Started my second character, a melee/guns user looking to throw in his lot with Caesar. I've been focusing primarily on melee perks, and I'm totally aghast at how powerful Super Slam is.

For those who don't know, this perk can be taken at level 8, with a mere 6 STR and 45 Melee requirement. With every blow from an unarmed/melee attack (except ranged) comes a chance to knock down your opponent. Knock-downs can happen repeatedly - meaning, you can knock down an enemy that has already been knocked-down, pinning them to the ground until they die. If you start attacking, knock down your opponent, and continue attacking, there's a very good chance your opponent will never get back up again. So far, I've seen this apply to humans and super mutants - possibly animals.

I don't regret taking this perk, as it's just another facet of melee, but I can't lie - it turns normal combat situations into a joke. Essentially, if you can survive long enough to get within melee range, the enemy is already dead.

Thoughts on Super Slam? It's uses? Strengths and weaknesses?

Well the only thing im sure of is that its kinda useless against deathclaws....

That's what Purifier is for. Unarmed/melee really is overpowered...

yeah it's pretty good

Paralyzing Palm. In FO3 you could kill a Super Mutant Behemoth without him ever getting off the ground.

I took it at level 10, I'm now level 13 and I haven't noticed myself knocking enemies down very often at all, but then I'm not fighting much that can survive three hits from a power fist at the moment, and I mostly use VATS for melee. Is it random whether an enemy gets knocked down, is it related to luck or anything? I dunno, just throwing some ideas out there.

edit: paralyzing palm was immense, I'm guessing it's been toned down a bit for Vegas?

True - since taking it, I've fought nothing but Nightkin and the NCR emissary who warns you that you're marked for death, all of whom could take a few blows. I assure you, for every ten blows I can land on an enemy, I'm knocking them down every 3, easy. They bounce along the ground like ragdolls until they die. I checked the wiki, and it didn't give any specifics about how knock-downs are calculated. Whatever the case, they seem to be dished out quite liberally.

I've never taken the paralyzing palm perk before, as I've never gotten far enough in the game with an unarmed character to do so (it got old, fast). Really, in execution, there doesn't seem to be too great a difference between Super Slam and Paralyzing Palm. Either you're knocking out an enemy once for 30 seconds, or 6 times for 5 seconds at a time. Either one's a death sentence.

No, not even close. IMO its not even very good. It's pretty much useless when fighting multiple enemies, especially as a melee/unamed character when you hit the guy on the ground and the guy goes flying 10 feet away making you run over to hit him, and then he flys off again, etc.

One on one in a controlled environment it can be pretty powerful. But do you really have difficulty defeating things one on one anyway?

I have to disagree - I was fighting off an entire NCR death squad at lv.10 by attacking each of them individually, knocking most of them down in one or two hits, alternating between opponents to keep them all at bay. I've found it to be an extremely effective means of crowd control. Not "explosives" effective, but about as much as I can hope for with a melee-centric character.

But, to answer your question, no, I don't experience much difficulty in one-on-one, controlled combat. Certainly not enough that I need Super Slam to succeed. But that's the point of this thread, after all - discussing how overpowered this perk is.

sell it to someone who doesn't know any better, The perk is crap against any groups.

I guess we just have two very different experiences of the perk - sorry, it's not like I'm trying to push it, or anything.

Thanks for the bump, I guess.

No, it's not overpowered. Like a couple posters have already stated: Groups of enemies will still make life difficult for you. Also, as a melee-focused character, you still have to run up to the bad guys in order to wreak havoc on them. This means you will get shot a lot from enemies who use guns before you're able to slam them to the ground.

I think it's still a good, balanced perk for this reason. Not overpowered, and not underpowered in many instances because even when fighting a group, a bad guy that's been slapped to the ground is a bad guy who is no longer fighting and damaging you.

I don't think it's overpowered at all.
Considering the fact fighting in Melee or Unarmed you have to survive long enough to get in range...laying the smack down on somebody who just shot you in face 5 X times makes it a just right perk.
Not overpowered at all..

I don't know, I mean an Unarmed character either kill their opponent already or it is a DeathClaw which you can't afford anything less than a power attack......

lol ownage

My melee character got killed a lot until level 8. After picking up Super Slam, she immediately started dominating, especially against groups. Disabling any enemy in a single tap is incredibly effective, particularly when using smaller, faster weapons or fists. 400 nightstalkers swarming you? Spin in a circle slashing with a knife and watch them all go flying.

I don't know if I'd call it "overpowered", per se, but it does make melee much stronger and much safer.

I'm morbidly curious to see what a character with both Super Slam and Paralyzing Palm would be like. The way I figure it, if you hit someone and you don't Super Slam them, the computer will make another check to see if you manage to Paralyzing Palm them. So, either way, you essentially get twice the chance to see if you disable somebody.

Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'll build my melee character towards. :twirl:

I love it! It is pretty overpowered but it's hilarious when you punch someone and they go flying backwords, with their arms flailing about... :foodndrink:

Paralyzing Palm is ony for unarmed weapons. You also need a very high unarmed skill...

I know this.

Agreed, I find it helpful against groups or singles. It helps so much when its a few DeathClaws running to you and it happens to procc. (which it usually does)


I love the talent.

He did say he was using a knive, common sense dictating that he probably didn't have the weapons you listed.

Seriously? Is this kind of constant bashing/flaming needed here?

Kids (or people with child-like mentality) like to feel as if their e-peens are bigger by telling other people they svck, and how awesome they are at the game.

Quite foolish/pointless when it's for a single player game lol. And especially when he's flat out wrong.

Hmm I haven't noticed Super Slam activating that often. And most of the time, things are pretty much dead by the time they're knocked down anyway. And yes I've been using Chance's Knife. So I'm also in the "not overpowered" category, but I still think it's somewhat useful.