you need survivability and getting crippled limbs wont help on harder difficulties/hardcoe where companions are non-essential.

not every encounter in NV is an npc sitting 1000 away from you, and they're usually not alone, not to mention instanced buildings/vaults.

if you pick trigger discipline you're .03 degree shot goes down to .024.
your ROF drops from roughly 1.2 seconds to 1.5 with the hunting rifle. doesn't really seem worth it to me.

also a shotguns DAM is to low, any decent DT will negate it. the question is do i want more DT myself to survive, or do i want to deal more damage to THEM.

these perks you listed are handy, i just don't know how well it's going to play out having a glass cannon..

Why? because I have low perception? perception has nothing to do with sniping. I can scan and locate hostiles just fine before I even get close.

I took hear and now because nothing else I wanted was open. There might be half as many perks, but my build does not need more then 4-6 perks.
You could easily replace it with something else if you wanted. When I hit level 14 I had nothing else I wanted at that time, so anything I took would have been equally useless.




Better placement of special points, perception is NOT needed for anyone who wants to put a little more time into the game by scouting and locating hostiles long before you would ever seen them with perception 9/10.





perception is a waste for anyone who wants to play a sniper and is willing to hunt and scout. All perception does for a sniper is for people who don't want to hunt and scout before hand. No need for ED-E or Boone. Been playing 16 levels w/o either one. I wear a +1 perception hat.
IF perception is such a big deal to you guys, take points from charisma, and add to perception. Reverse it, and make it 2 charisma and 5 perception, add in a handy hat for +1 and now you have 6 perception.

Like I said, I scout ahead and have no need for perception. No implants are needed, if they where I would have listed them.
IF I was going to pick up any implants it would likely be + luck/and DT.

my guide might not fit everyones need. BUT it is VERY, VERY effective and works VERY well. No need for implants, and some perks can be swapped out fairly easily.

The core perks for my build are,

2-Black widow
6-Travel Light
12 Finesse
16-Weapon Handling
18-Grim Reaper's Sprint
26-Nerves of Steel

Get what ever else you want. Ill explain why.
Level 2, most enemies are male and I wanted the extra dialog. Can sub for hunter if you wanted.
6 Travel light allows faster travel, and faster backpedaling.
12, +5% to crit all the time? yes please!
16, Str 4+ weapon handling means you can use almost any gun in the game that you would need to use.
18, Not strictly needed, but it helps where you have a lot of bad guys around.
26, Again like above.

Why are peopel so keen on the scoped Hunting Rifle? The Sniper Rifle is better in almost every way.

I play hardcoe with small frame.
I avoid vats perks as well, because IF you are that close its likely already 95% to hit anyway. The only time I use vats is if I get swamped and need a panic button.

Trigger discipline is useless IMO for a sniper, you are already hand aiming and bolt actions are slow enough as it is.
Good natured is a waste and counter productive.

Shotguns with S.S ignore what -10 or 15DT? add that in with either slugs or magnum ammo and most armor is melted like butter? in my build you could easily replace the prof with S.S

It plays out well.

I do not need prep to find and snipe the bad guys, its wasted special points. like above, if you just have to have that red marker get ED-E OR swap out points else where.

Now, the reason I personally went with 9 luck starting is because of going inside buildings, snipers fire too slow inside, and playing on HC with lower str means I have to watch weight. So I took pistols.
The prof gives me more damage to a sneak attack pistol damage, and they are light weight and fire faster. Normally I use the .357 or the 9mm.
the extra luck w/finesse gives me a good crit rate when using pistols.
I prefer the 9mm w/scope and mags. 20 rounds, can be fired off fast and I can use it for small game like dogs instead of wasting my 5.56 and condition on rat slayer.

Inside my build is good enough to get by, outside with some advance scouting and moving carefully and slowly its king. Even if I get found out I still can back up fast enough and get a good number of crits.

Here is what I have used the entire game, solo no ED-E or Boone, currently level 16.

leather armor, reinforced.
.357 HD cylinder / Long barrel OR 9mm, scope / ext mags.
Varmint rifle to Rat slayer. Later hunting rifle.

I normally am packing 68-70/190 weight when I leave my stash. Pistols and pistol ammo is light, rat slayer uses 5.56mm, swap out a pistol above for "That gun" and just carry 5.56mm. would drop another 3-6 pounds of weight.

16 points a level at level 4 is 256 points between level 4 and 20 (20-4=16. 16 levels X 16 points = 256) I never count the first level, so the three levels before that, 14 points X 3 levels = 42 points.
Thats 298 points at level 20. I think I did the math wrong though, its not my strong point.
There should be another 160 points from level 20 to 30, making the total to 458 points? heck call it 400 points.
Thats still enough to put guns, sneak, repair, survival,barter and speech to 75 and have plenty of points left.

Anyway, my build works really well. indoors I have a higher crit %, and plenty of AP to use vats as a panic button. Outside nothing can touch you.

Hmm I was hoping this was more along the lines of tweaking the crap out of your default .ini files so you could shoot ac-crossed 7-9 cells... guess that would be in the mods section then though...


Anyway, just get guns and sneak to 100, repair to 70, + a modest luck. For perks, jury rigging, pack rat, finesse, and better criticals = a good sniper setup.

If you using vats you too close in my book. it nice too have for when you get up close though.

The reason for the perks, the longer you can maintain your gun, the longer you can stay off the wire, the more ammo and food you can carry, the longer you can stay off the wire, the higher your crit chance the better off you are, the more damage you do the better off you are.

Now if they just had a better ballistic system...

Everyone is different, but I find jury rigging useless, pack rat is pretty good. Finesse is great. Better crits would be ok, but I chose to drop my perception.

The way I see it, sneak attack always crits. if you are far enough away, and have a suppressor and wait enough you can stay hidden. I normally shoot at the edge of draw distance anyway. Inside I find a large pistol is enough to get me through. I suppose I could use the .22 but I prefer the .357 or the 9mm.

Mine is:
S: 4
P: 8
E: 3
C: 7 (for RP reasons )
I: 4
A: 7
L: 7

Small Frame
Trigger Dicipline

Tags: Sneak, Lockpick, Guns (to be raised to 100)
Minors: Explosives, Repair, Survival (to be raised to 75)

Perks (so far):
Friend of the Night
Black Widow
Chercez la Femme
Commando
Night Person

Most propably not an optimal build, but so what? It works



QFT, nothing like long range sniping while the enemies run around like headless chickens trying to find me And titan357 has a point about perception, i always see the enemies myself (with full actor fade) before the tickmarks appear. If only the binoculars were worth their weight...

My build is a sniper and although the SPECIAL is very similar to the OP (I have a lower luck (7) and a bit more str 6 and agility 6) but the perks are very different.

Traits: Short sighted, Good nature.

I tended to avoid VAT's skills completely and yes I grabbed a few intense trainings, finesse, weapon handling, improved crits, jury rigging and hand loader. The rest have been flavour choices like Robotics Expert & Comprehension.

I tend to use the GSR for harder targets and the Varmit rifle for unarmoured opponents. For back up I have Maria, Lucky and The Mysterious Gun (?). Plus a LMG if I really panic. I've tried the AMR and find it wanting to be honest, too slow.

With a high repair and a good reserved supply of weapon fixing kits all of my weapons are maintained in the high 90's.

I'm now at level 20 and have a really good bunch of skills - at the beginning I concentrated on lock-pick, science and THEN guns. I tend to aim manually and only use VATS close up if I've failed to handle the situation.

I think you are getting more hassle then you are due because your post is named Sniper Guide and not Sniper Build!

directly from the guide

s: 6 optionally 8
p: 8
E: 5
C: 2 optionally 1
I: 2 optionally 1
A: 8
L: 9

Primary skills Guns, Sneak, Repair

Traits four eyes, small frame (stealthy sniper) or trigger discipline, Built to destroy (Critical Hit Specialist/Sharpshooter)

Perks sniper, commando, finesse, center of mass, better critical, Rapid reload, weapon handling, silent running, hand loader, confirmed bachelor, bloody mess. hunter, entomologist, robotics expert, travel light, living anatomy

Weapons All rifles Especially varmint rifle (night scope, silencer, Ext mag, 5.56mm ap and HP) hunting rifle (custom action scope, ext mags .308, all types) sniper rifle (carbon fiber parts, suppressor, .308, all types)/gobi campaign scout rifle, anti-materiel rifle with match (hand load) ammo

Other equipment 1st recon beret, stealth boys for losing hostiles if spotted. weapon repair kits, reinforced leather armor for travel light perk. sunglasses for four eyes trait

Implants perception, agility, luck

Followers Boone, Ed-E, (or no one)

bump

Well, your low Perception is a bit of a put off but that's a personal preference choice and I really don't plan on knocking you for it... your perks are really what makes me find your build ridiculous. I have to run out and do some errands, but I'm gonna come back to this and I'll see about putting my build up as a better example than "Your build is ridiculous!", lol. :user:

trigger discipline and four eyes arn't that great imo.. small frame maybe.

four eyes effectively drops your perception by one hard point, requiring one more hard point from another attribute to get your perks.

trigger discipline bonus is negligible on a spread of .05-.03, offering something like .01-.006 bonus. the rof debuff slows your shots considerably more since the low fire rate.
-if anything, picking fast shot is more beneficial.

small frame is alright.. but it hurts your players survivability -more so if you're playing on hardcoe.

-

having good natured gives you 25+ skill points at the cost of 5 guns.

built to destroy gives you +3 crit chance with 15% faster decay on weapons/apparel... imo it doesn't even matter once you have high repair+jury rigging.

and, imo, a bonus from not picking any of the traits is your accurate snipers retain their rof and spread, while suffering no debuffs during combat.

double post.

might as well fill it with something.

i am in the midst of finishing another play through and i will be making another build... i'm kind of starting to hate the amr, but the ammo choices and pure damage are still really nice. (might warrant the use of pyromaniac?)
i might drop int, but honestly having every non combat skill maxed or close to it is soooooo nice..

Okay, in comparison my build is as follows:



Okay, now let's break down why I think your build is ridiculous and I mean this in a friendly debate manner, not a "UGHMUHGAWD U R A FOOLZ0R!" manner. :foodndrink:

Your Strength is too low and forces you to take the Weapon Handling perk just to be a "sniper" which makes no sense according to your reasoning on it. Assuming you're a "sniper" than I would imagine your main weapon would be the sniper rifle, IMO, Weapon Handling grants it's maximum benefits to players with a Strength score of 4-6 who want to run around with Miniguns, Rocket Launchers, Rebar Clubs, etc... so in that regard, I think you wasted a perk slot and fouled up an attribute score.

Your Perception is ridiculously low and while I won't knock you for wanting to indulge your desire to immerse yourself more, you're locking yourself out of some perks... namely Better Criticals, which if you're a "sniper", IMO, I think is practically mandatory. Often a sniper's creed/motto/slogan/whatever involves something about a single, undetected shot to kill their target, not multiple rounds fired at the target. Therefore, you want your initial sneak attack critical to be catastrophic... even your normal criticals if you're in close proximity to an advancing enemy which is inevitable in a good portion of the game.

Your Endurance is a bit low which you're going to pay for mostly in terms of radiation "damage", since as a "sniper" you're not commonly going to be within melee range so your HP isn't that big of a deal. But then again, radiation "damage" is easily thwarted and you picked up Rad Absorption :facepalm: so the only real downside is your low HP which I've already covered. :nono:

I can't figure out why your Charisma is 5 to be honest with you, then again my Charisma is always 1 so perhaps I'm missing out on something. However, even with my Charisma at 1 I've still been able to punch my Speech skill high enough to pass nearly every Speech challenge available with and without a magazine... so, not much to say on that except it seems like wasted points if I'm not missing something. :meh:

Your Intelligence is just fine by me, skill points are gold. :grad:

Your Agility is also just fine by me, I assume you use V.A.T.S. frequently considering your Agility score (action points) and some of your perk choices. :tops:

Your Luck I think is totally excessive, why do you need all that Luck? Do you plan on gambling a lot or something? As a "sniper", you're generally guaranteed that your first shot is going to be a critical hit... you shouldn't need another one unless you're in close quarters with a group of enemies. You said you fire from just outside the draw distance, if that's the case you can just one shot your target, wait for your hidden status to refresh, and one shot another of the group. This also brings me to your lack of the Better Criticals perk, you probably think you're maximizing your critical rate but your criticals really aren't anything special... I don't know, I think it's silly personally.

On to your perks, the ones I specifically question in your build are: The Professional, Vault Navigation, Here and Now, Weapon Handling, and Rad Absorption.

The Professional: Not sure why you have this as a "sniper", I assume you sneak around "dungeons" with a pistol in hand? Your sniper rifle works just as well indoors as outdoors, so I don't think this perk is necessary for a sniper build.

Vault Navigation: I don't even know what this perk is, never heard of it, can't find it on the internet either... I'm thinking maybe you're referring to Math Wrath which in itself isn't a terrible perk to take but I think it'd make more sense to spend some of your LCK points elsewhere and get Finesse instead. Thereby saving yourself some S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to place elsewhere and still gaining the beneficial equivalent of 5 points of Luck.
EDIT: My mistake, you do have Finesse... this only changes my review slightly in the regard that your Luck score is even more obscenely ridiculous now.

Here and Now: Total waste of a perk slot, you said there was nothing at level 14 you needed/wanted so you took that instead... how about Adamantium Skeleton which reduces limb damage by 50% or Jury Rigging which you waited 10 levels later to take or you could've even went back and taken Silent Running if your Sneak was high enough. Fact of the matter is that once you hit level 30, that perk slot is completely useless, even if you chose a perk that seemed situational to you at least it'd have some end game potential.

Weapon Handling: Already went over this previously.

Rad Absorption: Because Rad-X and Radaway is so difficult to find and doctors charge a whoppin' 100 caps to heal any stage of radiation... Here and Now is almost a better choice than this, 'nuff said. :facepalm:

Your traits are just fine by me, it's mostly preference in that regard. Anyway, that's a more in-depth review of why I think your build is utterly ridiculous! :fallout:

I don't use vats when sniping cause I think it makes it more fun. So I did this whole sniper deal but with 9 intelegence instead of 2 and I didn't use any vats perks, which leaves a lot more open for choosing fun perks like confirmed bachelor.

TBH, any build seems to work. And Sniper builds get boring as ****

dude complete waste of 20 or 40 or 50 points. lockingpicking and science can be boosted by magazines by 10 at the times that you need them and by 20 if you take the perk and repair past 90 is pointless i think cause it just makes you repair more with a weapon.. but seeing as how you get an assload of every gun...

Replace good natured with trigger discipline, other than that it looks good. Though, I'm not one for setting up my characters.

@BIGREDBEAST
good idea. never considered that even tho i use books religiously

@BoSStealthAgent
maybe. i might need it if i plan to decrease my int, might not. we'll see.

@CyricTheMad
thanks for pointing that out.. i was to lazy to do it myself.