Energy weapons aren't so much broken as is the armor system.

Under normal circumstances, energy weapons and guns are pretty much the same, with energy weapons coming out with a slight advantage. While ammo has more variety with guns, and guns tend to be more plentiful, energy weapons have the advantage of being able to convert between ammo types. This can make acquiring ammo for energy weapons much easier.

The imbalance comes when you introduce the armor system. Heavily armored targets (mutants/deathclaws) require specialized ammo/skills in order to kill. In this way, guns have a major advantage because there are multiple ways to bypass AP. For many ammo types, there is a AP variety. There are also a few perks that will allow you to bypass AP in certain situations (Shotgun Surgeon). Furthermore, a critical hit always ignores AP.

Energy weapons only have *one* way to bypass AP. You must score a critical hit. There is no other way to bypass AP with energy weapons. Plain and simple. This is where energy weapons fail. Add to this the fact that energy weapons, in many cases, have a lower critical chance than normal weapons and the situation gets even worse.

Energy weapons *need* another way to bypass AP to be useful. Specializing your entire character around critical hits to make an entire weapon class viable against a select few types of enemies is simply not acceptable, despite what anyone says.

Hopefully there will be a balancing mod to fix this in the near future, because we all know Obsidion isn't going to do it. They're far too busy with all the bugs.

The name of the weapon is the "Recharger Rifle". It recharges on its own.

The reason you probably didn't notice this is because it won't actually start recharging until its equipped and held. This is really dumb, I know. You have to hold the weapon out for it to recharge, and the moment you put it away, the recharge dies and you're back to 0.

That gun svcks on so many levels.

I hope not. I just killed and looted the Van Graffs and stole all their energy weapons

not trying to be an ass but to say ew isnt overall inferior to guns is blatant [censored].Guns hell u dont need to specialise to pown ass,unlike ew that u need specific perks to some what keep up with guns and even then they kinda limping .Ew and explosives in NV are nerfed something fierce. lol.If u think im wrong make a ew specialized class and a guns class and try out the diff weapons .An easy way to do this isuseing the exp glitch in helios and the casino caps glitch.Less then an hour and you can experience the nerf sauce in all its glory.Whats sad thou is that chances are obsidian will sweep this oversight under the rug and say well well fix this next game .Mark my words lol

guns +handloader perk>slaughters ew.Its sad that the energy weapons got the shaft.Was hoping for a plasma mortar/but considering the other ew it would prob just singe the enemies hair

I haven't had much problem with Energy Weapons. I didn't use them that much at first, but never sold their ammo, so that when I started getting good ones I was in no danger of running out. Then I realized that you can loot the entire Silver Rush without loosing Karma. I don't know what they sell anymore. :shifty:

yo ewok lord those little fury bastads brings back happy child hood memories haha/their loveable lil rats

It does not feel that good even in normal. I tested laser rifle with beam splitter and focus optics for a while and as results were really disappointing I sold all of my laser weapons. And thats about as good as laser rifles get (all damage modifiers installed).

With 15 ammo per shot hardcoe players are gonna like it... NOT.

I started with energy weapons and I'll tell you right now, my Plasma Caster with HS Electrode Mod (speed increase), with meltdown and 100 ew skill could do a lot of damage! CRAZY damage.