I'm at the point where I have to decide between the two for a primary weapon. My backup right now is a 9mm. I can do about the same base damage with both (Ratslayer 16, LR 17). However, the Ratslayer has the larger crit bonus, while the LR has a lower AP cost (and I use VATS a lot when I'm not sniping). With the LR I can get 5 shots to the Ratslayer's 2. Anyway, I'm kinda on the fence with this, so I wouldn't mind hearing arguments in favor of one over the other.

The laser rifle is just a hands down excellent weapon, and it has powerful crits on top of it. It's my standard primary weapon.

Your using a 9mm as backup so your likely puting more points in guns skills and so I would use Ratslayer.

Ratslayer's both unique (aka it's not unique for you to be using it) and over-powered (waters down the game because it crits too easily).

Man up and claim the generic Laser Rifle as your own. A nice part of the Laser Rifle (and Laser Pistol for that matter) is it can get really really accurate. If you haven't before, use some Steady and see how it performs.

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I'm actually not putting too many points into either, so they're about the same level. I was thinking of going full energy though, and having a go with PewPew for a backup.

And how are the LR crits more powerful?

I wish I the AER was scoped. That would end this competition quick.

The Laser Rifle crits aren't more powerful; honestly, the two weapons do almost identical damage on normal hits and crits. The difference lies in their crit chance multipliers: the Laser Rifle's is 1.5x, while the Ratslayer's is a whopping 5x. It's hard not to crit with the stupid thing.

The only thing I can figure silent93 means is at 1.5x, the Laser Rifle still has above baseline crit chance, and laser weapons in general have perks to boost crit chance.

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Man, not even a fair comparison, a fully modded Laser Rifle rivals the Marksman Carbine.

Go with a fully moded laser rifle dude, with enough points in ew and the right perks you can easily use that thing as a end game weapon.

The 5X crit rate is kind of worthless on the Rat Slayer. The gun is really only good for one purpose - Sneak Sniping. Which auto crit anyways. It svcks in VATS with the huge AP cost, and it has a slow rate of fire free style.

The Laser Rifle is extremely powerful. It is a slightly weaker Marksmen Carbine. Fires Fast and accurate. Zoom in and start hitting the fire button!

Level 22, about 50 EW and I smoked them fools that had the unique gauss in about 8-10 shots last night with my fully modded LR. I forgot there were 5, 'cause I only saw 4 in my scope, but I start plowing away at them, making sure the first crit hits the fool in the nice armor and a couple of seconds later, it's over. No more red dots. Then I go down there to loot (after picking up my minefield) and lo and behold! There were actually 5 of them. I musta threw in a few extra crits there on that one. Nice weapon.

-Gunny out.

Because I like to shoot in third person, I actually fully-mod my laser rifle minus the scope. The sights in third person are pretty accurate if you hold right click.