This build was possible in Fallout 3, due to the absence of DT making energy far more formidable. The only thing holding you back was the lack of weapons and ammo in the early game. New Vegas is the exact opposite - energy weapons and ammo is far more common in the Mojave at every stage of the game, but the weapon's inability to penetrate DT severely limits their effectiveness.

Note that this isn't another "Energy vs. Guns" debate - it's a discussion about the effectiveness of an Energy-centric character build. Perks, SPECIAL, et cetera. I haven't attempted one in New Vegas yet. Do the new perks available for energy-weapon users make up for their nerfed effectiveness?

Just don't pick up Meltdown. Plasma Rifle, Plasma Defender, and Gauss Rifles are fine for punching through DT.

And let's not forget the two strongest guns in the game are energy. Alien Blaster/Unique Gauss. Though I won't mislead you on Gauss Rifles, they svck for VATS, but that's an old bug.

Absolutely no Meltdown, then? I assume that's for energy weapons in a support position?

Yeah, I support it. I recommend against Meltdown because that begs you to take a second combat skill. I picked up melee because of it.

Hmm, by the time you hit Freeside you can grab some of the best EWs in the game such as the Plasma Caster, the Multiplas and the Laser RCW for killing off non-armored annoyances. Top it off with the Gauss Rifle for your sniping and an EW build would be theoretically viable, though maybe not as economical as the Guns equivalent since you will be doing lots of converting and recycling of MF rounds and you lose a lot on the Max Charge conversions. Unfortunately I'm too deep into guns with my current character to qualify the above statements with personal experience, but I may give it a try on my next character.

Yes it is, I did it on a non hardcoe normal second playthrough and found it not only viable as a single weapon skill, but a hell of a lot easier to complete certain areas.
The only difficulty was the last quest, untill I switched out multiplas and RCW for a guass rifle which made the last area boss run in fear.

Ammo is difficult to find and keep hold of, and weapons are more rare to find on a first playthrough untill mid game stages, but I found that with any choice first time tbh.

I never found DT a problem, less so than other weapons apart from the laser pistol at the begining, and although the maxed out ammo may not cut through DT combined with all EW perks, mods and maxed skill it's damage multiplier makes it viable even later on, and when it crits easily due to those perks it's even more powerfull.

I also started at strength 3 so I only needed the enhancer and weapon handling to max out most of the choices in EW, and it left loads of stat points to spread around making a more diplomatic but still powerfull fighter.

All in all EW are effective in my personnal experience and are not lacking in NV anymore than most weapon choices.

Which skill would fit as a third tag along with Energy Weapons and Science?
And what should s.p.e.c.i.a.l be for such build?

Repair, if you want to keep your elusive weapons in shape.

A secondary weapons skill (Guns/Explosives/Melee/Unarmed), if you want to hold out until you start finding the "good stuff".

You'll hold out with the starting gun skill if you're good at iron sights. I find sneak to be important to almost all characters. Go with it or speech for a third tag.

Supposedly in the last patch they dropped the 30 and 60 dt enemies down to 15 dt. This would make more of the energy weapons viable late game.

As thats prolly a temp tweak id expect some interesting changes in an upcomming patch.

As for playing it right now.. yes you can if your not an idiot manage to play an energy only build.. Just remmeber energy weapons are very heavy and thier ammo is even heavier..

I went for speech, but it's my favourite for most builds.

My stats were strength 3, perception 8, endurance 5, charisma 8, Intelligence 8, agilty 4, luck 5. add in small frame to boost agility up one point.

Reasons, I really dislike V.A.T.s in NV I have yet to find it of any use, and I rarely used it in FO3 when it was handy, EW's don't need high strength so just boost it later on when needed with upgrades, perks and chems.
The three boosted skills add a fair bit to quests and set up a very good build for quick boosts for requirements such as crafting or skill checks gain when or if needed.
It's not powerfull but does fit in with a techy character imo.

Sneak is a good idea i guess.
It can be explosives as well as im going to keep perception high.

S-4
P-8
E-4
C-4
I-9
A-6
L-5

Speech would totally change this build.

Im not quite sure and not quite in a hurry im just planning my next character.
Im currently on my 2nd playthrough charismatic barter/speech build

EDIT: And by the way whats the highest str requirement in energy weapons?

Stormwarning

s p e c i a l
7 5 8 1 9 1 9


traits good natured built to destroy

tagged science energy w repair
also train barter survival


perks

lvl

2 intense train strength
4 educated
6 toughness
8 strong back
10 finesse
12 pack rat
14 toughness
16 meltdown
18 jury rigging
20 adamantium skeleton
22 laser commander
24 better criticals
26 stone wall
28
30

This is my current energy build and it works rather well. Mind you it is designed for meltdown and to carry an entire shop around with me.

What exactly do you need to get the meltdown?

Just put 10 in luck and int. Then take the perks finesse better criticals, and the recycler one. You should also get the laser commander and the plasma equivlent.
In the game, you make a mad dash to freeside and loot the [censored] out of silver rush. You focus your skill points into science to conserve ammo and energy weapons.

90 pts in EW.

a nice guide to the perks/requirements: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_perks

I think it would work if you get enough money and are able to buy those better energy weapons. For some reason my first time around I wanted to go with only found equipment. It kind of forced my build into what it is instead of me actually creating the build. Basically a small guns, sci, lockpick.. Once I reached 84 in those I figured I could stop since skill books would take me the rest of the way and magazines would give me the 20 bonus to make any skill checks. I then worked on Repair, Survival, EW and medicine.. I happily got energy weapons up to really utilize it by the time I actually found a good energy weapon. It's actually pretty amazing how rare it is to find any weapons.. For the longest time I thought I was going to be stuck with the Cowboy Rifle as my most powerful weapon. Of course the only versions of found guns that i have are the unique guns. I don't think I've ever just found a normal version of half the guns. Once I complete the game I can then look through the list of guns and compare to my locker..(I like to keep one of each gun I find.) And see what guns I didn't find any normal versions of.

Be aware of this...

Due to the way they did things, I was able to stand in a suit of DT7 armor while 3 Sentry Bots shot me with their gatling lasers. I just let them keep shooting, waiting to see real damage come through. It was like being tickled, because my DT matched their damage output. DT7 is mediocre light armor, too. I suggest mods to improve energy weapons, until such time as Obsidian decides to de-nerf them.

Hey TES Ronin, Here are my advices.

Energy weapons characters may not be too appealing at the beginning of the game because their strenght are hidden within the crittical hits. The energu weapons critical hits ignore any DT your enemy have, so you must abuse of this fact. Perks like finesse, better criticals, laser commander and luck booster items are a must. Personnaly I recommend Meltdown because of his over-powering chain effect, even if at close range this perk will kill you, most of your enemies will die before they can even reach you : compagnions on non-hardcoe playtrough are great for enemies who survived your barrage of death at close range. Overall energy weapons is a very good choice if youhave the good perks, a load of critical hits and the good weapons.

Meltdown is awesome. In fact, I think you would suffer more without Meltdown. Laser RCW+Meltdown=a pile of dead Cazadors. If worry about the explosion being detrimental then take Hit the Deck! since you are looking for Pyromanic anyways.

And JR is a live saver as you can repair Gauss with Laser RCW.....

Hit the deck is bugged it ONLY comes into effect if your holding an explosive weapon and protects you from everything not just explosions.. same with stone wall only works if carry a melee unarmed weapon ands protects against all..

Its simple realy Sawyer came up with an idea for what lasers should be like but then failed utterly to come up with enough enemies to make that vision actualy workable in game. Dont know if they will fix it or not.

lolwuz?

I check GECK and it said (DEFENDER)...maybe pip-boy is messed up (like gauss rifle damage)...

Or maybe Obsidian didn't realize you should have perk ability separate from perk learning (but they do have that for challenge perks WTF?)

I'm in the process of running through with EW now, the only problem that I'm really having is actually a bug. The VATS damage is not EVER right for me. EVER!

The YCS/186 is freaking amazing if you free aim though.

My energy weapon run was my favorite.

1. Like everyone said avoid Meltdown... I wish I had. It got to the point where I would shoot a target once, and let Veronica finish them off.

2. You may hate the Silver Rush folk, and all those energy weapons may look good, but trust me its better to work for them, and keep them alive. They are one of the few places that stock energy ammo.

3. If karma is not your thing, or you can look the other way raid the BoS bunker. No don't kill them just go in there sleeping quarters, and rob them blind. You will walk away with a crap ton of MF cells.

4. Its hard, but get to the Strip/Freeside ASAP. I went north. With low stealth I was able to make it with the use of both my stealth boys. Just save often. Its hard, but worth the trip.

Not really, Goodspring, Prime and Khans sells plenty of SEC.