Are energy weapons really so bad? : Fallout: New Vegas

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:36 pm

Gonna do a EW character next, and i'd like to know if energy weapons are really so underpowered as everyone says. How scarce is the ammo?

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:21 am

Don't know what everyone else complains about, but the reason I think they were nerfed is because they use a big amount of ammo(some use more than two ammo per shot).

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:28 am

You have to focus on critial hits for armored characters, as Energy weapons dont have armor piecing rounds.

If you overcharge your ammo and get your critial chance up high then you'll have no problem with armored characters.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:14 am

I use a heavily modded laser rifle for sniping. Sneak criticals are devastating with it.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:18 am

Energy weapons are alright. You get the hardest hitting sneak attack weapon in the game with gaus rifle, and I think the highest raw DPS weapon in the game with the plasmacaster.

Just use the gauss like a sniper rifle and the caster like a shotgun. Plasma caster also has very good bullet efficiency.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:01 am

Guns are definetely stronger than Energy weapons : I had to be mid 20s level to take on Deathclaws w EW, and had a tremendous struggle even then. With guns, me and Boone wiped their @$$es good

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:59 am

law of the internet, everything is exaggerated x10.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:12 pm

Well, i am not a complete dumbie when it comes to character creation and builds, played fallout 2 and 1, minmaxing is fun as hell and all that. Melee weapons build is so easy that i quess i try EW out. Thanks for answers.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:59 am

They definetly screwed something up thats for sure.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:19 am

In my experience, they're on par with regular guns in terms of firepower (my character has equal guns and energy skills). Which admittedly, doesn't make sense, being that they're supposed to be so advanced.

Frankly, I'd like to see them more powerful, but with higher skill/stat requirements to offset it.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:29 am

There not that bad. If you don't invest any points in them, they arn't good, and there not as strong as in F3. You can get a crap load of ammo for them though

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:10 am

They're horribly weak on their own. However, when they crit, they are quite devastating. An EW-based character is going to want the highest crit chance they can get, as energy weapons rely on crits to match projectile weapons.

Or you could get a Gauss Gun. That thing is both at once, thusly, not anywhere near as reliant on critting as laser and plasma.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:59 am

Its not that EW can compete with guns if you have high crit... its that crit is a powerful stat to begin with. There are a bunch of good guns with high crit multipliers as well, so a gun user with high crit has the same advantages as an EW user with high crit.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:15 am

My own firsthand experience points to EW relying on crits to kill anything. My laser bolts bounced off of everything when I didn't crit but they killed everything in two or three shots when they did. Guns at the same skill level don't have that problem.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:18 am

I beat the game using a selection of energy weapons (and sometimes guns). They're not bad at all.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:46 am

My own firsthand experience points to EW relying on crits to kill anything. My laser bolts bounced off of everything when I didn't crit but they killed everything in two or three shots when they did. Guns at the same skill level don't have that problem.

EWs can crit. Guns can crit. If EWs require you to crit to match a gun that doesn't crit, then the answer to the TC's question is, "yes, EWs really are bad".

Anyways, to the TC, there are only 3 energy weapons that can match the best guns: the Plasma Caster, the Gauss Rifle(+unique variant), and the Multiplas. All three happen to be extremely rare, so you're stuck with crappy weapons for a long while unless you know exactly where to find them beforehand.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:17 am

EWs can crit. Guns can crit. If EWs require you to crit to match a gun that doesn't crit, then the answer to the TC's question is, "yes, EWs really are bad".

Anyways, to the TC, there are only 3 energy weapons that can match the best guns: the Plasma Caster, the Gauss Rifle(+unique variant), and the Multiplas. All three happen to be extremely rare, so you're stuck with crappy weapons for a long while unless you know exactly where to find them beforehand.

Plasma defender isnt half bad either, but that's about it for useful/good energy weapons. They really aren't that hard/rare to find if you know where the look, though. But that's a post for the spoiler forums. I'm not a big fan of multiplas unless whatever you are sneak attacking is a nuetral/non agressive enemy. Other than that, it's a real PITA to get a sneak attack off with it.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:51 am

law of the internet, everything is exaggerated x10.

This.

One person says he thinks energy weapons are underpowered. Ten people agree with him. Four have tried them and found them not to their liking. Four have not actually found energy weapons in their game yet. One is using a laser pistol which is in bad condition and their energy weapon skill is low. And one doesn't have the game.

An so on.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 7:26 am

Energy Weapons tend to have a much higher chance of doing a crit doesnt it?

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:01 pm

law of the internet, everything is exaggerated x10.

Its not exaggeration though. For Energy Weapons to be viable you have to devote your character build to them entirely. An EW character will have a very hard time at the start of the game or have to use guns for a while.

@da mage: Crit chance depends more on the particular gun than the weapon class its in.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:34 pm

It isn't that scarce once you have explore half the map, or specificity, Vegas. BOS doesn't sell you any until you become an honorary member, and the quest is pretty long.

Robbing Van Graff's would be a good start, but you would have a hard time trying to repair your weapons at lower levels; trade with them until you have Jury Rigging.

Fiends are good source of ammo too, ECP can convert into multiple ECs and MFs.

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:25 am

Energy Weapons tend to have a much higher chance of doing a crit doesnt it?

The best EWs happen to have a crit multiplier of 1.
Low/mid tier EWs have higher crit multipliers, but there are plenty of low/mid tier guns with high crit multipliers that you gain by passing through areas in the main quest.(Lucky, That Gun, Maria). And if you do some exploring, you can find even more(Ratslayer, Sniper Rifle, Gobi Scout Rifle.. all three happen to have a 5x crit multiplier, higher than any EW crit multiplier).

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 4:32 pm

Plasma Defender, Plasma Caster, Multiplas, Gauss Rifle and Laser RCW are all very useful weapons. I kill things much faster with the Laser RCW than I do with any of my Guns, but it deteriorates very quickly and goes through ammo like crazy. My Gun and Energy stats are both equal. I think they could have been better though. Laser weapons should be low damage but ignore DT (like Armour Piercing rounds), whereas Plasma weapons should be high damage but not do very well against DT (like Hollow Point rounds).

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:14 am

Its not exaggeration though. For Energy Weapons to be viable you have to devote your character build to them entirely. An EW character will have a very hard time at the start of the game or have to use guns for a while.

@da mage: Crit chance depends more on the particular gun than the weapon class its in.

I meant on avergae though......most normal guns (im not including the uniques of either class as both have similary high crit weapons) will have a lower crit chance then the normal energy weapons

» Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:10 pm

Plasma Defender, Plasma Caster, Multiplas and Gauss Rifle is hard (or expensive) to repair without JR.

For Laser RCW, you may as well turn those ECP into other cells.