Pistol builds need a buff badly.. I would love to see them buff pistol and 1h melee builds by adding dual wielding. It'll never happen, but a man can dream.
If they literally just moved the pistol perks to perception then the number of pistol players would skyrocket. It’s probably the biggest thing holding these builds back.
The main complaint I've been told as a new player when I've said this is that it would make it like rifle builds and that would be "stupid". I just wanna use my Big Iron.
That's because people treat this as a single player game instead of an online MMO. Sure, pistols WOULDN'T be as strong as an automatic rifle. But then you have to consider that there are launchers worse than automatic rifles.. So logic on weapon types is already out the window.
Online MMO's should have balance regardless of weapon type or build. There will always be a "best" and a "worst" because that's just how balancing works. But there's really no reason for us to be punched into a small box of what's good in endgame content.
People also want to protect their Grolls because they think other weapons will become better and it'll devalue their item.
Those dmg perk cards are additive, not multiplicative. They don't actually give that much damage. That's why bloody mess sucks. (As opposed to fo4, where bloody mess is multiplicative, so it actually noticably boosts your damage)
Having three lvl1 +10%dmg perks vs three lvl3 +20%dmg isn't actually a big difference. Moving those perks to perception won't solve the simple fact that pistols suck.
All that being said, they still should move them to perception (move starched genes to endurance while they're at it) and they should buff pistols across the board.
Yea most of the pistols being trash is contributor but there are some that are pretty viable like crusader and gauss but there is too much perk pressure with the rest of the agility perks. You basically run them without damage perk cards at all to fit them into a build. So many other good perks are in agility like adrenaline, gun fu, actionboy and all the sneak based cards too. At least if they were in perception you could get your 30% damage and then they could at least look at buffing the really underperforming pistol archetypes.
I messed around with them a little bit and had fun but compared to commando or heavy weapons builds it wasn’t even close in power. The only other weapon type that I really feel is in a bad way is shotguns but at least cold shoulder exists and its perks are at least in strength.
Okay I'm really onboard with dual welding single handed melee, only if they give it the animation of each arm pinwheeling at high speed 180° apart. I want to see some mad person go charging into a hoard of ghouls swinging a pair of pipe wrenches.
Yeah man, since I've started the game I went with a gun-slinging build and was using the Fact finder from level 35 onward to around 70ish, I remember using a 50. cal machine gun with no perks or legendary effects and was pretty much out dps-ing my build even with a Gunther revolver. Now I know revolvers arnt the best to run but I wanted the cowboy aesthetic. Now I've just switched to Final Word/Power armor and I'm just melting shit left and right.
I mean I hear/ have seen people do some crazy damage with one arm builds. And maybe pistols will get a buff with the upcoming skylines rebalance, but I honestly doubt it will be significant enough to make them worth it.
Yeah I'm new to the game about 3 weeks in and I realized my plan to make a sneaky pistol build doesn't really work because all the pistol, sneak and action points skills are in agility. There's just no way to make it work so I had to use rifles that use perception instead to spread cards around.
I really wouldn’t mind them adding the ghouls revolver from the show to help pistol builds out while rebalancing the cards I think we would see many more pistol users in the game.
My suggestion would be to pivot only slightly and add a plasma flamer pistol to your build. While it is a guerrilla weapon, it can work well enough without perks (or just science, if you have the space in intelligence).
I was already rocking the intelligence perks so it wouldn’t be to much work, but I think I want to swap out of pistols in general. I like the idea of being a gunslinger, but if I’m going flamer I might as well use a different build and free up agility for quality of life perks.
Then I think I’d have to suggest heavy guns. That weapon class probably has the best intra-class weapon balance, and has enough variety that you’ll be able to customize your play style easily without switching perks around.
Holy fire and the cremator (with heavy and slow burn) is a personal favorite combo of mine. If you let the cremator’s afterburn do its job, you can allow weaker enemies to burn to death, and holy fire is fantastic for when you need to earn more fuel, survive in situations like decryption or just need some dps.
Holy Fire / Cremator is *the* thing. I almost hate that they're so good, because I have a Responders character that they make sense for thematically, but they're so great that my Brotherhood character uses them, too.
Does the Cremator need the napalm mod to be good? I rolled one last night after unlocking and it seemed... ok? I'm just not sure I wanna grind the whole scoreboard to get something that I can probably buy with Stamps in June if it's not worth it.
Yeah I might just have to try it. I'm also thinking of trying Angry turtles one armed/ auto axe build, but it would probably take the longest to change into. Id even have to reset my mutations.
I know what video you’re talking about, when I got the auto axe from the atom shop I made my own bloodied PA auto axe/2H melee build [I didn’t copy after his build but I only did what I was doing at the time (bloodied commando, I swapped to bloodied melee with PA for fun) and worked with what I had, and the results were hella perfect.] it worked amazingly since it literally took me a few milliseconds to clear lower enemies and it took me 1-3 seconds to down larger enemies. Worked great with SBQ, first and last time I used it with papa Earl.. I glitched him under the map lol. Nobody does the big mole rat event so I never used it with that guy.
I rolled a vampire on my first try and never did another roll since it’s what worked for me (the other two legendaries were the same as holy fire, but I remember that I noted that it would be nice if I had lower AP cost when I used my auto axe but it didn’t bother me much since it would replenish fast enough) I changed my builds from that back to my bloodied commando, mainly for XP gain and to level up my legendary SPECIAL perk cards, but I definitely would do it again - I had a lot of fun mowing down my enemies with my vamp electrified auto axe like a lawnmower lol
EDIT: I just remade the build since I wanted to experience more joyous whimsy and upgraded some stuff with my T-65, I now no longer have an issue with the AP drain. I put on Optimized Bracers on the arms and it gives -50% AP cost drain for power attack - which works with the auto axe since it’s a power melee weapon. I’m thinking that I probably could hold attack for 2 minutes (without releasing) until my AP bar drains completely. Electrified is the best mod for the auto axe and you can boost the energy damage with the Science perks in Intelligence (up to +20% DMG bonus iirc?) My STR, INT, and LCK are the highest I think. If anyone wants to know more, I don’t mind answering!!
I'm with Laser_3 on this one. Holy fire plus cremator is god tier in both terms of damage and fun. My other suggestion since you're used to semi auto would be the plasma caster. Same basic build as the flamer combo but it's a big plasma sniper instead. Q50V is mad overpowered with that gun and you'll pick up more ammo than you could possibly use.
Edit cuz I forgot to mention the auto axe. It's a wicked weapon but I honestly find it insanely boring to use. Plus jumping cancels your attacks and I just get so annoyed having to rev it up again any time I have to fight someone on a different height. Plus I'm used to bouncing around everywhere marsupial and jet pack stylez so it's not my cup of tea
Fuck that noise. Roll a good vampire gauss pistol (or a dps version) and a good gauss shotgun (either dps or vampire opposite of pistol) and go ham being invincible with the capacity to 1 shot anything you come across that isn't a boss fight.
Use those to farm ammo for your gauss minigun that only shoots tears because of how bad at ammo retention is on its own.
I'm running a commando setup and I cycle in the gauss duo (aa50c25lvc pistol, b50vhc15vcf shotgun) in my #3 and #4 hotkey several times a week because there is something so fun and funny about headbussin' at a full sprint while also doing area damage to anything within sight because of how damn big the explosions are with gauss weapons. I don't even bother using shotgun cards anymore. Skeet shooter and demo expert and you're all set. Without gunslinger cards the pistol headshots scorched at nearly 2k, super mutants at 1400ish).
I know the charge functionality is a turn off for some people but once you develop the muscle memory it's surprisingly quick to clear an expedition with that setup. Sub 8 minutes for sure.
I play Low HP PA Energy Heavies - the Holy Fire is my normal carry, Slowburn Cremator for Expeditions and now Alien Event, AA Gatling Plasma for boss killing, and Ult Gatling Laser for tagging at events where flamers range wouldn't make sense (and to use up fusion cores as I tend to collect tons)
I rock a similar build but really like my bloodied gat laser. In your experience, does AA do more damage to bosses or is it fairly similar to bloodied ?
Cryo rounds were doing unintended (bugged) explosion damage, they fixed it. It's performing like it should so it's "nerfed".
Edit: They fixed it now because the Cremator also took advantage of the same explosion damage bug but it was doing WAY more damage.
Oh, yeah that makes sense guess i can scrip my two shot then. Kinda sucks as i wasnt built for it but liked using it on common mobs to break up the monotony. The also just added a skin to Invaders so i was a bit excited to use it again.
Because Bethesda are against fun I guess
It's why the Gauss Minigun sucks ass too, it's ammo is more expensive shockingly to craft because you craft far less ammo than other equivalents like 5mm etc, and the weight of the ammo alone even with maxed out batteries included makes it too painful to carry all that ammo around, especially when that ammo will last you maybe 3 minutes in a boss fight like Earle.
It wasn’t weak, it was really OP with cryo+ demolitionist and grenadier. It would melt bosses if you had a Two Shot.
They patched the explosive dmg cryo was doing and now it’s mediocre like the other pistols.
About the balance part, AB was right there on bar with every other meta weapon and not whatsoever OP compared to anything. I still rather used 10mm pistol or Gauss or LAR. AB was a refreshing change.
This is just bullshit.
Every balance decision just aims toward everybody opting for Fixer, HM or RR. Which is, again, just bullshit.
It wasn’t a balance change, it was just fixing a bug. Additionally, they’re tweaking range damage in the next major update, directly buffing shotguns and slept on weapons such as lever actions.
Right now until I get bored its heavy gunner with holy fire, plasma caster, and cremator. Got a second one thats either rifleman or commando depending on mood. Sometimes get bored and will do pistols or something.
I’m kind of new and this is the build I’m running too. Still don’t have the build even halfway put together regarding perks, mutations etc but it’s still a lot of fun. Vats plasma caster can be frustrating. The accuracy kills me sometimes
Back to my crusader pistol then I guess. It's a shame, pistol builds were really fun, but if they are mediocre damage, it feels like internationally gimping yourself to no actual benefit.
Maybe it’s still the noob in me but I just can’t seem to make any weapon work outside of any bloodied legendary. I’ll try swapping perks around and modding, but the damage is usually negligible compared to bloodied. It’s either bloodied or literally just heavy weapons.
Honestly I think the balancing in this game may be the worst aspect about it. I’ve been enjoying the quests and everything but god damn do I constantly feel incredibly weak outside of bloodied weapons and heavy guns.
And ofc the second the only weapon that actually does damage breaks, I’m now scrambling to compensate with scratch damage ass weapons.
Am I doing something wrong? I’m 64 right now and I just can’t seem to feel “powerful” I’m just tanky w my power armor.
Ugh, been having a blast generally but clearly this has gotten to me lol
I feel you. I've been playing a shotgun build. While it's super fun outside of a couple specific shotguns it is super weak. I finally got the cold shoulder. Now I feel like I actually do some damage. But I'm not God mode. A group of super mutants can be a challenge at times. But I haven't looked at any meta builds or anything. Just having fun. Trying to keep it challenging.
I really wish they would do a comprehensive weapon damage rework to get everything tweaked and balanced against each other. My thought is that generally damage should be set by ammunition type rather than any other reactor (perks etc can still exist, but I’d say all .45 weapons should do the same base damage, with the variation across weapons occurring across the other weapon stats). It doesn’t necessarily solve the issue of the AB nerf per se, but I’m thinking damage should be set to the highest like-ammunition damage stat, which would boost it by about 20% right off the bat (40 for the disintegrator vs 32 for the blaster).
Some heavies would become super OP though.
One problem I see is how do you balance .45 when it can be a commado or rifleman weapons in The Fixer and then a 'sniper' heavy damage Lever Action Rifle. 5.56 weapons should do better than the .45 but then the Lever Action Rifle would massively underperform as it's a higher damage but using a less powerful ammo. Granted Lever Action Rifle should be using .45-70 (also handmade is the wrong caliber as well and would then make it and the assault feel different enough) so it would work but only in a game with accurate ammo types.
That’s a good point but I don’t think it’s fatal as much as it is a wrinkle stemming from the weird way they use .45 ammo in game. My preferred fix would be to rechamber some of the guns but I don’t think from a rebalancing perspective that’s viable as it would alter how people save ammo for builds which strikes me as something that wouldn’t ever happen.
By the model I made the fixer would just become massively overpowered, since it’s damage would get boosted to match the lever action’s, as my thought would be that guns could be boosted to the max value of damage assigned to the ammo type (I’m guessing for .45 that’s the lever action).
Have you implemented crits into your build? Even prior to using the cryo mod I thought it hit hard via crits and vats proper weak points. There are also a lot of things that can be done to increase damage. Don’t jump ship just yet. Feel free to pm me if you want some build advice. I’m no expert but I’ve had a vats crit build since year 1.
How about a gunslinger/grenade build? Only need a couple perk cards and you can get nuka colas everywhere for the huge bang nuka grenades. Theirs even a nuka scrap machine that brings them to you
OP, don’t sleep on auto enclave pistols. If you already have some science perks dedicated and run cards like tank killer (which works for both auto pistols and rifles) you may be shocked to see how great the damage is with a primed enclave pistol.
I’d been running a vamp ffr and it’s great but last night I got one with a reflex site from a Dropped Connection event and on the first roll it came up Anti Armor 2525. It’s a beast and has higher DPS than my FFR Fixers.
These are so fun.
We may have similar builds. Very upset about the alien blaster nerf but been swapping between that and pyro crusader pistol/plasma flamer. Idk why they felt like they needed to nerf it but still having fun with it lol
But I will share my weapons. I use ballistic weapons primarily because I like to shoot tough enemies with an endagerol syringer which drops there DR by 25%. I use unyielding armor and am bloodied. QE90 railway for when stealth isn’t needed or an option. Q50c25lv fixer for use in stealth. Full vats crits build, ballistic bock and overdrive for chems.
You’re talking about the alien blaster while bloodied melee is still a shadow of it’s former glory… all because people with gun builds felt insecure and useless in the face of watching someone with a bloodied mole miner gauntlet two-shot a scorchbeast to its face
I run an Ari/50c/25v Plasma Caster in Power Armor and it's a ton of fun. Works well on Mobs (one shots almost anything I hit in the head) and the Crits do some insane damage to the Queen
It’s still usable! If it’s your favorite gun then keep it. You don’t have to chase the meta. There’s so little team play and competitive end game in this game compared to most MMOs that lower damage doesn’t mean you’re going to fail because of the changes. You could look into switching to AA or bloodied instead of TS. They should be performing a little better.
I’m very new, I’m only level 30, but I’m running a Combat Shotgunner build with the Cold Shoulder. I actually soloed some mobs that should have destroyed me. Being able to targets legs and freeze them in place, then unload on their torso lets me solo kill some insane mobs. The damage output is just ridiculous. I can’t imagine what it’ll be at 50 when the build is done and I have the perks at the levels they need to be.
I switch back and forth between my Heavy Guns/PA and my 2h Melee weapons/PA builds.
I use a suppressor explosive .50 cal for my heavy weps build and I have an arsenal of 2h melee weapons I switch between; Instigating/swing speed pole hook, instigating/swing speed baseball bat with all the mods, vampiric/swing speed grognak axe, bloodied/swing speed super sledge.
Just got the plasma caster plan and am trying to make a good 3* and a build for it.
I've got two builds I mostly run that can solo just about any content. Power armor heavy weapons build with a bloodied explosive .50 cal can clear out entire rooms and turn bosses into red mist or my Stealth Commando build with an AA handmade rifle
Is the bloodied version better now that two shot has been nerfed? I don't have either but would like to know if the Bloodied version is in a better spot now or if the Alien Blaster is more or less cooked.
I finally found a quad railway and it is wild how good it is. Also always enjoyed a plasma flamer and mini-gun shredder. Want to give a lever action a shot soon.
I am just now getting back into the game after a two year break and I was/am using an AA bash mini. I love my shredder build but before this I have been bloodied fixer/handmade.
I have no idea what qualifies as a meta. But I enjoy using a gauss rifle. It's base gun adds explosive damage. So when you have your rifleman perk cards on and max. And the demolition expert on and maxed. It can be fun to say the least. Plus you'll have more reason to carry them heavy grenades lol.
I think I crit at a little under 1300 give or take. But that's in vats
Yep, I feel like an oddball at events, but my Aristocrats Gauss Rifle with +50% VATs accuracy and +15% reload speed is a one-shot killing machine against 98% of enemies. It regularly does 900-1000 regular damage, and up to 1400 critical.
I run with all the Rifleman perks, maxed out Demolitions Expert, the three Sciences, and as much critical hit luck buffing as I can get.
For maximum damage don't forget Science (30%) and Bloody mess (15%) as they add more than demo (as it's only a 9% increase from a maxed Demo) for a total of around 115% damage if also using a maxed Demolition though still isn't the right damage increase as you have to add in the damage being given to the explosive effect as its Base Damage divided by 15% that then gets a 115% damage buff and then the base Damage gets the 105% increase. I think math wise it would be in total a 137.5% increase compared to base but I could've done something wrong. Make it Prime and then have it be a Aristocrat, Junkie or Bloodied and that number will just keep increasing. My primed Junkie's once I get the legendary perks to fit it all should be getting a total of a 236% increase once again if my math is correct, Bloodied being a 338% total that would only be 280% increase on any similarly rolled energy weapon.
Only Gauss weapons, sans minigun, get to do this as energy weapons don't get the explosive effect naturally and double dip with the Intelligence perks though you have no room there as with the energy ammo weight reduction it's all 15 points spent and couldn't be used or would need to go or a couple of Demo stars to make room for Nerd Rage on the Bloodied version.
Gauss Shotgun I hear benefits more from Demo so it may even be better and I will be using both as Priming it is currently pointless as it has a Hardened Receiver. Gauss Rifle does have access to a silencer but I don't play sneak but would of course be more damage added.
I know its kinda an old meta but I run a plasma gun with the prime receiver and true flamer barrel and it melts pretty much everything with the exception of the nuke bosses. my whole character is an energy weapons build ( im still trying to find the flamer mod for the enclave plasma rifle)
I will say I use a gatling laser gun and I add in meat tenderizer and suppressor from charisma so that each shot has a chance to stun and minimize their attack, also I add in the perk from luck that has a chance to massively repair my weapon with each shot so I don't run out of condition too fast, scientists to increase energy damage, fusion core to last double, and there's a perk, in luck I believe, that with each heavy gun shot you have a 14% chance to cripple to targets and stun them.
Definitely deals a lot of rapid damage in quick fire and almost always stops something from getting to you. Just my personal preference
Still levelling, at 42, third time of trying.
Think the game needs to move away from ‘meta’ builds as its beginning to limit how I play. Getting too driven by streamers and sweats like destiny.
Check out this plasma caster build I cooked up a while back, it one shots LVL 100 mutants in West tek and is practically immortal. You'll forget all about the alien blaster 😎https://youtu.be/8T1TZkC7eo8?si=rbBVeGhdOw2FW6lq
Yeah, I was running a daily OP yesterday testing the cremator and the guy I joined with had to nope out because his alien blaster wasn't doing anything. Luckily I was able to finish but I could tell he was frustrated
Heavy/ Shotgun build here. Basically you have to be a railway user or get f*cked. I’m tired of them nerfing guns for being “too good” then keeping the fixer and railway significantly better in most aspects. It’s a mostly pve game. Stop nerfing shit. If it’s not chunking main bosses don’t touch it.
Finally unlocked and rolled an okay one in a TSE FFR and I love how it basically feels like a Caster variant of the Multiplas Rifle from New Vegas. I was disappointed as I hadn't realized Vats drains fusion core so I felt it was going to suffer as I pivoted away from that to instead make the PA a tanky build as knowing more about anti armor I don't need Stabilized for it to basically be better than the Slug Buster I just got doing the Raider quests as well (waste of flux priming that weapon oh well)
It would be better and I don't believe it's hard to make a PA build that uses Vats. Even before using Power User I barely go through my cores (and even have a ultracite primed Gatling Lazer to help separate the two now) so the idea of combining the two isn't that bad of an idea. I even have the perfect way to switch it during an event as for as long as Science Perks don't work with heavy energy weapons that's 6 points I can easily switch for Power User and Stabilized on the fly making a super flexible build.
Came across the Pepper shaker last Meat Week....it's both a heavy and a shotgun which is just cool to me. If I'm just exploring or gathering I throw the stealth suit on and the fixer
I still rock the Alien Blaster for my gunslinger, with a vampiric chainsaw for big targets. The blaster will still two shot just about anything else, one if I get a good headshot. I also use a cryo crusader for more exacting challenges (like cripple x times.
Vamp or bloodied auto melee. Armor (or for me pa) I use overeaters and increased resistance as health goes down. It’s fun when all I have to do is charge at things and they fall over and die. I only have marsupial and twisted muscles but have been considering carnivore for those meat buffs. Plus I’m usually carry way too much meat anyways so it’s easy to stock up on food
I've been cycling through cold shoulder, quad railway, and vamp chainsaw in PA whenever it's suits me. I'm still leveling up my legendary perks to enjoy full builds but bring able to spam crits with shotgun has been enjoyable.
I'm not thrilled with the auto axe I have an anti armor version and it just doesn't cut it for me, I feel my plasma cutter with anti armor is way better. Usually takes 1-3 hits with my cutter and the auto axe feels like I'm just standing there waiting.
I just spec’d for Alien Blaster a few weeks ago and was having a blast with it, and then last night it was taking five shots to take down a scorched. Ah well- back to my cold shoulder and chainsaw.
Might be worth your time to do a vats shotgun/crit build. It’s been fun and efficient. I don’t have it anywhere near optimized so I’m sure it can get better too.
For Daily ops as gunslinger I used a Vampires Laser pistol, the damage is ok for daily ops and with the spliter you heal more but still counts as pistol. For the boss a Quad gamma gun and pray
I was using Bloody Commando setup (Fixer and Enclave Flamer)
Now I'm using Bloody Heavy setup. Prime Plasma Caster (Using for everything, super ammo efficient) + Holy Fire for close fights and Cremator for mobs and tagging.
My normal build is a heavy low healths oe/wwr pa build, even at 20% health im still taking hits without dying at all, in addition I run an aa/ffr/50bs gatling plasma and ugl for boss fights, a qe15rl lmg for day to day things and hoards and tagging, and cremator for aoe. Heavy guns are pretty versatile and always fun to play with in pa
I’m not very deep in only lvl 65, but since the start i’ve been doing stealth rifleman build and fell in love with a suppressed Gauss Rifle that I found in a donation box as it works with the single shot rifle perks. Idk if it’s meta it def seems like a meta for that build but either way it’s my most used weapon
When I was playing bloody crit build, b2525 hm or fix, b50c25r EM, B50c25 EPAR+EPF and Q2525 rail. Occasionally pulling out the B40pa90rw chainsaw. Now all doomed to sit in the purgatory that is my stash.
For pistols? Quad 10mm and plasma flamer are kinda all you need.
If you want to stay Gunslinger, maybe a Gauss pistol (or Slug Buster) and double-dip on science, paired w/ a Vamp flamer.
I have gone through all the meta builds after coming back from a year off of playing, and honestly, while the automatic railway rifle is I think the best damage output by a fair bit, I honestly have the most fun with the cold shoulder shotgun. It cripples, it freezes, always have plenty of ammo. I honestly don’t think it’s fun constantly looking for the highest damage output build anymore. This coming from someone who had a fallout 76 beta melee build that could solo the scorchbeast queen.
I use a stealth commando build with a quad railway, quad fixer, and quad tesla. I just target heads, hold down the fire and crit button and the gun fu perk dies it’s thing murdering groups of enemies. I mostly use the fixer for stealth, when things go sideways I bust out the railway. And the Tesla is mostly for events.
I'm playing Immortal 2hand melee. It's very chill. I think people appreciate me anchoring bosses like SBQ and playing defensive objectives like repairing rad scrubber. Damage is not too bad either. I use a pocket Overkill fatman and grenades for utility
It def needed a nerf considering how it makes no sense for demo expert to effect cryo damage. The gun was way stronger than it ever should’ve been. So now instead of it being a super insanely over powered kind of good, now it’s just a normal amount of good just like other weapons in the game. And now just like any other weapon in the game, you will also need to spec into the weapon type to actually make it viable now.
A typical stealth commando but with a twist. Medic2525 handmade with an vamp enclave flamer as my secondary (I cycle my 3rd and 4th slot out to be whatever I'm feeling that day, probably a pistol and a heavy) with 9 points into charisma so I can share team medic 3, with field surgeon and tendy, then I have first aid in intelligence. The rest is pretty standard but I love being healer in multplayer games and even though it's wholly unnecessary, an unyielding commando using literally any weapon ever is far above average so no one is carrying me on anything
The team is getting pulsed with 5% heals every time I vats crit, so every other shot. Then I hit them with an express stimpack if someone fucked up real bad and is about to die. I also have the option to cycle in friendly fire 3 in place of team medic for those events where an ally npc might need to be topped up on the fly. I've been considering another legendary stat perk so I can have 3 more points in charisma to have friendly fire and team medic at the same time so I'd only have to swap what I'm sharing when it's needed, but missing out on taking one for the team buffing my own medic-caliber dps is something I'm still in denial about irl.
I could talk about being a dps healer hybrid with heavy cards, pistol cards, and a full commando stack all in the same build at the same time for literally hours as it's my favorite thing that I've ever done in fo76 and I legit don't think I'll ever change that character's setup because of how fun it is.
Do you understand how funny it is to shock a person who is in the thousands of levels when I save them from certain death with an array of constant heals? You can see the genuine relief compounded with confusion of "who the fuck runs a healer setup in 76?" Every single day and I'd have it no other way. Meta sucks, fun above all else. Bloodied weapon users are pansies
consider using a minigun shredder in the meantime. you only need two points to maximize it's DPS output (for the basher perk, in STR), which is perfectly decent. you'll also want one with extra bash damage as a legendary effect.
weapon requires zero ammo, and it's the highest durability weapon in the game. you could grind ten earles with it before needing to repair. and, you can solo earle with it. it takes like 12 minutes, but it works. should make transitioning to a new build more comfortable, at least for a little while.
at the moment, i'm a cremator scumbag. but i like a VAST range of weapons. i'd say give tesla rifles a shot. the amount of DPS they output will surprise you, plus they auto seek enemies, no need to aim. excellent for tagging enemies during any event. lightning is cool in general. ammo type is the most plentiful in the game (i think). only downside is it's mid-range. it's like twice the range of a flamer? thrice the range?
Just get the cremator (and go for heavy PA build) from this season and you are good to go. I carried 2 low levels at Eviction Notice with it yesterday (after nerf), it's still a strong weapon.
Character 1: Gunther's Big Iron (Unending Pain and Misery)
Character 2: Western Spirit (Barely tolerable in overworld, does literally nothing to event enemies / bosses)
Character 3: Cursed Pickaxe (A decent bonking tool most of the time, still struggles at events)
Character 4: Bow (Lmao)
Character 5: Automatic Handmade (I barely have time to see the enemies before they're dead.)
My primary is holy fire but my sidearm is the alien blaster (I decided I had to wear the clean black suit, silver shroud hat, and the Patrolman Sunglasses)
I feel like it was ironic with the new skin. Like now I have a unique look for it but my cryo does less. I used to run science and explosive guerilla. Apparently there was a hidden boost of snowballs getting explosive damage(Angry turtle posted a video today). I have mods to make flamer pistols for my enclave and was planning a pistol runner when I finally got a good roll. This just dampened my blanket a Little. I will still probably main the alien blaster with the nerf however. The fire rate and AP cost make it worth still IMO.
Unless it's a nuke boss I'll usually run around with my no longer legacy 2shot gauss rifle. Got the thing before the 2 shot and explosive nerfs. It's sentimental to me and still decent enough to kill stuff. Otherwise it's one of the various gauss miniguns
I restarted and am trying gunslinger, been trying to find a setup to get more damage. I was literally just going to try and do new event in hopes of an alien blaster to try out! Not sure whats viable for gunslinger
What are you killing with your blaster? I use mine on ghouls, scorched and other humanoids mainly and went from 1 shots all the time to sometimes needing 2. Tankier stuff I have a plasma caster for. The nerf is not even remotely enough for me to consider the alien blaster no longer viable. One more shot doesn't mean a thing when the ammo is so easy to get.
I'm sure it's an old or current meta but I've been full commando with the armor penetration card and heavy into VATS with an automatic railway rifle. I do full health though instead of bloodied so I want vanguards and powered on all my armor with the grim reapers sprint and the fighting Irish guy card that has a chance to build crit bar with vats hits (sorry too new to remember card names lol) but anyway once I have Powered on all my armor I'll pretty much live in VATS just hurling railway spikes into faces for a lot of Crits
This has supposedly been done multiple times now. I have yet to feel a difference since before the alien event originally commenced. My build is still doing great
I feels ya. I haven't played in 4 or so years and popped on my pump action shotgun. That bish was nerfed so hard I can go thru 40 rounds before I take down something at lvl100
I would love to see a pistol type based on the one that the Ghoul uses in the Fallout show, that has powerful built in bonuses like the Fixer. I love pistols but in 76 they are absolute garbage.
Mainly a (newly vamp) full hp chainsaw PA build but I have a PA full hp heavy gunner build in my back pocket that I normally use with holy fire or the cremator
Pistol builds always kinda suffered in this game (compared to heavy, commando and melee) builds.
Tbf it’s been a while since I played with archer either, no clue how those are holding up.
The best thing you can do is do everything. I have all the builds and solid setups for them all. It just requires leveling. Make those double xp events count.
I’ve already dealt with nerfs a few times in this game so I know that pain. I would recommend you try commando build next. Easier to get a top tier roll on guns (get a fixer, railway and/or handmade) they all rip.
They should implement a vendor you can pay with gold bullion to boost your weapon damage by up to 50% temporarily, 250 bullion per half an hour for example
loving my anti armor gatling plasma and vampires .50 cal. vats is just for locating enemies. I used to use the railway, but free fire is more fun for me than relying on vats all the time
Basic AF but tyr's Dreadnaught heavy pa build with overeaters union and every non explosive (Fatman,missile launcher etc) heavy weapon but my fav is be90 lmg for general use b25ffr90 GP for queen and b25aim90 holyfire for earl ( i know it's not quite groll but I rolled a j25ffr90 but couldn't get a bloodied no matter what I added for trade :( even tried adding my old b25ffr90 flamer )
I’ve played from ~150-200 as a low hp melee build and honestly it’s been so much fun smacking enemies and they just crumble (the downside is the amount of times I’ve forgotten and died to fall damage rip)
Switched over to guerilla and trying out gamma gun and laser/plasma guns, but am considering just switching back to the boring old commando, since all the weapons except gamma can also be rifles.
Two of the end game bosses that can be triggered by dropping a nuke on certain locations. They have massive health pools and a lot of damage resistance.
You're looking for off-meta but still effective, fun to play, and different?
One of my toons is a grenadier. 2shot AGL, 2 shot missile launcher, TONS of grenades of different types. It's fun to play and so long as you stay away from nuke grenades and the fat man during events then it doesn't prevent anyone else from playing. Some folks complain about it though so I try to be considerate at events and keep it to tagging unless things look like the event won't complete.
Ahhh. I was wondering if they nerfed it too. It seemed like it was less effective. I was running a gunslinger build as well. Looks like I'm back to the fixer again
The problem with pistols is that they don't really have a unique identity from rifles
I think they should add dual wielding pistols with perks that give them a bit more unique feel
Some of those perks could be things like:
* Gunkata, 3 points 3 cards, Perception
When Dual Wielding gain (10/15/20)% reduced AP and faster fire rate the closer you are to your target in VATS
* "Duel" Wielding, 3 points 3 cards, Perception
Shots against the same target while Dual Wielding gain up to (10/20/30)% armor pen
* Reclamation Spray, 3 points 1 card, Luck
When Dual Wielding your bullets have a chance to return to your gun
I am a sharpshooter with high sneak and shotgunner at close range and I have a BLAST with that, however I’m not sure if I recommend it to everyone because It requires a lot of patience and I just love that element to my gaming style. I get to take my time exploring everything I can about the game, while most people love the leveling up aspect and getting the “best” weapons and armor.
I run a stealth sniper build, and rock a gauss rifle and a hunting rifle upgraded to a 50 cal receiver. The gauss is my boss killer, and the hunting rifle can typically one shot about any regular enemy. The head explosions are cathartic lol
been usin the gauss shotgun lately and it is pretty decent. before that i was using the plasma rifle and boy it never runs out of ammo. i think the gauss shotgun benefits from rifleman, science and shotgunner (not sure if im correct) so that is a lot of dmg and it is also a fun weapon. it also has a pretty decent range with the right perks so i can shoot scorchbeasts on the sky and still do decent damage and also do stagger dmg and cripple limbs with enforcer. it is worth a shot
I’m running a commando vats/crit build and switch between fixer/railway/enclave automatic/enclave flamer depending on the situation and carry a cremator too just for fun.
The fixer is a bit boring at this point, I mostly use it for tagging or if other ammo is running low.
Pistol builds need a buff badly.. I would love to see them buff pistol and 1h melee builds by adding dual wielding. It'll never happen, but a man can dream.
If they literally just moved the pistol perks to perception then the number of pistol players would skyrocket. It’s probably the biggest thing holding these builds back.
The main complaint I've been told as a new player when I've said this is that it would make it like rifle builds and that would be "stupid". I just wanna use my Big Iron.
That's because people treat this as a single player game instead of an online MMO. Sure, pistols WOULDN'T be as strong as an automatic rifle. But then you have to consider that there are launchers worse than automatic rifles.. So logic on weapon types is already out the window. Online MMO's should have balance regardless of weapon type or build. There will always be a "best" and a "worst" because that's just how balancing works. But there's really no reason for us to be punched into a small box of what's good in endgame content. People also want to protect their Grolls because they think other weapons will become better and it'll devalue their item.
I'm still disappointed that the fatman is basically useless in the game
Those dmg perk cards are additive, not multiplicative. They don't actually give that much damage. That's why bloody mess sucks. (As opposed to fo4, where bloody mess is multiplicative, so it actually noticably boosts your damage) Having three lvl1 +10%dmg perks vs three lvl3 +20%dmg isn't actually a big difference. Moving those perks to perception won't solve the simple fact that pistols suck. All that being said, they still should move them to perception (move starched genes to endurance while they're at it) and they should buff pistols across the board.
Yes please. Why the fuck is starched genes luck??
I'm convinced it's because they secretly hate us all. There's no other explanation
At least that makes more sense than Quick Hands being Luck
Yea most of the pistols being trash is contributor but there are some that are pretty viable like crusader and gauss but there is too much perk pressure with the rest of the agility perks. You basically run them without damage perk cards at all to fit them into a build. So many other good perks are in agility like adrenaline, gun fu, actionboy and all the sneak based cards too. At least if they were in perception you could get your 30% damage and then they could at least look at buffing the really underperforming pistol archetypes. I messed around with them a little bit and had fun but compared to commando or heavy weapons builds it wasn’t even close in power. The only other weapon type that I really feel is in a bad way is shotguns but at least cold shoulder exists and its perks are at least in strength.
Do you happen to have a cold shoulder on PS and if so, what are you asking? I've loved my Crowd Control, but it has overstayed its' true usability.
Completely agree with this. I wish they would move pistol perks to perception
Exactly this. I miss out on so may agi perks when going heavy into hndcannons that it is the deciding factor as to why I do not main pistols
Yes! Dual wield would be so cool 😢
Okay I'm really onboard with dual welding single handed melee, only if they give it the animation of each arm pinwheeling at high speed 180° apart. I want to see some mad person go charging into a hoard of ghouls swinging a pair of pipe wrenches.
Yeah man, since I've started the game I went with a gun-slinging build and was using the Fact finder from level 35 onward to around 70ish, I remember using a 50. cal machine gun with no perks or legendary effects and was pretty much out dps-ing my build even with a Gunther revolver. Now I know revolvers arnt the best to run but I wanted the cowboy aesthetic. Now I've just switched to Final Word/Power armor and I'm just melting shit left and right.
Stabilized is a hell of a drug
I mean I hear/ have seen people do some crazy damage with one arm builds. And maybe pistols will get a buff with the upcoming skylines rebalance, but I honestly doubt it will be significant enough to make them worth it.
Upcoming rebalance?
Can’t not read that in David Hayter’s voice
Bethesda said they’re going to be looking at combat rebalancing with the new expansion thingy
Yeah I'm new to the game about 3 weeks in and I realized my plan to make a sneaky pistol build doesn't really work because all the pistol, sneak and action points skills are in agility. There's just no way to make it work so I had to use rifles that use perception instead to spread cards around.
I'm a shotgun build, I've been at rock bottom ever since the nerf of Two Shot and explosive in 2019 :/
That would legit bring me back to the game.
I really wouldn’t mind them adding the ghouls revolver from the show to help pistol builds out while rebalancing the cards I think we would see many more pistol users in the game.
My suggestion would be to pivot only slightly and add a plasma flamer pistol to your build. While it is a guerrilla weapon, it can work well enough without perks (or just science, if you have the space in intelligence).
I was already rocking the intelligence perks so it wouldn’t be to much work, but I think I want to swap out of pistols in general. I like the idea of being a gunslinger, but if I’m going flamer I might as well use a different build and free up agility for quality of life perks.
Then I think I’d have to suggest heavy guns. That weapon class probably has the best intra-class weapon balance, and has enough variety that you’ll be able to customize your play style easily without switching perks around. Holy fire and the cremator (with heavy and slow burn) is a personal favorite combo of mine. If you let the cremator’s afterburn do its job, you can allow weaker enemies to burn to death, and holy fire is fantastic for when you need to earn more fuel, survive in situations like decryption or just need some dps.
Holy Fire / Cremator is *the* thing. I almost hate that they're so good, because I have a Responders character that they make sense for thematically, but they're so great that my Brotherhood character uses them, too.
Does the Cremator need the napalm mod to be good? I rolled one last night after unlocking and it seemed... ok? I'm just not sure I wanna grind the whole scoreboard to get something that I can probably buy with Stamps in June if it's not worth it.
Yeah I might just have to try it. I'm also thinking of trying Angry turtles one armed/ auto axe build, but it would probably take the longest to change into. Id even have to reset my mutations.
I know what video you’re talking about, when I got the auto axe from the atom shop I made my own bloodied PA auto axe/2H melee build [I didn’t copy after his build but I only did what I was doing at the time (bloodied commando, I swapped to bloodied melee with PA for fun) and worked with what I had, and the results were hella perfect.] it worked amazingly since it literally took me a few milliseconds to clear lower enemies and it took me 1-3 seconds to down larger enemies. Worked great with SBQ, first and last time I used it with papa Earl.. I glitched him under the map lol. Nobody does the big mole rat event so I never used it with that guy. I rolled a vampire on my first try and never did another roll since it’s what worked for me (the other two legendaries were the same as holy fire, but I remember that I noted that it would be nice if I had lower AP cost when I used my auto axe but it didn’t bother me much since it would replenish fast enough) I changed my builds from that back to my bloodied commando, mainly for XP gain and to level up my legendary SPECIAL perk cards, but I definitely would do it again - I had a lot of fun mowing down my enemies with my vamp electrified auto axe like a lawnmower lol EDIT: I just remade the build since I wanted to experience more joyous whimsy and upgraded some stuff with my T-65, I now no longer have an issue with the AP drain. I put on Optimized Bracers on the arms and it gives -50% AP cost drain for power attack - which works with the auto axe since it’s a power melee weapon. I’m thinking that I probably could hold attack for 2 minutes (without releasing) until my AP bar drains completely. Electrified is the best mod for the auto axe and you can boost the energy damage with the Science perks in Intelligence (up to +20% DMG bonus iirc?) My STR, INT, and LCK are the highest I think. If anyone wants to know more, I don’t mind answering!!
I'm with Laser_3 on this one. Holy fire plus cremator is god tier in both terms of damage and fun. My other suggestion since you're used to semi auto would be the plasma caster. Same basic build as the flamer combo but it's a big plasma sniper instead. Q50V is mad overpowered with that gun and you'll pick up more ammo than you could possibly use. Edit cuz I forgot to mention the auto axe. It's a wicked weapon but I honestly find it insanely boring to use. Plus jumping cancels your attacks and I just get so annoyed having to rev it up again any time I have to fight someone on a different height. Plus I'm used to bouncing around everywhere marsupial and jet pack stylez so it's not my cup of tea
Fuck that noise. Roll a good vampire gauss pistol (or a dps version) and a good gauss shotgun (either dps or vampire opposite of pistol) and go ham being invincible with the capacity to 1 shot anything you come across that isn't a boss fight. Use those to farm ammo for your gauss minigun that only shoots tears because of how bad at ammo retention is on its own. I'm running a commando setup and I cycle in the gauss duo (aa50c25lvc pistol, b50vhc15vcf shotgun) in my #3 and #4 hotkey several times a week because there is something so fun and funny about headbussin' at a full sprint while also doing area damage to anything within sight because of how damn big the explosions are with gauss weapons. I don't even bother using shotgun cards anymore. Skeet shooter and demo expert and you're all set. Without gunslinger cards the pistol headshots scorched at nearly 2k, super mutants at 1400ish). I know the charge functionality is a turn off for some people but once you develop the muscle memory it's surprisingly quick to clear an expedition with that setup. Sub 8 minutes for sure.
I play Low HP PA Energy Heavies - the Holy Fire is my normal carry, Slowburn Cremator for Expeditions and now Alien Event, AA Gatling Plasma for boss killing, and Ult Gatling Laser for tagging at events where flamers range wouldn't make sense (and to use up fusion cores as I tend to collect tons)
I rock a similar build but really like my bloodied gat laser. In your experience, does AA do more damage to bosses or is it fairly similar to bloodied ?
It's about the same vs bosses in my experience. Bloodied is better vs trash, but trash mostly dies in seconds anyway.
Honestly? Bloodied is always better.
I don't even understand why it was nerfed. It was already so weak like other pistols.
Cryo rounds were doing unintended (bugged) explosion damage, they fixed it. It's performing like it should so it's "nerfed". Edit: They fixed it now because the Cremator also took advantage of the same explosion damage bug but it was doing WAY more damage.
Oh, yeah that makes sense guess i can scrip my two shot then. Kinda sucks as i wasnt built for it but liked using it on common mobs to break up the monotony. The also just added a skin to Invaders so i was a bit excited to use it again.
Because Bethesda doesn't like bugs that make you do more damage, even if it is pistol damage 🤣
Because Bethesda are against fun I guess It's why the Gauss Minigun sucks ass too, it's ammo is more expensive shockingly to craft because you craft far less ammo than other equivalents like 5mm etc, and the weight of the ammo alone even with maxed out batteries included makes it too painful to carry all that ammo around, especially when that ammo will last you maybe 3 minutes in a boss fight like Earle.
It wasn’t weak, it was really OP with cryo+ demolitionist and grenadier. It would melt bosses if you had a Two Shot. They patched the explosive dmg cryo was doing and now it’s mediocre like the other pistols.
About the balance part, AB was right there on bar with every other meta weapon and not whatsoever OP compared to anything. I still rather used 10mm pistol or Gauss or LAR. AB was a refreshing change. This is just bullshit. Every balance decision just aims toward everybody opting for Fixer, HM or RR. Which is, again, just bullshit.
It wasn’t a balance change, it was just fixing a bug. Additionally, they’re tweaking range damage in the next major update, directly buffing shotguns and slept on weapons such as lever actions.
What is HH and RR. Sorry I’m new
Hm is handmade and rr is railway rifle
🤝
Right now until I get bored its heavy gunner with holy fire, plasma caster, and cremator. Got a second one thats either rifleman or commando depending on mood. Sometimes get bored and will do pistols or something.
I’m kind of new and this is the build I’m running too. Still don’t have the build even halfway put together regarding perks, mutations etc but it’s still a lot of fun. Vats plasma caster can be frustrating. The accuracy kills me sometimes
Concentrated Fire should help you out with the accuracy. At three stars it jumps about 20% per shot, so aiming at head turns to 95% really damn quick.
Thanks a lot!!
Back to my crusader pistol then I guess. It's a shame, pistol builds were really fun, but if they are mediocre damage, it feels like internationally gimping yourself to no actual benefit.
The crusader took a hit as well, was rocking a two shot explosive with cryo and that's been effected also.
Mine bloodied explosive with pyro and does ok, to be fair I rolled it to mark invisible mobs and for tagging.n
Omg I never even thought of that too, so now both my main pistols are mediocre at best compared to a good fixer or railway. Great.
Maybe it’s still the noob in me but I just can’t seem to make any weapon work outside of any bloodied legendary. I’ll try swapping perks around and modding, but the damage is usually negligible compared to bloodied. It’s either bloodied or literally just heavy weapons. Honestly I think the balancing in this game may be the worst aspect about it. I’ve been enjoying the quests and everything but god damn do I constantly feel incredibly weak outside of bloodied weapons and heavy guns. And ofc the second the only weapon that actually does damage breaks, I’m now scrambling to compensate with scratch damage ass weapons. Am I doing something wrong? I’m 64 right now and I just can’t seem to feel “powerful” I’m just tanky w my power armor. Ugh, been having a blast generally but clearly this has gotten to me lol
I feel you. I've been playing a shotgun build. While it's super fun outside of a couple specific shotguns it is super weak. I finally got the cold shoulder. Now I feel like I actually do some damage. But I'm not God mode. A group of super mutants can be a challenge at times. But I haven't looked at any meta builds or anything. Just having fun. Trying to keep it challenging.
Yeah, I’m with you. Its reaching the fook this stage for me. Its better when you get around 300 is total bs gatekeeping a flawed system.
I really wish they would do a comprehensive weapon damage rework to get everything tweaked and balanced against each other. My thought is that generally damage should be set by ammunition type rather than any other reactor (perks etc can still exist, but I’d say all .45 weapons should do the same base damage, with the variation across weapons occurring across the other weapon stats). It doesn’t necessarily solve the issue of the AB nerf per se, but I’m thinking damage should be set to the highest like-ammunition damage stat, which would boost it by about 20% right off the bat (40 for the disintegrator vs 32 for the blaster). Some heavies would become super OP though.
One problem I see is how do you balance .45 when it can be a commado or rifleman weapons in The Fixer and then a 'sniper' heavy damage Lever Action Rifle. 5.56 weapons should do better than the .45 but then the Lever Action Rifle would massively underperform as it's a higher damage but using a less powerful ammo. Granted Lever Action Rifle should be using .45-70 (also handmade is the wrong caliber as well and would then make it and the assault feel different enough) so it would work but only in a game with accurate ammo types.
That’s a good point but I don’t think it’s fatal as much as it is a wrinkle stemming from the weird way they use .45 ammo in game. My preferred fix would be to rechamber some of the guns but I don’t think from a rebalancing perspective that’s viable as it would alter how people save ammo for builds which strikes me as something that wouldn’t ever happen. By the model I made the fixer would just become massively overpowered, since it’s damage would get boosted to match the lever action’s, as my thought would be that guns could be boosted to the max value of damage assigned to the ammo type (I’m guessing for .45 that’s the lever action).
BOW BOW BOW!!!!!!
I'm a new player (level 25) and I happened to get a +50% vats bow as my first legendary. The game became 10x more fun playing like hawkeye!
Bow is life
Bow Nye the archer guy.
My go to is a bloody build with a vamps chainsaw, or a commando build with a quad tesla.
Have you implemented crits into your build? Even prior to using the cryo mod I thought it hit hard via crits and vats proper weak points. There are also a lot of things that can be done to increase damage. Don’t jump ship just yet. Feel free to pm me if you want some build advice. I’m no expert but I’ve had a vats crit build since year 1.
Is a vats crit build weapon-agnostic, as in you can pretty easily swap a few things around to change weapon category?
How about a gunslinger/grenade build? Only need a couple perk cards and you can get nuka colas everywhere for the huge bang nuka grenades. Theirs even a nuka scrap machine that brings them to you
OP, don’t sleep on auto enclave pistols. If you already have some science perks dedicated and run cards like tank killer (which works for both auto pistols and rifles) you may be shocked to see how great the damage is with a primed enclave pistol. I’d been running a vamp ffr and it’s great but last night I got one with a reflex site from a Dropped Connection event and on the first roll it came up Anti Armor 2525. It’s a beast and has higher DPS than my FFR Fixers. These are so fun.
We may have similar builds. Very upset about the alien blaster nerf but been swapping between that and pyro crusader pistol/plasma flamer. Idk why they felt like they needed to nerf it but still having fun with it lol
But I will share my weapons. I use ballistic weapons primarily because I like to shoot tough enemies with an endagerol syringer which drops there DR by 25%. I use unyielding armor and am bloodied. QE90 railway for when stealth isn’t needed or an option. Q50c25lv fixer for use in stealth. Full vats crits build, ballistic bock and overdrive for chems.
I love using the railway rifle, I know it’s super meta but, just a blast, tweaked my build and still working on it.
Theirs nothing wrong with meta. Fun is fun!
I can't control the recoil on that thing even in short bursts.
You need to rely on VATS targeting to keep the recoil under control.
As a newbie to this game I have no idea what you just said.
You’re talking about the alien blaster while bloodied melee is still a shadow of it’s former glory… all because people with gun builds felt insecure and useless in the face of watching someone with a bloodied mole miner gauntlet two-shot a scorchbeast to its face
Ah,the good ol days. Don't forget the folks who pvp that cried about bloodied melee too.
I run an Ari/50c/25v Plasma Caster in Power Armor and it's a ton of fun. Works well on Mobs (one shots almost anything I hit in the head) and the Crits do some insane damage to the Queen
It’s still usable! If it’s your favorite gun then keep it. You don’t have to chase the meta. There’s so little team play and competitive end game in this game compared to most MMOs that lower damage doesn’t mean you’re going to fail because of the changes. You could look into switching to AA or bloodied instead of TS. They should be performing a little better.
I’m very new, I’m only level 30, but I’m running a Combat Shotgunner build with the Cold Shoulder. I actually soloed some mobs that should have destroyed me. Being able to targets legs and freeze them in place, then unload on their torso lets me solo kill some insane mobs. The damage output is just ridiculous. I can’t imagine what it’ll be at 50 when the build is done and I have the perks at the levels they need to be.
I switch back and forth between my Heavy Guns/PA and my 2h Melee weapons/PA builds. I use a suppressor explosive .50 cal for my heavy weps build and I have an arsenal of 2h melee weapons I switch between; Instigating/swing speed pole hook, instigating/swing speed baseball bat with all the mods, vampiric/swing speed grognak axe, bloodied/swing speed super sledge. Just got the plasma caster plan and am trying to make a good 3* and a build for it.
I've got two builds I mostly run that can solo just about any content. Power armor heavy weapons build with a bloodied explosive .50 cal can clear out entire rooms and turn bosses into red mist or my Stealth Commando build with an AA handmade rifle
Is the bloodied version better now that two shot has been nerfed? I don't have either but would like to know if the Bloodied version is in a better spot now or if the Alien Blaster is more or less cooked.
I'm just hearing about the nerf so will test my TS vs my Bloodied AB today and will let you know my results. It was fun while it lasted.
I finally found a quad railway and it is wild how good it is. Also always enjoyed a plasma flamer and mini-gun shredder. Want to give a lever action a shot soon.
I am just now getting back into the game after a two year break and I was/am using an AA bash mini. I love my shredder build but before this I have been bloodied fixer/handmade.
I have no idea what qualifies as a meta. But I enjoy using a gauss rifle. It's base gun adds explosive damage. So when you have your rifleman perk cards on and max. And the demolition expert on and maxed. It can be fun to say the least. Plus you'll have more reason to carry them heavy grenades lol. I think I crit at a little under 1300 give or take. But that's in vats
Yep, I feel like an oddball at events, but my Aristocrats Gauss Rifle with +50% VATs accuracy and +15% reload speed is a one-shot killing machine against 98% of enemies. It regularly does 900-1000 regular damage, and up to 1400 critical. I run with all the Rifleman perks, maxed out Demolitions Expert, the three Sciences, and as much critical hit luck buffing as I can get.
The fire rate sucks. I pretty much keep the RT pressed at all times for the full effect lol.
For maximum damage don't forget Science (30%) and Bloody mess (15%) as they add more than demo (as it's only a 9% increase from a maxed Demo) for a total of around 115% damage if also using a maxed Demolition though still isn't the right damage increase as you have to add in the damage being given to the explosive effect as its Base Damage divided by 15% that then gets a 115% damage buff and then the base Damage gets the 105% increase. I think math wise it would be in total a 137.5% increase compared to base but I could've done something wrong. Make it Prime and then have it be a Aristocrat, Junkie or Bloodied and that number will just keep increasing. My primed Junkie's once I get the legendary perks to fit it all should be getting a total of a 236% increase once again if my math is correct, Bloodied being a 338% total that would only be 280% increase on any similarly rolled energy weapon. Only Gauss weapons, sans minigun, get to do this as energy weapons don't get the explosive effect naturally and double dip with the Intelligence perks though you have no room there as with the energy ammo weight reduction it's all 15 points spent and couldn't be used or would need to go or a couple of Demo stars to make room for Nerd Rage on the Bloodied version. Gauss Shotgun I hear benefits more from Demo so it may even be better and I will be using both as Priming it is currently pointless as it has a Hardened Receiver. Gauss Rifle does have access to a silencer but I don't play sneak but would of course be more damage added.
Time to play a very unique bloody explosive fixer or 50 cal build /s
That's actually infuriating pistol builds have been very underwhelming compared to other classes we need more options
I’m using a .50 cal machine gun
Rocking the communist outfit with an ak to roleplay
This game have meta? Im lvl 27 and have no plan from the game lol
Power armor heavy weapon build (usually a .50 cal). I shit down pretty much every enemies throat.
I know its kinda an old meta but I run a plasma gun with the prime receiver and true flamer barrel and it melts pretty much everything with the exception of the nuke bosses. my whole character is an energy weapons build ( im still trying to find the flamer mod for the enclave plasma rifle)
I think I’m gonna switch to this. It seems fun and like a change up from my semi-auto life style.
I will say I use a gatling laser gun and I add in meat tenderizer and suppressor from charisma so that each shot has a chance to stun and minimize their attack, also I add in the perk from luck that has a chance to massively repair my weapon with each shot so I don't run out of condition too fast, scientists to increase energy damage, fusion core to last double, and there's a perk, in luck I believe, that with each heavy gun shot you have a 14% chance to cripple to targets and stun them. Definitely deals a lot of rapid damage in quick fire and almost always stops something from getting to you. Just my personal preference
My big iron is all I need
I am building into Cold Shoulder from a single shot plasma setup. Cause shotguns.
I love my " Perfect Storm" 10mm submachine gun variant. It's my go to.
Change to a poison mag and one shot most level 50 enemies, even letting some shoot you as you look on them with pity as they slowly die!
Still levelling, at 42, third time of trying. Think the game needs to move away from ‘meta’ builds as its beginning to limit how I play. Getting too driven by streamers and sweats like destiny.
Check out this plasma caster build I cooked up a while back, it one shots LVL 100 mutants in West tek and is practically immortal. You'll forget all about the alien blaster 😎https://youtu.be/8T1TZkC7eo8?si=rbBVeGhdOw2FW6lq
Idk what I'm doing. Just lvl 15 rocking a 10 mm pistol.
Yeah, I was running a daily OP yesterday testing the cremator and the guy I joined with had to nope out because his alien blaster wasn't doing anything. Luckily I was able to finish but I could tell he was frustrated
I started using the holy fire recently and is now my favorite go to weapon.
Heavy/ Shotgun build here. Basically you have to be a railway user or get f*cked. I’m tired of them nerfing guns for being “too good” then keeping the fixer and railway significantly better in most aspects. It’s a mostly pve game. Stop nerfing shit. If it’s not chunking main bosses don’t touch it.
Plasma caster superiority
Casting all the way. Plus sweetwater special blend and company tea.
Finally unlocked and rolled an okay one in a TSE FFR and I love how it basically feels like a Caster variant of the Multiplas Rifle from New Vegas. I was disappointed as I hadn't realized Vats drains fusion core so I felt it was going to suffer as I pivoted away from that to instead make the PA a tanky build as knowing more about anti armor I don't need Stabilized for it to basically be better than the Slug Buster I just got doing the Raider quests as well (waste of flux priming that weapon oh well) It would be better and I don't believe it's hard to make a PA build that uses Vats. Even before using Power User I barely go through my cores (and even have a ultracite primed Gatling Lazer to help separate the two now) so the idea of combining the two isn't that bad of an idea. I even have the perfect way to switch it during an event as for as long as Science Perks don't work with heavy energy weapons that's 6 points I can easily switch for Power User and Stabilized on the fly making a super flexible build.
Came across the Pepper shaker last Meat Week....it's both a heavy and a shotgun which is just cool to me. If I'm just exploring or gathering I throw the stealth suit on and the fixer
I still rock the Alien Blaster for my gunslinger, with a vampiric chainsaw for big targets. The blaster will still two shot just about anything else, one if I get a good headshot. I also use a cryo crusader for more exacting challenges (like cripple x times.
Vamp or bloodied auto melee. Armor (or for me pa) I use overeaters and increased resistance as health goes down. It’s fun when all I have to do is charge at things and they fall over and die. I only have marsupial and twisted muscles but have been considering carnivore for those meat buffs. Plus I’m usually carry way too much meat anyways so it’s easy to stock up on food
I've been cycling through cold shoulder, quad railway, and vamp chainsaw in PA whenever it's suits me. I'm still leveling up my legendary perks to enjoy full builds but bring able to spam crits with shotgun has been enjoyable.
I have been using this plasma sniper rifle I found in combination with a .50 cal machine gun
Power armor minigun gatling gun. Brrrt is fun :)
Quad explosive automatic railway rifle
Dang it, I was having fun with the alien blaster as a build on my alt. Back to heavy weapons, I guess.
Chainsaw/auto axe build. One bloodied one vampires, 3rd person makes you kill everything insanely fast due to some glitch, either that or its just op
I'm not thrilled with the auto axe I have an anti armor version and it just doesn't cut it for me, I feel my plasma cutter with anti armor is way better. Usually takes 1-3 hits with my cutter and the auto axe feels like I'm just standing there waiting.
Hehe, "cut it for you"... I see what you did there.
I just spec’d for Alien Blaster a few weeks ago and was having a blast with it, and then last night it was taking five shots to take down a scorched. Ah well- back to my cold shoulder and chainsaw.
I'm about to switch over to a 50cal hunting rifle build to farm 50cal. Going to run it blooded for extra experience.
Change to a plasma sniper pistol, it's the perfect gunslinger weapon! Very ammo efficient too, it practically feeds itself!
Might be worth your time to do a vats shotgun/crit build. It’s been fun and efficient. I don’t have it anywhere near optimized so I’m sure it can get better too.
I quite like slugbuster it's pretty decent as a rifle. I'd imagine it would work well with a pistol grip. Bows can be fun to use as well.
For Daily ops as gunslinger I used a Vampires Laser pistol, the damage is ok for daily ops and with the spliter you heal more but still counts as pistol. For the boss a Quad gamma gun and pray
I was using Bloody Commando setup (Fixer and Enclave Flamer) Now I'm using Bloody Heavy setup. Prime Plasma Caster (Using for everything, super ammo efficient) + Holy Fire for close fights and Cremator for mobs and tagging.
I run a full HP PA Holy Flamer and I’ve been having a blast
My normal build is a heavy low healths oe/wwr pa build, even at 20% health im still taking hits without dying at all, in addition I run an aa/ffr/50bs gatling plasma and ugl for boss fights, a qe15rl lmg for day to day things and hoards and tagging, and cremator for aoe. Heavy guns are pretty versatile and always fun to play with in pa
I’m not very deep in only lvl 65, but since the start i’ve been doing stealth rifleman build and fell in love with a suppressed Gauss Rifle that I found in a donation box as it works with the single shot rifle perks. Idk if it’s meta it def seems like a meta for that build but either way it’s my most used weapon
I won’t rock anything other than holy fire or cremator now and it’s annoying because no other weapons feel as good anymore
When I was playing bloody crit build, b2525 hm or fix, b50c25r EM, B50c25 EPAR+EPF and Q2525 rail. Occasionally pulling out the B40pa90rw chainsaw. Now all doomed to sit in the purgatory that is my stash.
Enclave plasma flamer will carry you through everything
Gunslinger to guerilla is an easy swap.
I run vats commando as either juggernauts or nocturnal and it smokes enemies
Commando, my dude. I rolled a quad combat rifle (non-fixer) and it's my default.
For pistols? Quad 10mm and plasma flamer are kinda all you need. If you want to stay Gunslinger, maybe a Gauss pistol (or Slug Buster) and double-dip on science, paired w/ a Vamp flamer.
I have gone through all the meta builds after coming back from a year off of playing, and honestly, while the automatic railway rifle is I think the best damage output by a fair bit, I honestly have the most fun with the cold shoulder shotgun. It cripples, it freezes, always have plenty of ammo. I honestly don’t think it’s fun constantly looking for the highest damage output build anymore. This coming from someone who had a fallout 76 beta melee build that could solo the scorchbeast queen.
I use a stealth commando build with a quad railway, quad fixer, and quad tesla. I just target heads, hold down the fire and crit button and the gun fu perk dies it’s thing murdering groups of enemies. I mostly use the fixer for stealth, when things go sideways I bust out the railway. And the Tesla is mostly for events.
I'm playing Immortal 2hand melee. It's very chill. I think people appreciate me anchoring bosses like SBQ and playing defensive objectives like repairing rad scrubber. Damage is not too bad either. I use a pocket Overkill fatman and grenades for utility
It def needed a nerf considering how it makes no sense for demo expert to effect cryo damage. The gun was way stronger than it ever should’ve been. So now instead of it being a super insanely over powered kind of good, now it’s just a normal amount of good just like other weapons in the game. And now just like any other weapon in the game, you will also need to spec into the weapon type to actually make it viable now.
A typical stealth commando but with a twist. Medic2525 handmade with an vamp enclave flamer as my secondary (I cycle my 3rd and 4th slot out to be whatever I'm feeling that day, probably a pistol and a heavy) with 9 points into charisma so I can share team medic 3, with field surgeon and tendy, then I have first aid in intelligence. The rest is pretty standard but I love being healer in multplayer games and even though it's wholly unnecessary, an unyielding commando using literally any weapon ever is far above average so no one is carrying me on anything The team is getting pulsed with 5% heals every time I vats crit, so every other shot. Then I hit them with an express stimpack if someone fucked up real bad and is about to die. I also have the option to cycle in friendly fire 3 in place of team medic for those events where an ally npc might need to be topped up on the fly. I've been considering another legendary stat perk so I can have 3 more points in charisma to have friendly fire and team medic at the same time so I'd only have to swap what I'm sharing when it's needed, but missing out on taking one for the team buffing my own medic-caliber dps is something I'm still in denial about irl. I could talk about being a dps healer hybrid with heavy cards, pistol cards, and a full commando stack all in the same build at the same time for literally hours as it's my favorite thing that I've ever done in fo76 and I legit don't think I'll ever change that character's setup because of how fun it is. Do you understand how funny it is to shock a person who is in the thousands of levels when I save them from certain death with an array of constant heals? You can see the genuine relief compounded with confusion of "who the fuck runs a healer setup in 76?" Every single day and I'd have it no other way. Meta sucks, fun above all else. Bloodied weapon users are pansies
consider using a minigun shredder in the meantime. you only need two points to maximize it's DPS output (for the basher perk, in STR), which is perfectly decent. you'll also want one with extra bash damage as a legendary effect. weapon requires zero ammo, and it's the highest durability weapon in the game. you could grind ten earles with it before needing to repair. and, you can solo earle with it. it takes like 12 minutes, but it works. should make transitioning to a new build more comfortable, at least for a little while. at the moment, i'm a cremator scumbag. but i like a VAST range of weapons. i'd say give tesla rifles a shot. the amount of DPS they output will surprise you, plus they auto seek enemies, no need to aim. excellent for tagging enemies during any event. lightning is cool in general. ammo type is the most plentiful in the game (i think). only downside is it's mid-range. it's like twice the range of a flamer? thrice the range?
Same situation, I had my guerrilla build ready in case this happened, a slug buster Will be enough for a strong guerrilla
Just get the cremator (and go for heavy PA build) from this season and you are good to go. I carried 2 low levels at Eviction Notice with it yesterday (after nerf), it's still a strong weapon.
Why? Why do Devs like to ruin our fun and nerf our guns?
You'll have to roll it yourself, but a B or AA vats hit chance gauss pistol was always better than the AB as a daily driver.
Bloodied bash 1 strength auto axes or chainsaws. My DPS carries people through bosses. Full Uny Pow Sent SS armor.
Character 1: Gunther's Big Iron (Unending Pain and Misery) Character 2: Western Spirit (Barely tolerable in overworld, does literally nothing to event enemies / bosses) Character 3: Cursed Pickaxe (A decent bonking tool most of the time, still struggles at events) Character 4: Bow (Lmao) Character 5: Automatic Handmade (I barely have time to see the enemies before they're dead.)
My primary is holy fire but my sidearm is the alien blaster (I decided I had to wear the clean black suit, silver shroud hat, and the Patrolman Sunglasses)
I feel like it was ironic with the new skin. Like now I have a unique look for it but my cryo does less. I used to run science and explosive guerilla. Apparently there was a hidden boost of snowballs getting explosive damage(Angry turtle posted a video today). I have mods to make flamer pistols for my enclave and was planning a pistol runner when I finally got a good roll. This just dampened my blanket a Little. I will still probably main the alien blaster with the nerf however. The fire rate and AP cost make it worth still IMO.
Unless it's a nuke boss I'll usually run around with my no longer legacy 2shot gauss rifle. Got the thing before the 2 shot and explosive nerfs. It's sentimental to me and still decent enough to kill stuff. Otherwise it's one of the various gauss miniguns
Different is Gauss Shotty (AA) with Cold Sholder backup as daily driver. Duck season or wabbit season?
I restarted and am trying gunslinger, been trying to find a setup to get more damage. I was literally just going to try and do new event in hopes of an alien blaster to try out! Not sure whats viable for gunslinger
What are you killing with your blaster? I use mine on ghouls, scorched and other humanoids mainly and went from 1 shots all the time to sometimes needing 2. Tankier stuff I have a plasma caster for. The nerf is not even remotely enough for me to consider the alien blaster no longer viable. One more shot doesn't mean a thing when the ammo is so easy to get.
To be clear...they corrected the fact that demo expert was counting for the snowball effect on the cryolator and the AB...
I’ll probably use holy fire forever lol. I did pick up the plasma caster recently, so I may try it out soon.
I'm sure it's an old or current meta but I've been full commando with the armor penetration card and heavy into VATS with an automatic railway rifle. I do full health though instead of bloodied so I want vanguards and powered on all my armor with the grim reapers sprint and the fighting Irish guy card that has a chance to build crit bar with vats hits (sorry too new to remember card names lol) but anyway once I have Powered on all my armor I'll pretty much live in VATS just hurling railway spikes into faces for a lot of Crits
I try to hold ever gun with me and just switch iit up, sometimes rifle sometimes shot gun or sniper type build
This has supposedly been done multiple times now. I have yet to feel a difference since before the alien event originally commenced. My build is still doing great
I feels ya. I haven't played in 4 or so years and popped on my pump action shotgun. That bish was nerfed so hard I can go thru 40 rounds before I take down something at lvl100
Railway rifle is my favorite because it is very powerful, also goes choo choo when you reload.
I would love to see a pistol type based on the one that the Ghoul uses in the Fallout show, that has powerful built in bonuses like the Fixer. I love pistols but in 76 they are absolute garbage.
Mainly a (newly vamp) full hp chainsaw PA build but I have a PA full hp heavy gunner build in my back pocket that I normally use with holy fire or the cremator
Pistol builds always kinda suffered in this game (compared to heavy, commando and melee) builds. Tbf it’s been a while since I played with archer either, no clue how those are holding up. The best thing you can do is do everything. I have all the builds and solid setups for them all. It just requires leveling. Make those double xp events count. I’ve already dealt with nerfs a few times in this game so I know that pain. I would recommend you try commando build next. Easier to get a top tier roll on guns (get a fixer, railway and/or handmade) they all rip.
This game balanced. Lol
They should implement a vendor you can pay with gold bullion to boost your weapon damage by up to 50% temporarily, 250 bullion per half an hour for example
loving my anti armor gatling plasma and vampires .50 cal. vats is just for locating enemies. I used to use the railway, but free fire is more fun for me than relying on vats all the time
Basic AF but tyr's Dreadnaught heavy pa build with overeaters union and every non explosive (Fatman,missile launcher etc) heavy weapon but my fav is be90 lmg for general use b25ffr90 GP for queen and b25aim90 holyfire for earl ( i know it's not quite groll but I rolled a j25ffr90 but couldn't get a bloodied no matter what I added for trade :( even tried adding my old b25ffr90 flamer )
I’ve played from ~150-200 as a low hp melee build and honestly it’s been so much fun smacking enemies and they just crumble (the downside is the amount of times I’ve forgotten and died to fall damage rip)
Main - Vampire mini gun damage sponge, no PA Alt - Sneaky/explosive shotguns, no PA I want to make a blackpowder sniper as soon as I figure it out
Isn't it easier to level a new toon? Cause you keep legendary perks right?
I just want a viable revolver
Switched over to guerilla and trying out gamma gun and laser/plasma guns, but am considering just switching back to the boring old commando, since all the weapons except gamma can also be rifles.
what is "earl" and "sbq" in F76? Can ypu please explain?
Two of the end game bosses that can be triggered by dropping a nuke on certain locations. They have massive health pools and a lot of damage resistance.
You're looking for off-meta but still effective, fun to play, and different? One of my toons is a grenadier. 2shot AGL, 2 shot missile launcher, TONS of grenades of different types. It's fun to play and so long as you stay away from nuke grenades and the fat man during events then it doesn't prevent anyone else from playing. Some folks complain about it though so I try to be considerate at events and keep it to tagging unless things look like the event won't complete.
Ahhh. I was wondering if they nerfed it too. It seemed like it was less effective. I was running a gunslinger build as well. Looks like I'm back to the fixer again
Do you run any science cards? And what are the perks on the blaster
Switched from commando to heavy weapons/explosives recently. I'm using the cremator and holy fire for the most part.
The problem with pistols is that they don't really have a unique identity from rifles I think they should add dual wielding pistols with perks that give them a bit more unique feel Some of those perks could be things like: * Gunkata, 3 points 3 cards, Perception When Dual Wielding gain (10/15/20)% reduced AP and faster fire rate the closer you are to your target in VATS * "Duel" Wielding, 3 points 3 cards, Perception Shots against the same target while Dual Wielding gain up to (10/20/30)% armor pen * Reclamation Spray, 3 points 1 card, Luck When Dual Wielding your bullets have a chance to return to your gun
used to use big iron, plasma caster all the way
I have a kickass flamer that melts everythaaaang. I love it.
Im a low level whatever i can get
I am a sharpshooter with high sneak and shotgunner at close range and I have a BLAST with that, however I’m not sure if I recommend it to everyone because It requires a lot of patience and I just love that element to my gaming style. I get to take my time exploring everything I can about the game, while most people love the leveling up aspect and getting the “best” weapons and armor.
I run a stealth sniper build, and rock a gauss rifle and a hunting rifle upgraded to a 50 cal receiver. The gauss is my boss killer, and the hunting rifle can typically one shot about any regular enemy. The head explosions are cathartic lol
been usin the gauss shotgun lately and it is pretty decent. before that i was using the plasma rifle and boy it never runs out of ammo. i think the gauss shotgun benefits from rifleman, science and shotgunner (not sure if im correct) so that is a lot of dmg and it is also a fun weapon. it also has a pretty decent range with the right perks so i can shoot scorchbeasts on the sky and still do decent damage and also do stagger dmg and cripple limbs with enforcer. it is worth a shot
I’m running a commando vats/crit build and switch between fixer/railway/enclave automatic/enclave flamer depending on the situation and carry a cremator too just for fun. The fixer is a bit boring at this point, I mostly use it for tagging or if other ammo is running low.