New Vegas builds

[kingcomrade]

Did I hear right that melee builds are broken? I have decided that I want to play one of the Fallout 3s again, because it's been a while and I like the exploration. I've only played New Vegas once, while I've played Fallout 3 at least halfway through 3 times (typically I explore all the wilderness, but once it comes time to do the storyline I quit cause its lame).

 

[sgc_meltdown]

last I heard melee characters with vats were hax as they would teleport closer and just stunlock their way to victory

not sure how that worked with radscorpions but there you have it

 

[Ruprekt]

You take damage in VATS in NV unline FO3 so melee isn't an 'i win' button.

e.g. if you decide to take out caeser with melee+vats most likely you'll die while in vats (providing you're playing on hard difficulty).

 

[Esquilax]

Did I hear right that melee builds are broken? I have decided that I want to play one of the Fallout 3s again, because it's been a while and I like the exploration. I've only played New Vegas once, while I've played Fallout 3 at least halfway through 3 times (typically I explore all the wilderness, but once it comes time to do the storyline I quit cause its lame).

I wouldn't say it's broken on the level of Fallout 3's dogshit mechanics, but it's definitely OP because of a few powerful perks. If you've got Super Slam and Piercing Strike, you'll be able to chop up most enemies with basic combat knives or machetes unless they're really well-armored. As Ruprekt said, you can't VATS your way to victory like you could in FO3 because if you're going toe to toe with a deathclaw or a few Praetorians, they will fuck you up pretty badly while in VATS. Snipers and enemies with Anti-Material rifles can be tough too if they've spotted you from far away.

Survival skill synergizes really well with melee because poisoned spears can be very effective.

I think that those perks were good ideas, but they shouldn't have been quite so effective. If you've got Super Slam, you can initiate a knockdown on tough enemies like Cazadors quite often. It sucks, because they're usually murder for other characters. Just get a big two-handed weapon like a Rebar Club, then use your reach advantage to hit it while backing up and you might even come out unscathed because of the reach + high chance of knockdowns. It won't work against a Deathclaw because they're too fast, but unfortunately it works way too well on Cazadors. Part of the problem is the shitty AI - if Cazadors encircled the player from all sides and flanked you so you had less mobility, it wouldn't be an issue.

Would probably be better if you could only get a knockdown on a power attack or by doing something high-risk/leaving yourself open in order to make things a bit more interesting.

But either way, NV isn't a very tough game and all of the combat skills can work pretty well.

 

[RK47]

i killed the whole camp mojave by just going to the rooftops and hide behind sandbags with my spiked knuckles on. When the guards armed with rifles come up, I just hit VAT and killed them in 2 blows...pretty broken as fuck.

But still, you can't do this with Deathclaws and those giant killer bees.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Yeah they are. Fuck that big sci-fi gun, I have a big piece of concrete. And you can steal a super sledgehammer pretty early on. Then you're unstoppable.

 

[Relay]

Don't use melee weapons, use unarmed strikes (things like brass knuckles and powerfist count as unarmed) it's the strongest skill of the game, seriously. The only thing you can't beat with that are deathclaws because you'd take too much damage but it's otherwise totally OP. You can get good unarmed stuff pretty soon in the game (bladed gauntlet).

There is no point in having both melee and unarmed.

 

[SoupNazi]

You can one hit pretty much anything with one of the powerfists, if you have the appropriate unarmed skill and perks. And pretty much from the very beginning.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Yeah, but then Caesar and his goons will seriously fuck you shit up if you can't take them out from far away. 2-3 hits and you're dead, no matter what armor you have. Of course there's always mines, the super smart AI runs straight over them every time.

 

[baronjohn]

Everything in F3 an NV is super OP. The game is just dogshit easy.

 

[Metro]

Not as if the game is so restrictive that you can only have one combat specialization... unless you just intentionally funnel the points away to something useless like barter or stealth or survival. Just go melee/unarmed and pick up explosives for things that are problematic.

 

[Esquilax]

Don't use melee weapons, use unarmed strikes (things like brass knuckles and powerfist count as unarmed) it's the strongest skill of the game, seriously. The only thing you can't beat with that are deathclaws because you'd take too much damage but it's otherwise totally OP. You can get good unarmed stuff pretty soon in the game (bladed gauntlet).

There is no point in having both melee and unarmed.

Yes, you should probably invest in both melee and unarmed, because perks like Slayer and Piercing Strike are crazy powerful. Even if you'd rather use melee, it's still a good idea to put points into Unarmed for Piercing Strike.

 

[20 Eyes]

At some point around level 14 or so, I mostly abandoned using guns on my sharp-shooter built character because I discovered while dicking around that melee/unarmed was vastly more effective, even with minimal training.

Sneaking around and going for stealth critical shots just loses its appeal when you can just punch anything to death in a second or two.

I stopped playing shortly after. Maybe I'll finish after the last DLC is released.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Someone hasn't played an explosives character.

Anyways, Logan's Loophole is what makes ranged-characters vastly superior. They can pop a steady (which you can mass stock from Dead Money vending machines) and VATS snipe anything from nearly any distance. You also get to abuse all of the drugs without having to worry about addictions. The length of those drugs and all chem-like-items are doubled.

A character with Guns/Energy Weapons, Fast Shot and Logan's Loophole will shit on any melee build.

 

[Carrion]

Ranger takedown in New Vegas is an insanely overpowered special move that makes some of the most difficult battles in the game very easy. You also get it very early in the game. On my first playthrough I ended up killing deathclaws with my fists (or some average brass knuckles) even though I didn't put any points in unarmed at any point of the game. Just knocked them out when they were harassing Cass or Veronica, hit them a few times and knocked them out again until they were dead. On the second playthrough I played a melee character and had very little trouble soloing the entire game after getting a few useful perks (mostly the ones that increased knockout chance).

In both cases I played on Very Hard + Hardcore. I didn't even use V.A.T.S., because simply swinging the rebar club around was usually more than enough. If you're playing a melee/unarmed character, you might as well make agility your dump stat, no matter how dumb that may sound.

 

[kingcomrade]

Not as if the game is so restrictive that you can only have one combat specialization... unless you just intentionally funnel the points away to something useless like barter or stealth or survival. Just go melee/unarmed and pick up explosives for things that are problematic.

That's actually what I was going to do. I found out a long time ago that VATS + explosives is fucking murder.

 

[Severian Silk]

Is this guide worth following?

I want a female, somewhat talky long gun expert. Not sure what to do as this is my first time.

Here's what I've got so far:

S 4
P 6
E 4
C 7
I 7
A 7
L 5

 

[Mastermind]

Start with higher endurance and lower other attributes by 1 each (except maybe int, not sure you can max all skills even with expansions, but even if you can't you don't actually need to). As long as you get the implants for the requirements before you need them you'll get more out of your character in the long run.

 

[Severian Silk]

Implants?

 

[deuxhero]

Nah.

I think you should go with Small Frame (limb damage otherwise never comes into play) and Skilled (EXP gains are too high anyways).

Endurance should be higher as it lets you get a stats boosting implant per point (there's one for each SPECIAL stats, with Endurance not being self supporting plus an OK DT bonus and very slow health regen bonus) to a minimum of 6/7, minus 1 for every stats at 10. Int should be as high as possible, as it gives you more skills at level up. Beyond that it's just perk requirement qualifications.

Start with higher endurance and lower other attributes by 1 each (except maybe int, not sure you can max all skills even with expansions, but even if you can't you don't actually need to). As long as you get the implants for the requirements before you need them you'll get more out of your character in the long run.

I've done it many level and a few books to spare by taking the perk to boost int gains and the one to boost stats gains by books as well as Good Natured trait or skilled (not sure which one this character had). I'm pretty sure none of the mods I was using effected skill points or had extra skill books.

 

[DalekFlay]

I played melee for a while in my Caesar's Legion playthrough. It was pretty overpowered, but not game breaking really. The game isn't very hard in general unless you run straight to deathclaws early.

 

[doggfookker]

MOTHERUCKER I AM PLAYING SOME ENERGY WEAPON SHIT AND IT RULES I WOULDN
'T TRY MELEE BECAUSE THAT IS STUPID BULLSHIT UNLESS YOU WANT TO GO DOWN ON FELIECIEA DAY OR SOME STUPID SHIT
FUCKHEAD
IAM DRUNK

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Implants?

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_implants

 

[flushfire]

Is this guide worth following?
I want a female, somewhat talky long gun expert. Not sure what to do as this is my first time.
Here's what I've got so far:

Some parts of that guide are garbage. A lot of the perk choices are questionable. Anyway, for stats:

Spoiler

Strength should be 5 at least because some of the best guns require 6. You may be tempted to take into consideration Power Armor but PA training most likely won't come before you get a good gun that requires 6, and you may not want to join the Brotherhood in which case PA training will come much later
Perception also 5 for Better Criticals perk
Endurance, 7 is optimal to get every implant except regen and charisma
Charisma doesn't really add much, a few NPCs will note that your PC is attractive but as far as speech goes you won't really miss anything of value compared to just high Speech skill. RP choice I guess, but 7 is just the right number so it gets noticed. Otherwise, as low as you're comfortable with.
Intelligence is no longer as important as previous games. 5 is enough if you plan to get the implant early, 6 if you don't. The perks Comprehension and Educated will let you max almost every skill by level 30 even with 4 Int (lowest before you are recognized an idiot in-game)
Agility, 5 minimum for perks, 6 if you use VATS a lot (Nerves of Steel perk). You need 9 to get an extra shot in VATS out of some high-end guns (along with 2x Action Boy/Girl) but of course that's only if you plan to use VATS a lot. If you do then 7 is fine, use your level 2 perk on Intense Training for +1 (Black Widow/Confirmed Bachelor is the only other worthwhile choice) then implant. Agility also noticeably affects reloading speed.
Luck is actually pretty good, but only because other stats suck anyway. Every 2 adds +1 to every skill besides the critical chance bonus. An odd value gets the most out of the skill bonus, the quotient is probably rounded up. 5 is the minimum for perks.

Note that every recommended "minimum" value is lower by 1 than the actual needed for perks because you're going to get implants. And if you're going to use guns, get the Cowboy perk at level 8.

Int should be as high as possible, as it gives you more skills at level up. Beyond that it's just perk requirement qualifications.

Int is actually not as good in New Vegas as in other Fallouts because you only get 0.5 skill point per Int every level. So that's 15 skill points every point of Int at level 30. In comparison Comprehension gives a total bonus of 51 points after getting all skill books, Educated gives 52 at level 30. Besides meeting the 6 Int requirement for some dialogue options (8 is the highest AFAIK, Mentats covers that), additional points are a bit of a waste. This is all unmodded vanilla btw.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Is this guide worth following?
I want a female, somewhat talky long gun expert. Not sure what to do as this is my first time.
Here's what I've got so far:

Some parts of that guide are garbage. A lot of the perk choices are questionable. Anyway, for stats:

Spoiler

Strength should be 5 at least because some of the best guns require 6. You may be tempted to take into consideration Power Armor but PA training most likely won't come before you get a good gun that requires 6, and you may not want to join the Brotherhood in which case PA training will come much later
Perception also 5 for Better Criticals perk
Endurance, 7 is optimal to get every implant except regen and charisma
Charisma doesn't really add much, a few NPCs will note you're attractive but as far as speech goes you won't really miss anything of value compared to just high Speech skill. RP choice I guess, but 7 is just the right number so it gets noticed
Intelligence is no longer as important as previous games. 5 is enough if you plan to get the implant early, 6 if you don't. The perks Comprehension and Educated will let you max almost every skill by level 30 even with 4 Int (lowest before you are recognized an idiot in-game)
Agility, 5 minimum for perks, 6 if you use VATS a lot (Nerves of Steel perk). You need 9 to get an extra shot in VATS out of some high-end guns (along with 2x Action Boy/Girl) but of course that's only if you plan to use VATS a lot. If you do then 7 is fine, use your level 2 perk for +1 (not like there are better choices) then implant. Agility also noticeably affects reloading speed.
Luck is actually pretty good, but only because other stats suck anyway. Every 2 adds +1 to every skill besides the critical chance bonus. Note that an odd value gets the most out of the skill bonus, the quotient is probably rounded up. 5 is the minimum for perks, I recommend 6.

Note that every recommended "minimum" value is lower by 1 than the actual needed for perks because you're going to get implants. And if you're going to use guns, get the Cowboy perk at level 8.

Summary of best New Vegas build:

Fast Shot.
Shotgun Surgeon.
And Stay Back!
Riot Shotgun.

Spoiler

Link: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1895223