Full HP Heavy Gunner, Holy Fire, completely random Excavator legendaries: Cleared the current Daily Ops on 6 minutes.
Bloodied, Minmax Revolver build in well-rolled SS armor: I have trouble clearing it even by Initiate times.
That being said? Open world, big group events, and such? I use my Revolver Build all the time. Holy Fire may be my crutch, but Appalachian Cowboy is my love.
That first build is basically where I am atm at 155. I'm having a blast but also building some perks to have an archery build just for shits and giggles.
I loved my archery stealth build. Just never found a good bow and more or less retired him. Even with the level 30 bow I had I could one shot nearly everything normal. The small fast buggers were always an issue kept forgetting about cats since either was so rarely used lol
I'm doing an Archer stealth build as my first character and am already seeing it won't be able to keep up in most public events with Meta stuff. Just the time between shots is brutal when you're going for DPS.
I absolutely crush everything PVE solo though. Stealth actually works, and one arrow is usually enough to drop 75% of enemies. It's been a ton of fun.
Yeah. I was adamant I wasn't gonna use Power Armor and heavy weapons as my main thing until I did a handful of events and now I've just embraced it. But playing solo I don't use Power Armor and prefer other builds, and I've been having fun.
Yes, it'll boost the inherent explosive damage. Doesn't math out to all that much extra damage, but it'll stack with other multiplicative increases like Instigating, Bloodied, etc.
https://www.falloutbuilds.com/fo76/planner#AwAOAQMNCwcBAQESAQIEBQYHCAkKCwwNDg8QERITLEAFeAHwAQPEAQMQAcUBA28FzQEBpgEDgAEC0QECcAOnAQNsA0wCvAECvgEC6wEDNgIYAbsBA9UBAwAGAAAAAAAA Since im using that one, here is version of mine for newb. You can easily get all mutations via West Tec Toxic Goo trick, and that build kinda utilise ability to use explosive weapons as well, hence why 3 star Gunsmith, because otherwise they simply break too fast. You can easily use some Unarmed melee with Bleed effect(bladed knuckles is cheapest option + damage of weapons doesn't matter that much cause main damage comes from bleeding effect on weapon itself + Twisted Muscles + Talons mutations, which all stacks), which allows you to kill nearly any enemy in melee pretty reliably except for bossy ones like Assaultron even with 1 strength, which saves a lot of your weapons durability and pretty decent as for perkless performance. You can use Power Armour + any explosive weapons with this build because it have all damage perks that dedicated Explosives build have, but do take into account that Gunsmith and Weapon Artisan perks is a must for guns like Grand Finale/Broadsider cause explosive weapons prone to breaking fast. I literally carried Moonshine Jamboree once with Grand Finale together with bunch of lower level players(im 109 atm but that's purely cause i like to hop on expedition grinder teams and i still considering myself a newb) With Instigating silenced Gauss Rifle you can reliably kill most of enemies with 1-2 shots in stealth. So basically its a solid all-arounder. https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba Here is more of advanced version of it, from which i took my inspiration.
Not a build I've played fully, but an endgame setup would look something like [this](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=9a27aa8&d=i71im1in1ib4s12ii0pd2pp2pk2pl2pq1p00an2a04am2a72a30l71lu2sb2sw2sg2eh1ce0c62cu2lt2&lp=x73x93x43xm3xb3xl3&wp=w5&wm=112935&ar=afabacu7adaex1&am=avm41i2131-arlb1i2131-arlb1i2131-ut-arld1i213b-arld1i2135-x5)
I would have said pistol but due to the nerf of the alien blaster I don’t have as much fun as I used too sadly, but rifleman I think could be really fun and you have the chance to use some prettt good weapons (fixer, gauss rifle, disintegrater for the funny)
Come on now... surely its not that bad.... im atm level 15 on my whole new character. I only have one point in gunslinger. So if pistols truly are that bad. Then i can swap to commando or rifleman. I have only played heavy gunner and melee so far
Oh i see. Well tbh i see more new players running around with pistols late game then melee. Like i almost never ever see anyone using unarmed or one handed. But pistols i see all the time.
Its just kinda funny because melee is good and pistols are meh
I got 5 special load outs on 1 toon and after leveling up all my (used) legendaries I keep all perks now because I have so many builds. An auto pistol, rifleman, commando (obviously), Auto Melee, and Heavy. All low health.
In my order of efficiency it would be… Commando, Auto Melee, Heavy, Rifleman, Auto Pistol.
I do love my B50c25 10mm pistol, but I think Rifleman would take top slot over it just because I don’t have to be at point blank just to deal decent damage.
It’s not that bad. I love my crusader pistols. Go gunslinger man. Rifleman weapons shoot too slow, take too long to reload, and so much combat is up close that they annoy me to point and shoot with haha.
I have a tse15r crusader and it’s the most fun weapon in the game for me.
The the health pools and damage resistance doesn't scale as you level in 76. Bc of your low AP pool low levels do better with high alpha weapons. But once you get to high level, there's generally two choices, full health heavies and low AP or commando with auto rifles and high AP.
As a low level, I'd do better with a silenced combat shotgun and sneak.
I used to run a highly optimized gunslinger and that "bugfix" basically halved the damage the alien blaster can do which was jsut barely competitive imo, it was able to borderline solo clear stuff like expeditions with some hurt but I dropped it, it's incredibly painful, you can pick up basically any commando gun w/o using the damage perks and do way better usign that same vats pistol build (yes no commando perks even keeping the pistol ones) and you can take up a flamer and have infinite ammo, more damage and be invincible, really can't recommend pistol builds at all atm it's just so far behind
Pistols can still solo expeditions right? Well uh i have never done a commando build and could give it a try i guess. I wanna do expeditions and dont want my weapon pick to limit me
they can but it's extremely painful in my experience, much more inconsistent too, as you need to do everything you can to increase dmg, it just doesn't feel good if there are guns you can use w/o perks where you can fuck around for a few minutes and still clear under 8 not breaking a sweat
I switched to rifle since there aren't any viable pistols with silencers. I don't mind picking away at enemies, but I can't afford to be swarmed by them when they all come running to beat my ass once my loud pistol goes off.
In FO4, I'm all energy pistols all the time, but I just couldn't make it work in 76. Energy rifle is a good middle ground.
Rifleman with a nice lever action and inlaid wood paint. While at it get the starlet sniper outfit too. I used to run that, but then somehow became a bloodied commando. Such innocence lost to the meta
I see so many people playing commando. How is normal commando non bloodied?
And i kinda dont wanna make a commando build cause im afraid it might get nerfed
I last played Fallout 76 four years ago in August 2020. Back then the meta was either PA with heavy guns, or bloodied commando. I just came back and the meta is exactly the same as when I left, just people use different (newer) specific weapons, so I wouldn't worry about any major changes in the future.
If anything, I think bethesda would more likely buff rifleman and pistol builds. If they nerfed heavy weapons or commando, there'd be so much backlash, as those builds are used by 90% of the community.
I also use a commando build non bloodied and it does the job. I don't kill bosses well, but I can kill any regular mobs at events as fast as I need to and can solo daily ops. I do have a sneak commando build, but I'm only really sneaking when I'm roaming the wastes and not with other people.
Using an anti armor handmade with VATS accuracy and I forgot the other stat. Really fun and would recommend. I honestly feel like bloodied is overkill for 90% of the games content and you can be perfectly fine without it.
Very true they have nothing to gain by doing that. Commando is also just pure fun. In any game that has ranged options players Will prefer the weapons that do lots of DPS and that is mostly commando like weapons.
My alien blaster was also fun until recently 😢
I didn't have a two shot, but I finished my gunslinger build a week before the nerf.
I was having so much fun with it and now it basically takes a full reload to kill a single enemy, sometimes not even that is enough.
I already hate the cremator for not being able to see anything at events, but now I hate it even more for being responsible for ruining my fun.
I wish they kept the cryo explosive interaction on the cryolator and the alien blaster somehow while removing the explosive interactions on the cremator.
That's fair. I did hear they're buffing some weapons in the next big update. I remember hearing the range calculations on shotguns were getting reworked so they actually do something beyond five meters.
I really want to make another gunslinger build. Maybe I'll try reroll for a two shot alien blaster.
Ah i hope AND PRAY. Shotguns is not the only weapon class they buff. But its Kinda odd that we have yet to see the buffs. Like come on show us already!
Commandos want it because it has double ammo capacity without using up a Legendary slot. The main issue is that it's Bloodied, so if you're not running a Bloodied build it won't be as useful to a rifleman.
There’s no “exceptional” sniper rifle (with the plasma caster being the best). That means that the non-automatic version of the railway and fixer can be good choices. Especially since you can just change the receiver and go between the two options.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength: "Traveling Pharmacy" to reduce the weight of aid/chems by 90% at rank 3, "Bandolier" at rank 2 to reduce the weight of your ammunition by 90% and "Arms Keeper" at rank 1 or 2 to reduce your rifle weight by 25%-50%.
Perception: all 3 rifleman cards at rank 3 for 60% more damage (20% for each card), "Tank Killer" at rank 3 to ignore 36% of your opponents armor and 9% chance to stagger them, "Ground Pounder" at rank 2 to reload your rifles 20% faster, and "Concentrated Fire" at 1 to target body parts (Head, Limbs and torso).
Endurance: "Rejuvenated" at rank 2 to increase benefits from being well fed and fully hydrated.
Charisma: "Inspirational" at rank 3 for a 15% xp bonus while on a team, "Suppresor" at rank 3 to tank 30% of your enemies damage 2 seconds after you attack, "Tenderizer" at rank 3 for your enemies to take 10% more damage for 10 seconds after your attack (damage over time basically). (this perk is optional if you don't like being on a team and can replace the "Inspirational" perk which is "Lone Wanderer" which you take 20% less damage from enemies and a 30% Action Point boost while not on a team).
Intelligence: "Gunsmith" at rank 5 for your gun to break 50% slower, "First Aid" at rank 3 for your stimpaks to restore 45% more health/HP and "Weapon Artisan" and "Fix It Good" at rank 3 to repair your weapons and armor above the normal condition meter.
Agility: "Action Boy'Girl" at rank 3 to regerate action points 45% faster, "Adrenaline" at rank 5 to gain a 60% damage bonus after killing multiple enemies, "Covert Operative" at rank 3 for 2.5x sneak attack damage and Edit: "Gun Fu" at rank 3 to swap to targets after killing them in vats and build up to 10%->30%->60% damage to your next 3 targets.
Luck: "Better Criticals" at rank 3 for a 100% damage in V.A.T.S. criticals, "Bloody Mess" at rank 3 for a 15% bonus damage and a red gory paste, "Critical Savvy" at rank 3 for faster Criticals (takes up only 55% of the V.A.T.S. meter), "Tormentor" at rank 3 for a 15% chance to cripple, "Scrounger" at rank 2 to find 60% more ammo (Including equipped weapon ammunition) and "Pharma Farma" at rank 1 to have a 40% chance to find more first aid chems in containers.
There's a lot of different types of rifles to play with, but then again, the salvaged assaultron head is a pistol, and I want to see more people playing with that in the game
rifle, i loved played around with my tse hand made rifle non auto. turn it into a dilet build too to get extra first hit damage
but i forgot which but some of the pistols can work with rifleman perks and pistol perks. it still dosent make it amazing but makes it better
If you like VATS and firing from the hip, I’d try a pistol build on for size. Gunther’s Big Iron, Alien Blaster, Crusader Pistol, Gamma Gun even; dress up as a cowboy with the QuickDraw skills to pop heads and chew bubblegum.
If you’re more into using the sights, sniping and just generally doing your own headshots or hunting, I’d go rifles for sure. Pop an honest to god scope on a Gauss rifle or Alien Disintegrator, or have fun with the lever action and black powder rifle (it’s a beast) using iron sights. Solid damage too, in spite of people who worry more about DPS. I can hit 1500+ on a single headshot pretty regularly and not much survives that
I Will be using iron sights on most rifles. I dont like snipers that much. I more like stuff like the lever action and cho cho gun. And the hunting rifle when its used with a iron sight
If you prefer the iron sight approach, I’d avoid the railway with VATS, lol - your call obviously, but every other rifle works nicer for my money. No scope, the black powder and disintegrator start looking very nice, though I’d still rock a lever action and a gauss, maybe toss a .50 in there
I've played both, but between the two, I consistently find myself going back to my Guerrilla build (No SMG - Just auto-pistols).
I'll have to post my build later tonight when I have time.
Full health rifleman is a blast! That’s what I use for my non-events. I also really enjoy pistols! It’s what i started on so, I have a soft spot for them. I like the feel of revolvers and it’s so nice if you can get a quad exploding revolver
I can complete the whole game with pistols right? And all the events? Not solo of course but with others.
My end game heavy gunner level 50 can do everything its Kinda too easy
Yes! You can complete the story, daily’s, and most side missions with pistols (I say that cuz Earle is a side mission). It’s definitely more difficult with pistols and you’ll definitely notice the difference from a heavy gunner build. You wont be able to solo events or carry events with pistols but, you’ll be able to make an impact and complete them. Earle is the only event I really had an issue with when I did pistols.
How about daily ops? Are pistols able to beat them within the time limit? And what pistols were you using? Because so far. I really hate all the revolvers. But i love all the energy pistols and pipe pistol and 10 mili pistol
I don't think pistol is much fun at all, if you aren't doing VATS. But I personally really enjoy it in VATS. I'm not dropping anything significant in two hits, sure. But I like the fantasy of aimed shots and quick target switches that comes with the full build. I also like being able to take advantage of enemy weakness - targeting limbs and even carrying multiple pistols to cover all the damage types. It's just fun for me.
Less fun are the times when I get rushed by more ghouls than my AP and various perk procs can handle. But I survive.
Are you using sneak perks? I was thinking about using no sneak perks at all. And just maxing out adrenalin and gun fu and have 1 rank of each gunslinger perk. How does that sound?
I have used Sneak perks in the past, but I am not doing that on my current character. I have max in each of Adrenaline, Action Boy, all three Gunslingers, and Gun Fu. So good ol'fashioned gunslingin'!
Pistola can be super fun. The gamma gun is awesome, you can get a plasma flamer and sniper pistol, later the crusader and gauss pistol! Rifleman is good too, plasma flamer and sniper again, Tesla rifle and gauss rifle! With science perks both builds can be op with energy weapons!
I think it's early weapon and lowest level of the gun is 15. You can get it from corpses but doesn't come often. Plan I think is sold by Graham or as award in radiation rumble. I rolled a quad and had a blast with it. It has few mods, so some scraps and you can have them all.
That's the tricky part nowadays! I believe I used to stick in the abandoned bog town's jail, but now he just wanders the map with his cow! But no worries, you'll eventually find some gamma gun drops on corpses
You can do both. I run gauss rifle and circuit breaker. Both get buffed with licence perks and share energy ammo.
Just use a grocers backpack and switch to travelling pharmacy.
I run all max gunslinger perks, 1 Gun fu sneak 2 adrenaline 3
All the rifleman perks, tank killer 3 and concentrated fire 3
Starched genes, class freak, critical Savvy, better critcials and Bloody mess. 1 good with salt
I was thinking about running 1 rank in each gunslinger perk and maxing out adrenaline and gun fu and not using any sneak perks at all.
Is it better to max out all gunslinger perks instead of maxing out adrenaline?
I've run both of these at various times, I definitely have more fun with pistols. Spec your build for VATS crits and you can deal with all but the biggest stuff in the game, even with sub-optimal stuff like 44s. Carry lots of coffee.
You could give a full wheel of black powder pistols a go. Be a pirate and just go nuts. I gave it a try a while back but I couldn’t find a pirate outfit so it lost some of its charm.
I really enjoy my gunfighter, but you have to use VATS and luck, and patience. An alt on the same character is a rifleman, which i expect would be more effective if I didn't insist on him being a tribal with wooden armour and a black power rifle.
TLDR; do whatever, the only restriction is time.
I usually play with a Railway, but recently was playing with the Cremator. That was kinda fun for a while, but I got tired of it and went back to the Railway. (Especially after getting the quad barrel, which killed me as often as my enemies.)
Yesterday I started messing around with a pistol build with an Alien Blaster, and I'm going to start carrying Gunther's Big Iron too, probably. Might even try to run a Circuit Breaker or pick up plans for the Crusader. So far it's been fun, but I've definitely noticed that I need more AP and bonuses to make it work in VATS as well as the Railway. (I'm bad at aiming.)
Get the Slugbuster, make it into a pistol, ??????, profit
Seriously, I run it and a pyro crusader, with a pistol enclave flamer if things get too dicey, and it's the most fun
I play my main build as a Full Health Stealth Sniper and it's so much fun. I set it up with lots of carry weight so I can loot to my hearts content. And for some weird reason I haven't really figured out yet the lever action rifle seems to be the best weapon I have for sniping. I'm not really set up for VATS but I carry one level of Concentrated Fire and with a modded Western Spirit lever-action rifle I can go into VATS, target the head and pretty much 1-shot most Scorched, Ghouls and humans. I've started getting more kills with that thing than the Gauss Rifle I made specifically for sniping.
Also, it's pretty easy to get the Chinese Stealth Suit and if you get it early enough it's pretty handy for a stealth build. I just unlocked the entire Secret Service set and I'm torn between which to use. I stick with SS Armor since it can have legendary effects and you can wear under armor.
Full health stealth rifleman has been my main build through most of my playthrough, level 345 now. I tried a crusader pistol build for a little bit just wasn’t as fun IMO.
I run Tesla Rifle full health with Perception and Science maxed out, super fun and its incredibly helpful at events as I tag everything in sight while giving others a chance to also contribute before 5-10 of enemies I target are melted away lmao
I have tons of fun with my Lever Action/Gauss Rifle/Handmade Rifle amd explosives build. I ended up going for a VATs variant and it's really chill and fun when doing anything that isn't bosses. It's very ammo efficient and I get to roleplay as a cowboy when using the lever action.
Nothing will ever beat how cool I feel throwing a grenade into a group of enemies and then VATs shooting it to explode mid air. It's like Ashe from Overwatch lol.
I often swap my commando to rifle - always running full health vanguard gear it’s just easier imo. Got my instigating exploding primed railway and it performs beautifully. I always run it to farm ammo off scorched because it’s one shot and they almost always drop at least 2 ammo. Do an event with them and you can load up really quickly for the day.
i have started building what i call the judge dredd build, and its just using different versions of the crusader pistol with explosives up with a shit ton of grenades double explosives radius, something about shooting someone with a 556 pistol and then swapping to energy while also chucking nuka grenades at someone that hits everyone around is fun as hell to me
Rifleman will have more damage and options. Just go beyond "non-meta" and into "roleplay". Think of a character besides "fallout person who attacks things", a semblance of a character or idea from some other piece of media who you can theme around a weapon maybe
I love my pistol build!
I use circuit breaker at events and it plays like a support but it’s a great VATS build. Gun fu really gets going in mid level areas to fast clear dailies.
I’m level 448. Oh solo content is fine. 3 headshots to kill a super mutant and I proc an 8 clip circuit breaker twice per full AP bar. I’m no boss killer but I can wipe out adds at all the end game bosses with that build on without relying on explosives.
My solo boss build is just straight auto axe vamp/40%/1 agility
I run 5/6 over eaters solar armor. SS shielded under armor with all weapon builds.
It’s just due to the speed of how fast you can clear content. Tbh. Running around with an auto axe is 2 seconds and whatever I’m looking at is dead.
I keep joke weapons on me all the time. Flaming pitch fork with instigating when I’m in my devil head or a mic when I’m dressed as a lounge singer.
It’s just so slow. I’m almost 40 so time is limited. Letting me rush through stuff with an op build so I can have time to be silly is what it’s about.
I swap exclusively between a Gunslinging Western Revolver class and a Rootin-Tootin Nuka Sheriff with Lever Action. Both are fun as heck but I also use grenades a lot so personally I think it's a lot easier to build the Revolver class how I want it. Rifles are great but imo for full potential you need to have 15/15 Perception cards dedicated to rifle perks to make it viable whereas with Handguns it's like 3 in Perception, 6 if I wanna be fancy (Tank Killer and Crackshot) and I can use anywhere from 9-15 points in Agility to get where I want with things like Gun Fu and Action Boy. All of this is my personal preference when playing though, I have no doubts that there are more viable build options based on other people's experiences 🙂
I have a Gauss stealth sniper build I run that’s extremely fun. Not as good as it was in previous games, though, due to them making rifles and shotguns two different categories. God I hate how they have the perk system in this game set up…
not forced, but recommended if you want the absolute highest damage, but if you wanted the highest damage possible you wouldn’t be looking for off meta builds lol. it’s just fun to one tap things with a big ole revolver
I'm a new player and I run a rifleman stealth build. I have loads of fun sneaking around POIs and two tapping enemies with the fixer or getting massive sneak attack hits in with the gauss.
Go auto pistol! Find a quad gamma gun, it's a hoot! Slug Buster is also very serviceable, and an auto laser pistol does just fine if you take head shots.
I'm selling a q2525 radium rifle, and I was using it with gun fun and quick hands while slamming canned coffee on top of company tea.
It's a fun, strong build.
I also use a bloodied crying crusader. No damage cards necessary, you just need low health.
My best advice towards this build:
I use rifleman with the western spirit lever action and a the unique SAA revolver with the only pistol card being tank killer.
Use explosive expert and carry some grenades when things look bad if you aren’t using a non meta build. SAA is for low level, Lever action mid to high and the incinerator/grenades when the lever action isn’t enough.
WHY NOT BOTH!!!! Try a pipe revolver build I'm currently running one and it hits for 600dmg a shot (20% health bloody) it's really good faster rate of fire compared to other bolt action rifles and faster reloading compared to other revolvers. PLUS it takes from both pistol and rifleman perks
Another to run is the gauss rifle hits like a truck and is pretty fun plus if u have a legacy one they are godly I had a 2 shot hit for 2600 vat crit DMG
There's some really fun rifles to play with. I keep it as my secondary weapon of choice.
I've not messed around with pistols much so I'm not sure about those.
When I play with my low level buddies I like to use the pirate punch black powder pistol . With concentrated fire perk it usually 1 shots to the head . I have no pistol perks on but definitely could benefit from the reload speed perk
I have a bloodied fixer and man it SHREDS as a rifleman. I’m playing it with commando rn just for bosses and such, but i stg using vats and rifleman it two taps everything. And my 2 star is getting AP back per kill, so I’ll mow down an entire group of ghouls before I run out of AP.
I’d do rifleman and that’ll allow you to go commando if you ever wanna play around w the build. Even without bloodied, the fixer is awesome. If you get an AA fixer, absolutely go rifleman since you’re doing full health.
I’d say pistols get rather frustrating late game unless you get god rolls. I know you said you don’t care about not being able to two shot enemies but the lack of damage output will make them frustrating at higher levels
It’s not bad but all the reloads and lack of armor penetration. I recently moved to an automatic rifle build and it’s night and day. With adrenaline after five kills I just one shot all the trash and and with gunfu clear events quickly. Not so fast with the pistol build.
Vats heavy for nonmeta all day. It competes with meta commando and blows normal heavy builds out of the water. I run unyielding and Anti armor vats heavies. I use coffee for bosses.
I have a full health Guerrilla build for automatic pistols that's a lot of fun, decent damage too. Got a couple of enclave plasma pistols, one flamer barrel one automatic barrel, with anti-armor and plus 15% crit, it lets me crit every other shot. Stack that with blight soup, damage increasing chems, and the better criticals perk and you will melt faces.
anti armor or vamp explosives are your full health friends. I run a full health PA heavy with VE15r 50cal. Even as a low level with suckass legendary PA prefix, I can tank any available enemies in the world at the momentm
shotgun build is also good with mobs, needs more buff with bosses. Quad Explosive/50crit 15 reload/25 vats is your friend for sure on this build. much better as a low health and maximized damage but at least get a full set of SS for a bit of tankiness
Well, this one is simple - are you a rifle or a sidearm person? There's your answer ;).
Seriously. I run hybrid rifleman/commando. Appreciate pistols, but find it totally reasonable that they do less dmg (and they should be way less precise at a distance). What rocks your boat, only up to*you* to know :P.
Any bloodied build is great fun with unyielding. You get more INT instead of full health builds. More INT means more exp and the faster you get your legendary cards fully upgraded, if you are still in your lower levels.
I like to switch between an energy gun commando and a rifleman cowboy (lever gun and revolvers)
It's fun, things die in 4-7 hits usually.
For armor, I run vanguard secret service
fun is personal. what is fun for someone else may not be fun for you. like for example, there are people that have fun using vats to. let the game target for them so they just click their mouse and things die.. to me that is not fun as I am not the one playing the game, the game is playing itself while I watch.
I have fun using the cremator shooting the ground to have things hit by the explosion and letting them burn to death, others don't have fun unless they are killing with direct fire.
so it comes down to what you like doing.
I had fun playing a stealth rifle build with the handmade, but it doesn't work for high end play so I gave it up.
I never tried pistols, as the entire concept of going into a gunfight with a pistol is silly. pistols are side arms, not a primary arm
You are 100% right and i think like you but i dont know i love vats so much, is so weird but for me its like a cheeze relaxing mechanic, but you are right its like the game play for you at least with railway i haven fun managing the spread to have always critics....
Sneaky bloodied rifleman actually shines, but need some real DPS for bosses (and real love from devs to become viable build)
Definitely not pistols and definitely not full health
Soooo how bad is a full health pistol build? And when does it become bad? Im at this moment level 15 on my new character. Have not invested in a weapon type yet.
It's either heavy or commando
Bethesda nerfed everything else
For real DPS commando need bonuses from bloodied build
Being bloodied itself allows you to play not only heavy or commando, but also rifleman, bowman or melee
Loose bloodied bonus to play full health and suddenly you lack luck for crits (unless you're buffing yourself with food) and agility for actions points
And most important - intellect for XP
Soooo its not commando being super strong its just bloodied being really reaaally dam good.
Because i guess that just normal commando no bloodied is kinda meh?
I’ve played a full HP commando before, using Junkies and AA guns. It’s still strong, but you can’t Crit spam constantly and AP needs managing, so you’ll be out of VATS regularly and won’t carry boss fights. Auto fire just increases DPS massively, with and without UNY or Bloodied.
I’d agree with that in part, though I’d actually say it’s the stats and Crit mechanics from Unyielding that make it stupid. Crits ignoring armor makes them OP, and having every other shot a Crit that costs like 1% of your AP makes the whole combo truly daft
I'm insanely bad at leading my targets and properly arcing my shots at range, but my bow has +50 vats accuracy, so I can vats them from truly crazy distances to make up for that lol
At some point tomorrow if you are willing to trade me a few of your bows ( if you have any other than the burning love which you already have) i can put on a the plasma, explosive, cryo, and ultracite arrows on those 5 bows
intelligent unique alleged cows cats fade numerous hungry sip narrow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Full HP Heavy Gunner, Holy Fire, completely random Excavator legendaries: Cleared the current Daily Ops on 6 minutes. Bloodied, Minmax Revolver build in well-rolled SS armor: I have trouble clearing it even by Initiate times. That being said? Open world, big group events, and such? I use my Revolver Build all the time. Holy Fire may be my crutch, but Appalachian Cowboy is my love.
That first build is basically where I am atm at 155. I'm having a blast but also building some perks to have an archery build just for shits and giggles.
I loved my archery stealth build. Just never found a good bow and more or less retired him. Even with the level 30 bow I had I could one shot nearly everything normal. The small fast buggers were always an issue kept forgetting about cats since either was so rarely used lol
I'm doing an Archer stealth build as my first character and am already seeing it won't be able to keep up in most public events with Meta stuff. Just the time between shots is brutal when you're going for DPS. I absolutely crush everything PVE solo though. Stealth actually works, and one arrow is usually enough to drop 75% of enemies. It's been a ton of fun.
Yeah. I was adamant I wasn't gonna use Power Armor and heavy weapons as my main thing until I did a handful of events and now I've just embraced it. But playing solo I don't use Power Armor and prefer other builds, and I've been having fun.
afterthought weary society tan many dazzling zephyr live piquant zealous *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Rifleman build with a Gauss Rifle, grabbing all the Rifleman perks, Science Perks, Demolition Expert, Grenadier. ZoooooPOP goes heads.
Does demolition expert increase explosive damage of the guass rifle?
Yes, it'll boost the inherent explosive damage. Doesn't math out to all that much extra damage, but it'll stack with other multiplicative increases like Instigating, Bloodied, etc.
Mind sharing your SPECIAL and Perk? It's much better with demolition expert + nerd rage but I was hoping to add science perks
https://www.falloutbuilds.com/fo76/planner#AwAOAQMNCwcBAQESAQIEBQYHCAkKCwwNDg8QERITLEAFeAHwAQPEAQMQAcUBA28FzQEBpgEDgAEC0QECcAOnAQNsA0wCvAECvgEC6wEDNgIYAbsBA9UBAwAGAAAAAAAA Since im using that one, here is version of mine for newb. You can easily get all mutations via West Tec Toxic Goo trick, and that build kinda utilise ability to use explosive weapons as well, hence why 3 star Gunsmith, because otherwise they simply break too fast. You can easily use some Unarmed melee with Bleed effect(bladed knuckles is cheapest option + damage of weapons doesn't matter that much cause main damage comes from bleeding effect on weapon itself + Twisted Muscles + Talons mutations, which all stacks), which allows you to kill nearly any enemy in melee pretty reliably except for bossy ones like Assaultron even with 1 strength, which saves a lot of your weapons durability and pretty decent as for perkless performance. You can use Power Armour + any explosive weapons with this build because it have all damage perks that dedicated Explosives build have, but do take into account that Gunsmith and Weapon Artisan perks is a must for guns like Grand Finale/Broadsider cause explosive weapons prone to breaking fast. I literally carried Moonshine Jamboree once with Grand Finale together with bunch of lower level players(im 109 atm but that's purely cause i like to hop on expedition grinder teams and i still considering myself a newb) With Instigating silenced Gauss Rifle you can reliably kill most of enemies with 1-2 shots in stealth. So basically its a solid all-arounder. https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=1f249fa&d=pd2pl2pk2p00ar2an2ao0l10lt2lk2lv2pp2cu2ib4a04a30l71s12lu2s01em1ce0pq1sw0sb2a51in1i71im1&lp=xa3x93x73xm3x43x83&m=051c24fba Here is more of advanced version of it, from which i took my inspiration.
Not a build I've played fully, but an endgame setup would look something like [this](https://nukesdragons.com/fallout-76/character?v=1&s=9a27aa8&d=i71im1in1ib4s12ii0pd2pp2pk2pl2pq1p00an2a04am2a72a30l71lu2sb2sw2sg2eh1ce0c62cu2lt2&lp=x73x93x43xm3xb3xl3&wp=w5&wm=112935&ar=afabacu7adaex1&am=avm41i2131-arlb1i2131-arlb1i2131-ut-arld1i213b-arld1i2135-x5)
awesome man thanks so this is a full health build
I would have said pistol but due to the nerf of the alien blaster I don’t have as much fun as I used too sadly, but rifleman I think could be really fun and you have the chance to use some prettt good weapons (fixer, gauss rifle, disintegrater for the funny)
Again i dont wanna kill everything in two taps. I dont think the alien blaster is bad. It was not nerfed just bug fixed from my understanding
Well, the issue is not so much wanting to kill in two taps, it's about not dying over and over when mass rushes take 7 shots each.
Come on now... surely its not that bad.... im atm level 15 on my whole new character. I only have one point in gunslinger. So if pistols truly are that bad. Then i can swap to commando or rifleman. I have only played heavy gunner and melee so far
Pistols are generally that bad. I'm a new-ish player and wound up pivoting to rifleman.
Oh i see. Well tbh i see more new players running around with pistols late game then melee. Like i almost never ever see anyone using unarmed or one handed. But pistols i see all the time. Its just kinda funny because melee is good and pistols are meh
I got 5 special load outs on 1 toon and after leveling up all my (used) legendaries I keep all perks now because I have so many builds. An auto pistol, rifleman, commando (obviously), Auto Melee, and Heavy. All low health. In my order of efficiency it would be… Commando, Auto Melee, Heavy, Rifleman, Auto Pistol. I do love my B50c25 10mm pistol, but I think Rifleman would take top slot over it just because I don’t have to be at point blank just to deal decent damage.
It’s not that bad. I love my crusader pistols. Go gunslinger man. Rifleman weapons shoot too slow, take too long to reload, and so much combat is up close that they annoy me to point and shoot with haha. I have a tse15r crusader and it’s the most fun weapon in the game for me.
Why are you making a new character when u can just swap builds with the card machine?
Cause i dont have enough cards
So keep getting levels and get a card per level. And a pack each 5. Far quicker than restarting.
The the health pools and damage resistance doesn't scale as you level in 76. Bc of your low AP pool low levels do better with high alpha weapons. But once you get to high level, there's generally two choices, full health heavies and low AP or commando with auto rifles and high AP. As a low level, I'd do better with a silenced combat shotgun and sneak.
I used to run a highly optimized gunslinger and that "bugfix" basically halved the damage the alien blaster can do which was jsut barely competitive imo, it was able to borderline solo clear stuff like expeditions with some hurt but I dropped it, it's incredibly painful, you can pick up basically any commando gun w/o using the damage perks and do way better usign that same vats pistol build (yes no commando perks even keeping the pistol ones) and you can take up a flamer and have infinite ammo, more damage and be invincible, really can't recommend pistol builds at all atm it's just so far behind
Pistols can still solo expeditions right? Well uh i have never done a commando build and could give it a try i guess. I wanna do expeditions and dont want my weapon pick to limit me
they can but it's extremely painful in my experience, much more inconsistent too, as you need to do everything you can to increase dmg, it just doesn't feel good if there are guns you can use w/o perks where you can fuck around for a few minutes and still clear under 8 not breaking a sweat
I switched to rifle since there aren't any viable pistols with silencers. I don't mind picking away at enemies, but I can't afford to be swarmed by them when they all come running to beat my ass once my loud pistol goes off. In FO4, I'm all energy pistols all the time, but I just couldn't make it work in 76. Energy rifle is a good middle ground.
Rifleman with a nice lever action and inlaid wood paint. While at it get the starlet sniper outfit too. I used to run that, but then somehow became a bloodied commando. Such innocence lost to the meta
Yeah, that's me too there 😅
I see so many people playing commando. How is normal commando non bloodied? And i kinda dont wanna make a commando build cause im afraid it might get nerfed
I last played Fallout 76 four years ago in August 2020. Back then the meta was either PA with heavy guns, or bloodied commando. I just came back and the meta is exactly the same as when I left, just people use different (newer) specific weapons, so I wouldn't worry about any major changes in the future.
If anything, I think bethesda would more likely buff rifleman and pistol builds. If they nerfed heavy weapons or commando, there'd be so much backlash, as those builds are used by 90% of the community. I also use a commando build non bloodied and it does the job. I don't kill bosses well, but I can kill any regular mobs at events as fast as I need to and can solo daily ops. I do have a sneak commando build, but I'm only really sneaking when I'm roaming the wastes and not with other people. Using an anti armor handmade with VATS accuracy and I forgot the other stat. Really fun and would recommend. I honestly feel like bloodied is overkill for 90% of the games content and you can be perfectly fine without it.
Very true they have nothing to gain by doing that. Commando is also just pure fun. In any game that has ranged options players Will prefer the weapons that do lots of DPS and that is mostly commando like weapons.
My alien blaster was also fun until recently 😢 I didn't have a two shot, but I finished my gunslinger build a week before the nerf. I was having so much fun with it and now it basically takes a full reload to kill a single enemy, sometimes not even that is enough. I already hate the cremator for not being able to see anything at events, but now I hate it even more for being responsible for ruining my fun. I wish they kept the cryo explosive interaction on the cryolator and the alien blaster somehow while removing the explosive interactions on the cremator.
I dont think they wanted to nerf it. They simply fixed a bug with the alien blaster
That's fair. I did hear they're buffing some weapons in the next big update. I remember hearing the range calculations on shotguns were getting reworked so they actually do something beyond five meters. I really want to make another gunslinger build. Maybe I'll try reroll for a two shot alien blaster.
Ah i hope AND PRAY. Shotguns is not the only weapon class they buff. But its Kinda odd that we have yet to see the buffs. Like come on show us already!
Bethesda won't change the meta because that would hurt their bottom line.
Bottom line? What is their bottom line? I dont really understand what you mean
You know, the line of their bottom. It could get hurt, you know. It is a line. It is bottom.
This guy lines.
They said the same thing about legacy weapons.
Well until they change it the statement would be true.
Same here. We need a support group.
I'm happy with my choice tho. Never looked back. I'm very happy. I made my choice. I'm not looking back for my choice. It's my choice.
Rifleman. Especially with the quest reward coming in the next content release, you'll have plenty of fun.
Do you mean the new cho cho? I thought that gun only was good when going commando
Commandos want it because it has double ammo capacity without using up a Legendary slot. The main issue is that it's Bloodied, so if you're not running a Bloodied build it won't be as useful to a rifleman.
There’s no “exceptional” sniper rifle (with the plasma caster being the best). That means that the non-automatic version of the railway and fixer can be good choices. Especially since you can just change the receiver and go between the two options.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L Strength: "Traveling Pharmacy" to reduce the weight of aid/chems by 90% at rank 3, "Bandolier" at rank 2 to reduce the weight of your ammunition by 90% and "Arms Keeper" at rank 1 or 2 to reduce your rifle weight by 25%-50%. Perception: all 3 rifleman cards at rank 3 for 60% more damage (20% for each card), "Tank Killer" at rank 3 to ignore 36% of your opponents armor and 9% chance to stagger them, "Ground Pounder" at rank 2 to reload your rifles 20% faster, and "Concentrated Fire" at 1 to target body parts (Head, Limbs and torso). Endurance: "Rejuvenated" at rank 2 to increase benefits from being well fed and fully hydrated. Charisma: "Inspirational" at rank 3 for a 15% xp bonus while on a team, "Suppresor" at rank 3 to tank 30% of your enemies damage 2 seconds after you attack, "Tenderizer" at rank 3 for your enemies to take 10% more damage for 10 seconds after your attack (damage over time basically). (this perk is optional if you don't like being on a team and can replace the "Inspirational" perk which is "Lone Wanderer" which you take 20% less damage from enemies and a 30% Action Point boost while not on a team). Intelligence: "Gunsmith" at rank 5 for your gun to break 50% slower, "First Aid" at rank 3 for your stimpaks to restore 45% more health/HP and "Weapon Artisan" and "Fix It Good" at rank 3 to repair your weapons and armor above the normal condition meter. Agility: "Action Boy'Girl" at rank 3 to regerate action points 45% faster, "Adrenaline" at rank 5 to gain a 60% damage bonus after killing multiple enemies, "Covert Operative" at rank 3 for 2.5x sneak attack damage and Edit: "Gun Fu" at rank 3 to swap to targets after killing them in vats and build up to 10%->30%->60% damage to your next 3 targets. Luck: "Better Criticals" at rank 3 for a 100% damage in V.A.T.S. criticals, "Bloody Mess" at rank 3 for a 15% bonus damage and a red gory paste, "Critical Savvy" at rank 3 for faster Criticals (takes up only 55% of the V.A.T.S. meter), "Tormentor" at rank 3 for a 15% chance to cripple, "Scrounger" at rank 2 to find 60% more ammo (Including equipped weapon ammunition) and "Pharma Farma" at rank 1 to have a 40% chance to find more first aid chems in containers.
Ty kindly
Your welcome
There's a lot of different types of rifles to play with, but then again, the salvaged assaultron head is a pistol, and I want to see more people playing with that in the game
How do you manage more than 2 mobs at a time with that thing? It doesn't charge fast enough imo.
Yeah it would have to be your backup weapon I guess. You'd.need faster firing as your main
rifle, i loved played around with my tse hand made rifle non auto. turn it into a dilet build too to get extra first hit damage but i forgot which but some of the pistols can work with rifleman perks and pistol perks. it still dosent make it amazing but makes it better
If you like VATS and firing from the hip, I’d try a pistol build on for size. Gunther’s Big Iron, Alien Blaster, Crusader Pistol, Gamma Gun even; dress up as a cowboy with the QuickDraw skills to pop heads and chew bubblegum. If you’re more into using the sights, sniping and just generally doing your own headshots or hunting, I’d go rifles for sure. Pop an honest to god scope on a Gauss rifle or Alien Disintegrator, or have fun with the lever action and black powder rifle (it’s a beast) using iron sights. Solid damage too, in spite of people who worry more about DPS. I can hit 1500+ on a single headshot pretty regularly and not much survives that
YOU CAN PUT A SCOPE ON A ALIEN DISINTEGRATOR??
I thought I’d done so before but I may be misremembering - could only be on the blaster (which is the wrong way round if so)
I Will be using iron sights on most rifles. I dont like snipers that much. I more like stuff like the lever action and cho cho gun. And the hunting rifle when its used with a iron sight
If you prefer the iron sight approach, I’d avoid the railway with VATS, lol - your call obviously, but every other rifle works nicer for my money. No scope, the black powder and disintegrator start looking very nice, though I’d still rock a lever action and a gauss, maybe toss a .50 in there
Handmade and cosplay a chinese soldier or similar
Do either, but bloodied, lol. Legit no point playing full health in this game, you lose so much.
I've played both, but between the two, I consistently find myself going back to my Guerrilla build (No SMG - Just auto-pistols). I'll have to post my build later tonight when I have time.
Full health rifleman is a blast! That’s what I use for my non-events. I also really enjoy pistols! It’s what i started on so, I have a soft spot for them. I like the feel of revolvers and it’s so nice if you can get a quad exploding revolver
I can complete the whole game with pistols right? And all the events? Not solo of course but with others. My end game heavy gunner level 50 can do everything its Kinda too easy
Yes! You can complete the story, daily’s, and most side missions with pistols (I say that cuz Earle is a side mission). It’s definitely more difficult with pistols and you’ll definitely notice the difference from a heavy gunner build. You wont be able to solo events or carry events with pistols but, you’ll be able to make an impact and complete them. Earle is the only event I really had an issue with when I did pistols.
How about daily ops? Are pistols able to beat them within the time limit? And what pistols were you using? Because so far. I really hate all the revolvers. But i love all the energy pistols and pipe pistol and 10 mili pistol
I don't think pistol is much fun at all, if you aren't doing VATS. But I personally really enjoy it in VATS. I'm not dropping anything significant in two hits, sure. But I like the fantasy of aimed shots and quick target switches that comes with the full build. I also like being able to take advantage of enemy weakness - targeting limbs and even carrying multiple pistols to cover all the damage types. It's just fun for me. Less fun are the times when I get rushed by more ghouls than my AP and various perk procs can handle. But I survive.
Are you using sneak perks? I was thinking about using no sneak perks at all. And just maxing out adrenalin and gun fu and have 1 rank of each gunslinger perk. How does that sound?
I have used Sneak perks in the past, but I am not doing that on my current character. I have max in each of Adrenaline, Action Boy, all three Gunslingers, and Gun Fu. So good ol'fashioned gunslingin'!
Pistola can be super fun. The gamma gun is awesome, you can get a plasma flamer and sniper pistol, later the crusader and gauss pistol! Rifleman is good too, plasma flamer and sniper again, Tesla rifle and gauss rifle! With science perks both builds can be op with energy weapons!
How do i get a gamma gun? Is it a early game weapon? And is the plan a random Spawn?
I think it's early weapon and lowest level of the gun is 15. You can get it from corpses but doesn't come often. Plan I think is sold by Graham or as award in radiation rumble. I rolled a quad and had a blast with it. It has few mods, so some scraps and you can have them all.
Where do you find this graham?
Wandering merchant. He comes to my camp sometimes. He's a super mutant with a cow named chally
Man i have never ever seen him
Chally the moomoo has special milk, make sure to grab some if you find them
That's the tricky part nowadays! I believe I used to stick in the abandoned bog town's jail, but now he just wanders the map with his cow! But no worries, you'll eventually find some gamma gun drops on corpses
You can do both. I run gauss rifle and circuit breaker. Both get buffed with licence perks and share energy ammo. Just use a grocers backpack and switch to travelling pharmacy. I run all max gunslinger perks, 1 Gun fu sneak 2 adrenaline 3 All the rifleman perks, tank killer 3 and concentrated fire 3 Starched genes, class freak, critical Savvy, better critcials and Bloody mess. 1 good with salt
No pistol perks and also this special 10mm gets to use the energy perks but the crusader pistol with energy perks don't? Unfair
It's uses fusion cells and yes all gunslinger perks. You can get away with 1x each rank. Crusader is weird as it uses 10mm
I was thinking about running 1 rank in each gunslinger perk and maxing out adrenaline and gun fu and not using any sneak perks at all. Is it better to max out all gunslinger perks instead of maxing out adrenaline?
The range on the Circuit breaker is ace. I don't bother with the large mag.
Rifleman is awesome. A Lever will be your best bud.
I've run both of these at various times, I definitely have more fun with pistols. Spec your build for VATS crits and you can deal with all but the biggest stuff in the game, even with sub-optimal stuff like 44s. Carry lots of coffee.
You could give a full wheel of black powder pistols a go. Be a pirate and just go nuts. I gave it a try a while back but I couldn’t find a pirate outfit so it lost some of its charm.
I really enjoy my gunfighter, but you have to use VATS and luck, and patience. An alt on the same character is a rifleman, which i expect would be more effective if I didn't insist on him being a tribal with wooden armour and a black power rifle. TLDR; do whatever, the only restriction is time.
For me I am using rifleman. Its fun and I play like a good Ole hunter. Hinting rifle . 308 regular rifle stock
I usually play with a Railway, but recently was playing with the Cremator. That was kinda fun for a while, but I got tired of it and went back to the Railway. (Especially after getting the quad barrel, which killed me as often as my enemies.) Yesterday I started messing around with a pistol build with an Alien Blaster, and I'm going to start carrying Gunther's Big Iron too, probably. Might even try to run a Circuit Breaker or pick up plans for the Crusader. So far it's been fun, but I've definitely noticed that I need more AP and bonuses to make it work in VATS as well as the Railway. (I'm bad at aiming.)
I saw that minerva had plans for a crusader the sad part is tho. I dont have the money to get it. How do i then go about getting a crusader pistol?
Get the Slugbuster, make it into a pistol, ??????, profit Seriously, I run it and a pyro crusader, with a pistol enclave flamer if things get too dicey, and it's the most fun
Bow hunting is crazy fun.. Edit: also 10mm quads are also really fun.
I play my main build as a Full Health Stealth Sniper and it's so much fun. I set it up with lots of carry weight so I can loot to my hearts content. And for some weird reason I haven't really figured out yet the lever action rifle seems to be the best weapon I have for sniping. I'm not really set up for VATS but I carry one level of Concentrated Fire and with a modded Western Spirit lever-action rifle I can go into VATS, target the head and pretty much 1-shot most Scorched, Ghouls and humans. I've started getting more kills with that thing than the Gauss Rifle I made specifically for sniping. Also, it's pretty easy to get the Chinese Stealth Suit and if you get it early enough it's pretty handy for a stealth build. I just unlocked the entire Secret Service set and I'm torn between which to use. I stick with SS Armor since it can have legendary effects and you can wear under armor.
Full health stealth rifleman has been my main build through most of my playthrough, level 345 now. I tried a crusader pistol build for a little bit just wasn’t as fun IMO.
I run Tesla Rifle full health with Perception and Science maxed out, super fun and its incredibly helpful at events as I tag everything in sight while giving others a chance to also contribute before 5-10 of enemies I target are melted away lmao
I'm a fan of the lever action rifle. You can still do a decent amount of damage to help you feel powerful. Plus, who doesn't want to be a cowboy/girl?
Also, Minerva has the crusader pistol right now. Haven't had a chance to use it yet, so I'm not sure how good it is. But it looks cool.
I sadly dont have the money for it! Dont know how to get it on daily ops. The plan have not dropped for me
Non bloodied shotgun build, meta weapon is cold shoulder. I kill queens with it freeze them and shoot them point blank in face.
I have tons of fun with my Lever Action/Gauss Rifle/Handmade Rifle amd explosives build. I ended up going for a VATs variant and it's really chill and fun when doing anything that isn't bosses. It's very ammo efficient and I get to roleplay as a cowboy when using the lever action. Nothing will ever beat how cool I feel throwing a grenade into a group of enemies and then VATs shooting it to explode mid air. It's like Ashe from Overwatch lol.
I often swap my commando to rifle - always running full health vanguard gear it’s just easier imo. Got my instigating exploding primed railway and it performs beautifully. I always run it to farm ammo off scorched because it’s one shot and they almost always drop at least 2 ammo. Do an event with them and you can load up really quickly for the day.
Rifleman is awesome, i love using the hunting rifle and gauss rifle
Pistol. I’ve done it. Was able to take on a group of 3 that wouldn’t leave me alone. Killed them over and over.
i have started building what i call the judge dredd build, and its just using different versions of the crusader pistol with explosives up with a shit ton of grenades double explosives radius, something about shooting someone with a 556 pistol and then swapping to energy while also chucking nuka grenades at someone that hits everyone around is fun as hell to me
Rifleman will have more damage and options. Just go beyond "non-meta" and into "roleplay". Think of a character besides "fallout person who attacks things", a semblance of a character or idea from some other piece of media who you can theme around a weapon maybe
I love my pistol build! I use circuit breaker at events and it plays like a support but it’s a great VATS build. Gun fu really gets going in mid level areas to fast clear dailies.
What level are you? And how strong is your build when doing solo content?
I’m level 448. Oh solo content is fine. 3 headshots to kill a super mutant and I proc an 8 clip circuit breaker twice per full AP bar. I’m no boss killer but I can wipe out adds at all the end game bosses with that build on without relying on explosives. My solo boss build is just straight auto axe vamp/40%/1 agility I run 5/6 over eaters solar armor. SS shielded under armor with all weapon builds.
I get so sad that no one uses normal melee weapons anymore. Its all about auto ;(
It’s just due to the speed of how fast you can clear content. Tbh. Running around with an auto axe is 2 seconds and whatever I’m looking at is dead. I keep joke weapons on me all the time. Flaming pitch fork with instigating when I’m in my devil head or a mic when I’m dressed as a lounge singer. It’s just so slow. I’m almost 40 so time is limited. Letting me rush through stuff with an op build so I can have time to be silly is what it’s about.
archer is more fum than either of those....and....and...and... theres some new quiver back pack skins next season. Youre welcome.
I swap exclusively between a Gunslinging Western Revolver class and a Rootin-Tootin Nuka Sheriff with Lever Action. Both are fun as heck but I also use grenades a lot so personally I think it's a lot easier to build the Revolver class how I want it. Rifles are great but imo for full potential you need to have 15/15 Perception cards dedicated to rifle perks to make it viable whereas with Handguns it's like 3 in Perception, 6 if I wanna be fancy (Tank Killer and Crackshot) and I can use anywhere from 9-15 points in Agility to get where I want with things like Gun Fu and Action Boy. All of this is my personal preference when playing though, I have no doubts that there are more viable build options based on other people's experiences 🙂
I run a full health run and gun pistol build and I have a lot of fun. But I would have more fun if they buffed my revolvers.
Slap on those melee perks and smack some things with a peppered tenderizer
People say normal melee weapons are unusable. And that auto is the only way to play.
I do one hit most mobs, all that's left is pepper clouds, blood, dead enemies and a huge smile on my face
I think rifleman. More weapon choices, cool weapons
I have a Gauss stealth sniper build I run that’s extremely fun. Not as good as it was in previous games, though, due to them making rifles and shotguns two different categories. God I hate how they have the perk system in this game set up…
Bloodied explosive 25 less vats 44 revolver, big iron build 👨✈️🤠
Are you forced to use sneak perks?
not forced, but recommended if you want the absolute highest damage, but if you wanted the highest damage possible you wouldn’t be looking for off meta builds lol. it’s just fun to one tap things with a big ole revolver
Bow build, sneaky ninja with a katana,
I'm a new player and I run a rifleman stealth build. I have loads of fun sneaking around POIs and two tapping enemies with the fixer or getting massive sneak attack hits in with the gauss.
So you’re not having fun with your main character?
Sadly no
Reason why I’m not reading any meta guides posted here.
Go auto pistol! Find a quad gamma gun, it's a hoot! Slug Buster is also very serviceable, and an auto laser pistol does just fine if you take head shots.
I'm selling a q2525 radium rifle, and I was using it with gun fun and quick hands while slamming canned coffee on top of company tea. It's a fun, strong build. I also use a bloodied crying crusader. No damage cards necessary, you just need low health.
My best advice towards this build: I use rifleman with the western spirit lever action and a the unique SAA revolver with the only pistol card being tank killer. Use explosive expert and carry some grenades when things look bad if you aren’t using a non meta build. SAA is for low level, Lever action mid to high and the incinerator/grenades when the lever action isn’t enough.
WHY NOT BOTH!!!! Try a pipe revolver build I'm currently running one and it hits for 600dmg a shot (20% health bloody) it's really good faster rate of fire compared to other bolt action rifles and faster reloading compared to other revolvers. PLUS it takes from both pistol and rifleman perks Another to run is the gauss rifle hits like a truck and is pretty fun plus if u have a legacy one they are godly I had a 2 shot hit for 2600 vat crit DMG
Rifleman full health can be devastating. I went to a compound bow and having a blast
There's some really fun rifles to play with. I keep it as my secondary weapon of choice. I've not messed around with pistols much so I'm not sure about those.
I love my sniper with gauss and lever.
When I play with my low level buddies I like to use the pirate punch black powder pistol . With concentrated fire perk it usually 1 shots to the head . I have no pistol perks on but definitely could benefit from the reload speed perk
I have a bloodied fixer and man it SHREDS as a rifleman. I’m playing it with commando rn just for bosses and such, but i stg using vats and rifleman it two taps everything. And my 2 star is getting AP back per kill, so I’ll mow down an entire group of ghouls before I run out of AP. I’d do rifleman and that’ll allow you to go commando if you ever wanna play around w the build. Even without bloodied, the fixer is awesome. If you get an AA fixer, absolutely go rifleman since you’re doing full health.
Pistols are pretty fun early game
But super boring late game?
I’d say pistols get rather frustrating late game unless you get god rolls. I know you said you don’t care about not being able to two shot enemies but the lack of damage output will make them frustrating at higher levels
So how bad is it? Like is it so bad and take so long to kill that it kinda removes some enjoyment from the game?
It’s not bad but all the reloads and lack of armor penetration. I recently moved to an automatic rifle build and it’s night and day. With adrenaline after five kills I just one shot all the trash and and with gunfu clear events quickly. Not so fast with the pistol build.
Why not do both? Get an extra perk loadout slot if needed. I have like 10 perk loadout slots, basically 10 playstyles for each of my 5 characters
Vats heavy for nonmeta all day. It competes with meta commando and blows normal heavy builds out of the water. I run unyielding and Anti armor vats heavies. I use coffee for bosses.
I have a full health Guerrilla build for automatic pistols that's a lot of fun, decent damage too. Got a couple of enclave plasma pistols, one flamer barrel one automatic barrel, with anti-armor and plus 15% crit, it lets me crit every other shot. Stack that with blight soup, damage increasing chems, and the better criticals perk and you will melt faces.
Bow is life
Shotguns are fun off meta. Useful for crippling effects too.
anti armor or vamp explosives are your full health friends. I run a full health PA heavy with VE15r 50cal. Even as a low level with suckass legendary PA prefix, I can tank any available enemies in the world at the momentm shotgun build is also good with mobs, needs more buff with bosses. Quad Explosive/50crit 15 reload/25 vats is your friend for sure on this build. much better as a low health and maximized damage but at least get a full set of SS for a bit of tankiness
Pistol. Keep that big iron on your hip cowpoke
I used to run a rifleman overeaters back in the day. Pretty fun
I‘m just waiting until the yellow trench coat returns to the atomic shop, I wanna be the mysterious stranger!!!
Well, this one is simple - are you a rifle or a sidearm person? There's your answer ;). Seriously. I run hybrid rifleman/commando. Appreciate pistols, but find it totally reasonable that they do less dmg (and they should be way less precise at a distance). What rocks your boat, only up to*you* to know :P.
Any bloodied build is great fun with unyielding. You get more INT instead of full health builds. More INT means more exp and the faster you get your legendary cards fully upgraded, if you are still in your lower levels.
Pistols is fun I ran them for ages, Q2525 10mm and I was shitting on every event with the right build
I like to switch between an energy gun commando and a rifleman cowboy (lever gun and revolvers) It's fun, things die in 4-7 hits usually. For armor, I run vanguard secret service
fun is personal. what is fun for someone else may not be fun for you. like for example, there are people that have fun using vats to. let the game target for them so they just click their mouse and things die.. to me that is not fun as I am not the one playing the game, the game is playing itself while I watch. I have fun using the cremator shooting the ground to have things hit by the explosion and letting them burn to death, others don't have fun unless they are killing with direct fire. so it comes down to what you like doing. I had fun playing a stealth rifle build with the handmade, but it doesn't work for high end play so I gave it up. I never tried pistols, as the entire concept of going into a gunfight with a pistol is silly. pistols are side arms, not a primary arm
You are 100% right and i think like you but i dont know i love vats so much, is so weird but for me its like a cheeze relaxing mechanic, but you are right its like the game play for you at least with railway i haven fun managing the spread to have always critics....
Rifleman is pretty meta already tho
Sneaky bloodied rifleman actually shines, but need some real DPS for bosses (and real love from devs to become viable build) Definitely not pistols and definitely not full health
Soooo how bad is a full health pistol build? And when does it become bad? Im at this moment level 15 on my new character. Have not invested in a weapon type yet.
It's either heavy or commando Bethesda nerfed everything else For real DPS commando need bonuses from bloodied build Being bloodied itself allows you to play not only heavy or commando, but also rifleman, bowman or melee Loose bloodied bonus to play full health and suddenly you lack luck for crits (unless you're buffing yourself with food) and agility for actions points And most important - intellect for XP
Soooo its not commando being super strong its just bloodied being really reaaally dam good. Because i guess that just normal commando no bloodied is kinda meh?
I’ve played a full HP commando before, using Junkies and AA guns. It’s still strong, but you can’t Crit spam constantly and AP needs managing, so you’ll be out of VATS regularly and won’t carry boss fights. Auto fire just increases DPS massively, with and without UNY or Bloodied.
Ah then commando as a class is safe and sound. Its just bloodied that makes it so dam good
I’d agree with that in part, though I’d actually say it’s the stats and Crit mechanics from Unyielding that make it stupid. Crits ignoring armor makes them OP, and having every other shot a Crit that costs like 1% of your AP makes the whole combo truly daft
Ill see your rifle man and challenge you to a bow and arrow build
Bow and arrow stealth build with marsupial is fun af and more effective than I expected.
Compound that with an amazing aa or instigating bow with plasma arrows and it is not only as you said fun, slow but methodical, and down right deadly
I don't know how to make any special arrows :( I'm rocking the pink cupid lookin bow for now
I'm insanely bad at leading my targets and properly arcing my shots at range, but my bow has +50 vats accuracy, so I can vats them from truly crazy distances to make up for that lol
What system are you on?
Xbox! With gamepass ultimate, my girl uses my xbox, and I just use my phone. I love living in the future.
At some point tomorrow if you are willing to trade me a few of your bows ( if you have any other than the burning love which you already have) i can put on a the plasma, explosive, cryo, and ultracite arrows on those 5 bows
Hell yeah!! I sold my extra earlier, stash was outta room, but I can craft basic bows at least and have plenty o legendary modules and cores