Plasma Defender doesn't come close to the power of a Hunting Revolver(or its unique variant). And if you have the Cowboy perk, it doesn't come close to the lower tier Lucky or .44 Magnums either. Worst of all, you can't even sneak it into a casino, whereas you can sneak Lucky/.44s in just fine.
Laser RCWs are outclassed by low-tier 10mm SMGs in both damage and crit multiplier.(although the RCW is extremely ammo efficient with its mod... but keep in mind the 10mm SMG is low tier)

Energy Weapons are more of taste this time around it seems. I was lucky enough to read up to see that it goes off of crits, which is a first in any of the fallouts.

Pros:

- Looks Cool
- Ammo is easy to find, and easier when you can convert to any type
- Also includes weapons like flame throwers, and pulse guns for robots.

Cons:

- No AP ammo
- Needs a Crit centered build to work to bypass DR
- Some guns are ammo hogs, some not what they used to be.

You forget that Laser RCW benefits from the perk Laser Commander 15% extra damage, and 10% more chance to crit. I'm also willing to bet the Laser RCW beats it in accuracy too, since lasers have no kickback, so I fire full auto without the gun ever moving.

RCW does 15 damage and has a 0.5% crit multiplier
10mm SMG does 19 damage and has a 1% crit multiplier.
You need Laser Commander, a level 22 perk, to come close to the 10mm SMG.
And I can't stress this enough, the 10mm SMG itself is a low tier weapon, outclassed by other full-auto guns like the 12.7mm SMG, the Light Machine Gun, and the Marksman Carbine.

wow...this thread is just going in circles.


Lets just say this....both are just as viable if you build your character correctly. Guns my be more forgiving, but it is by no means the 'best' option.

I made a perfectly good character with guns that could one shot alot of humans, but still took a while on armored creatures. I made an energy weapons character that did the same. On neither did I specifically build my character to be powerful and both turned out just as capable.


Guns has more choice...esspecially early on, but Enery Weapons can be just as powerful, or more powerful in certain situations.

In hardcoe mode, enregy weapons only have 3 ammo types that you need to carry around, and have the shotgun/assult/sniper weapons that most carry around hen playing. Guns just has more varity and choice one how to deal with sitautions.

I usually able to pop most fiends and low armor enemies with the Laser RCW, that's what lasers are for low armored targets. I pray those guns you mentioned beat it out, because outside of deathclaws and rad scorps it's effortless killing enemies.

Actually in hardcoe, you just run around with handloaded rounds.

like I said, if you build your character that way. (i didnt because I wanted a more diplomatic character).

Guns is the weapons choice for the everyday normal class. Energy Weapons you'll have to specialisse a bit more to get the results. Its the same with explosives, melee or unarmed. For most classes Guns is the better option due to the wide range, but the other classes arent any worse, they just require you to take certain perks/stats to make them worthwhile.

Just because Guns can be powerful, doesnt mean they will be....this applies to all the weapon skills. It is easier to make a bad Energy Weapons character then it is to make a bad Guns character, this doesnt prove Guns is the better skill, just that it requires less work to be effective. Both weapons classes have their good super weapons.

I've always used both but I prefer Energy Weapons. This time out I got the Laser Rifle and upgraded it with 3 mods and later acquired the Gauss Rifle. I have no problem with EW ammo and give all my bullets to Boone. The Laser Rifle is easy to repair because they are common and I can use my Weapon Repair Kits on the Gauss. EW ammo can be recycled at reloading benches where you can also convert one type for another. You can turn something into a pile of ash or goo. It's a cleaner way of defending myself.

Take the right perks, up the Energy Weapons skill and you'll be god. I'm not a goddess yet but maybe somedqy.

Three flaws.
One, no matter how much you specialize, anything other than the super weapons are heavily outclassed by guns in the same tier.
Two, the super weapons have a crit multiplier of 1, so specializing doesn't do anything.
Three, you do not start the game with super weapons.

If you build your Guns character and headshot kill most things one hit.
And I build my Energy Weapon that Headshot kills most thing with one hit.

does it really matter who did more damage? you get the same results.....enemy is dead.

?
Unless your diplomatic character is suppose to be completely incapable of repairing, Handloader makes way more sense than Better Critical or Fitness.

AP round is only good on small caliber, and .95 DMG isn't anything significant on them. Hell, most human enemy have DT 6 makes AP round better then normal rounds.

Guns are also easier and cheaper to repair, except Gauss, but getting your hands on one is a different topic.....

Having played all games in the series except BOS I've always loved Energy Weapons.
They have always been my favorite weapon skill and always loved their design.
In New Vegas, they were changed.
In a bad way.
They tried to, idunno, "balance" them, along with Guns.
Something is extremely off with all the weapons IMO.
So yeah, I think they have been nerfed.
And they just aren't fun anymore.

I agree. Energy Weapons should be the weapon skill that is useless at first, but as you get toward middle/end of the game outclass neaerly everything.

The fact you can get a plasma pistol just outside the first town defeats the purpose of having Energy weapons being rare and powerful.

Actually, fallout should have more energy weapon available: but they need more low tier to bump the traditional weapons to higher tier.

Laser RCW is a good example: it is a common and rather primitive laser weapon that uses ECP. Once the player level and Gatling Laser/Tesla cannon become available player can switch to it.

While EC weapon at the moment is Laser pistol->Plasma Pistol->Plama Defender->Pew Pew; and MF is Laser rifle->Plasma rifle->Q-35/Tri-beam->Multiplas rifle/Plasma caster/Gauss

As you can see EC weapon is completely lack in variety, while MF weapons have a unique at mid tier and only branch out at top Tier.

I don't head shot kill anything in one hit unless I'm using one of the big three. Probably because I don't play on normal.
...actually, even on normal you can't head shot kill most things in one hit unless it was a from a sneak attack.

And if we're talking about sneak attacks, then EWs are outclassed by guns, too.... there are multiple silencer mods for guns, but none for EW.

Multiplas Rifle killed the legendary deathclaw in one hit no sneak attack crit or regular crit, just max charge rounds. In terms of easier to play guns are better, but who the hell wants a dinky rifle when I have plasma casters?

Yes, im annoyed by that. Laser weapons are far by the most silent weapon without a silencer....yet the loud bang bang guns can be turned silenced but not the already quiet laser rifle.

Though the weapons mods are lacking in many areas, not just in this one.

Legendary Deathclaw has 850 health.
Multiplas does 183 damage with MC rounds, without any other modifiers.
:slap:

I am pretty sure that was a crit.

Plasma Caster weights like a ton and have a lame strength requirement; and it is outclass by default sniper rifle, unless you invested a lot in VATS.....

To be fair headshot do 50% more damage. >_>
Still ain't enought though.
But you would need to take every +damage perk into consideration as well.

True I agree that Lasers are dorky crit chance and VAT base hit chance seems to low across the board compared to guns (it a freaking light beam it travels in a straight line to infinity, unlike a bullet where it fall towards the earth get blown sideways by wind etc etc).

I think the laser RCW is broken as it the only laser weapon with less than 1x crit (and the only machine gun type apart from the light one with 0.5x crit).

Though if you count the super weapons then Energy has the best IMO.

multiplas does normally about 35 x 3 damage but since all 3 of the projectiles can individually crit for extra 105 damage without perks and for 157,5 with better criticals, you can theoretically do (157,5+35)x1,75x3 = about 1010 damage to DT 0 enemies if all projectiles crit and you are using max charge MF cells, 2020 with sneak attack and even more with sneak attack headshot. It isnt that unlikely to kill legendary deathclaw with one hit by using multiplas

It's 65.6x3 damage, but I was aiming for the head, so it could of been a crit.

I have a question about the Laser Rifles I have and I think I was choosing right but I wanted to check.

My Laser Rifle is modded with the Beam Splitter, a Scope and and Focus Optics. DPS = 51 and DAM = 4.9x3

My Laser RCW is modded with the RCW Recycler. DPS = 106 and DAM=12


The Gauss Rifle I have now is DPS 317 (needs a little repair) and DAM 92 so now I've changed to that but when I only had the first two, wasn't the 3 mod Laser Rifle the better weapon? Thanks!