I've used vats like 3 times, I've found it to not be necessary in nearly any situation.

Go fight one of them at level 1 with a pipe wrench and then tell us how "easy" they are.

You were freaking level 45!? Of course it was relatively easy!

well of course not, but you can still kill them at level 10 with a pipe pistol and some jet/pyscho combo

EDIT: although that is more of an issue of jet being over powered.

I don't know man my first journey into the glowing see I about [censored] myself. I was walking in my power armor thinking I was totally prepared for a deathclaw. I was walking, and looking everywhere. I turned and caught a glimpse of ones spines moving behind a hill then they were gone. I walked like 10 ft the music changed and then the roar came. I spun around and there it was right in my face and immediately did the throw move. I bout crapped myself. I lived and killed it only to walk a little ways more and literally walked into one laying down I thought was a rock. It killed the crap outta me. It was a fun journey.

They were scary at the beginning of the game but with the right perks and weapons they go down quick. The explosive shotgun at close range with maxed rifleman and a drum barrel will take down most anything. I get more annoyed by grenades and molotov cocktails. Likewise a silenced gauss rifle with all the sneak attack perks and 6.5X sneak damage will take most stuff down in 2 shots max.

And David downed Goliath with a sling and stone, "faith" being over powered or some such

So far I find the balance on this stuff to be just about right. Agree the PsychoJet is very powerful stuff, but it isn't exactly 'plentiful' when you start out. I've been mauled by Deathclaws and died, I've been surprised by them and barely survived (thanks to chems mainly), I've pwned them (for various reasons ranging from power armor, to surprise, to proper use of tactics against the AI, etc.).

They sure are. In NV they were permanently a concern, as were in Cazadores. in FO4 the only 'ominous' enemies are Deathclaw (weak), Behemoth (only found Swan and I'm 72) and Mirelurk Queens (very rare spawn)

they are too easily CC'd also. Even assaultron dominators can't be stunned/frozen why can deathclaws?

Being able to kill a deathclaw in a power armor at level 2 made me sad. Yes, death claws are too weak but LEGENDARY deathclaws are still tough. I have to rely on Piper to tank for me while I run away, crouch and become hidden while I use my 50 cal sniper and 10 bullets to kill it. Regular deathclaws go down with 3 50 cal bullets.

I had to try several times to get the glowing legendary that popped for me north of the Coastal Cottage. It was when I discovered that I could see his lair from the elevated highway segment occupied by the gunner and his bots that I got him killed. Prior to that I sprinted for the Fish Packing plant and the enclosed shack out front, where I turned around and found out DEATHCLAWS CAN ENTER BUILDINGS THAT SMALL! Not so clever when he's munching my face, let me tell you.

I like the deathclaws as they are, including the grab and slam they do.

Deathclaws can get nasty again once you hit around level 60 but Id say they need a general resistance buff and have their legs somewhat more resistant to crippling since I ran into a level 81 chameleon deathclaw and I just blew out its legs and chipped it to death.

Depends on what level the deathclaw was that you killed.. if it didn't really take all that much effort then it probably wasn't a very high level deathclaw. (you can still run across weak enemies no matter what level you are.)

I just recently killed a mother deathclaw with a fully upgraded sniper rifle. .. I had the advantage as I happened to be in sneak and was pretty far away. It took 4 shots to take it down.. at least one of those was a sneak attack at 3.5 multiplyer. Some might say that was easy, but if it had got the jump on me I surely would have been dead. I have no points in endurance and have limited myself to leather armor. Hell, a leveled stingwing can take me out if it gets the jump on me.

Yeah, I think they're a bit weak. Not much tougher than a mid-to-high level Supermutant, really.

And you'll never see a Deathclaw using a mini-nuke as a boxing glove.

You do know you can change the game difficulty if Deathclaws are too easy for you right?? 馃槀

Normal deathclaws can be taken out pretty easy by level 15-20 but some are pretty hard

do they spawn in packs on higher levels similar to FO3? I've only seen two at once.

In NV you could just 1 shot them with the AMR and go about your day.

I play on survival and they are bullet sponges and hit like a truck.

Ive yet to Seen a chameleon deathclaw let alone the mythic deathclaw. I feel they're fine as they are. Maybe the could do with a bit more defense and a better spawn rate imo. I usual go melee against them with my legendary deathclaw gauntlet that has a 20% chance at crippling legs. Its awesome and I play survival. Im pretty agile at predicting their claw attacks. My second encounter with a deathclaw was at Lynn woods when i sounded a syren while fighting gunners. Out of no where 1 deathclaw and an alpha charged in started killing gunners. The alpha [censored] slapped a gunner into meat confetti. Never been more shock by deathclaws except for that 1 deathclaw in NV Lonesome Road dlc that drops on the ceiling of the trailer

I don't know what game you guys are playing, but Deathclaws wrek me up.

I cannot even kill them. So I opt for the better option, running as fast as I can.

I am scared of Deathclaws in F4 more than in any of previous games, because they did really good job in terms of presenting them. Their size, combined with very swift movement and good Sound effects is spot on.

There are two problems, that ruin the First impression:

A. 90s AI, where they just get stuck on every possible obstacle, and become idle for no reason. It feels like about 80% of their behavior is unintended and glitched.

B. Leveling with settlement building makes player overpowered to fast. Game is too easy overall, not only deathclaws. You don't even need power armor, at level 40+ with combat armor on survival you become a freaking juggernaut that just plows through wasteland.

So I would start with fixing bugs, and making hardest level hard, not just more hp on everything. When I run in front of an enemy, point a gun at his face and shot 20 times to take him down, while standing there and being burned for a minute without any hp dropping on me, someone did something wrong. It's boring, not hard.

True. I'm on Survival too and since I hit lvl 30 it gets more and more difficult to have a challenge. The hp of the player increases too much maybe. What still kills me are the annoying grenades thrown over astonishing distances with amazing accuracy. I installed a better locational damage mod (which makes enemies less bullet spongy) with an 0,3 damage factor for the player and a 3x damage multiplicator for the NPC. It's not bad, sometimes they now can kill me with shots, let's try and see.

I'm still frightened by Deathclaws if they have the possibility to get to me. But often they get stuck on hindrances and I can kill them with ease.

Yes, however in NV they was restricted to a few areas: the mine where you could snipe them from a km away and the den who was very hard but where you knew you would run into packs of them. in FO4 you can run into them everywhere.

Not sure if the answer to the question is "yes", or "no, you're too strong".

For example, on my level 50 melee character - especially in power armor but not necessarily - can as good as twoshot a legendary/glowing Deathclaw or Alpha Deathclaw with her sledgehammer, when she has all the right drugs in her system (she can reach anything from 14-28 strength under ideal conditions). Regular Deathclaws get pimpslapped out of existence. And yes, this is on survivial difficulty. Though, having said that, in later levels since those encounters Assaultrons have given me more issues, a legendary one managed to kill me even, but I found a way around it eventually... I even oneshotted it but reloaded the save because I wanted a better fight lol.

For that character, quick, relentless enemies and/or ones with strong energy output are a source of trouble for her. Otherwise she can take out just about anything in melee. I'd be given more pause by a group of robots than a deathclaw.

It's similar on my sniper character; he doesn't particularly fear Deathclaw's because he can mostly slaughter them from a distance with insane sneak attack multipliers and criticals. Even if he becomes detected before the fight is up he will have criticals stored and ready to wipe them out.

If you want Deathclaws to once again represent absolute dread in the wasteland, I would suggest absolutely cranking the difficulty up to very hard or survival, and making a character who isn't going to be uber powerful even end-game. Have it so the only way you're taking a Deathclaw is with your best companion, all the explosives you saved up, a few obstacles to run behind, maybe a suit of power armor, and some dumb luck. But that's up to you.

It's a side affect of being more of a "sandbox" game. They have to make Deathclaws doable for most play styles. And there is just no getting around the fact that a real, concrete challenge for Dr. Poindexter, Science Diplomat Of The New Commonwealth will be a cakewalk for Mr. Grunt, Uber-Thug Of The Wasteland.