in F3 energy weapons were the best range weapons. are they weaker than guns in vagas? how useful are explosive?

Energy Weapons aren't the best, because Obsidian thought they would set them about even with Guns. It didn't work.

Explosives are tons of fun to use but are heavy (On hardcoe) and expensive. Not to mention you don't wanna be close when you use them...

Energy weapons are very expensive but greatly vary and are powerful. The thing is once you find a Gauss Rifle you won't be using anything else.

Energy weapons are bad, m'kay.

The laser rifle isn't too bad since it can modded with a scope and a beam splitter. I think it might even have a 3rd mod as well. But like BlackHawkSniper said, they're all expensive to use and maintain.

i tag EW and i like using the plasma rifle, get the Q35 modulater its a nice plasma rifle, its fairly powerfull and fires fast, also the gauss rifle is awesome and the plasma defender pistol is good so i like em, but i also use regular guns, i use both. and there is plenty of ammo for the plasma rifles, once you which merchants to go to. just for anyones info these are the best merchants i think,

If you play on PC get a mod. There are a number that try to return energy weapons to what they were in FO3. The one I use ups damage by about 1/3.

They are viable. Gauss is the best sniper gun in the entire game. Pair it with Multiplas (plasma shotgun) or Plasma Caster (plasma rifle from F2) and you can get through the game without much hassle, I did that twice by now. What you will suffer from is lack of variety and low quality of low and medium tiers of weapons. Q-35 is your best bet for early levels, but you need to prepare a character relying on critical hits for it to really shine.

Read my weapon guide:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/959557-fallout-new-vegas/faqs/61255

It'll answer every possible question you have about weapons except for the bad ones.

You should put it in the wikia.

No. Alot of energy weapons are very badly set up in this game. Id suggest unless you LOVE energy weapons do a guns or melee/unarmed build first and wait till they clear thier mess up before doing an energy weapons build.

I used them exclusively in my last playthrough (3rd).....I used a modded lasrifle 99% or the time and the unique Gauss Rifle to take down Deathclaws. All in all, their only lacking in a reliable source of ammo, which I solved by ditching the fairly worthless rapid fire weapons (Gatling laser & RCW laser) and plasma weapons and converting all the available ammo into fully charged MFC ammo.......next time I'll just stick to guns.

the laser rcw is a superb weapon when used against cazadors, nightstalkers and the likes. you don't even need to use mc ammo.

If i could attach a silencer to the Gauss, i'd definately go EWs.

I think they're worthless. The Flamer can be fun, but that's it.

Everything else looks completely ridiculous and the Gauss Rifle? Another weapon I just "don't get". I don't understand why it requires so much ammo. I don't understand the crank. I don't understand why anybody would want something so big and loud and... just... ridiculous. What a stupid weapon.

Naturally, this is just my opinion. YOU might happen to love these (ridiculous) weapons.

*shrugs* The modded Lasrifle did just as well, with less ammo consumption (I generally carried a mixed load of MFC ammo, normal, over charged & fully charged)......they just use way to much ammo, I carried a RCW around for a while but never needed to use it and the Gatling laser eats through you're ammo supply in seconds....so I used the modded Lasrifle as my general purpose weapon and Gauss rifle for the real badasses.


The third mod for the Lasrifle increased damage (+3 I think)......I had the parts to mod three more rifles by the end.

Agreed, with the mods the laser rifle is pretty good and quite fun. It's also great for one hit kill critical sneak attacks from a distance. I've had many a one shot kills on radscorpions, ghouls and the occasional giant molerat.

would you be so kind as to share what mod you use for ew and where to get it. thanks

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35240
This does not alter the actual damage stats on any energy weapon, but adds -DT modifiers to SECs, MFCs, and ECPs. Ends up making them about the same against unarmored targets (reasonable), while making them actually useful against anything wearing armor rather than wasting 100 shots to take down one guy in metal armor.