YCS/186 for energy weapons. Guns are a little more varied. Pure damage with one shot against low armour, Big Boomer, against high armour, anti-materiel rifle, and all around biggest DPS with the CZ57 gatling.
Yea just spent the last half hour looking at all the guns and shotguns with slugs. He's right, but the Brush Gun is very close to the Anti Material Rifle and the Tesla Prototype at i think 149 is closest to teh special Gauss Rifle which is 156. Using normal ammo that is. But The AMR is only around 112, not much damage for a bullet that big. Who woulda thought while playing Fallout 3 that the next Fallout a gauss rifle would be ALMOST as strong as a dagum fat man for christ sake lol.
If you build yourself to be able to make lots of critical shots (Luck of 9 or 10 and the Finesse Perk), then the Sniper Rifle and the Gobi Campaign unique can be considered the most powerful after you put hand-loaded ammo into it (Which requires another perk and crafting)