if I started with a little less base ST (to devote more into Luck for example for more Crits), how "inaccurate" would the Minigun be if I'm 1 or 2 ST points below the requirement? Hardly noticeable or very noticeable?

For Charisma at only 4 (5 with implant), will companions even be of any use, since CH 5 is only 25% Dmg / DR compared to CH 10 which is double at 50%?

I can just upload an .esp for ya on the Nexus just so it makes life easier for you. Plus, I think a lot of people don't realize that the perk is half-broken, so hopefully it'll help people try out Explosive characters. This can be determined based on how there isn't a fix for it on the Nexus.

And there you go: http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40465

Honestly, I haven't released a file yet and it just happened that my first would be a bug fix.

Edit: I think you're all ready to go. Don't worry about it too much anymore.

As for the upcoming patch, nothing's certain. If it does fix Demolition Expert, then I'll remove the file from Nexus. We'll see. Release date is probably Tuesday when Dead Money comes... I hope.

Level 2: Intense Training (EN)
Level 4: Comprehension
Level 6: Demolition Expert
Level 8: Commando
Level 10: Finesse
Level 12: Sniper
Level 14: Jury Rigging
Level 16: Better Criticals
Level 18: Weapon Handling
Level 20: Demolition Expert
Level 22: Plasma Spaz
Level 24: Math Wrath
Level 26: Laser Commander
Level 28: Nerves of Steel
Level 30: Action Boy

Here's my Lvl30 character

S 6
P 6
E 5
C 5
I 8
A 8
L 8

Traits

Built to destroy +3% base crit chance, the trade off is very minor
Wild Wasteland, fun encounters and the Alien Blaster

Perks

Train INT
Comprehension - Magazine effect doubled to 20, saves heaps of skill points, Skill Books also yield a point more each
Train LCK
Scrounger - more ammo? get in
Finesse - +5% base crit chance
Travel Light - makes you run faster in light armor
Hand Loader - craft powerful special ammo
Better Criticals - 50% more crit damage
Chemist - doubles the duration of any consumable taken, drunk or eaten
Grim Reapers Sprint - 20AP when killing an enemy
Laser Commander - +15% damage, +10% base crit chance for Laser Weapons
Miss Fortunate - Revolver chicks wearing hot pants are awesome
Nerves of Steel - 20% faster AP regeneration
Jury Rigging - repair expensive and rare stuff with common and cheap stuff
Lady Killer - for some funny lines

Implants bought

Strength
Perception
Agility
Luck
Sub-dermal Armor

Skills

Barter 28
Energy Weapons 100
Explosives 78, with apparel and magazines ->100
Guns 100
Lockpick 75, with apparel and magazines ->100
Medicine 80, with apparel and magazines ->100
Melee 26
Repair 90, with apparel and magazines ->100
Science 79, with apparel and magazines ->100
Sneak 50
Speech 70, with apparel and magazines ->100
Survival 85, with apparel and magazines ->100
Unarmed 24

See, it is pretty much a jack of all trades character, allowing me to pass any skill check, except for the Barter checks which usually can be solved with Speech.
I don't like Melee or Unarmed, I don't need Barter, and 50 Sneak is enough for someone who relies on ranged combat and to keep a good hold out weapon.
I started out as a Guns user and proceeded over to using Energy Weapons at Level 22.

Sure it require 200 AP spend for Math Wrath to match up against GRS, but Action Boy give you more AP overhead and Nerves of Steel give a flat 1.2 multiplier on AP regen.

But there is only limited weapon below 20 AP for you to regenerate ANY AP for the next target.

Chemist simply can't fit in the tight number of Perks.

Action Boy gives you 15AP, that is it. GRS gives 20 per kill, and there are more than many occasions where you are likely to have one hit kills.
For example, my AER14 has literally become a 0AP weapon on enemies like Fiends....
I've just chosen GRS and Nerves of Steel for the Regen aspect.
The total number of AP can be easily raised by taking Jet, Rocket, Ultrajet, Nuka Victory, Sugar Bombs, etc, to pretty absurd numbers, if needed.
Chemist will easily fit in, if the pointless Weapon Handling gets sacked. It is one of the most, if not THE most powerful single perk in the game.

What I am saying is if you need a kick to knock out hard enemies, GRS wouldn't help you; on the other hand, if you are fighting softer enemy like Fiends you don't need GRS on them.

I wouldn't Chemist be one of the most powerful perk simply because drugs ain't often needed.

Of course it does. It also helps reducing the effective AP costs of powerful weapons.
Even if it takes 3 or 4 shots in VATS to kill someone, the 20AP you get restored are still more than the 15 you're getting from Action Boy. Simple math

You still fail to realize it's more than drugs. It affects Stimpaks, food, water, Radaway, just everything you can consume.
I could do the math for some items here, but in all honesty, I don't want to wake up the Patch n' Fix Police

What I am saying is against most hard target, you may not even be able to net a kill; thus 0 VS 15.

If it double the effect, maybe. But double the duration....sure you can walk around with health regen, but I don't find them hard to keep it up; even for Radaway effect in Vault 34 I don't found it "great".

That applies for whom? A Deathclaw Mother, Male Alpha or the Legendary, that's about it. In 99% of your fights, GRS will serve much more AP

I find it also great for the otherwise really short lasting things like Rocket or Slasher, and for rare goods like Nuka Quartz and Victory

Well, I'm hoping so.

Regardless, when you start out your character, tell me how it goes. I haven't seen a VATS-heavy perspective before so it'll be interesting.

- In Regards to the sway when not meeting the strength requirement, it shouldn't affect you all that much. It's a minigun after all. You aren't looking for every bullet to hit it's mark. So Weapon Handling can be removed inexchange for the magical 3rd rank of Demolition Expert.

- Scrounger is a perk that's best suited for lower levels when ammo is scarce / when you want to save up caps. By the time you progress through the game a bit, you should have a good amount of caps and/or ammunition for your weapons. At that point, it becomes slightly less useful. If I were you and put Scrounger somewhere, Not sure what to remove it with... well Commando seems to be a prime candidate since, if you go off of Fallout 3's list, doesn't apply to most heavy-weighted weapons. Up to you though.

- For my opinion on VATS-Accuracy perks, I say they work just as fine as they did in Fallout 3. Commando, Gunslinger, and Sniper all add 25% chance to hitting in VATS. This % is multiplied by the base value then added, not added. I.E. If you had a 50% chance of hitting an enemy's head, with Commando and Sniper it would be (50 + (0.25 x 50)) + (0.25 x the resulting #) Edit: Or it does 50 + (0.5 x 50)... I forget. In FO3, they helped quite a bit as the base game not having ironsights kinda threw me off. Sure, there was the crosshair but it just didn't feel right. In New Vegas though, people have to prioritize perks, which means stuff like VATS accuracy perks have to be sacrificed.

Oh no, it will make a difference. It's just that there's other perks that people, in general, want to take that are higher up on the priority scale for them. That's what I was pointing out at the end. For either formula I mentioned makes the accuracy bump up quite a bit. The first formula bumps the accuracy from 50% to 78~% while the second bumps it from 50 to 75. I'm not sure if there's another way the game may calculate VATS hit chance though.

So, from what people have said, Scrounger is useless because by mid-end game, you supposedly have tons of caps/ammo anyway. As for the VATS-Accuracy perks, you basically saying they won't make much difference in chance to hit? My main weapons used will be from the EW category (like Gauss / Plasma), along with Explosives and some Guns too.... all VATS for the most part.

We have a EW/Explosive VATS character, not Guns.