How are Big guns this time around? Whats a good starting stat sheet for a big gun/melee build, any must have perks/traits?

Big Guns were removed.
Those that shoots bullets were placed in Guns.
Those that use energy or fire were placed in Energy Weapons.
And those that explode were placed in Explosives.
They are now solely dependent on your theme skill and strength stat.
Like, having 100 EW and 5 STR means you probably shouldn't use Plasma Caster or Gatling Laser since you'll miss most of the time.
Well, unless you use Buffout and Power Armor. [edit] Oh and that perk that lowers all STR req's by two points.

I know the stat is gone but the guns remain, I was thinking of using the Gatling gun but the plasma caster looks really cool so I don't know. I was wondering if it was worth splitting my combat between two categories, because I wouldn't do energy/guns/melee. It would either be energy/melee or guns/melee. I was planning on having something like this


S-8
P-4
E-7
C-2
I-7
A-8
L-4

For energy Id switch agility and perception

I wouldn't suggest it but that's just me.
A lot of melee and unarmed perks require both skills so you'll waste a lot of skill points on two close combat skills for perfection anyway, a third combat skill leaves less room for support skills.
If you don't care much for lockpicking, hacking, converting cells, repairing weapons, speech options, sneaking, medical procedures and cooking then sure, go for it.
But since you can't get more than 15 perks, 17 with Dead Money, it will limit you a lot more.

Anyway, High Perception isn't very necessary IMO, maybe for that perk Better Criticals but not much else.
If going for EW build as well I'd suggest Luck as the most important stat.

Been there, done that, was left unchallenged :shrug:

Guns, Explosives and Melee, ignored the Big Energy Weapons. Final Equipment was Bumper Sword, Light Machine Gun, Avenger (unique Minigun), Mercy (unique Grenade MG), and Annabelle (unique Missile Launcher).

SPECIAL 7674363 (or something like that), Fast shot and Wild Wasteland (for Holy Hand Grenades ) Repair and Medicine for minor skills.

Once you get good melee weapon like Sledgehammer, it is done.....

The Gatling Laser is crap in this game. Really BAD. You will be hard pressed to kill more then a single Deathclaw with it. Minigun and LMG blow it out of the water. If you are on the PC then download a mod that moves Flamers/Incinerators to Explosives. Then you can go Guns/Explosives. I did that for a playthrough and it was a beast.

Without mods, then EW and Guns. Skip melee. A full tricked Minigun rocks. And with Weapon Repair Kits you should have no problem keeping the gun repaired. And you can get the Incerator early.

So I am going with a special of 7296862. Im not a fan of the EW big guns, though the Plasma Caster looks cool, Im gonna go with the mini gun as soon as I can. I wanted to do melee just to have some challenge, something this game lacks.

Actually, Melee is less challenging......

SUPER SLAM!

Why do enemies just go limp and drop like a sack of potatoes when I kill them with a super sledge?

Spoilers?

Because it is a super piston-on-a-stick being swong by a mailman, it's the fear.

By Big Guns I think the OP means exactly what he means.

Big.
Guns.

They don't need a designated Skill to be big, they just need to be big and do scary sh-t.