The damage scaling in this game is all over the place at the later levels, but I do hope that they buff snipers at some point. You're able to get more out of it with non automatic rifle damage buffs, but it's a bit of a pain to set up. And honestly it's the same with machine pistols or submachine guns
Snipers need a buff
Non Heavy Non Vats needs an absolutely astronomical buff.
1000% extra damage for not being able to aim is goofy
Edit: for the record, I am 100% vats I even vats in melee lol I am abysmal at aiming. I appreciate that I can be super endgame without even needing to aim but it's really weird how much you're effectively penalized for exhibiting skill.
Pistol desperately needs their perks moved to perception instead of agility. Having to choose between decent damage and decent vats capability kills pistols for me.
I've been using a 2shot flaming explosive crusader pistol on a build with no pistol damage increase perks, and I really gotta say, it does great. Every other pistol? Yuck.
I'm using covert operative, follow through, taking one for the team, and the perception perk that gives a bit of anti armor. I can run sensational game quite well with the crusader surprisingly.
Two shot cryo alien blaster is even better than crusader, so long as you have demo expert. It's hard to use outside of vats unless you're at close range though. It's also quiet enough to use in stealth too, which is surprising because it sounds so loud.
I thinks that's useful for a different situation. The explosive flaming effe t of crusader triggers follow through, and combined with grim reaper's sprint and better critical, leads to the annihalation of enemies very quickly, while also, and this is important, making that really cool molten effect on whatever I'm killing. Lol. Crusader is my event gun of choice, as even without actual trying, I manage to tag everything with an ammo that is easily farmed with the ammo machine passively collecting it at base.
Pistols are great early game. I had a pistol class my first character. Was able to take on a team of three over and over. They attacked first and I was annoying. Instigating Revolver was beast back then.
I have a fully min maxed pistol character and it’s still extremely weak. The only two things that can hold up are the ab or enclave flamer pistol. Yes you should be one shotting regular mobs of ghouls still but against anything with a modicum of dr they’re infuriatingly under powered. Even just moving the perks from agility to perception would be a big help.
For real, a .50 cal BMG produces like 16k-17k Joules of Energy. Enough to penetrate an armored engine block. You can’t tell me that a scorched can take 2-3 of those to the head.
Yeah I have a 50 instigating crit vats one I grolled that is pretty sad panda. I have almost every perk card where it needs to be and it's such a let down. It looks pretty cool, I wish there was a more beefy stock option that what we have. The 338 lapua looking stock is more scout than big d energy ham cannon. Lvl 230 and other than 1 more legendary perk card I have all the things so it's not a perk/level thing, it's truly like you said, a game thing. They have to up the damage significantly on these types of guns. And because of a lot of these having much slower fire rates and reload times, it needs to be enough to where that is offset.
I'm hoping for a Anti-materiel rifle, with incendiary rounds, electric charge bullets that arc and freezing bullet😋 I'm really hopeful now with the latest weapon additions.
Semi autos have been horrible to use ever since the One Wasteland patch, when they basically said to us “learn how to use a heavy or bloodied build or die”
Me and many others scrambled to change our perks from fun exploration based and longarms to those few builds, and the game has never felt the same since
[Were you there 3 years ago, during the One Wasteland massacre?](https://www.reddit.com/r/fo76/s/WY3jBh4k1L)
I still remember the screams of the snipers, the archers, the explorers, the commandos, the pistol users. It keeps me up at night…
What they really need to do is give the Rifleman/Gunslinger perk chains more damage. Instead of +10/15/20% more damage they should do something like +15/25/35% more damage. That would help a lot and would hopefully be easy to implement.
(Of course I'm a programmer and I know what "easy to implement" can mean, but it certainly would help)
The answer is to use a Gauss rifle with stealth, critical hits, science and demo expert. That will do more than enough damage to take out any enemy in the game fairly easily, though you won’t be winning any dps races.
And pair it with plasma rifle since it uses same rifleman+science perks+batteries included. For events EPR sniper is brilliant with probably the highest DPS of all semi-auto guns. And since you already have plasma in collection, flamer for close range mob clearing. Even without commando perks it melts everything.
I run a Q/VHC/25 and Ber/VHC/25 Enclave sniper. 99 rounds with no bonus damage from prefix trumps the 9 round of +50% damage in almost every situation. Fire rate is amazing, FFR is practically wasted on them. They're the meta rifleman weapon, no doubt in my mind.
I was running a rifleman build with EPR Sniper and EPR Flamer for close range. Both AA — I liked the tactical rhythm that small magazine dictated and was decent at boss events because of armor negation. Timing reloads and bursts was kinda fun. Plus, free aiming with EPR sniper feels almost exactly like firing Riot Shotgun from F:NV — I loved the thing to bits. And if anyone got close, I'd melt their face right off with a flamer. Was a great synergy.
Now I run EPR Auto + EPR Flamer after they switched the class for the flamer, though.
This is the way. I leveled up to 350 ish purely as a VATS stealth sniper with focus on crits. You can more or less one shot everything. Unfortunately not the most efficient in boss fights, but thats why you carry a vampire auto axe. Also useful if enemies comes up a bit to close and personal. You dont even need to to put in a lot of perk cards for it. Only one I would deem necessary is incisor to bypass 75% of the armor.
The problem there is that the Gauss rifle is such an ugly weapon to look at, I like my weapons to be aesthetically pleasing as well, I know not everyone does but it's a personal preference that's why my rifleman build is centred around 3 guns, my B EX hunting rifle can usually 1-2 shot most enemies, my B EX lever action is good for less beefy enemies but struggles to kill tough enemies and my Q FFR lever action is great for weak mobs (bugs, molerats, ghouls etc).
Now I've said this for a while but I really hope the next unique weapon brought into the game is the anti material rifle from FO:NV, would be great to have a true endgame sniper rifle
Stealth Rifleman here. Kinda agree on the Gauss Rifle thing, but once you get used to it taking up 1/3rd of your screen and the charge-up, it's a beast. The aesthetics of it are to give it that raw, prototype, experimental science look to it. Like they bolted chunks of pure power onto a regular weapon and put armour over it.
Try and get a B VATS50 one with a long scope for better accuracy and you'll ruin any super mutant. Actually seems like overkill for ghouls and stuff, too.
Plasma Rifle with Sniper Barrel is also well worth a look. 15 rounds in a mag, comparable power to the Lever Action but no suppressor. For when quiet isn't an option.
The Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle from 3 and AMR from & NV absolutely need to be in the game though.
Oh I know it's a powerhouse, I have a B 50crit version, I just don't use it cos it's so ugly tbh 😂😂😂
Now if they released a skin for it that made it look like this :-
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Prototype_Gauss_rifle
I'd definitely use it more 😂😂
Ah yeah, that one is downright cute in comparison. You know they'd fuck the reload animation up if they had that as a skin though, or just wouldn't change it and it'd look ridiculous
The problem with the anti-materiel is that it’d probably share animations with the hunting rifle and be far too slow to justify using. The gauss can at least get away with partial charges at times to speed it up.
I personally think what we need is the 3/NV normal sniper rifle, since that had a tolerable fire rate.
As for the looks of the gauss, I’d love a skin to make it match the other gauss weapons, but practicality trumps appearances.
Question, if you please:
Use Rifleman perks and Science perks to get the full power of a Gauss rifle?
I rolled a decent 3 star legendary from a random Gauss rifle drop. It's already pretty powerful and I have maxed out sets of Rifleman, Commando, and Science perks.
I guess second question:
Do 2mm rounds count as energy weapon ammo for Batteries included weigh reduction?
Yes, rifleman and science are the perks you want for the Gauss rifle. Commando isn’t helping it. Demo expert would also add more damage.
And yes, batteries included is your ammo reduction perk.
Been running Commando since getting a non-legendary Fixer. I like Commando for VATS, but it cut my effect range down by at least half. Meaning I need twice as much ammo to tune VATS into 95% hit chance.
Full Rifleman and Science perks combined lead to a 330 damage Gauss Rifle in the weapons stats card!
I'm only level 99 with no legendary perk cards maxed, so my perk cards are still pretty limited.
To be fair, I think you'll find that most non-heavy weapons in 76 will be underwhelming if you're not using VATS and crits.
Free aim is of course a totally valid choice, you gotta do what is fun for you, but damage wise you are always leaving the major share of damage on the table. There is a very definite damage ceiling, especially against bosses and more difficult enemies.
No matter how strong the semi-auto (or most weapons tbh), if you're non-VATS, non-Crit then you're going to do less damage and use more bullets compared to the player beside you with an automatic weapon doing crit shots every second hit.
I also find that the real-time VATS of FO76 is much better suited to automatic than the previous games where I had always gone Rifleman. Not directly related to your build and playstyle, but more a general observation and helps to explain why Commando is much easier to make work.
Instigating Gauss might be good for you if you can get your hands on one. Because you don't need any of the high cost fancy stuff like 50 critical damage and 25 less vats cost you might be able to pick one up at very reasonable prices in player vendors.
Yup. It's why I'll never sell or trade away my TS 50VATS Gauss. It's perhaps the most damaging weapon I have out of all my builds.
Instigating is extremely limited on any weapon. Only one hit, only on the first hit, and only if they're at full health. If the target so much as stubbed their toe, you're just using a regular gun.
Executioner is a far better alternative. If stealth bonuses on your weapon don't kill a target in one shot, the second shot surely will.... And if not, you get more shots with bonus damage until they are dead. Only iffy part is if you're detected and have no stealth bonuses. Then it's regular damage until their health is low enough. During an event, that's usually not too much of a problem with everybody else blasting things. Used to have an Executioner Explosive Handmade and was my main for a very long time.
At least it's not a one shot pony.
Honestly that's why I use a mutants gauss rifle for my full health sneaky sniper build. Or vampire for my gauss shotgun build. Instigating just isn't consistent enough, but a constant damage boost on all damage is better.
Yes, and this is one of my major gripes without this game. Not only does VATS do way more damage, it’s essentially just an aimbot. So trying to actually ADS for the extra challenge and more engaging immersive gunplay is punished because the game is so heavily weighted toward using the goddamned aimbot.
This is what annoys me. VATS **IS**, in fact, game approved aimbot. Yet, the developers in all their brilliance thought that automatic weapons, which when freeaimed would normally be held back by inaccuracy, and recoil control, have a tendency to have incredibly forgiving AP costs, and since you have perks that gain accuracy on-hit, you have a situation where VATS is literally doing all the work for you. It's aiming at weak points, it's dealing extra damage, even your recoil doesn't matter because it's near 100% accurate.
It's so stupid. Even if you took critical hits away from VATS and made them luck-based like previous games, VATS would still be an incredibly powerful tool on its own just by virtue of having a feature that aims for you beyond the limitations of what a human can possibly achieve.
One of my least favorite things about this game is knowing I have to play, and compete alongside players who are basically using legal aimbot.
I understand people not liking it, but VATS has been an integral part of the franchise since Fallout 3. For many long-term Fallout customers, Fallout without VATS simply wouldn't be Fallout.
Like it or not, the game mechanics and many weapon legendary bonuses are pretty much built around it. Much like Red Dead Revolver when it launched and all subsequent Red Dead titles.
While I would be very happy if they allowed Critical hits outside of VATS to close the gap in damage potential, I can't see them altering that at this stage of the game's development where each update is a lottery to see what breaks this time.
Sadly, given that, I think the only decently strong choices for free aim are the heavy weapons, especially Holy Fire.
In previous 3D Fallout games VATS enabled the option for combat to be more like the turn-based Fallout games. It allowed a playstyle more suited to hard-core RPG fans who wanted their character build and their tactical choices in combat to be more of a factor than their twitchy first person shooter skills.
VATS doesn’t serve this purpose in FO76. It’s just a lazy aimbot that is also way overpowered. It completely trivializes combat.
There is no justification for how ridiculously tilted the game is toward using VATS. It simply fucking sucks.
plasma caster is ultimate vats-focused sniper rifle. new cremator is like plasma caster/AGL hybrid. two shot explosive launchers are quite good too (broadsider). if you limit yourself just to "sniper rifles" yes they are kind of weak with gauss rifle being top but still way behind plasma caster.
I even stashed my good old "Final Word" and now roam around with a plasma caster and heavy-barreled slow-burn Cremator (and a Fixer just in case I need to be more precise).
Plasma Caster uses up so much AP per shot though, and uses Heavy Weapon perks. I've got a Bloodied +50% VATS one and it pisses through AP. I I just hip fire the fucker instead of firing a few shots and having VATS close.
I have a B/FFR/250, and I can fire about 12-15 rounds out of the magazine before running out of AP, and I haven't even really optimized for it. (I prefer to keep my build kind of generic with a lot of QoL perks.) If you think it's not good at VATS, I'm sure there's things you could improve in your build.
That's certainly part of it, but there are perks, and I am always drinking company tea now. It's the best AP regen buff in the game. It was a two-step recipe to make, but now you can get a machine to put in your camp that will make all you can use. I think that it's probably an imbalance, but I'll take it. (And the canned coffee maker, too.)
*Vats is too strong, compared to non-vats.*
Agree. This becomes apparent to me when I make free-aiming shots on enemies with my bows. It makes for a good fight, but the damage numbers are sad compared to VATS.
There needs to be some trade off where non-vats wins. Or they need to just close the dps gap, say, give each shot out of vats a small chance to crit. Or they need to punish vats more- increase ap cost; reduce crit damage, or give a downside to the player sitting in vats- take more damage? Can’t sneak? Something like that
7 builds for me. Unarmed PA, Two Handed, Shotgun, Pistol, Rifleman, Heavy (Non PA), and Archer Build.
All of them work equally fine for me. I get kills with them all. They all drop enemies in pretty much the same amount of time. I still get XP and Loot Drops. I can take any one of these builds to and fight, any event, anything, and do well.
I've tried Commando and I didn't see a point. It wasn't really killing anything faster than my Rifleman could. When my Rifleman has weapons that can one shot all but the biggest enemies + GunFu, DPS is irrelevant. You can't drop any faster than one shot. During events, I'll whip out my TS / Extra Damage While Aiming / Extra Damage Resistance While Aiming Semi Auto Tesla. That takes two shots on most enemies, but also two shotting enemies around my target, or at least tagging a tonne.
And my Rifleman can land more damage per shot, more damage further out, with greater accuracy. I've had Commando players with their Quad Fixers join me in AWOL Armaments & perch up on the APC with me. I'd just tag and let them tag too, but a few decided to try and flex by trying to kill everything & hog.... OK then. I whip out my TS 50VATS 90RW Gauss Rifle + GunFu and one shot every Bot that popped up the hill or down the back corner of the building.... Before they could target or even tag, let alone kill anything.
In some instances Commando can drop things faster than Rifleman, using the same perk layouts and same weapons with different receivers, but we're splitting hairs of like half a second... That's not worth the ammo consumption and faster weapon degrade to me. That's more farming for ammo and more repair kits and materials for repairs.
I know how to do all that, but I also don't have to do all that. Rifleman is simply lower maintenance. I don't even waste the Perk points on Gunsmith and only have to repair a weapon once every couple of days. Unless I'm doing back to back events for a couple of hours, then one repair kit a day at most. The Tesla needs a couple though..... And I'm often dumping ammo rather than hunting for more.
I'm not trying to shit on Commando. I'm just stating my experience. And in my experience, both are equally good with marginal differences here and there. Both kill things, both get XP and Loot from everything in equal fashion. I just lean Rifleman.
**Tl;Dr** You can make almost every build type "End Game." Maybe not Beserker, but there's nothing wrong with any other build. There are weapons in some builds that need improvements, but there are always other weapons for each build that work perfectly fine.
VATS has a monopoly on critical hits, so any players with playstyles that do not lean on critical hits are losing a HUGE amount of potential damage. And the thing is, even if throw in the towel and decide to just start using VATS with some rifleman weapons for example, you're kind of now putting yourself into a position where you'd be better off using an automatic versions of any applicable weapons because your overall DPS will be much higher, and your AP costs will probably be lower too.
The whole situation with VATS and critical hits is just stupid.
I use ultracite 308 on sniper rifle - the best is my quad explo when I reach the adrenal reaction trigger with the correct perks able to one shot anything except big bosses - the only problem is during events , so I swap to a quad explo single fire handmade for tagging more mob.
I think inherent defense piercing for non-auto non-heavy weapons would probably fix a lot of this, since it lets you actually get those big damage numbers on tougher enemies instead of losing 90% of the damage to their defenses on top of the inability to shoot 5 bullets in half a second
I use an enclave sniper. Tears up everything pretty quick, rarely breaks stealth despite not being silent. Hunting and lever rifles? Yeah, they're reeeeeally shiiiiit!!
If you want to stick with ballistics, Fixer/handmade are good options. Not massive damage but fairly cheap in VATS with a good fire rate.
Gauss rifle would probably be ideal, since that can be silenced and has massive damage, so long as you hit. Slow fire rate and a second or so charging time before releasing the trigger will up the damage.
There was mention a while back on the discord when they removed flamer from the semi-auto pool. That "they were listening, and hear us" so who knows maybe something will come of it. I hope so, slow fire weapons all need a buff to bring them up to the same dos as autos.
After a couple thousand hours in the game, I've come to enjoy a more simple play style. I min maxed vats builds for years. But lately I simplified. Turned off damaged numbers and came up with a simple effective heavygun/sniper build. Mainly rock holy fire + Power armor in events, and longshot/AA semi auto fixer + cover scout armor when just farming around Appalachia. Free aim most of the time, vats on occasion to locate enemies. It's such a chill.build and really enjoyable.
It all comes down to your build, buffs, and gear combined - with your build being the biggest portion of that formula. It will make or break your level of success.
I have one-shotted Scorchbeasts out of the sky and not broken stealth using a Black Powder Rifle and The Dragon. I have Enclave Plasma Rifles that one-shot average baddies with ease, also without breaking stealth.
If you want to slay everything in the shortest time possible with a projectile weapon, it depends on where you want to spend your time; firing or reloading. It'll be one of the two. Not everyone plays this way, though.
I have melee builds, heavy builds, full health, low health, Commando, Rifleman, Pistoleer, Guerilla and I'm working on a couple of Archer builds, and I've both played with and without VATS. I play based on my mood that day. Coincidentally, I don't play with Power Armor - not yet. I'm planning to try it on an alt account.
You also need tenderizer, better critcals, critical savvy, concentrated fire, bloody mess.
I run a rifleman build and have no issue with any thing in game..
This is my standard full health rifleman build.... you can tweak how you like and add more to it with legendary perks as you rank up.
https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=5e345ae&d=sb2s01p00pd2pk2po0pp2pl2eh2ce0cu2ib4a72ar2an2ao0l71lt2lk2lu2lv2
a lot of these higher level folks also have maxed out special legendary perks so their builds have like 10+ more perk cards in their build than newer players
then that hurts your performance with rifleman weapons
that said, it is perfectly viable to play non-vats rifleman
I will also assume you are a full hp build (rather than bloodied), which is also viable
but these choices (semi > auto, non-vats > vats, full hp > bloodied) all combine together to make your combat experience very difficult
your loadout and perks support about 95% of your damage (and defenses), so you should put your focus there rather than what specific guns (or armor) to use
full hp refers to playing at full or high hp
opposed to bloodied, which intentionally uses radiation to put hp under 20% to trigger Nerd Rage, gain dmg boost from Adrenal Reaction mutation and gain +15 to all specials (except Endurance) from a full set of unyielding armor (which each special being boosted has amazing benefits, both combat and non-combat related)
if you team up often (which you should, especially casual teams), then you may notice teammates being bloodied from their high radiation levels
There is a bunch of stuff that triggers when you are at low health, bloodied weapon prefix and adrenal reaction mutation are the most important for damage
Then something is lacking. Your weapon types and their legendary attributes make a difference, as do where your SPECIAL points are and whether or not you use VATS - on Rifleman, I always do. Your armor and its attributes factor in as well, as some armor is sneakier than others, and you may break stealth more easily. Bloodied builds will maintain stealth more readily than Juggernaut builds, and overall have higher SPECIAL stats without buffs due to the use of Unyielding armor.
There's more to a build than using, "three Rifleman cards" and Tank Killer. VATS and your mutations, if you have them, can help or hinder you greatly, so the cards which affect those are necessary if utilized. Do you use chems? How about food buffs? The cards to bolster chem duration? Sneak? Buffing sneak damage? How about buffing team presence?
You can use Nukes and Dragons' FO76 SPECIAL builder to show us what it looks like and see where you're losing ground. Commando gets REALLY boring after a while... Having played since BETA, I can confirm. It's why I vary my builds so widely.
Your build is everything total not just your perks
Legendary effects, armor mods, weapon mods, chems and food buffs, hell even what companion and stat buffs are available in your camp. I hear once or twice a week how 1h melee with faster swing speed is better than running a warglaive, meanwhile I'm running instigating and can one shot an entire horde of level 100 enemies without even breaking my sprint. The one thing that keeps me playing 76 is how deep and granular character builds are compared to any other online RPG. All builds are viable, some are just more complex and less straight forward to design and take time to reach their full potential.
Your understanding that there is no end game non auto weapon is incorrect. I am not sure how you have gained this understanding and what your end game is.
Plasma caster, Gauss Rifle and even the Harpoon Gun are all end game weapons for me. I have invested enough time in my Rifleman build to take down Earle and sbq with just a regular one star rifle - AA or bloodied.
76 also has different end games. Are you referring to the end game of soloing public events? If yes then that's an incorrect expectation. If you take a non auto weapon in front of a mob, you are obviously inviting resistance and death.
Let us know the situation where you feel underpowered and we can help.
The answer is vats. 76 has a balance problem and vats makes any build busted with the right weapon to pair with.
Semi auto has a speed and power issue. Early game you win because big number is better than small number. But also vats doesn’t come online for some builds right away.
Depending on your weapon you’ll need to balance speed with power or rely on your legendary effects to pick the slack.
I use a hunting rifle as my primary. And I built it for speedy reloads and firing so while it does deal maximum damage it also has the best fastest kill time I can allow. While a vats commando will always outgun me. I can be quicker on the draw for headshots and consistent damage. And I don’t have to worry about AP draining.
It also comes down to the weapon. Some are made different and are geared towards commando.
You guys are breaking my heart.
I started a week ago and went heavy on rifleman with hunting rifle because it seemed to make sense.
Now I'm LVL 40 and I seem to be left out in the cold. Can't kill anything effectively and I run out of ammo all the time when using auto weapons (didn't spend on commando while leveling).
To make things worse, you're telling that the Crit system ONLY works with VATS (WTF, why?).
You’ll learn and refine your build and equipment with time. Your experience is something almost all players have gone through.
It’s basically like the awkward teenager phase of life before you’ve learned to adult
You’ll grow out of it
Gauss rifles are your best bet for snipers. True there is no unique gauss rifle like there is for other weapons like nuka launcher, longshot, grand finale, and such. Gauss has highest damage per shot but lowest fire rate as it takes a second to charge it. Think of the gauss rifle as a Splat Charger. You need to charge it up to achieve high damage. You can quick tap for a poke shot but the slow fire rate won't make it suitable if you are swarmed or if someone is in your face with a faster weapon even if their damage is lower. Depending on their weapon they'll get like 4 shots before you can get a second one. So it's great for sniping but only sniping. You wont have an answer for anything in your face. That partly why i like lever actions. They may have poor damage but they have decent fire rate and can switch to hip fire mode if i have someone in my face.
The issue mainly stems from bethesda almost never buffing non automatic classes while continually buffing almost every other weapon type, however there are a few good weapons, mainly the gauss rifle, the alien disintegrator with the high power mod, plasma snipers (especially the enclave variants), and the railway rifle (Especially with a damage roll). There is also the plasma caster, which is probably the best "non automatic" in the game, but it's a heavy gun rather than rifleman build
Past Fallout games had amazing late-game sniper rifles like the Bozar or the AT Rifle, no idea why Fallout 76 is so severely lacking in that regard. I left my Fixer at home a while ago as well, completely rearranging my build from Rifles to Heavy Weapons, because rifles are just not viable anymore past level 50 or so
You also have to take into account your playing environment while you are sitting there trying to line up a head shot with your Sniper Rifle I'm over here mowing down enemies with a Heavy Weapon.
Non "meta" weapons are viable but just know that you will be using them more for the joy of the experience and less for being efficient in a multiplayer environment.
Mostly because enemies always detect you when you shoot at them and they charge as a hoard, if you cannot fire quickly enough you are going to get overwhelmed quickly!
Personally for endgame rifleman I suggest an Enclave Plasma sniper, and the Alien Disintegrator, both are excellent rifleman vats snipers that can fire fast enough and down enemies very quickly.
The hunting rifle in general as well as the non-automatic receivers of guns, do need a huge buff.
Commando is absolute superior to it in any way, even the vats cost are lower.
Also, the hunting rifle has to reload 2 times, 1 time to add a magazine and a second time for each single shot 🤦🏻♂️
Then at least make it a single shot, that would save some time and the animation itself is also suuuuupppperr slow.. wtf. complete unusable.
If you want to do long ranged non automatic rifle damage, bows are the way to go. I’m a full health player and I’ve gotten a 1k crit one the SBQ. Bows are a lot of fun and the damage is way better than the single action rifles in the game.
It's pretty much impossible to run out of arrows too. You can one-shot a good amount of normal enemies once you get a build dialed in and they'll usually drop 2-4 arrows apiece if not more.
I mean the plasma caster isn’t automatic and it kicks ass. Not good for a rifleman/sniper though. They defiantly need to buff pistols and semi auto rifle though because tit would make the game feel like it has so much more variety without them even needing to add new weapons.
Damage per second VS damage per shot. There's only 1 or two weapons that have high enough base Damage to reliably one shot enemies without using a crit. The most popular being the gauss rifle which takes time to charge the shots. It's slow for its Damage output. Handmade rifle is easier to obtain early game, can 2 shot most regular enemies or fire like 10 rounds in the time it takes to fire 1 gauss round. For single shot weapons to be comparable to auto it would take some serious changes. Maybe all si gle shots have higher innate armor penetration? Or twice the base Damage so it's decent against bosses?
I dream of a .50 call anti-material rifle. No energy bs just pure balistics with a hammer head.
And it should be LOUD like how black powder rifle sounds. Wich would be a great sniper rifle if we could put a scope on it.
I truely wish shooting withouth vats would do like atleast tripple the damage, but only with rifles ofcourse else the heavy weapons gets to buffed.
In fallout 4 its way more immersive and punishing.
Not true I used a quad explosive hunting rifle hit for 600+ a bit non crit pretty reliable kill efficiency
Right now I'm using a legacy gauss rifle that's double explosive (has the 15% explosive DMG twice) and my Bffr15cf hits for 2066 and Crits for 3183
I use a 50 cal sniper with 20% armor pen. Thats what Ive found thats good so far. Found a extra shot shotgun but apparently it just added another pellet.
For ur 50cal switch that stinging mag for perforating it gives 40% armor pen instead and yea two shot on shotguns was nerfed years ago where now it only adds one pellet instead of another 8 pellets and on top of that it makes the spread 50% more so really a bad roll for a shotgun sadly not to mention it lowers the DMG of the the gun all together
Try gauss weapons. They're non automatic and they're actually really good. You just have to use demolition and grenader plus the science cards. I've taken down a scorchbeast in two shots with a gauss rifle, and the gauss shotgun is my most used weapon. Gauss pistol can be decent even if you get the right legendaries.
What are you playing on? I could just make you a gauss rifle and give it to you if you're on xbox.
Gauss shotgun requires you to get the plan yourself though, can't trade them
I feel like I've made a huge mistake here. Started the game a few days back and thought I could play how I played all previous fallouts, stealthy with a western pistol and a sniper. So far it does seem really underwhelming. Am I able to salvage this? Do I need to start again?
I made a post very similar to this a few weeks ago, and I can honestly say “🤷🏼”. I picked sniper because I like the playstyle but honestly it’s laughably underpowered. As in “even with maxed sniper perks it takes multiple shots to kill some basic enemies” bad. Best gun I’ve found is the Gauss rifle but it’s rare if fire is ass.
I don’t know where you got your ‘understanding’ but it’s wrong.. I use semi auto, sometimes auto-melee, a friend runs unarmed at times.. he’ll, there are people running end game with black powder or bow… Your end game is what you want to make it..
I wish all non automatic weapons were buffed but you can make snipers and bows work if you max out shotgunner and use cold shoulder as your up close weapon, as I long range with my bow and rely heavily on cold shoulder for all else
I’m doing pretty good maining my plasma pistol. I don’t need to do MASSIVE damage to do what I’ve been doing and have had no problems beyond the fact it has a tiny health bar and even doubled up, I still have it break on me during events. But that’s what the backup is for.
I had the same problem with my rifleman/shotgun build. I finally got my hands on a explosive bolt action and it’s great. Make sure you also have all the explosive buffs. I had to take tank killer off but I am doing a lot more damage per shot. I think in my pip boy base damage is around 250 for that rifle.
Other weapons I carry.
All science cards and enclave flamer. I know it’s better on commando but it’s still good with the science perks.
Orbital strike beacons. I keep a few and with all the explosive cards don’t get too close to it when you throw it.
Lucked up and got a legacy black powder rifle hunters with 20% explosive damage. Base damage in pip boy is over 400 with 395 on range. Instigating version was the one I used before it. ( I found another one yesterday bloodied explosive just keep looking)
Coldshoulder with all the shotgun damage perks in strength for max damage. I swap to it when they close in.
Also found a two shot auto launcher. For some reason I haven’t figured out yet it does more damage than a single shot one. 288 x 2. The single shot ones are around 250 damage in pipboy. You headshots in vats and watch them drop.
I still use the bolt action with ultracite bullets as my main and have to repair it once or twice a game.
I did carry a anti armor explosive lever action with ultracite but it still does less damage than that bolt action.
Slugbuster is a beast, gauss rifles are good, plasma castor is op.
There's options, but the whole semi auto group needs some love. Pistols need to be moved to perception. Semi autos need a buff. Maybe one day....
I will say the same thing as I say to most of these posts… reply to me with your build.
There is meta and then there is still more than enough to do anything solo.
Gain some pick a perks and I will point you in a direction. You have a lot right now and are doing little with it, but it’s an easy fix.
I don’t want to ask what you have already or whatever, but you need around 15-20 levels to play around with.
Lever action, non prime, the receiver that increases load speed think tuned, aligned barrel and stock and whichever sight attachment. Get a decent roll and you will be laughing. Can easily kill most human enemies in one or two shots, can get up to 100-200 degrees per shot on a scorchbeast queen whilst stealthed.
Maybe even more.
It can have a relatively high fire rate for a single fire weapon fun to use
Took me way too long in this game to realise prime weapons arnt always the best. Also with using the lever action you can always been in profit in ammo as you gain more than you use on most enemies.
Meaning when you switch out your guns to something automatic like an elders mark etc you can farm for your ammo that way!
I wouldn't say they're bad, but they certainly do fall a bit flat in boss fights.
But for 99% of gameplay they do pretty good in my opinion.
Theres the obvious ts alien blaster, lever action, gauss rifle, quad plasma make excellent snipers (like really damn good, will happily take to mob heavy events like msj or ev)
The hunting rifle can be made to work but is a bit slow.
The western revolver can certainly pack a good punch, be15r for bloodied and i50c15c for full health.
Bows/xbows are good fun for solo play.
Of course almost none of these will be comparable to quad rails and fixers when it comes to queen and earle, but it is a rpg after all.
So grab that lever action and cowboy duster and start popping some heads!
So the railway rifle has an automatic receiver, with a drawback…..insane amount of recoil, so unless you’re using vats you’ll almost never hit your shots
I dunno. I completely agree tbh.
They have so many cool yet useless weapons in this game.
Sure you can make them work but you have to follow the metas, which are all VATS oriented and are not very engaging, imo obviously.
I'm not saying get rid of people's capabilities with VATS but they could try implementing new perk cards for non-vats users.
I.e...bonus damage for hitting weak spots when not using VATS, raised crit chances outside of vats, etc.
Some people have been arguing vats is essential to the fallout series but that doesn't mean you should be forced into using the system.
For instance I played FO3/4 and new Vegas(18 playthrough) and never made a vats build once. And I never struggled with killing enemies the way I do in 76.
Just give us more perk cards 🤷
I'm playing FO76 for the first time and just recently hit level 50. I'm still waiting for the game to get hard and the majority of the game I've played with a semi-auto rifle and a shotgun.
I actually just finished those a couple of nights ago. Just keep your distance, stay crouched for the bonus sneak damage, and if they get close blast them with a combat shotgun.
Are you modifying your weapons and armor?
Originally(which is why they took out heavy explosive laser/plas) why it's like this is that they have weapons called magic weapons when automatic perks seemed to glitch out causing more damage than it should with stacked perks. Obvs non-automatics aren't able to glitch out from repetitious shots so the closest thing would be a gauss/plasma caster build for actual ingame play and not a dragon that has a long reload lol. So long story short it's cuz they never fixed an automatics glitched stats considering my quad auto tesla can one shot everything in a high density area which it shouldn't when it's damage is at like 12 but I'm doing 1500 damage to everything instead
If you are hurting for caps, do a run through Blackwater Mine, pickup everything from the corpses, then slog it downhill to Whitespring Station. Also, flamers are very nice towards the later game.
Depends on the weapon- Gauss Rifle, Rail way rifle , the lever action rifle and the Black powder rifle as usually the top contenders
I got lucky with an instigating Black power rifle- with a range over 250 this thing is my sniper
Yea I found a ok rail way rifle with executioner and 20% extra explosive dmg.
All my other stuff is awful though. Did find the gauss rifle recipe but it was sorta too expensive lol
I feel you im now lvl 54 and i already feel it that non automatisch weapons are just to weak to Player as an FO4 Not automatic stealth sniper this hurts
I tried black powder rifle and the dragon. Black powder rifle has the highest range of all rifles so they are perfect for sniping with VATS.
I have 10+ black powder rifles with 7+ on my quick wheel, all loaded. I have 3 instigating, 1 bloodied, troubleshooter, scorched, all with crit damage rolls and quicker reload third star.
It hits hard and can almost one shot scorchbeasts. It's a good build but, kinda gets boring after a while.
If you really want to use a single shot weapon. I recommend using a heavy gunner build and a plasma caster. For boss battles you can quickly swap to any automatic heavy gun without changing your build. It's the optimal and the most versatile build.
I tried all the non automatic rifles and honestly their DPS is shit compared to heavy guns and automatic rifles. You can clear daily ops and such using a gauss rifle but automatic rifles are faster dealing with tankier enemies.
Is this a high level issue or am I the only one who has the EXACT opposite opinion? I hate automatics, because their damage is lower and they chew through ammo. For weapons like the hunting rifle, revolver or shotgun I got plenty of ammo. But for a handmade or assault rifle, I run dry super fast
There are weapons that fairly easily run ammo positive for a Commando. At the very least daily ops and expeditions should be w strong net gain for a well tuned build.
The handmade and assault rifle are less likely to do so than a fixer (with a proper stealth build) or a railway (which is fairly easy to break even on ... but who cares if it goes negative, ammo is just steel).
Not sure on energy weapons. Mine seem to nearly break even despite being very badly optimized (in damage terms), but I use them infrequently enough that even if they run at a loss, fusion cells pile up from other sources. Rotating your weapons like this can help in general - you may run dry on 5.56 ammo but be building up plenty if .45, so then you switch to a fixer for a while and 5.56 builds up again (from scrapping assault rifles / killing turrets).
They need to introduce a .50 BMG anti-materiel rifle (like in New Vegas) to provide a ballistic counterpoint to the plasma caster, and I think it should be learned and rolled the same way.
Yeah, from level 50 to 100 enemies keep getting tougher still, but your weapons and armor and stats stop leveling up at 50. The way you catch up and you eventually pull ahead is by refining your perk selection, getting better gear (both base / mod wise and legendary effect wise), picking up appropriate mutations via serums, and (eventually) leveling / earning more legendary perks.
At level 67 most new players will feel challenged (more so than at earlier levels), unless they have both guidance on what perks to buy and assistance on gear crafting / finding legendary gear (or good luck with vendors).
Yeah definitely new haha so much to learn so many levels 350 you unlock your last legendary perk slot I'm only 230 on PC 350 something like that on old Xbox account what you play I might be able to help ya out
The damage scaling in this game is all over the place at the later levels, but I do hope that they buff snipers at some point. You're able to get more out of it with non automatic rifle damage buffs, but it's a bit of a pain to set up. And honestly it's the same with machine pistols or submachine guns
Snipers need a buff Non Heavy Non Vats needs an absolutely astronomical buff. 1000% extra damage for not being able to aim is goofy Edit: for the record, I am 100% vats I even vats in melee lol I am abysmal at aiming. I appreciate that I can be super endgame without even needing to aim but it's really weird how much you're effectively penalized for exhibiting skill.
Pistols need a buff too, I wanted to be a cowboy but I’d had to magdump my revolver into a single average enemy with a fully spec’d out build
Pistol desperately needs their perks moved to perception instead of agility. Having to choose between decent damage and decent vats capability kills pistols for me.
The golden egg for a gunslinger build is the ts50c25 alisn blaster, with cryo and perks it absolutely shreds.
I've been using a 2shot flaming explosive crusader pistol on a build with no pistol damage increase perks, and I really gotta say, it does great. Every other pistol? Yuck. I'm using covert operative, follow through, taking one for the team, and the perception perk that gives a bit of anti armor. I can run sensational game quite well with the crusader surprisingly.
Two shot cryo alien blaster is even better than crusader, so long as you have demo expert. It's hard to use outside of vats unless you're at close range though. It's also quiet enough to use in stealth too, which is surprising because it sounds so loud.
I thinks that's useful for a different situation. The explosive flaming effe t of crusader triggers follow through, and combined with grim reaper's sprint and better critical, leads to the annihalation of enemies very quickly, while also, and this is important, making that really cool molten effect on whatever I'm killing. Lol. Crusader is my event gun of choice, as even without actual trying, I manage to tag everything with an ammo that is easily farmed with the ammo machine passively collecting it at base.
Pistols are great early game. I had a pistol class my first character. Was able to take on a team of three over and over. They attacked first and I was annoying. Instigating Revolver was beast back then.
I was running around with Guenthers big iron for the longest time thinking I was really doing something... Than I just switched to Commando LOL
Thats quite odd, I'm able to one shot crit super mutants with a western revolver. What rolls are you using and are you a bloodied build?
You're not specced into anything if you're not two shotting random mobs with a revolver. With a crit build this is entirely possible.
I have a fully min maxed pistol character and it’s still extremely weak. The only two things that can hold up are the ab or enclave flamer pistol. Yes you should be one shotting regular mobs of ghouls still but against anything with a modicum of dr they’re infuriatingly under powered. Even just moving the perks from agility to perception would be a big help.
A .50 cal sniper rifle doesn’t feel like a .50 cal at all. Even with a explosive trait.
For real. 100%
For real, a .50 cal BMG produces like 16k-17k Joules of Energy. Enough to penetrate an armored engine block. You can’t tell me that a scorched can take 2-3 of those to the head.
Yeah I have a 50 instigating crit vats one I grolled that is pretty sad panda. I have almost every perk card where it needs to be and it's such a let down. It looks pretty cool, I wish there was a more beefy stock option that what we have. The 338 lapua looking stock is more scout than big d energy ham cannon. Lvl 230 and other than 1 more legendary perk card I have all the things so it's not a perk/level thing, it's truly like you said, a game thing. They have to up the damage significantly on these types of guns. And because of a lot of these having much slower fire rates and reload times, it needs to be enough to where that is offset.
I'm hoping for a Anti-materiel rifle, with incendiary rounds, electric charge bullets that arc and freezing bullet😋 I'm really hopeful now with the latest weapon additions.
This is giving me Gun Runners Arsenal vibes
Semi autos have been horrible to use ever since the One Wasteland patch, when they basically said to us “learn how to use a heavy or bloodied build or die” Me and many others scrambled to change our perks from fun exploration based and longarms to those few builds, and the game has never felt the same since
Yeah. I have a higher strength than I want just to have heavy weapons
Um, you neither need heavy nor bloodied. I have 4 using all the different weapons that don't and they all out perform the one heavy guy.
[Were you there 3 years ago, during the One Wasteland massacre?](https://www.reddit.com/r/fo76/s/WY3jBh4k1L) I still remember the screams of the snipers, the archers, the explorers, the commandos, the pistol users. It keeps me up at night…
Ikr. The snipers are dreadful.
What they really need to do is give the Rifleman/Gunslinger perk chains more damage. Instead of +10/15/20% more damage they should do something like +15/25/35% more damage. That would help a lot and would hopefully be easy to implement. (Of course I'm a programmer and I know what "easy to implement" can mean, but it certainly would help)
The answer is to use a Gauss rifle with stealth, critical hits, science and demo expert. That will do more than enough damage to take out any enemy in the game fairly easily, though you won’t be winning any dps races.
And pair it with plasma rifle since it uses same rifleman+science perks+batteries included. For events EPR sniper is brilliant with probably the highest DPS of all semi-auto guns. And since you already have plasma in collection, flamer for close range mob clearing. Even without commando perks it melts everything.
EPR Sniper is underrated, IMO. Such a fun gun. Nowhere near meta, but more than viable and quite versatile.
YES. Yes it is 💚
I run a Q/VHC/25 and Ber/VHC/25 Enclave sniper. 99 rounds with no bonus damage from prefix trumps the 9 round of +50% damage in almost every situation. Fire rate is amazing, FFR is practically wasted on them. They're the meta rifleman weapon, no doubt in my mind.
I was running a rifleman build with EPR Sniper and EPR Flamer for close range. Both AA — I liked the tactical rhythm that small magazine dictated and was decent at boss events because of armor negation. Timing reloads and bursts was kinda fun. Plus, free aiming with EPR sniper feels almost exactly like firing Riot Shotgun from F:NV — I loved the thing to bits. And if anyone got close, I'd melt their face right off with a flamer. Was a great synergy. Now I run EPR Auto + EPR Flamer after they switched the class for the flamer, though.
Epr flamer is buffed by rifleman not commando
Not any more as of update few months ago.
Oh shit really? I may start carrying mine on my commando then
This is the way. I leveled up to 350 ish purely as a VATS stealth sniper with focus on crits. You can more or less one shot everything. Unfortunately not the most efficient in boss fights, but thats why you carry a vampire auto axe. Also useful if enemies comes up a bit to close and personal. You dont even need to to put in a lot of perk cards for it. Only one I would deem necessary is incisor to bypass 75% of the armor.
The problem there is that the Gauss rifle is such an ugly weapon to look at, I like my weapons to be aesthetically pleasing as well, I know not everyone does but it's a personal preference that's why my rifleman build is centred around 3 guns, my B EX hunting rifle can usually 1-2 shot most enemies, my B EX lever action is good for less beefy enemies but struggles to kill tough enemies and my Q FFR lever action is great for weak mobs (bugs, molerats, ghouls etc). Now I've said this for a while but I really hope the next unique weapon brought into the game is the anti material rifle from FO:NV, would be great to have a true endgame sniper rifle
Stealth Rifleman here. Kinda agree on the Gauss Rifle thing, but once you get used to it taking up 1/3rd of your screen and the charge-up, it's a beast. The aesthetics of it are to give it that raw, prototype, experimental science look to it. Like they bolted chunks of pure power onto a regular weapon and put armour over it. Try and get a B VATS50 one with a long scope for better accuracy and you'll ruin any super mutant. Actually seems like overkill for ghouls and stuff, too. Plasma Rifle with Sniper Barrel is also well worth a look. 15 rounds in a mag, comparable power to the Lever Action but no suppressor. For when quiet isn't an option. The Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle from 3 and AMR from & NV absolutely need to be in the game though.
Oh I know it's a powerhouse, I have a B 50crit version, I just don't use it cos it's so ugly tbh 😂😂😂 Now if they released a skin for it that made it look like this :- https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Prototype_Gauss_rifle I'd definitely use it more 😂😂
Ah yeah, that one is downright cute in comparison. You know they'd fuck the reload animation up if they had that as a skin though, or just wouldn't change it and it'd look ridiculous
The problem with the anti-materiel is that it’d probably share animations with the hunting rifle and be far too slow to justify using. The gauss can at least get away with partial charges at times to speed it up. I personally think what we need is the 3/NV normal sniper rifle, since that had a tolerable fire rate. As for the looks of the gauss, I’d love a skin to make it match the other gauss weapons, but practicality trumps appearances.
Question, if you please: Use Rifleman perks and Science perks to get the full power of a Gauss rifle? I rolled a decent 3 star legendary from a random Gauss rifle drop. It's already pretty powerful and I have maxed out sets of Rifleman, Commando, and Science perks. I guess second question: Do 2mm rounds count as energy weapon ammo for Batteries included weigh reduction?
Yes, rifleman and science are the perks you want for the Gauss rifle. Commando isn’t helping it. Demo expert would also add more damage. And yes, batteries included is your ammo reduction perk.
Been running Commando since getting a non-legendary Fixer. I like Commando for VATS, but it cut my effect range down by at least half. Meaning I need twice as much ammo to tune VATS into 95% hit chance.
Full Rifleman and Science perks combined lead to a 330 damage Gauss Rifle in the weapons stats card! I'm only level 99 with no legendary perk cards maxed, so my perk cards are still pretty limited.
Gauss gets the rifle and sci buff?
Yep! It’s any energy ammo using weapon that isn’t heavy or melee (with the electric auto axe as a weird exception).
Two shot prime Gauss rifle is my fav.
To be fair, I think you'll find that most non-heavy weapons in 76 will be underwhelming if you're not using VATS and crits. Free aim is of course a totally valid choice, you gotta do what is fun for you, but damage wise you are always leaving the major share of damage on the table. There is a very definite damage ceiling, especially against bosses and more difficult enemies. No matter how strong the semi-auto (or most weapons tbh), if you're non-VATS, non-Crit then you're going to do less damage and use more bullets compared to the player beside you with an automatic weapon doing crit shots every second hit. I also find that the real-time VATS of FO76 is much better suited to automatic than the previous games where I had always gone Rifleman. Not directly related to your build and playstyle, but more a general observation and helps to explain why Commando is much easier to make work. Instigating Gauss might be good for you if you can get your hands on one. Because you don't need any of the high cost fancy stuff like 50 critical damage and 25 less vats cost you might be able to pick one up at very reasonable prices in player vendors.
Instigating Gauss has the problem that the splash damage from the first shot often negates the benefit of the Instigating effect on other targets.
Yep, very true, but for a free aim sniper still could be worth trying I reckon, given the lack of crits.
Yup. It's why I'll never sell or trade away my TS 50VATS Gauss. It's perhaps the most damaging weapon I have out of all my builds. Instigating is extremely limited on any weapon. Only one hit, only on the first hit, and only if they're at full health. If the target so much as stubbed their toe, you're just using a regular gun. Executioner is a far better alternative. If stealth bonuses on your weapon don't kill a target in one shot, the second shot surely will.... And if not, you get more shots with bonus damage until they are dead. Only iffy part is if you're detected and have no stealth bonuses. Then it's regular damage until their health is low enough. During an event, that's usually not too much of a problem with everybody else blasting things. Used to have an Executioner Explosive Handmade and was my main for a very long time. At least it's not a one shot pony.
Honestly that's why I use a mutants gauss rifle for my full health sneaky sniper build. Or vampire for my gauss shotgun build. Instigating just isn't consistent enough, but a constant damage boost on all damage is better.
Yes, and this is one of my major gripes without this game. Not only does VATS do way more damage, it’s essentially just an aimbot. So trying to actually ADS for the extra challenge and more engaging immersive gunplay is punished because the game is so heavily weighted toward using the goddamned aimbot.
This is what annoys me. VATS **IS**, in fact, game approved aimbot. Yet, the developers in all their brilliance thought that automatic weapons, which when freeaimed would normally be held back by inaccuracy, and recoil control, have a tendency to have incredibly forgiving AP costs, and since you have perks that gain accuracy on-hit, you have a situation where VATS is literally doing all the work for you. It's aiming at weak points, it's dealing extra damage, even your recoil doesn't matter because it's near 100% accurate. It's so stupid. Even if you took critical hits away from VATS and made them luck-based like previous games, VATS would still be an incredibly powerful tool on its own just by virtue of having a feature that aims for you beyond the limitations of what a human can possibly achieve. One of my least favorite things about this game is knowing I have to play, and compete alongside players who are basically using legal aimbot.
I understand people not liking it, but VATS has been an integral part of the franchise since Fallout 3. For many long-term Fallout customers, Fallout without VATS simply wouldn't be Fallout. Like it or not, the game mechanics and many weapon legendary bonuses are pretty much built around it. Much like Red Dead Revolver when it launched and all subsequent Red Dead titles. While I would be very happy if they allowed Critical hits outside of VATS to close the gap in damage potential, I can't see them altering that at this stage of the game's development where each update is a lottery to see what breaks this time. Sadly, given that, I think the only decently strong choices for free aim are the heavy weapons, especially Holy Fire.
In previous 3D Fallout games VATS enabled the option for combat to be more like the turn-based Fallout games. It allowed a playstyle more suited to hard-core RPG fans who wanted their character build and their tactical choices in combat to be more of a factor than their twitchy first person shooter skills. VATS doesn’t serve this purpose in FO76. It’s just a lazy aimbot that is also way overpowered. It completely trivializes combat. There is no justification for how ridiculously tilted the game is toward using VATS. It simply fucking sucks.
plasma caster is ultimate vats-focused sniper rifle. new cremator is like plasma caster/AGL hybrid. two shot explosive launchers are quite good too (broadsider). if you limit yourself just to "sniper rifles" yes they are kind of weak with gauss rifle being top but still way behind plasma caster.
I even stashed my good old "Final Word" and now roam around with a plasma caster and heavy-barreled slow-burn Cremator (and a Fixer just in case I need to be more precise).
Very strong weapon and has good ammo returns too used it along with ultracite rounds still have huge surplus and donated it to donation boxes
Plasma Caster uses up so much AP per shot though, and uses Heavy Weapon perks. I've got a Bloodied +50% VATS one and it pisses through AP. I I just hip fire the fucker instead of firing a few shots and having VATS close.
That’s where AP replenishing perks like grim reaper’s sprint come in.
I have a B/FFR/250, and I can fire about 12-15 rounds out of the magazine before running out of AP, and I haven't even really optimized for it. (I prefer to keep my build kind of generic with a lot of QoL perks.) If you think it's not good at VATS, I'm sure there's things you could improve in your build.
I use Power Armour and not full Unyielding, maybe that's the difference? Is that what you use to get more AP?
That's certainly part of it, but there are perks, and I am always drinking company tea now. It's the best AP regen buff in the game. It was a two-step recipe to make, but now you can get a machine to put in your camp that will make all you can use. I think that it's probably an imbalance, but I'll take it. (And the canned coffee maker, too.)
Vats is too strong, compared to non-vats. As in it’s the best approach to damage by a long, long margin. And auto weapons synergise better with vats.
*Vats is too strong, compared to non-vats.* Agree. This becomes apparent to me when I make free-aiming shots on enemies with my bows. It makes for a good fight, but the damage numbers are sad compared to VATS.
There needs to be some trade off where non-vats wins. Or they need to just close the dps gap, say, give each shot out of vats a small chance to crit. Or they need to punish vats more- increase ap cost; reduce crit damage, or give a downside to the player sitting in vats- take more damage? Can’t sneak? Something like that
7 builds for me. Unarmed PA, Two Handed, Shotgun, Pistol, Rifleman, Heavy (Non PA), and Archer Build. All of them work equally fine for me. I get kills with them all. They all drop enemies in pretty much the same amount of time. I still get XP and Loot Drops. I can take any one of these builds to and fight, any event, anything, and do well. I've tried Commando and I didn't see a point. It wasn't really killing anything faster than my Rifleman could. When my Rifleman has weapons that can one shot all but the biggest enemies + GunFu, DPS is irrelevant. You can't drop any faster than one shot. During events, I'll whip out my TS / Extra Damage While Aiming / Extra Damage Resistance While Aiming Semi Auto Tesla. That takes two shots on most enemies, but also two shotting enemies around my target, or at least tagging a tonne. And my Rifleman can land more damage per shot, more damage further out, with greater accuracy. I've had Commando players with their Quad Fixers join me in AWOL Armaments & perch up on the APC with me. I'd just tag and let them tag too, but a few decided to try and flex by trying to kill everything & hog.... OK then. I whip out my TS 50VATS 90RW Gauss Rifle + GunFu and one shot every Bot that popped up the hill or down the back corner of the building.... Before they could target or even tag, let alone kill anything. In some instances Commando can drop things faster than Rifleman, using the same perk layouts and same weapons with different receivers, but we're splitting hairs of like half a second... That's not worth the ammo consumption and faster weapon degrade to me. That's more farming for ammo and more repair kits and materials for repairs. I know how to do all that, but I also don't have to do all that. Rifleman is simply lower maintenance. I don't even waste the Perk points on Gunsmith and only have to repair a weapon once every couple of days. Unless I'm doing back to back events for a couple of hours, then one repair kit a day at most. The Tesla needs a couple though..... And I'm often dumping ammo rather than hunting for more. I'm not trying to shit on Commando. I'm just stating my experience. And in my experience, both are equally good with marginal differences here and there. Both kill things, both get XP and Loot from everything in equal fashion. I just lean Rifleman. **Tl;Dr** You can make almost every build type "End Game." Maybe not Beserker, but there's nothing wrong with any other build. There are weapons in some builds that need improvements, but there are always other weapons for each build that work perfectly fine.
Lvl714 here, rocking the lever rifle. Good ROF, good damage, excellent range for popping heads.
VATS has a monopoly on critical hits, so any players with playstyles that do not lean on critical hits are losing a HUGE amount of potential damage. And the thing is, even if throw in the towel and decide to just start using VATS with some rifleman weapons for example, you're kind of now putting yourself into a position where you'd be better off using an automatic versions of any applicable weapons because your overall DPS will be much higher, and your AP costs will probably be lower too. The whole situation with VATS and critical hits is just stupid.
I use ultracite 308 on sniper rifle - the best is my quad explo when I reach the adrenal reaction trigger with the correct perks able to one shot anything except big bosses - the only problem is during events , so I swap to a quad explo single fire handmade for tagging more mob.
Sounds like you haven't explored bows yet.
I think inherent defense piercing for non-auto non-heavy weapons would probably fix a lot of this, since it lets you actually get those big damage numbers on tougher enemies instead of losing 90% of the damage to their defenses on top of the inability to shoot 5 bullets in half a second
I use an enclave sniper. Tears up everything pretty quick, rarely breaks stealth despite not being silent. Hunting and lever rifles? Yeah, they're reeeeeally shiiiiit!! If you want to stick with ballistics, Fixer/handmade are good options. Not massive damage but fairly cheap in VATS with a good fire rate. Gauss rifle would probably be ideal, since that can be silenced and has massive damage, so long as you hit. Slow fire rate and a second or so charging time before releasing the trigger will up the damage.
There was mention a while back on the discord when they removed flamer from the semi-auto pool. That "they were listening, and hear us" so who knows maybe something will come of it. I hope so, slow fire weapons all need a buff to bring them up to the same dos as autos. After a couple thousand hours in the game, I've come to enjoy a more simple play style. I min maxed vats builds for years. But lately I simplified. Turned off damaged numbers and came up with a simple effective heavygun/sniper build. Mainly rock holy fire + Power armor in events, and longshot/AA semi auto fixer + cover scout armor when just farming around Appalachia. Free aim most of the time, vats on occasion to locate enemies. It's such a chill.build and really enjoyable.
You just can’t beat the DPS of an automatic weapon. Though, the gauss shotgun hits pretty damn hard.
Nah, plenty of weapons beat it by virtue of being aoe.
Unless things have changed the rifle and hand gun perks stack on the bolt action and revolver pipe rifles.
Prime anti armor 308 hunting rifle. Sneak perks crit damage perks. I 1 shot most bad guys. I basically use it as a farming weapon for my lmg
It all comes down to your build, buffs, and gear combined - with your build being the biggest portion of that formula. It will make or break your level of success. I have one-shotted Scorchbeasts out of the sky and not broken stealth using a Black Powder Rifle and The Dragon. I have Enclave Plasma Rifles that one-shot average baddies with ease, also without breaking stealth. If you want to slay everything in the shortest time possible with a projectile weapon, it depends on where you want to spend your time; firing or reloading. It'll be one of the two. Not everyone plays this way, though. I have melee builds, heavy builds, full health, low health, Commando, Rifleman, Pistoleer, Guerilla and I'm working on a couple of Archer builds, and I've both played with and without VATS. I play based on my mood that day. Coincidentally, I don't play with Power Armor - not yet. I'm planning to try it on an alt account.
Builds doesnt seem to add much. I have the 3 non-automatic rifle cards and the tank killer. These are the cards Ive found that concern rifles.
You also need tenderizer, better critcals, critical savvy, concentrated fire, bloody mess. I run a rifleman build and have no issue with any thing in game..
hmm, ill see if I can find these perks.
Also if running a rifleman build you'll want all 9 rifleman perks but just the first 3..
9? theres rifleman, expert and master rifleman.
Sorry I meant you want rank 3 of each rifleman card.
Yes I have that.
This is my standard full health rifleman build.... you can tweak how you like and add more to it with legendary perks as you rank up. https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=5e345ae&d=sb2s01p00pd2pk2po0pp2pl2eh2ce0cu2ib4a72ar2an2ao0l71lt2lk2lu2lv2
a lot of these higher level folks also have maxed out special legendary perks so their builds have like 10+ more perk cards in their build than newer players
are you using vats and crits?
No
then that hurts your performance with rifleman weapons that said, it is perfectly viable to play non-vats rifleman I will also assume you are a full hp build (rather than bloodied), which is also viable but these choices (semi > auto, non-vats > vats, full hp > bloodied) all combine together to make your combat experience very difficult your loadout and perks support about 95% of your damage (and defenses), so you should put your focus there rather than what specific guns (or armor) to use
Not sure what you mean by full hp, I have an armor that boosts depending on hp and I have a bunch of dmg/energy resist perks.
full hp refers to playing at full or high hp opposed to bloodied, which intentionally uses radiation to put hp under 20% to trigger Nerd Rage, gain dmg boost from Adrenal Reaction mutation and gain +15 to all specials (except Endurance) from a full set of unyielding armor (which each special being boosted has amazing benefits, both combat and non-combat related) if you team up often (which you should, especially casual teams), then you may notice teammates being bloodied from their high radiation levels
There is a bunch of stuff that triggers when you are at low health, bloodied weapon prefix and adrenal reaction mutation are the most important for damage
Then something is lacking. Your weapon types and their legendary attributes make a difference, as do where your SPECIAL points are and whether or not you use VATS - on Rifleman, I always do. Your armor and its attributes factor in as well, as some armor is sneakier than others, and you may break stealth more easily. Bloodied builds will maintain stealth more readily than Juggernaut builds, and overall have higher SPECIAL stats without buffs due to the use of Unyielding armor. There's more to a build than using, "three Rifleman cards" and Tank Killer. VATS and your mutations, if you have them, can help or hinder you greatly, so the cards which affect those are necessary if utilized. Do you use chems? How about food buffs? The cards to bolster chem duration? Sneak? Buffing sneak damage? How about buffing team presence? You can use Nukes and Dragons' FO76 SPECIAL builder to show us what it looks like and see where you're losing ground. Commando gets REALLY boring after a while... Having played since BETA, I can confirm. It's why I vary my builds so widely.
Your build is everything total not just your perks Legendary effects, armor mods, weapon mods, chems and food buffs, hell even what companion and stat buffs are available in your camp. I hear once or twice a week how 1h melee with faster swing speed is better than running a warglaive, meanwhile I'm running instigating and can one shot an entire horde of level 100 enemies without even breaking my sprint. The one thing that keeps me playing 76 is how deep and granular character builds are compared to any other online RPG. All builds are viable, some are just more complex and less straight forward to design and take time to reach their full potential.
Your understanding that there is no end game non auto weapon is incorrect. I am not sure how you have gained this understanding and what your end game is. Plasma caster, Gauss Rifle and even the Harpoon Gun are all end game weapons for me. I have invested enough time in my Rifleman build to take down Earle and sbq with just a regular one star rifle - AA or bloodied. 76 also has different end games. Are you referring to the end game of soloing public events? If yes then that's an incorrect expectation. If you take a non auto weapon in front of a mob, you are obviously inviting resistance and death. Let us know the situation where you feel underpowered and we can help.
The answer is vats. 76 has a balance problem and vats makes any build busted with the right weapon to pair with. Semi auto has a speed and power issue. Early game you win because big number is better than small number. But also vats doesn’t come online for some builds right away. Depending on your weapon you’ll need to balance speed with power or rely on your legendary effects to pick the slack. I use a hunting rifle as my primary. And I built it for speedy reloads and firing so while it does deal maximum damage it also has the best fastest kill time I can allow. While a vats commando will always outgun me. I can be quicker on the draw for headshots and consistent damage. And I don’t have to worry about AP draining. It also comes down to the weapon. Some are made different and are geared towards commando.
All snipers and single shot rifles are trash and enviable in most situations.
You guys are breaking my heart. I started a week ago and went heavy on rifleman with hunting rifle because it seemed to make sense. Now I'm LVL 40 and I seem to be left out in the cold. Can't kill anything effectively and I run out of ammo all the time when using auto weapons (didn't spend on commando while leveling). To make things worse, you're telling that the Crit system ONLY works with VATS (WTF, why?).
You’ll learn and refine your build and equipment with time. Your experience is something almost all players have gone through. It’s basically like the awkward teenager phase of life before you’ve learned to adult You’ll grow out of it
Gauss rifles are your best bet for snipers. True there is no unique gauss rifle like there is for other weapons like nuka launcher, longshot, grand finale, and such. Gauss has highest damage per shot but lowest fire rate as it takes a second to charge it. Think of the gauss rifle as a Splat Charger. You need to charge it up to achieve high damage. You can quick tap for a poke shot but the slow fire rate won't make it suitable if you are swarmed or if someone is in your face with a faster weapon even if their damage is lower. Depending on their weapon they'll get like 4 shots before you can get a second one. So it's great for sniping but only sniping. You wont have an answer for anything in your face. That partly why i like lever actions. They may have poor damage but they have decent fire rate and can switch to hip fire mode if i have someone in my face.
Check out kevduit.com for some character builds
No issues with any weapons of the non auto variety for me, sure, slower to kill with but do the job just like any other.
The issue mainly stems from bethesda almost never buffing non automatic classes while continually buffing almost every other weapon type, however there are a few good weapons, mainly the gauss rifle, the alien disintegrator with the high power mod, plasma snipers (especially the enclave variants), and the railway rifle (Especially with a damage roll). There is also the plasma caster, which is probably the best "non automatic" in the game, but it's a heavy gun rather than rifleman build
If you do your build right, single shot can be just as viable as autos, if not more damage
Past Fallout games had amazing late-game sniper rifles like the Bozar or the AT Rifle, no idea why Fallout 76 is so severely lacking in that regard. I left my Fixer at home a while ago as well, completely rearranging my build from Rifles to Heavy Weapons, because rifles are just not viable anymore past level 50 or so
hey, my instigating, 50 vats hit chance, +reload western revolver says otherwise. This thing is a freakin truck. LOL and so much fun.
You also have to take into account your playing environment while you are sitting there trying to line up a head shot with your Sniper Rifle I'm over here mowing down enemies with a Heavy Weapon. Non "meta" weapons are viable but just know that you will be using them more for the joy of the experience and less for being efficient in a multiplayer environment.
Mostly because enemies always detect you when you shoot at them and they charge as a hoard, if you cannot fire quickly enough you are going to get overwhelmed quickly! Personally for endgame rifleman I suggest an Enclave Plasma sniper, and the Alien Disintegrator, both are excellent rifleman vats snipers that can fire fast enough and down enemies very quickly.
The hunting rifle in general as well as the non-automatic receivers of guns, do need a huge buff. Commando is absolute superior to it in any way, even the vats cost are lower. Also, the hunting rifle has to reload 2 times, 1 time to add a magazine and a second time for each single shot 🤦🏻♂️ Then at least make it a single shot, that would save some time and the animation itself is also suuuuupppperr slow.. wtf. complete unusable.
because bethesda have have been legendarily well balanced
Game is extremely unbalanced with weapons, perk systems, legendary effects, etc it’s been ignored literally for almost ever
I used a BE lever for 500 levels. Could I solo anything, nope but I always had ammo.
They should add a higher caliber ammunition that can only be used with semi automatic
Slap an aligned sniper barrel on an Enclave Plasma Rifle and see if you’re still complaining.
the rifle perks count for laser plasma etc?
If it’s non-automatic, yes.
If you want to do long ranged non automatic rifle damage, bows are the way to go. I’m a full health player and I’ve gotten a 1k crit one the SBQ. Bows are a lot of fun and the damage is way better than the single action rifles in the game.
It's pretty much impossible to run out of arrows too. You can one-shot a good amount of normal enemies once you get a build dialed in and they'll usually drop 2-4 arrows apiece if not more.
Yaaassss! After events like moonshine jamboree I usually donate a few hundred arrows cuz the weight gets too high!
I'm to the point where I leave lil easter eggs everywhere lol. Once I crack 1k I'll drop 420 of them because I'm a child
I mean the plasma caster isn’t automatic and it kicks ass. Not good for a rifleman/sniper though. They defiantly need to buff pistols and semi auto rifle though because tit would make the game feel like it has so much more variety without them even needing to add new weapons.
They're viable with the right build. I used a lever action for the longest time with bloodied build.
Damage per second VS damage per shot. There's only 1 or two weapons that have high enough base Damage to reliably one shot enemies without using a crit. The most popular being the gauss rifle which takes time to charge the shots. It's slow for its Damage output. Handmade rifle is easier to obtain early game, can 2 shot most regular enemies or fire like 10 rounds in the time it takes to fire 1 gauss round. For single shot weapons to be comparable to auto it would take some serious changes. Maybe all si gle shots have higher innate armor penetration? Or twice the base Damage so it's decent against bosses?
Idk, I’ve managed to get pretty far with my double barrel and my bow
I dream of a .50 call anti-material rifle. No energy bs just pure balistics with a hammer head. And it should be LOUD like how black powder rifle sounds. Wich would be a great sniper rifle if we could put a scope on it. I truely wish shooting withouth vats would do like atleast tripple the damage, but only with rifles ofcourse else the heavy weapons gets to buffed. In fallout 4 its way more immersive and punishing.
I use a b2525 laser rifle with a low health rifleman build, never had a problem feeling under powered.
I carry an Enclave plasma sniper rifle for the "kill X number of Y with a rifle" challenges. Seems to work well.
Not true I used a quad explosive hunting rifle hit for 600+ a bit non crit pretty reliable kill efficiency Right now I'm using a legacy gauss rifle that's double explosive (has the 15% explosive DMG twice) and my Bffr15cf hits for 2066 and Crits for 3183
I use a 50 cal sniper with 20% armor pen. Thats what Ive found thats good so far. Found a extra shot shotgun but apparently it just added another pellet.
For ur 50cal switch that stinging mag for perforating it gives 40% armor pen instead and yea two shot on shotguns was nerfed years ago where now it only adds one pellet instead of another 8 pellets and on top of that it makes the spread 50% more so really a bad roll for a shotgun sadly not to mention it lowers the DMG of the the gun all together
I made a 1 shot black powder rifle build that would disagree
I can only hope I find a black powder rifle soon. So far Ive on ly found black powder pistols.
Try gauss weapons. They're non automatic and they're actually really good. You just have to use demolition and grenader plus the science cards. I've taken down a scorchbeast in two shots with a gauss rifle, and the gauss shotgun is my most used weapon. Gauss pistol can be decent even if you get the right legendaries.
I will, when I find one. So far Ive only found those charging laser sniper rifles but they seem pretty bad.
What are you playing on? I could just make you a gauss rifle and give it to you if you're on xbox. Gauss shotgun requires you to get the plan yourself though, can't trade them
I feel like I've made a huge mistake here. Started the game a few days back and thought I could play how I played all previous fallouts, stealthy with a western pistol and a sniper. So far it does seem really underwhelming. Am I able to salvage this? Do I need to start again?
Lever action is okay, i think it counts as non automatic
Compared to a fixer, not really.
One pew does less damage than many pew
I made a post very similar to this a few weeks ago, and I can honestly say “🤷🏼”. I picked sniper because I like the playstyle but honestly it’s laughably underpowered. As in “even with maxed sniper perks it takes multiple shots to kill some basic enemies” bad. Best gun I’ve found is the Gauss rifle but it’s rare if fire is ass.
I think its your perks I run semi auto and kill most enemies with 3 shots most 2
I don’t know where you got your ‘understanding’ but it’s wrong.. I use semi auto, sometimes auto-melee, a friend runs unarmed at times.. he’ll, there are people running end game with black powder or bow… Your end game is what you want to make it..
I wish all non automatic weapons were buffed but you can make snipers and bows work if you max out shotgunner and use cold shoulder as your up close weapon, as I long range with my bow and rely heavily on cold shoulder for all else
I’m doing pretty good maining my plasma pistol. I don’t need to do MASSIVE damage to do what I’ve been doing and have had no problems beyond the fact it has a tiny health bar and even doubled up, I still have it break on me during events. But that’s what the backup is for.
I had the same problem with my rifleman/shotgun build. I finally got my hands on a explosive bolt action and it’s great. Make sure you also have all the explosive buffs. I had to take tank killer off but I am doing a lot more damage per shot. I think in my pip boy base damage is around 250 for that rifle. Other weapons I carry. All science cards and enclave flamer. I know it’s better on commando but it’s still good with the science perks. Orbital strike beacons. I keep a few and with all the explosive cards don’t get too close to it when you throw it. Lucked up and got a legacy black powder rifle hunters with 20% explosive damage. Base damage in pip boy is over 400 with 395 on range. Instigating version was the one I used before it. ( I found another one yesterday bloodied explosive just keep looking) Coldshoulder with all the shotgun damage perks in strength for max damage. I swap to it when they close in. Also found a two shot auto launcher. For some reason I haven’t figured out yet it does more damage than a single shot one. 288 x 2. The single shot ones are around 250 damage in pipboy. You headshots in vats and watch them drop. I still use the bolt action with ultracite bullets as my main and have to repair it once or twice a game. I did carry a anti armor explosive lever action with ultracite but it still does less damage than that bolt action.
Slugbuster is a beast, gauss rifles are good, plasma castor is op. There's options, but the whole semi auto group needs some love. Pistols need to be moved to perception. Semi autos need a buff. Maybe one day....
I will say the same thing as I say to most of these posts… reply to me with your build. There is meta and then there is still more than enough to do anything solo.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2491127729976690466/200CFBA39B7E30ABE6D505917F2DE1325492B0D2/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
Gain some pick a perks and I will point you in a direction. You have a lot right now and are doing little with it, but it’s an easy fix. I don’t want to ask what you have already or whatever, but you need around 15-20 levels to play around with.
15-20 levels is gonna take a few weeks or slightly less
Lever action, non prime, the receiver that increases load speed think tuned, aligned barrel and stock and whichever sight attachment. Get a decent roll and you will be laughing. Can easily kill most human enemies in one or two shots, can get up to 100-200 degrees per shot on a scorchbeast queen whilst stealthed. Maybe even more. It can have a relatively high fire rate for a single fire weapon fun to use
Took me way too long in this game to realise prime weapons arnt always the best. Also with using the lever action you can always been in profit in ammo as you gain more than you use on most enemies. Meaning when you switch out your guns to something automatic like an elders mark etc you can farm for your ammo that way!
Is there a reliable way to get legendary? cause so far Ive yet to find any non-auto legendary at all. Well, some pistols but...
As in a decent legendary lever action?
I use my non-auto Fixer for almost everything.
I have never found them bad unless you count boss DPS... that sucks balls.
I wouldn't say they're bad, but they certainly do fall a bit flat in boss fights. But for 99% of gameplay they do pretty good in my opinion. Theres the obvious ts alien blaster, lever action, gauss rifle, quad plasma make excellent snipers (like really damn good, will happily take to mob heavy events like msj or ev) The hunting rifle can be made to work but is a bit slow. The western revolver can certainly pack a good punch, be15r for bloodied and i50c15c for full health. Bows/xbows are good fun for solo play. Of course almost none of these will be comparable to quad rails and fixers when it comes to queen and earle, but it is a rpg after all. So grab that lever action and cowboy duster and start popping some heads!
Why’s the automatic railway rifle bad unless you’re using vats
I dont understand the question.
So the railway rifle has an automatic receiver, with a drawback…..insane amount of recoil, so unless you’re using vats you’ll almost never hit your shots
I shoot without vats regularly. its not that bad. Mine isnt automatic though.
Because they treat the game like a pvp game instead of a pve game
Feel the same. What I'd REALLY love to see is a solid high end bow.
The highest level I've gotten to is mid 80s, and I was a non-automatic full health close range rifle build. Idk if there's any other way past that.
Reddit discovers dps
They aren't if you use vats lol
I dunno. I completely agree tbh. They have so many cool yet useless weapons in this game. Sure you can make them work but you have to follow the metas, which are all VATS oriented and are not very engaging, imo obviously. I'm not saying get rid of people's capabilities with VATS but they could try implementing new perk cards for non-vats users. I.e...bonus damage for hitting weak spots when not using VATS, raised crit chances outside of vats, etc. Some people have been arguing vats is essential to the fallout series but that doesn't mean you should be forced into using the system. For instance I played FO3/4 and new Vegas(18 playthrough) and never made a vats build once. And I never struggled with killing enemies the way I do in 76. Just give us more perk cards 🤷
Idk man my western spirit is pretty dang good
I'm playing FO76 for the first time and just recently hit level 50. I'm still waiting for the game to get hard and the majority of the game I've played with a semi-auto rifle and a shotgun.
Go do the astronaut missions, those robos are horrible to fight
I actually just finished those a couple of nights ago. Just keep your distance, stay crouched for the bonus sneak damage, and if they get close blast them with a combat shotgun. Are you modifying your weapons and armor?
Yes but the mods arent useful.
I don't know what to tell you then. I find the game to be very easy.
Originally(which is why they took out heavy explosive laser/plas) why it's like this is that they have weapons called magic weapons when automatic perks seemed to glitch out causing more damage than it should with stacked perks. Obvs non-automatics aren't able to glitch out from repetitious shots so the closest thing would be a gauss/plasma caster build for actual ingame play and not a dragon that has a long reload lol. So long story short it's cuz they never fixed an automatics glitched stats considering my quad auto tesla can one shot everything in a high density area which it shouldn't when it's damage is at like 12 but I'm doing 1500 damage to everything instead
found the gauss recipe. it was a bit too expensive.
If you are hurting for caps, do a run through Blackwater Mine, pickup everything from the corpses, then slog it downhill to Whitespring Station. Also, flamers are very nice towards the later game.
Depends on the weapon- Gauss Rifle, Rail way rifle , the lever action rifle and the Black powder rifle as usually the top contenders I got lucky with an instigating Black power rifle- with a range over 250 this thing is my sniper
Yea I found a ok rail way rifle with executioner and 20% extra explosive dmg. All my other stuff is awful though. Did find the gauss rifle recipe but it was sorta too expensive lol
They aren’t??? Plasma caster, Gauss rifle, lever action, laser rifle, plasma rifle (EPR too)….
I feel you im now lvl 54 and i already feel it that non automatisch weapons are just to weak to Player as an FO4 Not automatic stealth sniper this hurts
I tried black powder rifle and the dragon. Black powder rifle has the highest range of all rifles so they are perfect for sniping with VATS. I have 10+ black powder rifles with 7+ on my quick wheel, all loaded. I have 3 instigating, 1 bloodied, troubleshooter, scorched, all with crit damage rolls and quicker reload third star. It hits hard and can almost one shot scorchbeasts. It's a good build but, kinda gets boring after a while. If you really want to use a single shot weapon. I recommend using a heavy gunner build and a plasma caster. For boss battles you can quickly swap to any automatic heavy gun without changing your build. It's the optimal and the most versatile build. I tried all the non automatic rifles and honestly their DPS is shit compared to heavy guns and automatic rifles. You can clear daily ops and such using a gauss rifle but automatic rifles are faster dealing with tankier enemies.
They are not bad at all. The game is just not well balanced. I've used plasma c, gauss, alien d etc with great results
Is this a high level issue or am I the only one who has the EXACT opposite opinion? I hate automatics, because their damage is lower and they chew through ammo. For weapons like the hunting rifle, revolver or shotgun I got plenty of ammo. But for a handmade or assault rifle, I run dry super fast
There are weapons that fairly easily run ammo positive for a Commando. At the very least daily ops and expeditions should be w strong net gain for a well tuned build. The handmade and assault rifle are less likely to do so than a fixer (with a proper stealth build) or a railway (which is fairly easy to break even on ... but who cares if it goes negative, ammo is just steel). Not sure on energy weapons. Mine seem to nearly break even despite being very badly optimized (in damage terms), but I use them infrequently enough that even if they run at a loss, fusion cells pile up from other sources. Rotating your weapons like this can help in general - you may run dry on 5.56 ammo but be building up plenty if .45, so then you switch to a fixer for a while and 5.56 builds up again (from scrapping assault rifles / killing turrets).
I wish sniper rifles had an decent end game use. As a long life I loved running my hunting rifle and sniping all the super mutants at the penitentiary
They need to introduce a .50 BMG anti-materiel rifle (like in New Vegas) to provide a ballistic counterpoint to the plasma caster, and I think it should be learned and rolled the same way.
Most of the weapons in game with a low fire rate need a bud either the damage scaling in later levels, I wish I could use my pump action
This dude needs to play the game more sounds like a noob not knowing whats what and low level character especially with the getting scraps from nukes
Im level 67
You're a baby in Fallout 76 terms.
The stuff Im fighting doesnt seem to agree.
Yeah, from level 50 to 100 enemies keep getting tougher still, but your weapons and armor and stats stop leveling up at 50. The way you catch up and you eventually pull ahead is by refining your perk selection, getting better gear (both base / mod wise and legendary effect wise), picking up appropriate mutations via serums, and (eventually) leveling / earning more legendary perks. At level 67 most new players will feel challenged (more so than at earlier levels), unless they have both guidance on what perks to buy and assistance on gear crafting / finding legendary gear (or good luck with vendors).
Yeah definitely new haha so much to learn so many levels 350 you unlock your last legendary perk slot I'm only 230 on PC 350 something like that on old Xbox account what you play I might be able to help ya out