stack up to three times. The charged version increases the damage
done. This power also can apply an ego leech to your foes, just like
Ego Blade Frenzy, and can create ID Blades. This power is a good one to
use if a melee opponent manages to get up to you. A recommended combo
would be use Masterful Dodge to make them miss, and then hit them for a
few taps of this power, perhaps followed by a charged attack.



Masterful
Dodge

Advantage: None

This defense power grants you a great dodge and avoidance bonus when
you click it.



Thunderbolt
Lunge

Advantage: Essence Assault

This is a handy power. If you’re trying to close with the
enemy, you’ll lunge at them, which gets you a lot closer to
them and you damage them as well. If you’re stationary,
you’ll lunge away from them, which is great for putting some
distance between you and them. The essence assault advantage is a
needed one for this power as that it removes the travel power from
targets hit by Thunderbolt Lunge. No more web-slinging for you, corpse
boy!



Iron
Lariat

Advantage: None

This power does a ranged crushing attack upon a foe. In addition, it
can knock them closer to you (not always a good thing). However, there
is also a chance to put a hold on them as well. Using this power will
also grant you a bonus to knockback for 12 seconds.



Sonic
Device

Advantage: Deafening Dissolution

This power adds sonic damage to your next attack, which must occur
within 18 seconds. In addition, the chance to stun your target goes up
as well. The deafening dissolution advantage halves the damage added by
Sonic Device, but now will affect everybody that would be affected by
your attack normally.



TRAVEL
POWERS

Common travel powers with this build are teleport and acrobatics.
Teleport is handy for just popping in and out in all directions.
Acrobatics is good that you can jump higher and move more quickly than
normal. Basically, you’re looking for travel powers to get
you out of harm’s way as quickly as possible.



STATS

For the purpose of superstats, you’ll want Ego and Dexterity.
Dexterity is vital in that it increases your critical chances, which
means a higher damage output. Ego is handy for two reasons. First, it
also increases your critical severity and ability to break out of
intangible holds. Second, your fall-back attack powers are ego based,
so the higher your ego, the more damage you can unleash. Both stats
lead to more damage, which is exactly what you want!

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That’s all the time we have for now, my friends. I hope that
the ranged dps build is a good fit for you. With it, you should be able
to wipe out a lot of your foes from a distance and surprise them if
they get too close! Remember; nothing beats the snot out of injustice
like twin .45s!