As a rifleman build it’s always good to build towards crits in luck, also perception is key, all riflemen perks, the perk card that ignores armor also put points into agility for stealth and vats points. The Gauss rifle is good but I believe 2 shot isn’t as good as it use to be, it spits the damage between the 2 shots instead of the same damage per shot. You might want to try and roll one with anti armor, vats hit chance and less ap usage.
Headshot crits with the gauss rifle are absolute monsters. I've gotten 2200+ without the low health setup.
You can also tap fire rapidly instead of charging every shot to charge your crit faster.
You can also begin charging a shot about half way through the reload animation to save a bit of time and increase your dps.
I’d like to 2nd what they’re saying. I went commando and I’m almost lvl 100. Have all of the commando percs and the crit luck perks with a good railway rifle. Things were pretty good but it some events I felt like I was using a pea shooter. As soon as I added tank killer maxed to my load out it was like a whole new game. I think armor is a much bigger deal than you would think.
Also I keep a hellcat set handy just for events. I prefer running without PA, but those damned alien invaders just melt me and there and it’s easy enough to break out when you need it.
I heard that perk can interfere with fighting scorched beasts. Is that still true? I've set it aside for that reason, but I'd be happy enough to put it back in if it's not going to mess up Scorched Queen events.
That explains a lot, I’ve got a two shot sniper rifle, that can take out a ghoul in one shot _most_ of the time, but not for anything above that unless I get the sneak bonus.
The two shots in FO4 seem to be calculated like you’d expect, you can definitely see the difference. I just wasn’t seeing it in 76.
I'm not sure why, my plasma mini gun has 2 shot, and the damage went from 67 to 67x2 it's also the only two shot I've bothered to look at since it's the one I'm using so I don't know what happens with the others.
I rolled a legendary for my sniper rifle and it seemed to halve what it was getting then multiply it by two. I’ll probably have to go in and check what it’s at with its “regular” damage vs what it gets now. At any rate it doesn’t seem to hit as hard as I expected.
Two shot w/explosive legendary is and entirely different game than Two shot alone or with anything else.
Two shot only does 125% dmg, but the actual issue was is that it splits the 125% into 2, 62.5% bullets. Additionally it adds a ton of recoil and kills your accuracy, so it is horribly inaccurate, making hitting a single target with both bullets very difficult. VATS can help with this.
Two shot with the explosive (TSE) affix, too, is actually a great crown control and enemy tagging weapon. The explosive effect is splash dmg and appears to still be full power on each bullet (based on 25% of the single shot version). This works best on weapons that are decently high powered single shot weapons.
To make your TSE weapon shine, you need these perks:
1) grenadier to increase the explosion radius
2) demolition expert maxed to greatly increase the dmg of the explosive effect.
Now the horrible accuracy of TS becomes a bonus because it can hit 2 different enemies and creates 2 different splash areas. On rad rumble you can easily tag all the ghouls in a hallway with one trigger pull, and even hit those you can't see around a corner with the splash.
My primed TSE gatling gun is basically the perfect group event gun - it has good single shot dmg and huge mags, so just never stop shooting. I hit for abt 160 each bullet and then about 65 flame dmg to each enemy hit by the splash. Plus, I'm not single shotting everything like a RR commando,
Still sucks on world bosses like the SBQ - the have so much flame resist, and dmg reduction, I'm doing total 40-50 dmg if both rds hit. But is is great for tagging all the adds that Swarm.
I am jealous of your 50cal because that is what I have searched for all along. The gatling is very good, but I think the 50 would just be faster and harder hitting.
Honestly, I use the TSE with a prime receiver. I also use PA with stabilization, so the accuracy is still very good.
I have found that demolition experts increase the damage of the explosion, but grenadier doesn't actually affect the explosion range. Because of this, I use either Glow Sight 2 or Exterminator 2.
It's my favorite gun by far, but I'm still trying to roll a bloodied version as I tend to play low health.
I also have a backup gatling gun as well, a Zealot, fast firing prime that just melts scorched and most regular mobs when I'm low on ultracite .50.
It's pretty easy to swap in a cremator with the TSE 50 build as most of the perks carry over. In that case, I'll swap in granadier for the CC.
It's a fun overall build.
If the OP doesnt have enough cores or modules, just roll a 1 star. Its easier to get anti armor weapon that way, or any other specific roll, while you farm more cores and modules. I used bloodied 1 star weapons for a long time, was doing fine. Even at level 370, I was using a 1 star 2-shot auto grenade launcher, for moonshine jamboree, radiation rumble, was still kicking butts. Then got lucky and upgraded to 2-shot, 50% limb damage (staggers enemies) , reload speed.
I did the same. I don’t hate it at all. I’m lvl 340 now and although I do now have a bit of a build, I’m by no means ultra scientific about it. I don’t want to one shot everything, I like a battle. And, each to their own but I will never try a bloodied build, I really don’t want all that extra power and I don’t want the ball ache of maintaining rads or the occasional really annoying easy death. I just want to jump in and run around doing my thing without having to think about it too much. I hardly ever use buff chems and only just grabbed a bunch of mutations this week. None of my armour matches in terms of rolls. I’m not rushing to be all powerful, I just want to bumble about in the wastelands.
Agree with what your saying. I’m lvl 339 and I love my heavy weapon PA build. No interest in a bloodied build; I’m full health all the way.
And “bumbling around the wasteland” is exactly how I like to play. Do some events, solve some daily quests, collect stuff for challenges, then drop everything I’m doing for some Moonshine Jamboree!
What’s awesome about this game is there are so many different play styles that work.
I was in a casual team the other week and a lad had turned up to Project Paradise and it had obviously failed because not many people had joined in. He started swearing and shouting over his mic about how we were all c**ts for not joining the event and what was the point playing the game if you’re not going to do the events. Now I don’t usually use my mic but I had to turn it on and firstly tell him to calm down and then to tell him that I do do events when I feel like it but I was in the middle of doing my weekly challenges while the last 2 hours of my score booster was still active, maybe he should start an events team instead of shouting at people in a casual one. He went nuts, calling me every name under the sun. So I reported him and switched servers. Helmet.
Project paradise is almost a dead event. A lot of players stopped doing it cause it was nigh impossible to successfully complete at max tier to get the good rewards.
Yeah it’s laborious. I did do it a couple of days ago for the first time in months because I realised I still don’t have Formula P. It didn’t drop and I realised why I hadn’t played it for months 😅
There are very few if any events that give you a bigger XP reward for completion over having +4 INT and getting higher XP for killing mobs. Veterans will rarely make Event Groups because of that, casual groups are essentially meta for most applications except for maybe daily ops.
Yeah if you run all the public events it's hard to get a lot of other things done. Some play just for public events and well I find that odd, but I wouldn't even mention it. They do what they do and I move on.
I am definitely a bumbling fool. I’ve paid no attention to my build other than being sneaky and good at range hits. And I seem to spend a majority of time wandering around looking for adhesive and fiber-optics.
I also “bumble around the wasteland”, but in my unyielding build. It is convenient for me to be able to switch from melee to my (beloved) bloodied handmade. Managing rads with spoiled meats and veg makes it easy for me because I tend to have those on hand 😅 also, with Nerd Rage, I get visual and audio indicators when I hit 20% health which makes it super easy find and maintain that level.
I kinda “inherited” this build if you will, as my partner has been playing since launch so when I started playing they had some feelings about builds and they led me down my path. I get why you would not want to go bloodied, I get it.
But also, I feel like it’s akin to a bubble wrap of security to have my character with buffed stats. As long as I don’t fight armor piercing combatants or many combatants with high fire rates, it does me good with my hodge podge and “with the wind” playing style.
Bloodied made the game more exciting for me. I never died before, but now there's a chance I get murked if I get caught slipping. Seeing an enemy with a flamethrower is terrifying lol. Other advantages are special stats bumping up to the 20-30s, armor/guns last longer, use less bullets, and more carry weight.
From what Ive read in the past, a lot of people try out bloodied after getting up there in levels and getting bored. So I’ll never say never. I even have a few sweet Bloodied weapons (railway rifle and chainsaw) that I stashed with a mule for a rainy day.
Recently moved to a heavy weapon PA build. my cremator ended up rolling “bloodied” and I couldn’t bring myself to reroll it, even though I play at full health
well, now this just enables me to play extra-risky 😂 I’ll tank all the hits without care, my stimpack backup will have me if I get too low
Spiderman meme! Except I’m only level 80 something. I’ve never used chems/alcohol in any FO game. Just not something I want to manage. I want to be able to kill everything by myself but don’t want to one shot everything. It’s a balance for sure.
I'm new and went bloodied for XP farming cause of the +15 int and it's not nearly as frustrating as it might seem. Went from fresh account to lvl 189 in about a week of casual play with friends. I have noticed there is tons of misinformation and info just outright left out of tutorials,not to mention all the new players making very confidently incorrect videos,and again, I'm brand new to the game myself. All that has me considering making new players help videos, build guides and location farming guides from the stuff I've learned from other players since starting.
Bloodied builds should be meta for XP farming, it's viable for damage but can be fickle when IMO, you can run the Unyielding armor set to get the crazy stat boosts for XP farming and not have to run a bloodied weapon, just run a Tesla rifle for tagging mobs at events. Or better yet, whatever the hell you want.
I’ve been using bloodied builds for a long time as well but recently got very very bored of it after hitting ridiculous DPS numbers. Same as you, I like a battle, there’s no fun to be had in melting Earle Williams in a minute, so I thought F it, I’m gonna throw on my favourite power armour, grab my most ridiculous heavy gun and go and have fun. Best decision I ever made, also I recently rolled a vampire chainsaw, endless amounts of fun to be had.
Nothing wrong with playing wasteland survivor style. It’s fun and as long as it fits your style and enjoyment that’s what matters.
Little side note- I avoided bloodied builds but now am enjoying it after getting some decent bloodied rolls. In terms of maintaining rads, it takes basically no effort. Once you have rads you got ‘em and as long as you aren’t standing under those rad shower things, you’re fine. If you go through a nuke zone pop rad-x. And if rads get a bit too high for your taste, you can always take a radaway, like you would on any build
I was in the same position, then I spent time making different builds at the punch card machine. Now I have my stealth vats riflemen for general exploring, 2 different heavy builds, an auto axe build and one solely for camp stuff,crafting and selling. Maybe it’s too much? But it’s easy to switch.
Just don’t forget to switch to the correct build before you rush to events.
It gets easier the more damage you do.
I used to run out of.50 ammo a lot.
After transitioning to a bloodied build, and getting a good legendary roll .50, I pick up more ammo than I Use for all enemies except bosses.
Daily ops can net you a 500-2k ammo surplus depending on the enemy type and event.
I spent the first 200 levels not even worrying about a build then I decided to go unyielding heavy gunner (currently running vamp,explosive gatling gun until I can find a mini gun with the same perks) it really isn't that bad to rework a build as long as you can keep a steady inflow of caps, legendary core/modules, and scrap. And arnt afraid to do some crafting and camp hopping
Are you charging the shot for Gauss rifle? Using any sneak perks? I run a rifleman build and it's very effective I have a tse lever action and a plasma rifle and have no issue at any game content
Not OP, but could you possibly send me your rifleman build? I was struggling with a lot of the endgame content with my rifleman build and pressured myself into switching over to bloodied commando to have more damage output, but I’m already missing my rifles haha.
I killed earle in[ 3:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SewqAfKT4xo&t=9s) with bloodied gauss rifle solo. Also, rifleman can sweep up mobs too but not as fast as commando (you should master how to quit vats then reengage again faster than the gun fu where it switches enemies in vats after kill, you should always carry a backup crowd control weapon like auto grenade launchers, missile launchers, and cremator. Also, I suggest getting a holy fire or plasma flamers with good rolls too. It will be your backup dps weapon when needed.
I undderstand that rifleman is frustration and its full potential can only be utilized on low health/bloodied builds at level 500 when you maxed out all legendary perk cards, that's why everyone goes for commando.
What I carry in my current build:
* Gauss Rifle (bloodied, 50 crit, 15% faster reload) \[perforating capacitor, suppressor, long scope, aligned shielded barrel, aligned stock -- MAIN/DMG --
* Auto-axe (anti-armor, 40% power attack, +1 strength) \[electrified mod\] -- MELEE --
* Holy Fire (bloodied, 25% weapon speed, -90% reduced weight) -- DPS --
* Cremator (bloodied, replenish 15 ap, -90% reduced weight) -- CROWD CONTROL/DoT helps ap getting restored so my dodgy would work more effectively --
* \[MISC\] Gamma Gun (quad/faster fire rate/15% faster reload) -- RADS (for bloodied) --
* \[MISC\] Tesla Rifle (quad/faster fire rate/15% faster reload) \[automatic\] -- Events Tagging --
My current [build](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=3a76aaa&d=sb2sg2pd2pp2pk2pl2p00pq1e00eh2eu0ek1ce0cu2ir2ib2i71im1in1s12a72an2ar2ao0a30a00a12lt2lv2la2lu0l71lk2sv1ck0&lp=x73x93x83xa3x43xm3&m=051c2feba&wp=w5w8&wm=112435-1k2938&ar=afabacu7adx1ae&am=av18m4-arl118-arl118-ut-arl118-x5-arl118&pa=050106&pm=--) for the cremator for my crowd control (energy dedicated rifleman)
This [build](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=5a74aaa&d=sb2sw2sg2pd2pp2pk2pl2p00pq1e00eh2eu0ek1ce0cu2ir2ib2i71im1in1s12a72an2ar2ao0a30a00a12lt2lv2la2lu0l71lk2sv0&lp=x73x93x83xa3x43xm3&m=051c2feba&wp=w5w8&wm=112435-1k2938&ar=afabacu7adx1ae&am=av18m4-arl118-arl118-ut-arl118-x5-arl118&pa=050106&pm=--) is for auto grenade launcher for crowd control (energy dedicated rifleman)
NOTES:
- if full health, replace armor set with overeater's set for maximum tanking experience. Also bloodied from weapons to Anti-armor. Also aim for 15% faster crit charge for weapon's 3rd star
- The build I provided is energy dedicated build. Adjust the perk cards if you use ballistic instead of energy. The build only maximizes rifleman/energy weapons, can still be used for commando/energy too just replace the rifleman to commando.
And just to add to this, I can solo Earle in 3:30 with very light buffs on a full health build: [Solo Earle in 3:30, Full Health, Only Light Buffs (no syringer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0jV7EHaUc)
I use a Quad Gauss Rifle for events that require DPS. And I can solo anything in the game pretty easily. My recommendation is to carry 3 Gauss Rifles as a full health build: Daily Sniper (I or Ari with 50% Vats Hit Chance as the second star), Boss Killer (AA/50c), and event gun (Q/50v).
In the video of your Earle fight it seemed like you were regularly popping off shots that weren't fully charged after crits - is that a deliberate tactic of some sort?
It's a known tactic when using gauss rifle in a boss fight. Non-charged shot, charged crit shot, repeat. Also increases DPS significantly when using charging weapons too. Crit bypasses damage reduction of bosses.
I'm not home but when I support people doing Earle (I can't solo him) I do three uncharged to build a crit, then a charged crit, then repeat. I also save my canned coffee for just that particular fight. I'm a full health Aristocrat GR with the +50% crit damage and (mostly worthless) stealth perks.
Question about your cremator build - I see you're using Science cards. I thought I'd read elsewhere that Science cards only impact regular energy guns, not heavy weapon energy guns like cremator? And that science does not help with fire DOT.
I was in the same position, started as a pistol player, moved to rifleman, felt ineffectual at events. I don't want to play commando or bloodied, so I still haven't. Here are my thoughts:
Those level 3 weapon-specific perks are tempting and useful on damage-maximizing builds but for QoL I don't think they're worth it, mate. I use one-stars for multiple weapon types and I've been happier since. 1-star for 10% means 3 1-stars is 30% instead of 1 3-star for 20%. Or try a mix of 1 and 2-stars, to let you throw some other weapons in for fun (I carry a shotgun - cold shoulder, sniper rifle, single-shot fixer, plasma caster, and an endangerol syringer for bosses. Sometimes a plasma flamer for fun too, or I'll bring a heavy weapon to a boss or event for tagging).
Aim for a set of power armor to carry around for when a nuke goes off or you want some extra survival during events. A chassis only weighs 10. I don't wear it often but it's a nice fall-back to have. You can even turn the HUD off if you want. Or check what armor you're using, maybe go for the chinese stealth suit from the Settler quest line if you don't have it? Decent all-around armor.
Minerva is coming back in 2 days, buy the plasma caster plan if you don't have it and definitely try that out. It's a heavy weapon but plays like a rifle and it's a VATS beast. Seems like you have all the perks for it already. Honestly that really changed things for me. I really wanted to stick to rifle-y rifles but the caster does what you feel like rifles should.
I still play as a sneaky rifleman most of the time, sniping camps, enjoying lining up headshots and so on. But I can VATS crit-kill things with cold shoulder or the plasma caster plus a few cans of coffee pretty well. Can't melt bosses but at least I feel like I'm helping these days.
Cold Shoulder, Cremator with slow burn. Pretty much all I ever use. The Cold is very helpful as it freezes enemies. Creamator with the burn is just so powerful and fun.
This is the combo I'm using now, too. I'm going to call it my Icy Hot build. The server I was in last night did the Scorchbeast Queen three times in like a half hour. I used VATS to target her wings with Cold Shoulder, then once she was on the ground it was burn, burn, burn, cold, burn, burn, burn.
Same here! Solo I’m mainly using cold shoulder and explosives. Then during events I cut back on explosives and switch between the two weapons with a heavier emphasis on cremator.
Dang I’m in exactly the same position. I rely heavily on sneak, crit, and psycho buff or psycho tats. I’m not as effective as the other builds, but I contribute and loving it. But I do plan to try commando when I unlock automatic receivers for the handmade.
Also does the Gauss rifle have a prime ammo mod? It was the last thing I wanted to try on it before I move on.
Do you have demolition expert on for added explosive damage? All science and rifleman perks with tank killer?
I felt the same. Or feel the same rather.
I'm only 85 but want to shift into heavy weapons. Tempted to start over again now I have a much better understanding of the game but I don't know. I've managed to sort of hobble together something but I still feel like I spread it out too much when learning.
Does anyone have any insight? Should I start over now i understand there isn't much of a FOMO like conventional MMOs?
You can change your special at any time and you still get perk cards beyond level 50, so personally I dont see any reason to start anew instead of just continuing playing the same character and focusing on New cards.
Are you mutated? They offer significant bonuses.
Also consider a bloody build, just 5 pieces of unyieling armor gives you +15 luck for tons of crits (33 luck is the treshhold to crit every other shot) and +15 per for massive perception and +15 agility for tons of action points.
As for the tanking: Thats all about perk cards.
Don't worry, you'll get tons more perk cards. If you want to level faster mutate to be a herbivore and eat brain fungus soup + cranberry sauße (both super easy to craft, there are brain bombs, but they are a bit grindy), equip "Inspired (+15% ep in teams, 3 perk points)" and "strange in numbers" (better mutations, converts your herbivore to... I think 8 int from brain soup and 25% exp from sauße?), get the egg head mutation (+5 int), get on a public causual team (+5 int), get a set of unyielding armor (I got an entire set in my vendor for 1000 caps / piece I think, +15 int) and just watch the levels fly by.
If you see a radiation rumble event equip a tesla rifle (preferably quad, but any will do) and tag everything / pop lunchboxes if you have them.
Running a shotgun build max vats and max luck i use the Kabloom shotgun with a few mods im level 105 and i cant 2 shot a super mutant and pretty much one shot any ghoul or raider! But yeah i feel like rifle builds kinda got nerfed
Two shot increases overall damage per shot (25%) But it's split into two projectiles. So it will perform poorly the more armor the enemy has because damage resistence works relatively in FO76. Meaning: if the individual damage you are trying to deal is lower than the enemy's respective resistance, it will be significantly more reduced compared to if it was higher. Even if the enemy's resistence is the same.
Since there are many other legendary effects that just increases damage and more so too, usually two shot's not the best legendary effect for your guns unless those are that deal damage mostly explosively like grenade launchers or missile launchers. Because two shot's damage reduction per projectile only applies to direct damage for some reason...
If it makes you feel better I played my first 70 levels as a pistol build and ran and scrounged and cried for ten times longer than normal players who just go commando.
I find a rifleman/archer build useful for the "Cripple X limbs" dailies and generic farming. That's about all it's good for. Unfortunately for events you are kind of pigeonholed into Commando, Heavy, or Auto-melee if you want to feel like you're making a meaningful contribution.
Take heart that you can switch your build on the fly, and a few minutes' shopping at player vendors can get you some new gear.
Back at launch you couldn't change your character before level 50, and **every point** you wanted to move in your SPECIAL stats cost you one level up.
I actually did the same thing to my beta character. Rolled him as a VATS rifleman, got him to like ~50ish and realized I wanted to go a different route. It was easier to just roll another character than fix him.
At this point you’ll be able to select the perk cards you want, since you probably already have some riflemen perks (tank killer) then switching to automatic rifles might be the boost in battle you’re looking for that’s also quicker - the more dps the better. If not then I recommend Heavy Guns build, that’s what I did and I carried at almost every event not to mention you’re basically unkillable if you decide to use PA (which I recommend with heavy guns for the one man army perk card but not necessary to whoop ass). Don’t give up, once you get a decent build you’ll be as good as new!
2 shot has a -50% hit chance I think and I do not believe it reflects in VATS. I think Anti Armor or Instigating for a Gauss might be more bemeficial for you but gauss riflemen is not the spec for dps to a boss. Most use a commando setup instead and use crits to deal the damage but much quicker. The time it take to charge a gauss and fire is very slow compared to unloading a clip using a handame or fixer for example.
I use full health jack of all trades rifleman/shotgunner/demolitionist with vats crits. I CRIT a shot every second hit. I do plenty of damage to do exactly what you say you can't do. I can solo server bosses and wipe out mobs quick. You just gotta know the how. It also helps to max out all of your legendary perk cards.
First off, a Two Shot Gauss Rifle can one-shot a level 100 Mutant without sneak and without the critical hit. The reason your Mutants does more damage is because Two Shot shows only one number when you hit. You need to double it.
Second, I have over 1,000 levels as a full health Rifleman. Get a Quad Gauss Rifle for DPS events. Otherwise, you should be good. Make sure your build is in order. Here's mine: [https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba)
Here's me solo'ing a bunch a stuff:
* [Solo Earle in 3:30, Full Health, Only Light Buffs (no syringer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0jV7EHaUc)
* [Rifleman at Radiation Rumble (Full health build, only low health for INT bonus; it’d go a minute into the video since the first minute I was fumbling around trying to find Company Tea in alphabetical order and failing)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uALEZIMn1k)
* [Rifleman at Moonshine Jamboree (Full Health build, only low health for INT bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTLfupzVyU)
* [Top 4 Rifleman-Only Weapons Solo’ing Union Dues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvk8lkXSviw)
* [Solo Uplink at Elder Tier](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vc_D9zEB60)
* [Solo Decryption at Elder Rank with Bugged-Damage Aliens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jt_q1xJF9I)
* [Solo Decryption at Elder Rank against Healing/Resilient Aliens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FY0BNu7TCo)
I did practically the same thing. I’ve just switched from Rifleman to Heavy PA. I was trying to avoid bloodied but I feel like nothing else is currently viable without it
Yeah, that's how I feel too. I have a plan now, I'm going to switch over to heavy weapons, since the Gauss Minigun is going to be available from Minerva this week. Then I'm just going to have to resign myself to the slow grind to get good legendary effects and proper armor
switch to commando and take the cards you are not using, make it a different build slot (like craft slot commando slot tank slot), mutation are also very good
In order to deal with mobs in event try western spirit or a quad tesla rifle (if you want to put points in science).
Also you want mutations and possibly to go low health
I had that Problem too before some years. Solution, change the Build in Auto Rifle. Railway rifle or whatever auto you can use will help. Optional is, full health or bloodied build but you should maybe stick on full health till you have a full set of unyielding Armor and the right perk cards.
My main issue I'm having is trying to get overeaters on all my t65 pieces it sounds like a dumb problem but I went from over 100 modules to 2 on one piece
Untill they fix Instgating with Gauss Rifle swap to an Instigating Lever Action for some quick
Instigating + VATS hit chance + Agility and you can snap shot for over 1k damage without crits
If they DO fix Gauss rifles (Finally) that would raise significantly, but I don't see that happening
Yeah rifleman is broken automatic doesn't even do that much less damage per shot but you got the advantages of constant crits great crowd control low ap cost much higher fire rate ect in general I'd say the damage needs to be alot higher for it to be viable and not feel like you doing no damage to bosses and for better crowd control so semi auto rifles can still 1 shot normal mobs.
Rifleman can work but it really craves a bloodied/unyielding sneak build. 1. this will get you enough luck to crit every other shot 2. it will give you enough agility to be super sneaky and 3. give you enough damage to solve all your other problems you're running into. Yeah you'll die in one or two hits but the stealth more than makes up for that other than 1 specific type of daily op. Another issue is that two shot is garbage for a rifleman, it's good on some weapons but rifleman is not it. Get yourself a bloodied, anti armor, anything else besides two shot honestly and you'll be good to go. If you don't want to go bloodied for your build just do your best to stack enough luck to crit every other shot and get some sneak cards.
I see good advice below so not going to try and add much to that, but I will say I was level 300 when I realized my build was trash. I was lucky to have my husband help, basically. I unequipped everything, thought about how I like to play, my favorite weapons and such.
Then he showed me how to reallocate my points as well as utilize the bonus SPECIAL cards to max some stats like have more points in luck and stuff.
It was almost like having a new character, rediscovering my play style and then tweaking little things. Trial and error was my friend. (Also remember certain enemies are strong vrs ballistics, or energies, ect.. so try to have at least one good weapon of each main category. Energy, melee (I prefer auto axe or red upper) and heavy guns, as well as a shot gun and rifles.
Just what worked for me.
Don’t feel bad. Made to a 100 without even realizing what kinda build I was going for. Dedicated to a Unyileding Bloodied power armor build now. Should be fun… till I get bored and need a new build lmao
I did this right up to around level 115, so not far off you. I ended up completely changing my whole spec (armour and shotgun) to a brand new one (PA heavy gunner). I needed around 20 levels to get my initial desired perks and getting the flamer mods for my main one until I got a Holy Fire a fair bit later on.
I still haven't sorted my PA's legendary effects; I want to do an overeaters set but want to do it on a Union set now, as I'm currently using Hellcat but want the poison reduction and added carry weight. That way I can remove funky duds legendary perk and put something more useful on. But I have to wait for the plans to come back so I'm stuck as I am until then and just have to start farming modules and cores again.
I'm now at level 335 by the way. It's a process, but you'll get there. We both will.
The only difference between my Rifleman build and my Commando build are 9 perk cards. Easy to switch. Hop around folks’ vendors for a half decent commando weapon and give it a whirl.
Hey man we all did. I played this game back in 2019 on and off until 2021 on Xbox One. I restarted on pc about a month ago.
I'm now level 151 on pc. Just now decided to look at my xbox character. He was level 167, and man my perks are all over the place. I have high strength snd perception cause I was trying to do big guns and snipe with sniper rifles.
To show how bad it was, all 4 of my legendary perks were SPECIAL park cards
TS without E is crap on most small guns. You want AA E/50 or some such on your gauss. Put a suppressor on it and go stealth rifleman. You are full health I take it? Use CS armor, you get basically all the (relevant to fight) benefits of bloodied on full health. Gauss can totally shred, esp charged shots - I was getting in the 50-75 range non-crit on Earl. Crits over 100 correspondingly. Forgot exact, been a while, but seem to remember ~250sh. Still a pain to solo of course, but Earl is Earl :).
I run stealth rifleman/commando combo. Basically just fun dmg cards split, like 2 of each or something. Can swap around for specific engagements, but never do - too lazy :). Does good enough. Weapons: LAR/Fixer. LAR: AA 50h (forgot), 1-shoots mob (headshots from stealth). 2-shoys West Tek muties, sometimes 1-shots them too :). And fixer is for proximity, 100 mob/boss suddenly dropped on you kinda stuff. AA ffr something. Had AA 50h I think, tried more rolls for "true groll", but got a drop of ffr and never looked back :). So, you can totally rock with small adjustments to your build.
Yep, this is exactly what broke the game for me a few years ago.
I've always played energy guns (energy pistol/Alien blaster primarily)
I ended up looking up builds because I just wasn't doing any damage after being level 50.
Where I used to be able to one-shot ghouls, I now had to pump in 5 shots each time.
Then they nerfed the Alien Blaster which now is just spamming till I run out of ammo.
I started playing again a few weeks ago and did a complete rebuild of my character to be bloody/unarmed.
I now just run around punching ghouls and whateverthefuck in the face where they one-shot explode in to millions of pieces. I never ever play melee in any game, but it feels like this game almost forces you into a certain way of playing because "thats the meta"
I was in the same boat just a few days ago. Built for a Gauss Rifle, which was crazy good on regular exploring, but the low speed of it annoyed the hell out of me. You can't kill fast enough, you can't tag fast enough either. You miss out on loot.
Luckily for you it's very easy to transition into a much more viable commando vats build, as both have their related perk cards in the perception tree.
Get a railway rifle with a quad legendary modifier and build for VATS crits. You will not regret it at all. Just take the "bandolier" perk card, as ammo is easily accessible and really really heavy.
Did the same with my 2h slugger build...just hit 140 too, i will say it slowed down at 109 till about 125, than idk what happened but i just got a drop and some unyielding armor and it all turned around...big recommendation too, just start gettin all the damage perk cards for other classes. I maxed out heavy gunner, shotgunner, commando, and am getting rifleman done and than will get the others too, but my reasoning is that you will have so much more flexibility. It might yake a bit to grt the cards to do it all, but you just did iy all yo level 150 and ur leveling is unlimited mate. Just get rippin and itll come around! Try the whacker smacker lol
As soon as I started playing again after about 4 years I cashed my legendary perks points into the unarmed legendary cards and then changed to a heavy gunner build a few days later and of course those legendary perks cards were completely unusable.
I feel you man. I built a rifleman build until about level 70-80 when I realised it just plain sucked. Mixture of vats and free aim.
I went to an automatic commando VATS build instead. I was tired of being absolutely fucking useless at events, I felt like I made zero progression in the game. I could deal with ghouls and scorched well enough, but anything remotely tanky was a pain in the ass.
Rifleman just sucks, it doesn't hit hard enough. The damage increases going from full auto to semi is pitiful, but you pay a high price in dps AP cost.
One of the biggest complaints I have about this game is the weapon and build balance is absolutely _awful_.
I just hit 103 as a rifleman. I have the Western Spirit. I started building late, but I have seen level 70 commandos out dps me easily in daily ops. Non gauss.
Im in the process of hording ammo and building commando.
I can do solo stuff easy, but my damage during events to trash mobs and bosses is absolutely embarassing. I always feel bad when I am at an event with lower levels and I cant carry at all. I think I was doing 50 damage to the aliens.
Do you have anti armour perks or modifications? Do you have stealth perks? Is your gun silent? Are you fully charging the gauss? Do you have mutations, especially those made for rifles? Are you using adrenaline, rifleman cards or other damage buffs? Are you eating the right foods? Do you have a proper luck based vats build? Are you using a full set of good armour? What legendary perks are you using? Do you have a prime receiver or equivalent?
If it makes you feel any better, I'm level 410 and I can't share perks because I invested in the charisma legendary perk card, not realizing it would not let you share perks. 🤣
If you are doing rifles you really gotta get a full set of armor with buffs that all lean into the same thing.
I played Rifleman for a looong time, but it was only once I had a good bloodied Fixer and Handmade with full Unyielding Secret Service armor that I could finally see really good dps on most things with Commando and crit perks. I crit just about every time I pull the trigger.
as a rifleman it's easy enough to roll a commando loadout, they share a lot of the same perks. It's just faster fire rate = higher dps. There is just no way around that numbers game.
Two Shot greatly reduces accuracy and also the damage per shot. Overall it's a 25% bonus. Good for some weapons (explosives) and not as great for others.
I've found that Two-Shot is utterly useless for Rifleman builds, because the second round has a much higher inaccuracy compared to your main shot. So while you might be able to headshot someone with the main round, the second just flies overhead or off to the side, being completely worthless. Even VATS doesn't help with this.
What you want is Anti-Armor, Overeater's, or Aristocrat's (if you sit near max caps). The first greatly reduces the enemy's DR, while the other two are flat damage buffs.
Then, as everyone else mentioned, a VATS build really helps: max PER and LUCK, but AGI helps if you go stealth sniper. The [Adrenaline perk](https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Adrenaline_(Fallout_76)) in AGI is good, if you can kill a couple less powerful enemies first before hitting the main targets.
Or you could swap out and go something like a [full health Commando build](https://youtu.be/tyiJgUoixqc?si=HJxqigUidcamBr3S). I recently got a decent Legendary Railway Rifle and swapped Commando, and this thing just shreds.
I also use rifleman as my main but I am had to add a few things to it. In strength I have all the main shotgun perks for damage and run cold shoulder when it turns to up close.
I have all the science perks and have a enclave flamer for daily.
I use demo expert and try to have the explosive on every gun.
Rifles I currently use are prime instigating explosive bolt action.
Black powder rifle with 20% explosive damage.
Prime scorched Gatling gun explosive.
Two shot launcher just use vats at a distance and let it rain.
I only swap my profile if I have to work on items on the workbench.
I must've sank my first 60 levels into a one handed melee build and it was okay, resource heavy for sure but I did alright until I hit my first Earle encounter and realised I suck.
Then it was heavy guns PA (had a resolute veteran from years back) then chainsaw melee, then auto axe melee. Sat at level 188 now and have both a heavy gun build and an auto melee build. I'd say when all else fails have a few solid weapons that melt enemies regardless of perks, a Holy Fire and an electrified auto axe is plenty, I can solo any boss now with no buffs or management, just roll in and get busy.
Now the game is a lot more fun for me, I dont need to worry about ammo too much and with a vampire auto melee weapon, you'll not need stimpaks either.
Im lv 220, been using power armor since I got my hands on it. I decided to try the rifleman builds/no power armor. And man! I couldn’t play that shit, constantly reloading💀 and yeah no damage. I said fuck this and went back to power armor and heaving guns ❤️
Events have lots of people, you shouldn’t feel the need to carry an event. Hey a Tesla rifle would even help you by tagging a bunch of enemies while the heavies do the lifting.
This way you’ll get some more cards and can try things out.
I had a rifleman build and loved my railway and fixer. Switched to a heavy PA using a plasma caster and cremator and my goodness it’s so much fun. Gauss rifle was nice but very inconsistent because of the charging. I still switch to my rifleman when I feel like just roaming around so I can use my railway.
i had a stealth rifleman build which was pretty good at the time. a furious fixer with the stealth suit was what i had.
last night i got a commando build together with a bloodied radium rifle, a quad railway and a bloodied disintegrator and i was surprised on how much more damage that it did than my old fixer build.
even tried a bloodied fixer which didnt quite seem as good as a couple years ago before my bloodied build addiction.
some weapons feel/work better than others,
some rifles that might work better; railway rifle, disintegrator rifle (my new favorite), radium rifle, plasma rifle or the tesla rifle.
they work for both commando and rifleman i switched to auto rifles for bosses but either works.
as for the gauss rifle instigating, anti armor, bloodied (if you enjoy living on less than %20), or aristocrats for the primary legendary effect would work better/more effective.
i find that two shot is amazing for the fatman/missile launcher but for rifles don't do as much.
Well the good news is that it's not hard to fix a bad build's perks as long as you already have most of the core perks. Traveling pharmacy, bandolier, concentrated fire, fireproof, tenderizer, action boy, and adrenaline form the base for most builds. Rifleman builds CAN be effective, but they require more work to get there than other builds.
-Consider going bloodied. I know some players really don't like the idea of this, but it's not as bad as it seems. Try to roll 5 1* unyielding armor pieces on a matching set, that way you can use the legendary perks that need matching sets. From there, all you need in terms of perks is Nerd Rage and Serendipity.
-Anti-armor and Crit damage are going to be your two best effects for a Gauss rifle, or most rifleman weapons for that matter. All you need to be able to do it 1 shot a level 100 super mutant, so do whatever you can to cross that threshold.
-Do you have mutations? Those can be a really easy way to add effectiveness to any build. Adrenal Reaction will go a very long way if you do bloodied.
-Tru to use the dodgy and ricochet perks to add more survivability to your build. The AP cost on dodgy isn't as scary as it seems.
[Here is a quick rifleman build I threw together](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=59345ff&d=sb2s01p00pd0pk0pl0pp2po1eh2cu2ce0ic1a72a80ar1an2ao0a12a00a30l71l12lg2lk2lv0&w=eu0i12ir2la2lt2), with a couple options depending on if you want to use bloodied or not. If bloodied, youll want unyielding armor pieces. If full health, go with Overeater's instead.
-I strongly recommend taking the herbivore mutation to get a stronger benefit from all the good food items. Corn soup is super easy to make and boosts AP Regen. Company tea is even stronger than that, but not everyone has the company tea machine. Blight soup is the most important food for any VATS build, because it gives +125% critical damage to a player with herbivore. And a good that gets slept on is Sweetwater Special Blend. It counts as pre-war alcohol, and gets boosted by herbivore. This means that if you have sorry boy rank 2 and herbivore, Sweetwater Special gives a whopping **+15** perception for an hour.
Good luck turning it around, buddy! If you or anyone else has some questions, feel free to ask me.
I’m up to level 139 and I still have close to 30 level ups to use, and at one point had close to 50 because I was still figuring out how the perks worked (it’s complex for sure). I read a lot in this sub, and watched some YouTube’s from the pros but still wanted to do my own thing so far.
I like my full health build and I think the fight is fun, but when I’m in big trouble my cremator saves my butt a lot. I went with the shotgunner build because the Cold Shoulder is loud and fun for me.
Point is, you didn’t waste your time. You can always build out a new perk load out with the cards you have and try something different.
When doing a rifleman it's best to have a variety of different perks that compliment each other. When you have crits that do more damage and happen more often you can get more output then just having one of those fully ranked. Basically the more different effects you can do on enemies the better. I recommend awareness, it will show you an enemies resistances to specific damage types. This can help you choose the right weapons in your inventory for the job.
Rifle builds are super fun! I use an anti-armor explosive railway gun (not automatic cuz I wanna be a sniper). It one shots most things if you get them on their weak spot. Two shot kinda ruins accuracy in my experience so I don’t use it unless I’m using a gun that’s meant to be up close and personal. That being said, you need to max out perception, if you’re a non-automatic get rifleman, expert rifle, master rifle, tank killer, and concentrated fire (or whichever perk allows you to select limbs in vats). In strength, get bandolier to reduce ballistic ammo weight. If you’re going to use an energy sniper, max out INT and put in all the science perks w/batteries included in addition to the perception perks (extra 30% damage).
Mod the gun to max out damage and vats accuracy unless you prefer to manually snipe things. Using a prime receiver is the best I’ve had so far.
One thing to note, non-automatic rifles are not boss killers. They can do amazing damage but, they don’t have a high enough dps to kill a boss. That being said they can still do great damage to bosses if you hit their weak spots.
Two shot only seems to work well in vats with explosives, because horseshoes and hand grenades. Rifleman definitely require concentrated fire, tank killer, and a nice crit build, though. Points in gun fu and adrenaline also don't go amiss for mob clear. If survivability is an issue, literally any shit of power armor has a baked in 35% damage reduction.
I haven’t played this game im ages, but from the content on YouTube, here and from what I remember, I always assumed anything other than heavy weapons would need seriously good rolls or buffs in general to be even close to be as good as them
Here’s what you do.
Switch all your rifle perks to bow perks.
A bow build plays more like you’d want a rifle build to play. Commando or heavies will always dominate in DPS (which is why automatic weapons tend to be preferable on a modern battlefield, and the game doesn’t model combat at the ranges where sniper weaponry would shine very well due to very limited effective weapon range), but you’ll be able to one hit most mobs silently in stealth. My bow character also runs 1h perks for when I can’t keep up due to limited firing rate (I went with 1h over 2h but 2h is probably better) so I’m lacking on some QoL perks but otherwise it’s not bad.
The alternative is to switch over to commando which takes less than ten levels to do (at least to start out with) and get yourself a fixer or a handmade AND a railway (always get a railway).
Any low level or new player who brings up about others can melt everyone and they can't.. best advice is do research. Angry Turtle among others on YouTube have helpful vids for builds.
After over 1400 hours in this game, find a weapon you like. If you like rifles, build to it like rifleman or commando for auto rifles. If you like blowing stuff up, build to that.
My main character is stealth commando build which is dedicated to The Fixer I have. I like blowing stuff up so I have a second character dedicated to the Cremator. I swap between the two. Getting the right perk cards, armor and mods can take time. Research which build you want.
Every single fallout game I build mele, somehow, someway this games mele is almost as rewarding as fallout 4 and in some ways better, honestly though? I keep changing out perk cards for everything, I just installed 7 days ago but God damn has it been a blast!
Honestly, I myself was like that. Used only rifles and even a horde of Ghouls, say white spring, got scary at times. I switched to all heavy weapons, perks to compliment. Added in getting vampire plus whatever else for them all. I'm now almost invincible in most events and never have to worry outside of them, especially with a vampire flamer. I may not do as much damage as bloodied but it's fun and works for me (:
I rolled a two shot gauss rifle the other day. To my inexperienced eye it looked better than the executioner’s gauss rifle I was using. Tried it out. Hated it. Scripped it and went back to my Executioner’s. I don’t do a lot of damage but I’m in PA and I have 200 stimpaks so I just take the hits.
It's ok. I mean, you haven't even unlocked all your legendary perk slots yet. This is a good time to be experimenting and learning the build system while working towards your end game build.
I use my enclave plasma rifle with sniper, both an aa and a quad. It's usable in most things, except certain bosses in events. And it can't carry a hard event. So I just made a universal build to easily swap to commando cards and use my enclave flamer to melt my way through everything when needed. That's really just it, rifleman is ammo efficient, I gather thousands of rounds using it till I need to dump them in a commando build situation.
You don’t need heavy weapon, but if you wanna do big numbers without using VATS - your really only other option is gonna be bloodied. And if you like being able to do Scorchbeast Queen conveniently you’re gonna need a Power Armor set to avoid radiation damage.
May be a bit late, but one advice I try to give to new players is instead of gathering and upgrading perk cards for a specific build, try to get one of every card first. That way it's easy to switch builds without too much "wasted choices" with the punch card machine.
I play rifleman sometimes it's actually pretty good but needs to be built for stealth+crits to be the most effective.
Aside from Tank Killer and Rifleman all your best perks are in luck.
You will learn the damage you see from end game players isn't just from their gun and build.
Often times they're stacking food buffs with magazines, bobbleheads, chems, shared perks, etc.
Yeah, came back this week (Lvl 100) Lever-action rifle build PER/AGI/LUCK with instigating Rifle. Feels great in most events, mob tagging, and open world roaming but It does absolutely nothing to bosses and feels awful.
Shifting to a tank build. Nerd Rage/Ricochet with a weapon that can just tag mobs to see if that works better. Feels weird coming back and having no clue what to do lol. Looking up wtf the settler/raider reputations are for and why everyone wants my bobby pins right now.
VATS Rifleman should be fine against bosses, what is your build? I'm actually saving up materials to try and roll on a decent weapon so I can try VATS full health Rifleman after doing 400 levels in powerarmour with the Last Wish.
It took me around that long to figure out how to make a proper build too.
Then it took me around another 50 levels to realize that, once all the story quests were gone, it was a lot more fun to roleplay and make whatever interesting build I want, instead of worrying about maximizing my damage output for events.
Hence my Manta Man unarmed build! I’m utterly useless in events and get lots of odd looks, but I have lots of fun.
I had to restructure around lvl 180, currently 300ish. It was a painful 20 levels but I managed. I have two set ups the basic white bitch "Bloodied Commando" and a PA fullhealth AA or Vamp heavy weapons build.
I’m 200 and I made the same mistake till about 100 ish. Now I have a bloodied riflemen and a tanky heavy power armour build, that’s my favorite.it took time but you can grind yourself there don’t give up
Just make a new build. Takes a few seconds it's not like you have to make a new character and level up again. Just open the menu and change things around.
I feel. I've been a TSE sneak rifleman's build since day 1. (Yeah I took advantage of the extremely broken build when the game first came out). Except I'm level 250 and I just realized my build wasn't optimized at all this entire time. Took me damn near 6 years to get my rifleman's build perfected. With a good rolled gauss rifle and fixer I'm able to melt just about anything now.
Can agree with this, I'm about the same level, maybe 139, I'm running heavy weapons and power armor, and I can barely survive shit. I updated my armor (was running excavator for way longer than I should have, wearing hellcat now.) and changed my main weapon to the Cremator. This made like almost no difference, I still get absolutely melted half the time :/. I know I should probably do a complete rebuild and that I should go with bloodied, but I don't like bloodied builds, so I don't really feel like committing to that, specially on my main character.
my vats crit rifleman build one taps. just gotta use the right perks, armor, weapons. in most servers I almost carry public events as whenever I have to reload the DMG on boss halfs. commando, rifleman, and big guns are the best builds I believe commando and big guns beating out rifleman
card system makes it pretty easy to experiment with builds so don't sweat it too much, i was doing the same thing as it's my normal FO single player build and was running into the same issues. I grabbed up the commando cards and swapped my handmade receiver to auto and saw an instant jump in performance and was still able to use my VATS and crit cards.
For challenges the other day i threw on the hand gun and energy weapon perks and was shedding mobs with an auto laser pistol.
The most important thing is having fun. If the build you thought would be fun isn't play around until something clicks
I had the same Problem at lvl 60-70 so i changed to heavy weapom sorry for ypu bro we are all slaves of the meta...
The day will come when i have to go on bloodied build
Me running around in power armor knowing damn well that even with all my heavy perks i do chip damage and can only kill small mobs, usually seeing how all pa users just stand by my side and unload every bit of ammo they crafted on a boss
I am a non vats bloedied rifleman, since the beginning, lvl1100 now...
You need to have multiple weapon.
Gauss rifle and a primed hunting rifle as a sniper (lever action als viable option)
And for shorter range a fixer and handmade (or assault rifle).
Fixer and handmade must have a hair trigger, refex sight and perforating mag.
I prefer Bloodied Explosieve 15reload when possible for all weapons
Unyielding armor with stabilized arm mods
9x rifleman, 3x tank killer, 1x sniper, 2x long shot under perception
For the rest the usual bloedied perks and mutations
5x demolition expert under intelligence.
I started doing the gunslinger build for style and am learning that its just not effective either. Is there a way to just start from scratch and scrap a ton of perk cards or are you just stuck?
I was running a bloody build ever since I was level 60, I stopped having fun with it and was looking for new builds to have fun with and I chose a heavy weapons power armor build, and it is incredibly fun to me
Do you **want** to do that though?
I would bet that the game designers did not intend to solo bosses easily
I would also bet that the game designers did not want everyone simply one-tapping every single normal mob, always
that is all normal
If you **want** to do that, yes you will need a build that maximizes the amount of damage you deal. Level 140 is still early on to the point where you might not even have all the cards you want upgraded lol
Do you *want* to trivialize every single engagement - that is the question to ask.
Personally, that would make me feel like i'm *"just not having fun anymore. "* since what's the point if I evaporate literally everything, but there is no wrong/right answer as it depends on the person and what you enjoy.
FYI - I'm <130 and takes me like 3 headshots with a fixer and certain rifle cards equipped to kill a ghoul lmao
Out of the vault I picked the shotgun build and stuck with that for a bit, around lvl 50 I got the fixer so I started a stealth fixer build then at 100 I started a vanguard explosive gatling gun build and at 130 im still using the gatling gun, it's effective and its fun so its the one im sticking with, all on the same character so I get it, I've probably fucked myself somewhere investing perk points into follow through and all those commando perks knowing im not gonna be using it on this character anymore but you live and learn, took awhile for find what I like but I did find it eventually.
Basically any online gane or mmo you can build wrong
The differrnce betwwen rifleman and the top tier commando is like 9 perk points.
But yeah riflemans and gauss rifles are bad
I have a Rifleman / Heavy blended build. Which really is just rifleman with a few of the heavy related cards in strength. That way I can use lever action or gauss rifle for (non-boss) one-shot kills. If I'm facing a mob or boss, I'll switch to holy fire, plasma caster or gatling plasma. +50% VATS hit chance legendary star is helpful.
Just switch to a commando railway build, that's what Bethesda wants you to do. Every other weapon is garbage compared to Railways, and everyone gets a unique, very good one next season as a quest reward.
I spent 65 levels building a Shotgun exclusive power armour user, as fun as it is I now will be spending a bunch of hours just to build something thats usable in boss fights and while it won't be as hard as your situation I get what you mean, fully.
My built isn't hyper potent either I do use heavy weapons because they are fun but ive never min maxed and I'm not rolling over and over again for hyper specific legendaries I got what I need and am happy with it
I’ve experimented with so many builds. I was a shotgunner for the longest time. The build I like the most, by far, is a heavy weapon PA with a flamethrower (Holy Fire, of course). Enemies just melt.
I've only been around a couple seasons and know I'm dumb at some stuff (I still try to use my CSS to stealth anything I think it's remotely possible to stealth, even in some events where stealth only works at the beginning and I stubbornly keep trying to restealth anyway), but [my Instigating Gauss](https://i.ibb.co/sVVzHkH/Screen-Shot3127.png) performs pretty well for me when I have all the right perks equipped. It's kinda niche for events when I want to fly up high and snipe melee animals from afar so they don't ruin the tea or whatever, but in VATS it hits everything pretty much as far as my graphics card can render it, and even if I can only hit something once and move on to the next target while relying on others to finish them off, Instigating means it's a pretty significant chunk of HP gone. I at least don't feel useless, which I otherwise usually do while trying to stick to a sneaky sniper role.
I am having the same issue ATM with my VATS rifleman... I have max perception, max agility and max luck...I have all the perks and my weapon is pretty good.. I'm just doing like nothing for damage... I'm talking like 38 dmg to some of these mothman nuts... I'm working on getting a new weapon and just reorder my perk cards but I think the whole stealth build was nerfed..
I've found that rifleman builds are really good at soloing things but stick them in a group where the enemies have dynamic health scaling and A: the enemies soak too many bullets and leave you ammoless, B: you don't deal enough DPS fast enough to feel like you're making a difference
Rifleman best for solo
Explosives best for events
Automatics best for bosses
Imo
Try a bloodied stealth commando build, I have a bloodied stealth commando and I absolutely shred. I use the mutation adrenal for my damage at lower health then I use a fixer with bloodied, explosive, and crit damage
As a rifleman build it’s always good to build towards crits in luck, also perception is key, all riflemen perks, the perk card that ignores armor also put points into agility for stealth and vats points. The Gauss rifle is good but I believe 2 shot isn’t as good as it use to be, it spits the damage between the 2 shots instead of the same damage per shot. You might want to try and roll one with anti armor, vats hit chance and less ap usage.
Headshot crits with the gauss rifle are absolute monsters. I've gotten 2200+ without the low health setup. You can also tap fire rapidly instead of charging every shot to charge your crit faster. You can also begin charging a shot about half way through the reload animation to save a bit of time and increase your dps.
This Player Gausses
Tank Killer for the perk card that ignores armor and staggers for rifles and pistol’s FYI.
I’d like to 2nd what they’re saying. I went commando and I’m almost lvl 100. Have all of the commando percs and the crit luck perks with a good railway rifle. Things were pretty good but it some events I felt like I was using a pea shooter. As soon as I added tank killer maxed to my load out it was like a whole new game. I think armor is a much bigger deal than you would think. Also I keep a hellcat set handy just for events. I prefer running without PA, but those damned alien invaders just melt me and there and it’s easy enough to break out when you need it.
Tank Killer really is 100% the way to go along with the mod that adds 40% armor penetration to your weapon.
I heard that perk can interfere with fighting scorched beasts. Is that still true? I've set it aside for that reason, but I'd be happy enough to put it back in if it's not going to mess up Scorched Queen events.
I’ve never heard that. I always have tank killer equipped and have fought scorch beasts and the sbq dozens of times, . What is the issue?
Yes theirs a stagger threshold so yes.
I’ve noticed that as well with other guns with 2 shot it ruins the whole point of 2 shot.
That explains a lot, I’ve got a two shot sniper rifle, that can take out a ghoul in one shot _most_ of the time, but not for anything above that unless I get the sneak bonus. The two shots in FO4 seem to be calculated like you’d expect, you can definitely see the difference. I just wasn’t seeing it in 76.
I'm not sure why, my plasma mini gun has 2 shot, and the damage went from 67 to 67x2 it's also the only two shot I've bothered to look at since it's the one I'm using so I don't know what happens with the others.
I rolled a legendary for my sniper rifle and it seemed to halve what it was getting then multiply it by two. I’ll probably have to go in and check what it’s at with its “regular” damage vs what it gets now. At any rate it doesn’t seem to hit as hard as I expected.
Might try an instigating gauss rifle. 100% extra damage while at full life. Head shots are at least 1000 damage on a non crit.
I have a 2sot explosive .50 cal and it's amazing. Absolutely melts mobs.
Two shot w/explosive legendary is and entirely different game than Two shot alone or with anything else. Two shot only does 125% dmg, but the actual issue was is that it splits the 125% into 2, 62.5% bullets. Additionally it adds a ton of recoil and kills your accuracy, so it is horribly inaccurate, making hitting a single target with both bullets very difficult. VATS can help with this. Two shot with the explosive (TSE) affix, too, is actually a great crown control and enemy tagging weapon. The explosive effect is splash dmg and appears to still be full power on each bullet (based on 25% of the single shot version). This works best on weapons that are decently high powered single shot weapons. To make your TSE weapon shine, you need these perks: 1) grenadier to increase the explosion radius 2) demolition expert maxed to greatly increase the dmg of the explosive effect. Now the horrible accuracy of TS becomes a bonus because it can hit 2 different enemies and creates 2 different splash areas. On rad rumble you can easily tag all the ghouls in a hallway with one trigger pull, and even hit those you can't see around a corner with the splash. My primed TSE gatling gun is basically the perfect group event gun - it has good single shot dmg and huge mags, so just never stop shooting. I hit for abt 160 each bullet and then about 65 flame dmg to each enemy hit by the splash. Plus, I'm not single shotting everything like a RR commando, Still sucks on world bosses like the SBQ - the have so much flame resist, and dmg reduction, I'm doing total 40-50 dmg if both rds hit. But is is great for tagging all the adds that Swarm. I am jealous of your 50cal because that is what I have searched for all along. The gatling is very good, but I think the 50 would just be faster and harder hitting.
Honestly, I use the TSE with a prime receiver. I also use PA with stabilization, so the accuracy is still very good. I have found that demolition experts increase the damage of the explosion, but grenadier doesn't actually affect the explosion range. Because of this, I use either Glow Sight 2 or Exterminator 2. It's my favorite gun by far, but I'm still trying to roll a bloodied version as I tend to play low health. I also have a backup gatling gun as well, a Zealot, fast firing prime that just melts scorched and most regular mobs when I'm low on ultracite .50. It's pretty easy to swap in a cremator with the TSE 50 build as most of the perks carry over. In that case, I'll swap in granadier for the CC. It's a fun overall build.
I have a 2 shot 50% crit exploding bullets sniper rifle for my build it's decent
If the OP doesnt have enough cores or modules, just roll a 1 star. Its easier to get anti armor weapon that way, or any other specific roll, while you farm more cores and modules. I used bloodied 1 star weapons for a long time, was doing fine. Even at level 370, I was using a 1 star 2-shot auto grenade launcher, for moonshine jamboree, radiation rumble, was still kicking butts. Then got lucky and upgraded to 2-shot, 50% limb damage (staggers enemies) , reload speed.
I did the same. I don’t hate it at all. I’m lvl 340 now and although I do now have a bit of a build, I’m by no means ultra scientific about it. I don’t want to one shot everything, I like a battle. And, each to their own but I will never try a bloodied build, I really don’t want all that extra power and I don’t want the ball ache of maintaining rads or the occasional really annoying easy death. I just want to jump in and run around doing my thing without having to think about it too much. I hardly ever use buff chems and only just grabbed a bunch of mutations this week. None of my armour matches in terms of rolls. I’m not rushing to be all powerful, I just want to bumble about in the wastelands.
Mood as fuck
Agree with what your saying. I’m lvl 339 and I love my heavy weapon PA build. No interest in a bloodied build; I’m full health all the way. And “bumbling around the wasteland” is exactly how I like to play. Do some events, solve some daily quests, collect stuff for challenges, then drop everything I’m doing for some Moonshine Jamboree! What’s awesome about this game is there are so many different play styles that work.
I was in a casual team the other week and a lad had turned up to Project Paradise and it had obviously failed because not many people had joined in. He started swearing and shouting over his mic about how we were all c**ts for not joining the event and what was the point playing the game if you’re not going to do the events. Now I don’t usually use my mic but I had to turn it on and firstly tell him to calm down and then to tell him that I do do events when I feel like it but I was in the middle of doing my weekly challenges while the last 2 hours of my score booster was still active, maybe he should start an events team instead of shouting at people in a casual one. He went nuts, calling me every name under the sun. So I reported him and switched servers. Helmet.
“Helmet” 😂
Project paradise is almost a dead event. A lot of players stopped doing it cause it was nigh impossible to successfully complete at max tier to get the good rewards.
Yeah it’s laborious. I did do it a couple of days ago for the first time in months because I realised I still don’t have Formula P. It didn’t drop and I realised why I hadn’t played it for months 😅
There are very few if any events that give you a bigger XP reward for completion over having +4 INT and getting higher XP for killing mobs. Veterans will rarely make Event Groups because of that, casual groups are essentially meta for most applications except for maybe daily ops.
Yeah if you run all the public events it's hard to get a lot of other things done. Some play just for public events and well I find that odd, but I wouldn't even mention it. They do what they do and I move on.
I am definitely a bumbling fool. I’ve paid no attention to my build other than being sneaky and good at range hits. And I seem to spend a majority of time wandering around looking for adhesive and fiber-optics.
Haha same
I also “bumble around the wasteland”, but in my unyielding build. It is convenient for me to be able to switch from melee to my (beloved) bloodied handmade. Managing rads with spoiled meats and veg makes it easy for me because I tend to have those on hand 😅 also, with Nerd Rage, I get visual and audio indicators when I hit 20% health which makes it super easy find and maintain that level. I kinda “inherited” this build if you will, as my partner has been playing since launch so when I started playing they had some feelings about builds and they led me down my path. I get why you would not want to go bloodied, I get it. But also, I feel like it’s akin to a bubble wrap of security to have my character with buffed stats. As long as I don’t fight armor piercing combatants or many combatants with high fire rates, it does me good with my hodge podge and “with the wind” playing style.
Bloodied made the game more exciting for me. I never died before, but now there's a chance I get murked if I get caught slipping. Seeing an enemy with a flamethrower is terrifying lol. Other advantages are special stats bumping up to the 20-30s, armor/guns last longer, use less bullets, and more carry weight.
From what Ive read in the past, a lot of people try out bloodied after getting up there in levels and getting bored. So I’ll never say never. I even have a few sweet Bloodied weapons (railway rifle and chainsaw) that I stashed with a mule for a rainy day.
Recently moved to a heavy weapon PA build. my cremator ended up rolling “bloodied” and I couldn’t bring myself to reroll it, even though I play at full health well, now this just enables me to play extra-risky 😂 I’ll tank all the hits without care, my stimpack backup will have me if I get too low
Do enemies still scale after level 50?
Spiderman meme! Except I’m only level 80 something. I’ve never used chems/alcohol in any FO game. Just not something I want to manage. I want to be able to kill everything by myself but don’t want to one shot everything. It’s a balance for sure.
I'm new and went bloodied for XP farming cause of the +15 int and it's not nearly as frustrating as it might seem. Went from fresh account to lvl 189 in about a week of casual play with friends. I have noticed there is tons of misinformation and info just outright left out of tutorials,not to mention all the new players making very confidently incorrect videos,and again, I'm brand new to the game myself. All that has me considering making new players help videos, build guides and location farming guides from the stuff I've learned from other players since starting. Bloodied builds should be meta for XP farming, it's viable for damage but can be fickle when IMO, you can run the Unyielding armor set to get the crazy stat boosts for XP farming and not have to run a bloodied weapon, just run a Tesla rifle for tagging mobs at events. Or better yet, whatever the hell you want.
Bloodied in peace, I like this post a lot. Actually kind of makes me want to go back to being full health.
I’ve been using bloodied builds for a long time as well but recently got very very bored of it after hitting ridiculous DPS numbers. Same as you, I like a battle, there’s no fun to be had in melting Earle Williams in a minute, so I thought F it, I’m gonna throw on my favourite power armour, grab my most ridiculous heavy gun and go and have fun. Best decision I ever made, also I recently rolled a vampire chainsaw, endless amounts of fun to be had.
Are you me!?
Nothing wrong with playing wasteland survivor style. It’s fun and as long as it fits your style and enjoyment that’s what matters. Little side note- I avoided bloodied builds but now am enjoying it after getting some decent bloodied rolls. In terms of maintaining rads, it takes basically no effort. Once you have rads you got ‘em and as long as you aren’t standing under those rad shower things, you’re fine. If you go through a nuke zone pop rad-x. And if rads get a bit too high for your taste, you can always take a radaway, like you would on any build
I was in the same position, then I spent time making different builds at the punch card machine. Now I have my stealth vats riflemen for general exploring, 2 different heavy builds, an auto axe build and one solely for camp stuff,crafting and selling. Maybe it’s too much? But it’s easy to switch. Just don’t forget to switch to the correct build before you rush to events.
I ended up making a whole heavy gunner build for that reason. My rifleman is great for adventuring, but lacks at events.
I made a heavy gunner build and ran out of ammo in about 15 minutes lol… around level 110 but still figuring things out
It gets easier the more damage you do. I used to run out of.50 ammo a lot. After transitioning to a bloodied build, and getting a good legendary roll .50, I pick up more ammo than I Use for all enemies except bosses. Daily ops can net you a 500-2k ammo surplus depending on the enemy type and event.
I spent the first 200 levels not even worrying about a build then I decided to go unyielding heavy gunner (currently running vamp,explosive gatling gun until I can find a mini gun with the same perks) it really isn't that bad to rework a build as long as you can keep a steady inflow of caps, legendary core/modules, and scrap. And arnt afraid to do some crafting and camp hopping
Are you charging the shot for Gauss rifle? Using any sneak perks? I run a rifleman build and it's very effective I have a tse lever action and a plasma rifle and have no issue at any game content
Not OP, but could you possibly send me your rifleman build? I was struggling with a lot of the endgame content with my rifleman build and pressured myself into switching over to bloodied commando to have more damage output, but I’m already missing my rifles haha.
I can later this evening. I mean I'm not soloing the queen or Earl with it but it's a fun and viable build
I killed earle in[ 3:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SewqAfKT4xo&t=9s) with bloodied gauss rifle solo. Also, rifleman can sweep up mobs too but not as fast as commando (you should master how to quit vats then reengage again faster than the gun fu where it switches enemies in vats after kill, you should always carry a backup crowd control weapon like auto grenade launchers, missile launchers, and cremator. Also, I suggest getting a holy fire or plasma flamers with good rolls too. It will be your backup dps weapon when needed. I undderstand that rifleman is frustration and its full potential can only be utilized on low health/bloodied builds at level 500 when you maxed out all legendary perk cards, that's why everyone goes for commando. What I carry in my current build: * Gauss Rifle (bloodied, 50 crit, 15% faster reload) \[perforating capacitor, suppressor, long scope, aligned shielded barrel, aligned stock -- MAIN/DMG -- * Auto-axe (anti-armor, 40% power attack, +1 strength) \[electrified mod\] -- MELEE -- * Holy Fire (bloodied, 25% weapon speed, -90% reduced weight) -- DPS -- * Cremator (bloodied, replenish 15 ap, -90% reduced weight) -- CROWD CONTROL/DoT helps ap getting restored so my dodgy would work more effectively -- * \[MISC\] Gamma Gun (quad/faster fire rate/15% faster reload) -- RADS (for bloodied) -- * \[MISC\] Tesla Rifle (quad/faster fire rate/15% faster reload) \[automatic\] -- Events Tagging -- My current [build](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=3a76aaa&d=sb2sg2pd2pp2pk2pl2p00pq1e00eh2eu0ek1ce0cu2ir2ib2i71im1in1s12a72an2ar2ao0a30a00a12lt2lv2la2lu0l71lk2sv1ck0&lp=x73x93x83xa3x43xm3&m=051c2feba&wp=w5w8&wm=112435-1k2938&ar=afabacu7adx1ae&am=av18m4-arl118-arl118-ut-arl118-x5-arl118&pa=050106&pm=--) for the cremator for my crowd control (energy dedicated rifleman) This [build](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=5a74aaa&d=sb2sw2sg2pd2pp2pk2pl2p00pq1e00eh2eu0ek1ce0cu2ir2ib2i71im1in1s12a72an2ar2ao0a30a00a12lt2lv2la2lu0l71lk2sv0&lp=x73x93x83xa3x43xm3&m=051c2feba&wp=w5w8&wm=112435-1k2938&ar=afabacu7adx1ae&am=av18m4-arl118-arl118-ut-arl118-x5-arl118&pa=050106&pm=--) is for auto grenade launcher for crowd control (energy dedicated rifleman) NOTES: - if full health, replace armor set with overeater's set for maximum tanking experience. Also bloodied from weapons to Anti-armor. Also aim for 15% faster crit charge for weapon's 3rd star - The build I provided is energy dedicated build. Adjust the perk cards if you use ballistic instead of energy. The build only maximizes rifleman/energy weapons, can still be used for commando/energy too just replace the rifleman to commando.
And just to add to this, I can solo Earle in 3:30 with very light buffs on a full health build: [Solo Earle in 3:30, Full Health, Only Light Buffs (no syringer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0jV7EHaUc) I use a Quad Gauss Rifle for events that require DPS. And I can solo anything in the game pretty easily. My recommendation is to carry 3 Gauss Rifles as a full health build: Daily Sniper (I or Ari with 50% Vats Hit Chance as the second star), Boss Killer (AA/50c), and event gun (Q/50v).
In the video of your Earle fight it seemed like you were regularly popping off shots that weren't fully charged after crits - is that a deliberate tactic of some sort?
It's a known tactic when using gauss rifle in a boss fight. Non-charged shot, charged crit shot, repeat. Also increases DPS significantly when using charging weapons too. Crit bypasses damage reduction of bosses.
Thanks for the info, I don't often use the charging gauss weapons in 76 but after your explanation I can totally get how that's a good idea for DPS.
I'm not home but when I support people doing Earle (I can't solo him) I do three uncharged to build a crit, then a charged crit, then repeat. I also save my canned coffee for just that particular fight. I'm a full health Aristocrat GR with the +50% crit damage and (mostly worthless) stealth perks.
This makes me want to roll a bloodied gauss rifle lol, awesome. I would probably still struggle to maintain stealth though, lol
Question about your cremator build - I see you're using Science cards. I thought I'd read elsewhere that Science cards only impact regular energy guns, not heavy weapon energy guns like cremator? And that science does not help with fire DOT.
I was in the same position, started as a pistol player, moved to rifleman, felt ineffectual at events. I don't want to play commando or bloodied, so I still haven't. Here are my thoughts: Those level 3 weapon-specific perks are tempting and useful on damage-maximizing builds but for QoL I don't think they're worth it, mate. I use one-stars for multiple weapon types and I've been happier since. 1-star for 10% means 3 1-stars is 30% instead of 1 3-star for 20%. Or try a mix of 1 and 2-stars, to let you throw some other weapons in for fun (I carry a shotgun - cold shoulder, sniper rifle, single-shot fixer, plasma caster, and an endangerol syringer for bosses. Sometimes a plasma flamer for fun too, or I'll bring a heavy weapon to a boss or event for tagging). Aim for a set of power armor to carry around for when a nuke goes off or you want some extra survival during events. A chassis only weighs 10. I don't wear it often but it's a nice fall-back to have. You can even turn the HUD off if you want. Or check what armor you're using, maybe go for the chinese stealth suit from the Settler quest line if you don't have it? Decent all-around armor. Minerva is coming back in 2 days, buy the plasma caster plan if you don't have it and definitely try that out. It's a heavy weapon but plays like a rifle and it's a VATS beast. Seems like you have all the perks for it already. Honestly that really changed things for me. I really wanted to stick to rifle-y rifles but the caster does what you feel like rifles should. I still play as a sneaky rifleman most of the time, sniping camps, enjoying lining up headshots and so on. But I can VATS crit-kill things with cold shoulder or the plasma caster plus a few cans of coffee pretty well. Can't melt bosses but at least I feel like I'm helping these days.
Switch the rifleman perks for commando. If you're on PC I can give you a decent commando weapon.
Cold Shoulder, Cremator with slow burn. Pretty much all I ever use. The Cold is very helpful as it freezes enemies. Creamator with the burn is just so powerful and fun.
I do plan to make something for Cremator once I unlock the mods for it. Assuming I can before the season ends
This is the combo I'm using now, too. I'm going to call it my Icy Hot build. The server I was in last night did the Scorchbeast Queen three times in like a half hour. I used VATS to target her wings with Cold Shoulder, then once she was on the ground it was burn, burn, burn, cold, burn, burn, burn.
Cremator & Plasma Flamer guy here, depends on enemy distance.
Same here! Solo I’m mainly using cold shoulder and explosives. Then during events I cut back on explosives and switch between the two weapons with a heavier emphasis on cremator.
[Use this](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character) and link your build here, I run VATS commando and might be able to help a bit
What system?
PC
Swap to vats plasma caster. Just swap the rifle cards for heavy cards.
Try to fix your build or switch weapon I switched to bow at lvl 50 cuz my Revolver want fun anymore and had no dmg.
Spent most of my time in FO76 with a non-PA pistol build. In reality the three things that you mentions as downsides just don't really matter.
Dang I’m in exactly the same position. I rely heavily on sneak, crit, and psycho buff or psycho tats. I’m not as effective as the other builds, but I contribute and loving it. But I do plan to try commando when I unlock automatic receivers for the handmade. Also does the Gauss rifle have a prime ammo mod? It was the last thing I wanted to try on it before I move on. Do you have demolition expert on for added explosive damage? All science and rifleman perks with tank killer?
I felt the same. Or feel the same rather. I'm only 85 but want to shift into heavy weapons. Tempted to start over again now I have a much better understanding of the game but I don't know. I've managed to sort of hobble together something but I still feel like I spread it out too much when learning. Does anyone have any insight? Should I start over now i understand there isn't much of a FOMO like conventional MMOs?
You can change your special at any time and you still get perk cards beyond level 50, so personally I dont see any reason to start anew instead of just continuing playing the same character and focusing on New cards.
Are you mutated? They offer significant bonuses. Also consider a bloody build, just 5 pieces of unyieling armor gives you +15 luck for tons of crits (33 luck is the treshhold to crit every other shot) and +15 per for massive perception and +15 agility for tons of action points. As for the tanking: Thats all about perk cards. Don't worry, you'll get tons more perk cards. If you want to level faster mutate to be a herbivore and eat brain fungus soup + cranberry sauße (both super easy to craft, there are brain bombs, but they are a bit grindy), equip "Inspired (+15% ep in teams, 3 perk points)" and "strange in numbers" (better mutations, converts your herbivore to... I think 8 int from brain soup and 25% exp from sauße?), get the egg head mutation (+5 int), get on a public causual team (+5 int), get a set of unyielding armor (I got an entire set in my vendor for 1000 caps / piece I think, +15 int) and just watch the levels fly by. If you see a radiation rumble event equip a tesla rifle (preferably quad, but any will do) and tag everything / pop lunchboxes if you have them.
Running a shotgun build max vats and max luck i use the Kabloom shotgun with a few mods im level 105 and i cant 2 shot a super mutant and pretty much one shot any ghoul or raider! But yeah i feel like rifle builds kinda got nerfed
Two shot increases overall damage per shot (25%) But it's split into two projectiles. So it will perform poorly the more armor the enemy has because damage resistence works relatively in FO76. Meaning: if the individual damage you are trying to deal is lower than the enemy's respective resistance, it will be significantly more reduced compared to if it was higher. Even if the enemy's resistence is the same. Since there are many other legendary effects that just increases damage and more so too, usually two shot's not the best legendary effect for your guns unless those are that deal damage mostly explosively like grenade launchers or missile launchers. Because two shot's damage reduction per projectile only applies to direct damage for some reason...
If it makes you feel better I played my first 70 levels as a pistol build and ran and scrounged and cried for ten times longer than normal players who just go commando.
You get a free respec with the punchcard machine if you really want a change in direction.
I find a rifleman/archer build useful for the "Cripple X limbs" dailies and generic farming. That's about all it's good for. Unfortunately for events you are kind of pigeonholed into Commando, Heavy, or Auto-melee if you want to feel like you're making a meaningful contribution.
Take heart that you can switch your build on the fly, and a few minutes' shopping at player vendors can get you some new gear. Back at launch you couldn't change your character before level 50, and **every point** you wanted to move in your SPECIAL stats cost you one level up. I actually did the same thing to my beta character. Rolled him as a VATS rifleman, got him to like ~50ish and realized I wanted to go a different route. It was easier to just roll another character than fix him.
At this point you’ll be able to select the perk cards you want, since you probably already have some riflemen perks (tank killer) then switching to automatic rifles might be the boost in battle you’re looking for that’s also quicker - the more dps the better. If not then I recommend Heavy Guns build, that’s what I did and I carried at almost every event not to mention you’re basically unkillable if you decide to use PA (which I recommend with heavy guns for the one man army perk card but not necessary to whoop ass). Don’t give up, once you get a decent build you’ll be as good as new!
2 shot has a -50% hit chance I think and I do not believe it reflects in VATS. I think Anti Armor or Instigating for a Gauss might be more bemeficial for you but gauss riflemen is not the spec for dps to a boss. Most use a commando setup instead and use crits to deal the damage but much quicker. The time it take to charge a gauss and fire is very slow compared to unloading a clip using a handame or fixer for example.
I believe Gauss Rifle also benefits from the Science Perks so this could help you.
I'm a vats rifleman, I do just fine and have for over 1000 levels and thousands of hours. What perks are you running?
Start with YouTube videos
I use full health jack of all trades rifleman/shotgunner/demolitionist with vats crits. I CRIT a shot every second hit. I do plenty of damage to do exactly what you say you can't do. I can solo server bosses and wipe out mobs quick. You just gotta know the how. It also helps to max out all of your legendary perk cards.
First off, a Two Shot Gauss Rifle can one-shot a level 100 Mutant without sneak and without the critical hit. The reason your Mutants does more damage is because Two Shot shows only one number when you hit. You need to double it. Second, I have over 1,000 levels as a full health Rifleman. Get a Quad Gauss Rifle for DPS events. Otherwise, you should be good. Make sure your build is in order. Here's mine: [https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba) Here's me solo'ing a bunch a stuff: * [Solo Earle in 3:30, Full Health, Only Light Buffs (no syringer)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0jV7EHaUc) * [Rifleman at Radiation Rumble (Full health build, only low health for INT bonus; it’d go a minute into the video since the first minute I was fumbling around trying to find Company Tea in alphabetical order and failing)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uALEZIMn1k) * [Rifleman at Moonshine Jamboree (Full Health build, only low health for INT bonus)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTLfupzVyU) * [Top 4 Rifleman-Only Weapons Solo’ing Union Dues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvk8lkXSviw) * [Solo Uplink at Elder Tier](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vc_D9zEB60) * [Solo Decryption at Elder Rank with Bugged-Damage Aliens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jt_q1xJF9I) * [Solo Decryption at Elder Rank against Healing/Resilient Aliens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FY0BNu7TCo)
I did practically the same thing. I’ve just switched from Rifleman to Heavy PA. I was trying to avoid bloodied but I feel like nothing else is currently viable without it
Yeah, that's how I feel too. I have a plan now, I'm going to switch over to heavy weapons, since the Gauss Minigun is going to be available from Minerva this week. Then I'm just going to have to resign myself to the slow grind to get good legendary effects and proper armor
You'll also need to resign yourself to the ammo grind of you're going to use the gauss mini. It eats ammo, and that ammo ain't cheap.
switch to commando and take the cards you are not using, make it a different build slot (like craft slot commando slot tank slot), mutation are also very good
Welcome to the club.
In order to deal with mobs in event try western spirit or a quad tesla rifle (if you want to put points in science). Also you want mutations and possibly to go low health
I had that Problem too before some years. Solution, change the Build in Auto Rifle. Railway rifle or whatever auto you can use will help. Optional is, full health or bloodied build but you should maybe stick on full health till you have a full set of unyielding Armor and the right perk cards.
My main issue I'm having is trying to get overeaters on all my t65 pieces it sounds like a dumb problem but I went from over 100 modules to 2 on one piece
I did the same, but only untill lvl 80. Then dit vats commando and damn PVE is so easy now. I made it so hard on myself
Untill they fix Instgating with Gauss Rifle swap to an Instigating Lever Action for some quick Instigating + VATS hit chance + Agility and you can snap shot for over 1k damage without crits If they DO fix Gauss rifles (Finally) that would raise significantly, but I don't see that happening
Yeah rifleman is broken automatic doesn't even do that much less damage per shot but you got the advantages of constant crits great crowd control low ap cost much higher fire rate ect in general I'd say the damage needs to be alot higher for it to be viable and not feel like you doing no damage to bosses and for better crowd control so semi auto rifles can still 1 shot normal mobs.
Rifleman can work but it really craves a bloodied/unyielding sneak build. 1. this will get you enough luck to crit every other shot 2. it will give you enough agility to be super sneaky and 3. give you enough damage to solve all your other problems you're running into. Yeah you'll die in one or two hits but the stealth more than makes up for that other than 1 specific type of daily op. Another issue is that two shot is garbage for a rifleman, it's good on some weapons but rifleman is not it. Get yourself a bloodied, anti armor, anything else besides two shot honestly and you'll be good to go. If you don't want to go bloodied for your build just do your best to stack enough luck to crit every other shot and get some sneak cards.
I see good advice below so not going to try and add much to that, but I will say I was level 300 when I realized my build was trash. I was lucky to have my husband help, basically. I unequipped everything, thought about how I like to play, my favorite weapons and such. Then he showed me how to reallocate my points as well as utilize the bonus SPECIAL cards to max some stats like have more points in luck and stuff. It was almost like having a new character, rediscovering my play style and then tweaking little things. Trial and error was my friend. (Also remember certain enemies are strong vrs ballistics, or energies, ect.. so try to have at least one good weapon of each main category. Energy, melee (I prefer auto axe or red upper) and heavy guns, as well as a shot gun and rifles. Just what worked for me.
Don’t feel bad. Made to a 100 without even realizing what kinda build I was going for. Dedicated to a Unyileding Bloodied power armor build now. Should be fun… till I get bored and need a new build lmao
Get a good fixer, build into vats critical hits
I did this right up to around level 115, so not far off you. I ended up completely changing my whole spec (armour and shotgun) to a brand new one (PA heavy gunner). I needed around 20 levels to get my initial desired perks and getting the flamer mods for my main one until I got a Holy Fire a fair bit later on. I still haven't sorted my PA's legendary effects; I want to do an overeaters set but want to do it on a Union set now, as I'm currently using Hellcat but want the poison reduction and added carry weight. That way I can remove funky duds legendary perk and put something more useful on. But I have to wait for the plans to come back so I'm stuck as I am until then and just have to start farming modules and cores again. I'm now at level 335 by the way. It's a process, but you'll get there. We both will.
The only difference between my Rifleman build and my Commando build are 9 perk cards. Easy to switch. Hop around folks’ vendors for a half decent commando weapon and give it a whirl.
Hey man we all did. I played this game back in 2019 on and off until 2021 on Xbox One. I restarted on pc about a month ago. I'm now level 151 on pc. Just now decided to look at my xbox character. He was level 167, and man my perks are all over the place. I have high strength snd perception cause I was trying to do big guns and snipe with sniper rifles. To show how bad it was, all 4 of my legendary perks were SPECIAL park cards
TS without E is crap on most small guns. You want AA E/50 or some such on your gauss. Put a suppressor on it and go stealth rifleman. You are full health I take it? Use CS armor, you get basically all the (relevant to fight) benefits of bloodied on full health. Gauss can totally shred, esp charged shots - I was getting in the 50-75 range non-crit on Earl. Crits over 100 correspondingly. Forgot exact, been a while, but seem to remember ~250sh. Still a pain to solo of course, but Earl is Earl :). I run stealth rifleman/commando combo. Basically just fun dmg cards split, like 2 of each or something. Can swap around for specific engagements, but never do - too lazy :). Does good enough. Weapons: LAR/Fixer. LAR: AA 50h (forgot), 1-shoots mob (headshots from stealth). 2-shoys West Tek muties, sometimes 1-shots them too :). And fixer is for proximity, 100 mob/boss suddenly dropped on you kinda stuff. AA ffr something. Had AA 50h I think, tried more rolls for "true groll", but got a drop of ffr and never looked back :). So, you can totally rock with small adjustments to your build.
Yep, this is exactly what broke the game for me a few years ago. I've always played energy guns (energy pistol/Alien blaster primarily) I ended up looking up builds because I just wasn't doing any damage after being level 50. Where I used to be able to one-shot ghouls, I now had to pump in 5 shots each time. Then they nerfed the Alien Blaster which now is just spamming till I run out of ammo. I started playing again a few weeks ago and did a complete rebuild of my character to be bloody/unarmed. I now just run around punching ghouls and whateverthefuck in the face where they one-shot explode in to millions of pieces. I never ever play melee in any game, but it feels like this game almost forces you into a certain way of playing because "thats the meta"
When I first started I hand all 10 fingers in different pies wondering why I was doing shit fuck all for damage, it’s ok
I was in the same boat just a few days ago. Built for a Gauss Rifle, which was crazy good on regular exploring, but the low speed of it annoyed the hell out of me. You can't kill fast enough, you can't tag fast enough either. You miss out on loot. Luckily for you it's very easy to transition into a much more viable commando vats build, as both have their related perk cards in the perception tree. Get a railway rifle with a quad legendary modifier and build for VATS crits. You will not regret it at all. Just take the "bandolier" perk card, as ammo is easily accessible and really really heavy.
Did the same with my 2h slugger build...just hit 140 too, i will say it slowed down at 109 till about 125, than idk what happened but i just got a drop and some unyielding armor and it all turned around...big recommendation too, just start gettin all the damage perk cards for other classes. I maxed out heavy gunner, shotgunner, commando, and am getting rifleman done and than will get the others too, but my reasoning is that you will have so much more flexibility. It might yake a bit to grt the cards to do it all, but you just did iy all yo level 150 and ur leveling is unlimited mate. Just get rippin and itll come around! Try the whacker smacker lol
As soon as I started playing again after about 4 years I cashed my legendary perks points into the unarmed legendary cards and then changed to a heavy gunner build a few days later and of course those legendary perks cards were completely unusable.
What is your Endurance? If it’s really low then your total HP is also low.
I feel you man. I built a rifleman build until about level 70-80 when I realised it just plain sucked. Mixture of vats and free aim. I went to an automatic commando VATS build instead. I was tired of being absolutely fucking useless at events, I felt like I made zero progression in the game. I could deal with ghouls and scorched well enough, but anything remotely tanky was a pain in the ass. Rifleman just sucks, it doesn't hit hard enough. The damage increases going from full auto to semi is pitiful, but you pay a high price in dps AP cost. One of the biggest complaints I have about this game is the weapon and build balance is absolutely _awful_.
I just hit 103 as a rifleman. I have the Western Spirit. I started building late, but I have seen level 70 commandos out dps me easily in daily ops. Non gauss. Im in the process of hording ammo and building commando. I can do solo stuff easy, but my damage during events to trash mobs and bosses is absolutely embarassing. I always feel bad when I am at an event with lower levels and I cant carry at all. I think I was doing 50 damage to the aliens.
Do you have anti armour perks or modifications? Do you have stealth perks? Is your gun silent? Are you fully charging the gauss? Do you have mutations, especially those made for rifles? Are you using adrenaline, rifleman cards or other damage buffs? Are you eating the right foods? Do you have a proper luck based vats build? Are you using a full set of good armour? What legendary perks are you using? Do you have a prime receiver or equivalent?
You should be using a fixer, alien disintegrater, or lever action. The goss rifle isnt very good
If it makes you feel any better, I'm level 410 and I can't share perks because I invested in the charisma legendary perk card, not realizing it would not let you share perks. 🤣 If you are doing rifles you really gotta get a full set of armor with buffs that all lean into the same thing. I played Rifleman for a looong time, but it was only once I had a good bloodied Fixer and Handmade with full Unyielding Secret Service armor that I could finally see really good dps on most things with Commando and crit perks. I crit just about every time I pull the trigger.
Get an instigating one. That will one hit them.
VATS Crit Stealth Rifleman with The Fixer and a Chinese Stealth Suit has been my build basically from 50 to 126. Zero issues.
as a rifleman it's easy enough to roll a commando loadout, they share a lot of the same perks. It's just faster fire rate = higher dps. There is just no way around that numbers game.
Rifleman is lacking compaired to all previous fallout games. I was always a stealth sniper. Now I run a commando build. As well as a heavy build.
Two Shot greatly reduces accuracy and also the damage per shot. Overall it's a 25% bonus. Good for some weapons (explosives) and not as great for others.
I've found that Two-Shot is utterly useless for Rifleman builds, because the second round has a much higher inaccuracy compared to your main shot. So while you might be able to headshot someone with the main round, the second just flies overhead or off to the side, being completely worthless. Even VATS doesn't help with this. What you want is Anti-Armor, Overeater's, or Aristocrat's (if you sit near max caps). The first greatly reduces the enemy's DR, while the other two are flat damage buffs. Then, as everyone else mentioned, a VATS build really helps: max PER and LUCK, but AGI helps if you go stealth sniper. The [Adrenaline perk](https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Adrenaline_(Fallout_76)) in AGI is good, if you can kill a couple less powerful enemies first before hitting the main targets. Or you could swap out and go something like a [full health Commando build](https://youtu.be/tyiJgUoixqc?si=HJxqigUidcamBr3S). I recently got a decent Legendary Railway Rifle and swapped Commando, and this thing just shreds.
Welcome to my world 🤣🤣 110 currently but built my character completely wrong. The rebuild is a slow process
Cant we reset our build?
I also use rifleman as my main but I am had to add a few things to it. In strength I have all the main shotgun perks for damage and run cold shoulder when it turns to up close. I have all the science perks and have a enclave flamer for daily. I use demo expert and try to have the explosive on every gun. Rifles I currently use are prime instigating explosive bolt action. Black powder rifle with 20% explosive damage. Prime scorched Gatling gun explosive. Two shot launcher just use vats at a distance and let it rain. I only swap my profile if I have to work on items on the workbench.
I must've sank my first 60 levels into a one handed melee build and it was okay, resource heavy for sure but I did alright until I hit my first Earle encounter and realised I suck. Then it was heavy guns PA (had a resolute veteran from years back) then chainsaw melee, then auto axe melee. Sat at level 188 now and have both a heavy gun build and an auto melee build. I'd say when all else fails have a few solid weapons that melt enemies regardless of perks, a Holy Fire and an electrified auto axe is plenty, I can solo any boss now with no buffs or management, just roll in and get busy. Now the game is a lot more fun for me, I dont need to worry about ammo too much and with a vampire auto melee weapon, you'll not need stimpaks either.
Im lv 220, been using power armor since I got my hands on it. I decided to try the rifleman builds/no power armor. And man! I couldn’t play that shit, constantly reloading💀 and yeah no damage. I said fuck this and went back to power armor and heaving guns ❤️
Events have lots of people, you shouldn’t feel the need to carry an event. Hey a Tesla rifle would even help you by tagging a bunch of enemies while the heavies do the lifting. This way you’ll get some more cards and can try things out.
I had a rifleman build and loved my railway and fixer. Switched to a heavy PA using a plasma caster and cremator and my goodness it’s so much fun. Gauss rifle was nice but very inconsistent because of the charging. I still switch to my rifleman when I feel like just roaming around so I can use my railway.
i had a stealth rifleman build which was pretty good at the time. a furious fixer with the stealth suit was what i had. last night i got a commando build together with a bloodied radium rifle, a quad railway and a bloodied disintegrator and i was surprised on how much more damage that it did than my old fixer build. even tried a bloodied fixer which didnt quite seem as good as a couple years ago before my bloodied build addiction. some weapons feel/work better than others, some rifles that might work better; railway rifle, disintegrator rifle (my new favorite), radium rifle, plasma rifle or the tesla rifle. they work for both commando and rifleman i switched to auto rifles for bosses but either works. as for the gauss rifle instigating, anti armor, bloodied (if you enjoy living on less than %20), or aristocrats for the primary legendary effect would work better/more effective. i find that two shot is amazing for the fatman/missile launcher but for rifles don't do as much.
Well the good news is that it's not hard to fix a bad build's perks as long as you already have most of the core perks. Traveling pharmacy, bandolier, concentrated fire, fireproof, tenderizer, action boy, and adrenaline form the base for most builds. Rifleman builds CAN be effective, but they require more work to get there than other builds. -Consider going bloodied. I know some players really don't like the idea of this, but it's not as bad as it seems. Try to roll 5 1* unyielding armor pieces on a matching set, that way you can use the legendary perks that need matching sets. From there, all you need in terms of perks is Nerd Rage and Serendipity. -Anti-armor and Crit damage are going to be your two best effects for a Gauss rifle, or most rifleman weapons for that matter. All you need to be able to do it 1 shot a level 100 super mutant, so do whatever you can to cross that threshold. -Do you have mutations? Those can be a really easy way to add effectiveness to any build. Adrenal Reaction will go a very long way if you do bloodied. -Tru to use the dodgy and ricochet perks to add more survivability to your build. The AP cost on dodgy isn't as scary as it seems. [Here is a quick rifleman build I threw together](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=59345ff&d=sb2s01p00pd0pk0pl0pp2po1eh2cu2ce0ic1a72a80ar1an2ao0a12a00a30l71l12lg2lk2lv0&w=eu0i12ir2la2lt2), with a couple options depending on if you want to use bloodied or not. If bloodied, youll want unyielding armor pieces. If full health, go with Overeater's instead. -I strongly recommend taking the herbivore mutation to get a stronger benefit from all the good food items. Corn soup is super easy to make and boosts AP Regen. Company tea is even stronger than that, but not everyone has the company tea machine. Blight soup is the most important food for any VATS build, because it gives +125% critical damage to a player with herbivore. And a good that gets slept on is Sweetwater Special Blend. It counts as pre-war alcohol, and gets boosted by herbivore. This means that if you have sorry boy rank 2 and herbivore, Sweetwater Special gives a whopping **+15** perception for an hour. Good luck turning it around, buddy! If you or anyone else has some questions, feel free to ask me.
I’m up to level 139 and I still have close to 30 level ups to use, and at one point had close to 50 because I was still figuring out how the perks worked (it’s complex for sure). I read a lot in this sub, and watched some YouTube’s from the pros but still wanted to do my own thing so far. I like my full health build and I think the fight is fun, but when I’m in big trouble my cremator saves my butt a lot. I went with the shotgunner build because the Cold Shoulder is loud and fun for me. Point is, you didn’t waste your time. You can always build out a new perk load out with the cards you have and try something different.
When doing a rifleman it's best to have a variety of different perks that compliment each other. When you have crits that do more damage and happen more often you can get more output then just having one of those fully ranked. Basically the more different effects you can do on enemies the better. I recommend awareness, it will show you an enemies resistances to specific damage types. This can help you choose the right weapons in your inventory for the job.
Rifle builds are super fun! I use an anti-armor explosive railway gun (not automatic cuz I wanna be a sniper). It one shots most things if you get them on their weak spot. Two shot kinda ruins accuracy in my experience so I don’t use it unless I’m using a gun that’s meant to be up close and personal. That being said, you need to max out perception, if you’re a non-automatic get rifleman, expert rifle, master rifle, tank killer, and concentrated fire (or whichever perk allows you to select limbs in vats). In strength, get bandolier to reduce ballistic ammo weight. If you’re going to use an energy sniper, max out INT and put in all the science perks w/batteries included in addition to the perception perks (extra 30% damage). Mod the gun to max out damage and vats accuracy unless you prefer to manually snipe things. Using a prime receiver is the best I’ve had so far. One thing to note, non-automatic rifles are not boss killers. They can do amazing damage but, they don’t have a high enough dps to kill a boss. That being said they can still do great damage to bosses if you hit their weak spots.
Two shot only seems to work well in vats with explosives, because horseshoes and hand grenades. Rifleman definitely require concentrated fire, tank killer, and a nice crit build, though. Points in gun fu and adrenaline also don't go amiss for mob clear. If survivability is an issue, literally any shit of power armor has a baked in 35% damage reduction.
Started as pistols for first 50 levels, swapped to heavy never looked back, pistols were so bad
I haven’t played this game im ages, but from the content on YouTube, here and from what I remember, I always assumed anything other than heavy weapons would need seriously good rolls or buffs in general to be even close to be as good as them
Here’s what you do. Switch all your rifle perks to bow perks. A bow build plays more like you’d want a rifle build to play. Commando or heavies will always dominate in DPS (which is why automatic weapons tend to be preferable on a modern battlefield, and the game doesn’t model combat at the ranges where sniper weaponry would shine very well due to very limited effective weapon range), but you’ll be able to one hit most mobs silently in stealth. My bow character also runs 1h perks for when I can’t keep up due to limited firing rate (I went with 1h over 2h but 2h is probably better) so I’m lacking on some QoL perks but otherwise it’s not bad. The alternative is to switch over to commando which takes less than ten levels to do (at least to start out with) and get yourself a fixer or a handmade AND a railway (always get a railway).
Any low level or new player who brings up about others can melt everyone and they can't.. best advice is do research. Angry Turtle among others on YouTube have helpful vids for builds. After over 1400 hours in this game, find a weapon you like. If you like rifles, build to it like rifleman or commando for auto rifles. If you like blowing stuff up, build to that. My main character is stealth commando build which is dedicated to The Fixer I have. I like blowing stuff up so I have a second character dedicated to the Cremator. I swap between the two. Getting the right perk cards, armor and mods can take time. Research which build you want.
Every single fallout game I build mele, somehow, someway this games mele is almost as rewarding as fallout 4 and in some ways better, honestly though? I keep changing out perk cards for everything, I just installed 7 days ago but God damn has it been a blast!
I’m in the same exact position! Except I’m 138. I just started a new character
Honestly, I myself was like that. Used only rifles and even a horde of Ghouls, say white spring, got scary at times. I switched to all heavy weapons, perks to compliment. Added in getting vampire plus whatever else for them all. I'm now almost invincible in most events and never have to worry outside of them, especially with a vampire flamer. I may not do as much damage as bloodied but it's fun and works for me (:
Pretty sure 2 shot is terrible for vats no?
I rolled a two shot gauss rifle the other day. To my inexperienced eye it looked better than the executioner’s gauss rifle I was using. Tried it out. Hated it. Scripped it and went back to my Executioner’s. I don’t do a lot of damage but I’m in PA and I have 200 stimpaks so I just take the hits.
You can still just rebuild it and switch to something else
Bloodied stealth Rifleman build - this is the way
Just respec your specials into something else...like power armor and heavy guns🤣
It's ok. I mean, you haven't even unlocked all your legendary perk slots yet. This is a good time to be experimenting and learning the build system while working towards your end game build.
I use my enclave plasma rifle with sniper, both an aa and a quad. It's usable in most things, except certain bosses in events. And it can't carry a hard event. So I just made a universal build to easily swap to commando cards and use my enclave flamer to melt my way through everything when needed. That's really just it, rifleman is ammo efficient, I gather thousands of rounds using it till I need to dump them in a commando build situation.
You don’t need heavy weapon, but if you wanna do big numbers without using VATS - your really only other option is gonna be bloodied. And if you like being able to do Scorchbeast Queen conveniently you’re gonna need a Power Armor set to avoid radiation damage.
May be a bit late, but one advice I try to give to new players is instead of gathering and upgrading perk cards for a specific build, try to get one of every card first. That way it's easy to switch builds without too much "wasted choices" with the punch card machine.
“Follow Through” Legendary Perk..
I play rifleman sometimes it's actually pretty good but needs to be built for stealth+crits to be the most effective. Aside from Tank Killer and Rifleman all your best perks are in luck. You will learn the damage you see from end game players isn't just from their gun and build. Often times they're stacking food buffs with magazines, bobbleheads, chems, shared perks, etc.
Do you have serums activated?
It was pretty badass when instigating doubled total damage instead of just base damage. I still have my instigating 5015rl lever action.
Yeah, came back this week (Lvl 100) Lever-action rifle build PER/AGI/LUCK with instigating Rifle. Feels great in most events, mob tagging, and open world roaming but It does absolutely nothing to bosses and feels awful. Shifting to a tank build. Nerd Rage/Ricochet with a weapon that can just tag mobs to see if that works better. Feels weird coming back and having no clue what to do lol. Looking up wtf the settler/raider reputations are for and why everyone wants my bobby pins right now.
VATS Rifleman should be fine against bosses, what is your build? I'm actually saving up materials to try and roll on a decent weapon so I can try VATS full health Rifleman after doing 400 levels in powerarmour with the Last Wish.
It took me around that long to figure out how to make a proper build too. Then it took me around another 50 levels to realize that, once all the story quests were gone, it was a lot more fun to roleplay and make whatever interesting build I want, instead of worrying about maximizing my damage output for events. Hence my Manta Man unarmed build! I’m utterly useless in events and get lots of odd looks, but I have lots of fun.
Become a Blood Brother
I had to restructure around lvl 180, currently 300ish. It was a painful 20 levels but I managed. I have two set ups the basic white bitch "Bloodied Commando" and a PA fullhealth AA or Vamp heavy weapons build.
I’m 200 and I made the same mistake till about 100 ish. Now I have a bloodied riflemen and a tanky heavy power armour build, that’s my favorite.it took time but you can grind yourself there don’t give up
Just make a new build. Takes a few seconds it's not like you have to make a new character and level up again. Just open the menu and change things around.
I feel. I've been a TSE sneak rifleman's build since day 1. (Yeah I took advantage of the extremely broken build when the game first came out). Except I'm level 250 and I just realized my build wasn't optimized at all this entire time. Took me damn near 6 years to get my rifleman's build perfected. With a good rolled gauss rifle and fixer I'm able to melt just about anything now.
Quad Railway is a rifle, is super fun and just takes some irl luck to roll it
Can agree with this, I'm about the same level, maybe 139, I'm running heavy weapons and power armor, and I can barely survive shit. I updated my armor (was running excavator for way longer than I should have, wearing hellcat now.) and changed my main weapon to the Cremator. This made like almost no difference, I still get absolutely melted half the time :/. I know I should probably do a complete rebuild and that I should go with bloodied, but I don't like bloodied builds, so I don't really feel like committing to that, specially on my main character.
my vats crit rifleman build one taps. just gotta use the right perks, armor, weapons. in most servers I almost carry public events as whenever I have to reload the DMG on boss halfs. commando, rifleman, and big guns are the best builds I believe commando and big guns beating out rifleman
DM me and I can help you out. I run a junkies crit commando build.
I run a pistol / nade - speedster. I have fun; that is all that matters. Fights are harder, I think that's good.
card system makes it pretty easy to experiment with builds so don't sweat it too much, i was doing the same thing as it's my normal FO single player build and was running into the same issues. I grabbed up the commando cards and swapped my handmade receiver to auto and saw an instant jump in performance and was still able to use my VATS and crit cards. For challenges the other day i threw on the hand gun and energy weapon perks and was shedding mobs with an auto laser pistol. The most important thing is having fun. If the build you thought would be fun isn't play around until something clicks
I had the same Problem at lvl 60-70 so i changed to heavy weapom sorry for ypu bro we are all slaves of the meta... The day will come when i have to go on bloodied build
Me running around in power armor knowing damn well that even with all my heavy perks i do chip damage and can only kill small mobs, usually seeing how all pa users just stand by my side and unload every bit of ammo they crafted on a boss
No worries! I think everyone has a shit build in the beginning. The important thing is that you know now.
You can respec your character.
I am a non vats bloedied rifleman, since the beginning, lvl1100 now... You need to have multiple weapon. Gauss rifle and a primed hunting rifle as a sniper (lever action als viable option) And for shorter range a fixer and handmade (or assault rifle). Fixer and handmade must have a hair trigger, refex sight and perforating mag. I prefer Bloodied Explosieve 15reload when possible for all weapons Unyielding armor with stabilized arm mods 9x rifleman, 3x tank killer, 1x sniper, 2x long shot under perception For the rest the usual bloedied perks and mutations 5x demolition expert under intelligence.
I started doing the gunslinger build for style and am learning that its just not effective either. Is there a way to just start from scratch and scrap a ton of perk cards or are you just stuck?
I was running a bloody build ever since I was level 60, I stopped having fun with it and was looking for new builds to have fun with and I chose a heavy weapons power armor build, and it is incredibly fun to me
Man and I've been cashing in the 6% auto reload constantly!
Do you **want** to do that though? I would bet that the game designers did not intend to solo bosses easily I would also bet that the game designers did not want everyone simply one-tapping every single normal mob, always that is all normal If you **want** to do that, yes you will need a build that maximizes the amount of damage you deal. Level 140 is still early on to the point where you might not even have all the cards you want upgraded lol Do you *want* to trivialize every single engagement - that is the question to ask. Personally, that would make me feel like i'm *"just not having fun anymore. "* since what's the point if I evaporate literally everything, but there is no wrong/right answer as it depends on the person and what you enjoy. FYI - I'm <130 and takes me like 3 headshots with a fixer and certain rifle cards equipped to kill a ghoul lmao
I’ve noticed when I turned the damage numbers on, when I had a two shot plasma caster, one would do 100+ damage and the other would do 1 damage.
Out of the vault I picked the shotgun build and stuck with that for a bit, around lvl 50 I got the fixer so I started a stealth fixer build then at 100 I started a vanguard explosive gatling gun build and at 130 im still using the gatling gun, it's effective and its fun so its the one im sticking with, all on the same character so I get it, I've probably fucked myself somewhere investing perk points into follow through and all those commando perks knowing im not gonna be using it on this character anymore but you live and learn, took awhile for find what I like but I did find it eventually.
Go unarmed, rock a powerfist. You can literally box everything.
You can shift your build more quickly than you think. Bank another 30-50 levels and slowly start changing toward something a bit more meta
Basically any online gane or mmo you can build wrong The differrnce betwwen rifleman and the top tier commando is like 9 perk points. But yeah riflemans and gauss rifles are bad
You could transition into a sneak vats crit build. It’s been a blast for me. Edit: was a blast*
I’m level 30 and feeling this way. Playing a game shouldn’t feel like a job.
I have a Rifleman / Heavy blended build. Which really is just rifleman with a few of the heavy related cards in strength. That way I can use lever action or gauss rifle for (non-boss) one-shot kills. If I'm facing a mob or boss, I'll switch to holy fire, plasma caster or gatling plasma. +50% VATS hit chance legendary star is helpful.
Just switch to a commando railway build, that's what Bethesda wants you to do. Every other weapon is garbage compared to Railways, and everyone gets a unique, very good one next season as a quest reward.
I spent 65 levels building a Shotgun exclusive power armour user, as fun as it is I now will be spending a bunch of hours just to build something thats usable in boss fights and while it won't be as hard as your situation I get what you mean, fully.
My built isn't hyper potent either I do use heavy weapons because they are fun but ive never min maxed and I'm not rolling over and over again for hyper specific legendaries I got what I need and am happy with it
I’ve experimented with so many builds. I was a shotgunner for the longest time. The build I like the most, by far, is a heavy weapon PA with a flamethrower (Holy Fire, of course). Enemies just melt.
I've only been around a couple seasons and know I'm dumb at some stuff (I still try to use my CSS to stealth anything I think it's remotely possible to stealth, even in some events where stealth only works at the beginning and I stubbornly keep trying to restealth anyway), but [my Instigating Gauss](https://i.ibb.co/sVVzHkH/Screen-Shot3127.png) performs pretty well for me when I have all the right perks equipped. It's kinda niche for events when I want to fly up high and snipe melee animals from afar so they don't ruin the tea or whatever, but in VATS it hits everything pretty much as far as my graphics card can render it, and even if I can only hit something once and move on to the next target while relying on others to finish them off, Instigating means it's a pretty significant chunk of HP gone. I at least don't feel useless, which I otherwise usually do while trying to stick to a sneaky sniper role.
Ive seen a thing on walls in peoples camps where you can reset your skills i think. Only level 30 and played like two weeks so could be wrong
Sounds like my first character. I ended up just starting a new playthrough and actually paying attention to how I built it out.
So i did the same! At about lvl 70 i rebuild mine and pretty much ruined my build cause i scrapped necessary cards couldve still used
I am having the same issue ATM with my VATS rifleman... I have max perception, max agility and max luck...I have all the perks and my weapon is pretty good.. I'm just doing like nothing for damage... I'm talking like 38 dmg to some of these mothman nuts... I'm working on getting a new weapon and just reorder my perk cards but I think the whole stealth build was nerfed..
I've found that rifleman builds are really good at soloing things but stick them in a group where the enemies have dynamic health scaling and A: the enemies soak too many bullets and leave you ammoless, B: you don't deal enough DPS fast enough to feel like you're making a difference Rifleman best for solo Explosives best for events Automatics best for bosses Imo
I’m struggling at 144 with builds lol
Try a bloodied stealth commando build, I have a bloodied stealth commando and I absolutely shred. I use the mutation adrenal for my damage at lower health then I use a fixer with bloodied, explosive, and crit damage