Anybody else noticed that energy weapons are pretty much like, useless now? With the new armor system and the majority of the weapons being guns, when I use energy weapons (I have a 100 skill in it, before you ask) I feel like I'm barely doing anything. I love energy weapons, I don't know why, but I just do. The look, the feel of using them, it really adds to that 50's sci-fi feel. So, most of the time I'm forced to use guns (100 skill also) and I'm not the happiest person about that. At least there are plenty of weapons to go around.

All I use is pretty much NRG weapons and Im lvl 20, they are definately not useless. Im actually glad Obsidian took the time to give us enough NRG weapons unlike Beth did in FO3.

Projectile weapons in general are kind of dinky in NV. I did get my share of criticals with the Gobi, but they did something to the range/accuracy that just doesn't help any. Add in the change to VATS, and I find even what should be primarily ranged characters doing more damage in melee/unarmed.

The energy weapons in Fallout 3 were a LOT stronger, in New Vegas it's kind of quantity over quality. I'm not even going to go into detail about how useless the recharger weapons have proven to be. The multiplas rifle is the strongest one I've found, and it still doesn't do much.

What about the Tommy Gun? Thats a NRG weapon and I woop [censored] with it

The Laser RCW hasn't impressed me much, but I will say that it's very accurate for a fully-automatic energy weapon.

You think energy weapons are dumb? Try going explosives. It's pretty cool right up until you actually start fighting things with DT. Can't believe they nerfed the hell out of explosives when its the only weapon type that gets no form of critical damage at all. Every "normal" deathclaw can take 10-12 missiles from a unique rocket launcher when I have 3/3 demolitions expert and 100 explosives skill. It's either that or spend about 2,000-3,000 caps worth of placed/thrown on every single one.

Copy pasting from a few other threads I posted in talking about energy weapons. People always say that Guns have AP rounds, but fail to realize energy weapons have MC rounds that you can easily create from benches. Anyway, here's the copypasta of my breakdown of energy weapons V guns. Also note that I gave the 10DT AP round calculations a +5 to damage, but I'm not sure DT actually goes negative or just goes to 0. In fact, I'll add that as a note right now for later copy-pasting for inevitable energy weapons threads.

Ok, going over some numbers, let's have a Rifle and a Laser do 25 damage each. Against an enemy with 10 DT, they do 15 damage base, correct?

With the AP rounds, it goes like this
10DT: 25 - (25x.05) - (10-15) = 28.75 (Or if we just take DT to be 0 instead of -5, 23.75)
15:DT 25 - (25x.05) - (15-15) = 23.75
20:Dt: 25 - (25x.05) - (20-15) = 18.75

With Max Charge (MC) rounds, the Laser looks like this.
10: 25 + (25x.75) - 10 = 33.75
15: 25 + (25x.75) - 15 = 28.75
20: 25 + (25x.75) - 20= 23.75

The Laser gun actually does MORE damage than a regular gun with AP rounds does. If people are complaining about the Laser guns being weak, I can't help but wonder if they are even using the MC rounds.

Looking over a full list of weapons, I can see what some people are complaining about in a way. There are many more high damage guns for Guns than Energy, but the fact is that the guns still do roughly the same damage as their counterparts in each category, and Energy weapons with MC rounds scale much better than regular guns do (i.e., as they go up in damage, a Laser with MC rounds will keep doing more and more and more damage than a gun with AP rounds. In the example I used there is a 5 damage gap, but with 30 DAM weapons the gap becomes 9, etc.)

I just got done with an energy playthrough. I had a rough start, but once I got into Vegas I stole the Plasma Defender and multi-plas, plus bought all upgrades for the laser rifle. All three weapons kick-ass for me.

I was expecting the recharger weapons to be a must have since ammo was going to weigh a lot on hardcoe, but man was I wrong.

I have to agree the energy weapons seemed fairly useless in the game, even with the perk that raises laser damage and skills at 100. I also think the game would have benefited more from re-instituting the solar scorcher from fallout 2 than creating the recharger weapons.

I'm on level 27, with the Plasma perk, and I still feel like I'm on level 1 with a BB gun. Energy weapons are WAY too weak, and enemies WAY to strong (cazadors? deathclaws? wtf?).

That was a design decision, and it was a bad one. Sorry devs, it's the only thing I disagree with you about. It totally contradicts Fallout 3!

Q) Why is an Eastcoast plasma rifle better than a Westcoast one?
A) it's not, it wouldn't be, so to make it so is stupid frankly. It breaks Canon. Yup - the "canon" devs break canon.

I understand that the devs didn't really want people "owning" with energy weapons, and wanted to keep that single-bolt shotgun wild-west feel. In that case, why not just not have energy weapons, until at least the Paladins and Black Rangers come in towards the end of the game?

Bad design decision. I'd have rather ONE cache of good FO3 energy weapons, that are hard to find and get at, than common as toast plasma weapons that don't do a whole lot.

Plasma caster with max charge rounds /thread. Seriously, also if you have meltdown oneshotting a pack of troops with 1 gauss rifle shot is satisfying. Its only the laser weapons that are pretty weak with a few exceptions (like pew pew), but they are all very ammo consuming.

I found a Plasma Caster, but it is at 0 repair. Any idea who can repair it, or where I can find/buy another to repair it with?

Mohave Outpost if you're on good terms with the NCR. Or Raul if you have found him, otherwise the Jury Rigging perk will be a big help if your repair is high enough to get it.

Played a character with 100EW (high crit build, +crit items, crit stacking weapons).

Now playing character with 100Unarmed, almost no crit rate.

Unarmed mows the lawn compared to the energy weapon guy. Even against Cazadores and deathclaws.

Plasma really is about the right perks. And don't forget those criticals

i'm play vh/hardcoe fully modded laser rifle and plasma caster. using max charge ammo. everything dies in 1 hit from a sneak critical off the laser rifle, and deathclaws die in a few hits of the plasma charger.. the danm thing does over 100dmg. lucks set to 10 and better criticals and finesse + boones beret so i crit like mad. games boring now> ;(.....

mass produce repair kits, always buy parts IE. scrap metal, duct tape etc. as you find it. if you're not a repair build just get it to 40 and make sure you pick up fixin' mags.. thats how i keep all my gear up to snuff.

The problem is they used that simple math but forgot how mjuch they were tweaking and fiddling with the systems. In the end the GAME itself is messing up energy weapons somehow. The math isnt simple.

now?

you have to explain this one to me cause they were kinda useless in f03 as well

I've played two characters now; one with 100 Guns, the other with 100 Energy Weapons, and I can see where you're coming from.

All I needed for Guns was the LMG and the golden sniper rifle (forgot it's name) -- all set... Deathclaws hardly posed a problem. But with Energy Weapons, it feels as if I need the very best of them to do considerable damage to anything.
The Plasma Rifle is useless (as is the Q-35 Matter Modulater); RCW packs little punch; and even the mighty Gatling Laser seemed to be lacking. Though, with this said, the Plasma Caster is beasty, and the Multiplas Rifle melts down anything in its path. Seriously, the Meltdown perk made Energy Weapons worth it; I love watching entire groups of soldiers explode in a wave of green fury.

Combine the Advanced Power Armour Mk II with a Plasma Caster and you're ready to take the Mojave by storm.

Chriso123 I have read the entry of the gatling laser in wiki is for lightly armored enemies only.
EDIT all of you guys keep on talking about the laser and plasma stuff so what about the incinerator and flamer both are very powerful. The flamer works with groups.

Have you tried the .50 Calibre AMR on your 100 guns character? Easily one of the most lethal guns in the game.

One thing to note is that both the laser rifle and plasma rifle are basicaly service rifles.. as in tier 2 weapons.