I am in a point of the game where I have Boone and E-DE. I have the AT rifle while Boone has the Gobi Rifle. I play a sneaky sniper/shotgun guy and the AT rifle has done well so far and close quarters combat is no problem.

Should I change back to the sniper rifle/w silencer or stick to my tried and tested build?

The AMT rifle is the best sniper in the game, I prefer it over the Gobi Rifle, just use whatever you want, unless you like unique guns.

I always stuck with my silenced sniper because the silencer and weight difference is such an improvement. I can kill a DC faster with my sniper than AM though.

In my experience the AM has proved much worse, even with AP rounds. Yes, I do have the required strength and guns too.

Does the sniper rifle have a better critical hit?

It is generally faster to switch to another weapon than fire a second shot from the AMR. That said, I will use both the AMR and a suppressed sniper rifle depending on the situation.

AMR is the best one-shot in the game hands down. If you are a sniper than your sneak should be pretty good, and it can sneak crit anything in the game. (on normal at least)

For multiple targets smaller than Deathclaws, it's Sniper Rifle all the way.

There really is no competition. The AMR is one of, if not the best weapon in the game. And because of it's sheer power, it's usually just overkill for most of the creatures in the Mojave Wasteland and is usually reserved for sentry bots, deathclaws and things of that nature (+ FYI, with 90+ guns it makes short work of almost every creature in the game).

But, here's where the stock Sniper comes in - once modified with a suppressor and carbon fiber parts it becomes stealthier than the AMR at minimal cost (you can purchase both mods at Gun Runners, approx. 1K for both), thus making a great primary weapon to have, and the AMR becomes the secondary. This is slightly off-topic, but to be honest even the modded sniper is overkill for a lot of foes too (@ 100 gun skill it does about 66 damage per .308 round, w/ or w/o a silencer).

Both great weapons.

EDIT: @lawmanjoker: Something must be amiss there. The AMR does almost double the damage the Sniper rifle does.

The AMR has everything you need. Accuracy, damage, value and AP, HP and incindiary ammo, for all types of ammo. The only thing is the ammo is rare and pricy, gun runners have it as 9 caps per bullet.

Playing with the sniper rifle in my game now and it makes it way too easy. Actually any scoped rifle makes it too easy. I shouldn't be able to pick 4 guys off while they just stand around doing nothing. I've lost Ed, V and Boone but those dang deathclaws and Cazathings came out of nowhere.

I haven't tried the Anti-materiel Rifle yet but from what I read it's way too overpowered so I doubt I will get strength up to get it.

A sniper with hand loaded +50% damage .308s beats the AM rifle hands down because of the 5x critical chance multiplier.
10 luck + finesse + boone's hat = 100% critical chance versus AM rifle's 20% critical chance.

Add in better criticals and you should get over 200 damage with every sniper shot.

You can take that perk that lowers the strength requirement of weapons by 2, and also boost your strength by 1 at.....a certain place for a certain price.

What he said and if you got bullet time [MOD] the sniper is a raging beast.

Just to chuck another variable into the sniping discussion, how come everyone seems to forget about the Gauss.
I was using the Gobi as my main sniper and switched to Gauss when a careless BoS left it lying in their shooting gallery, I couldn't believe my luck as I hadn't done any Bos mission at this point and had no access other than murdering someone for it.

Looking at a far higher DPS than both snipers and with a critical of 240, going by the Wiki but for some reason it is far higher in game as I am around 360DPS with it on 70ish energy weapon skill. The ammo is lighter, handy for hardcoe and if you get in BoS good books you get some free ammo constantly from the recycling young ones in the base.

@OP:

Depends on whether you want to hump around a 20 weight rifle....

The Gobi and stock Sniper Rifle can each 100% crit.

The AM Rifle cannot.

With crits, the Gobi is far superior to the AM damage-wise.

Gobi/Stock > AM

Dear gods the AMR is ugly. Bleagh.

For the weight of the AMR alone I can carry a fully moded Sniper Rifle, 2x weapon repair kits, and 300 rounds of JSP ammo.

If I want max hitting power with a single shot I pull out the Brush Gun loaded with hollow points. The damage is so extreme with a sneak-attack, or hell even a normal critical hit, the 3x DT penalty is meaningless. With the Cowboy perk the weapon outclasses the AMR in all but extreme range.

Problem with that weapon is that it's damage has 0 AP value, making it less usefull on heavilly armoured targets. It's the main drawback of the energy weapons with the laser weapons being the prime example.

This. The Gobi does slightly more damage than the AMR, is less than half the weight of the AMR and .308 ammo is much more plentiful and cheaper than .50 cal - so I find the Gobi is a more practical weapon all factors considered.

The AMR still may be the premier DeathClaw killer with the special ammos, but I can't really tell the difference in the field between the two in that regard.

I was puzzled myself, but I was taking down Deathclaws faster with my Gobi than with my AMT. Took me a little while to realize that it's because I was critting constantly with Gobi and firing rate is key if you are sitting anyplace the Deathclaws can get to you...

AMR

pro:
DAM

cons:
Loud
Weight 20
STR 8
Guns 100
Ammo price
CC% x1




SR:

pro:
Slient
Weight 3
STR 6 only
Guns 75 only
CC% x5



Gobi SR:

pro:
unique (!!??)
CC% x5

cons:
Loud
Weight 4.5


so

DAM sort: AMR >> SR > Gobi

Slient Sniper Killer sort: SR >> AMR > Gobi

Ammo price: SR = Gobi >> AMR

Req (STR/Guns): SR = Gobi > AMR

Weight: SR > Gobi >> AMR

CC%: SR = Gobi >> AMR




which one is best ?

if you build character is following status:

Build to Destroy 3%
Finesse 5%
Luck 7%
1st Recon Beret 5%
Better Critical
---------------------------------------
you already has 20% base CC%
SR / Gobi has CC% x5

meant....every bullet you fire has score 100% critial chance
at weapon CND > 75%, Deathclaw is 1 hit KO.

This is my first character so I got trigger discipline and small frame. I think that bolt-action weapons force you to be more accurate due to the animation.

AMR is a great opener from stealth, but that's it. It's just too slow to reload. Sniper is amazing with a 100% crit build, and Guass is underrated. Gauss with Max Charge cells eats ammo FAST, but the damage is incredible.