Could anyone provide me with a decent - good energy weapons build? I do have Dead Money if that makes a difference.

Oh, and can anyone also recommend what energy weapons i should use?

Any help is appreciated.

And i probably should have added i'm looking for a high crit ew build.

The only no go energy weapon is standard Plasma Rifle and Recharger Rifle*, otherwise anything works.

Thanks!

Why no recharger pistol? The pistol is superior in every way to the recharger rifle, which is a very heavy weapon whose only saving grace is that it's dirt cheap to repair...

I somehow type pistol instead of rifle.....Recharger Pistol is a good "walking" weapon, one that you have it draw 24-7 just in case. Otherwise it is a dead weight in your pocket.

The Recharger Rifle isn't that bad as an early game weapon. I used it to get all the way to the 188 Trading Post and left a trail of ash behind me. It does look like a toy gun, however.

Here's an energy weapon character build that I'm using right now - http://uk.faqs.ign.com/articles/113/1132847p1.html. Its working out quite well, and the whopping 9 Luck is very handy at casinos.

Not sure if this should be moved to the Cheat & Hints section.

find the q-35 matter modulator, and use a plasma defender as a sidearm. fully modded laser rifle works well for sniping, but for deathclaws and the like, its the ycs gauss. pack rat is a must take perk to cut the ammo weight in half (mf cells are heavy ), laser commander also is a very good perk for ew builds. meltdown not so much cuz u end up crippled every 4 kills.... other than that, enjoy turning many enemies into goo, maye the force be with you, etc etc etc.

Maybe before the EW buff patch, but after the patch it is significantly worst than Laser Rifle (and way worst than RCW) which you could get by just follow the road out of Goodspring.

The recharger rifle has always been pretty mediocre, I don't recall the patch doing anything to it. Very low damage per shot (I think the Silenced .22 is the only ranged weapon that does *less* damage?) which necessitates a ton of trigger time. It's not a particularly fragile weapon, but when you have to shoot 15 or 20 times to kill somebody, it adds up fast. The other problem is the very small battery.

I would love to see a "mark 2" recharger rifle, built using the same superior technology as the recharger pistol. I'd be tempted to make it do about as much damage as the standard laser rifle, with a generous 20 or 30 shot battery, but reduce the rate of recharge down from its existing 1-shot-per-second (to maybe 1 shot per 5 seconds).

You want about a 7 strength (Strength requirements on weapons), a very high Perception (EW skill), and a high intelligence (Science skill). The rest depends on you.
My tagged skills would be: Energy Weapons, Unarmed or Melee (Backup weapon), and Science
Weapons: You can get the Laser RCW (which will set you up until you get a very good weapon) pretty early in game, till then whatever EW you can get will work.
Armor: Whatever your preference, but shoot for Power Armor or Remnants because... it just seems right for an EW build.

It is worst because the patch did nothing about it. Before the patch all low tier EW (and Laser RCW was higher up) are horrible. but after the patch there is simply no place for it's existence. It would be nice if there is a quest which I can upgrade Recharger Rifle to be something semi-decent like Varmint Rifle.

Strength of 7 is overkill. The highest strength requirement for an energy weapon is 5, for the YCS/186. Save those three (you will get an implant for Strength) extra points and put them into Perception or Luck, which is far more valuable to an energy weapon character.

Thats true I would much rather have agility, but for carrying heavy Power Armor I figured some extra carrying capacity would help.

Would it be wise for me to get the light touch perk?

I've actually considered using this build before. Thanks.

What makes you think the Gauss Rifle is the best energy weapon? For groups of enemies it totally svcks because its reloading time is 2.33 seconds (the DPS in the pipboy is wrong). It's actual dps is 52.5 . It's not like every energy weapon has a strength requirement of 5 or lower, that's boohockey. The plasma caster has a great DPS and has aa strength requiremenet of 8. It blows the gauss rifle out of the water.
A perception of 7 is totally unnecessary. For better criticals you need a perception of 6, if he starts out with a perception of 6 and gets an implant later he will get there. Why max it out because it is the determining factor for energy weapon skill? Every point only ads two. Two! The determining S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat is something I never take into account with builds.
An endurance of 7 is ok.
A charisma of one and your companions will get killed by boatflies. I suggest at least getting it up to 4 so you won't have to babysit your companions all the time and wind up fighting alone.
An intelligence of 7 is fine I guess, but I'd take some points out of intelligence and put them in strength and charisma. He has dead money so he probably has enough skill points anyway.
An agility of 6 is kind of unnecessary too when you think about the implants. Get it down to 5 and then get an implant and you will still meet all requirements for perks.
Luck of 9 is ok.

Depends if you are comfortable with light armour, if you do, it is one of the best perk.

I never said the Gauss rifle was the best energy weapon, I said it had the highest strength requirement of all guns in that class. The link I posted was not created by me, I just found it while deciding how to start my energy weapon playthrough.

Sure, you're right about many things here. The Plasma Caster is in the energy weapon class and has a higher strength requirement, I guess I always put that into the 'Big Guns' category, so kind of automatically ignore then. For all energy pistols and rifles the IGN build I posted is spot on, but if you want to use the heavy energy weapons, then you're right, some extra points will need to be added to Strength.

Lol, before i read your post I actually tweaked this build similarly to what you were recommending.

lol, what are th odds ^_^

I just can't bring myself to use weapons like gatling laser and plasma caster, the closest I've got is flamer

Not quite true, as 2.33 is the raw reload time before factor in agility, so even with a 1 it would be lower; even with agility 5 the reload time is only about 1.5 sec, so the DPS is more like 80; if you have meltdown, against a group you can wipe them out with one shot.


In closer range against multiple target, maybe. But Gauss Rifle also have chance of knock down and a scope, which helps again target out side of normal visual range.


Not true at all. I have tree Charisma 1 characters and their companion wipe the boatfly population in Mojave.


Intelligence of 4 with Education is a lot of skill points in my experience.

Due to a few quest and perk breaking bugs before the latest patch Ive played through the game many times trying to finish with my first character which is an energy weapons specialist so the following weapons, armor, stats, traits, perks, and attributes have been tried and tested extensively.

Traits

Built to Destroy and Wild Wasteland

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes

Strength: 5 (including implant)
Perception: 6 (including implant)
Endurance: 10 (including implant and Intense Training perk)
Charisma : 2 (including implant)
Intelligence: 5 (including implant)
Agility: 10 (including implant)
Luck: 10 (including implant)

Perks

Level 2: Rapid Reload
Level 4: Intense Training (+1 Endurance)
Level 6: Bloody Mess
Level 8: Toughness
Level 10: Toughness
Level 12: Commando
Level 14: Finesse
Level 16: Sniper
Level 18: Math Wrath
Level 20: Center of Mass
Level 22: Action Boy
Level 24: Action Boy
Level 26: Better Criticals
Level 28: Concentrated Fire
Level 30: Grim Reaper's Sprint
Level 32: Laser Commander or Plasma Spaz (Whichever you prefer. "I prefer Lasers myself.")
Level 34: Nerves of Steel

Challenge Perks

Set Lasers for Fun (2), Power Armor Training, Lord Death (3), Abominable (3), Animal Control (3), Machine Head (2), Mutant Massacre (3), Bug Stomper (3), Coin Operator, Free Radical, Tough Guy,

Companion Perks

Raul's Full Maintenance and Veronica's Scribe Assistant

Implants

Agility Implant
Charisma Implant
Endurance Implant
Intelligence Implant
Luck Implant
Monocyte Breeder
Perception Implant
Strength Implant
Sub-Dermal Armor

Weapons

Laser based Rifles and Handguns: Tri-Beam Laser Rifle (tested and proven to be the best weapon after latest patch), Gauss Rifle, AER14 Prototype, Pew Pew, Alien Blaster, Euclid's C-Finder

Plasma based Rifles: Q-35 Matter Modulator, Multiplas Rifle

Non Laser or Plasma based Rifle: Holorifle (modded with Holorifle focus optics, Holorifle adv. calibration, Holorifle reinf. components)

Armor and Headgear

Brotherhood T-51b Power Armor and Helmet, T-51b Power Armor and Helmet, Remnants (Enclave) Power Armor and Helmet, Gannon Family (Enclave) Tesla Power Armor and Helmet

The T-51b Power Armor and Helmet has 2,000/100 Hit Points and the Remnants and Tesla Power Armor and Helmet has 400/75 HP.

The Remnant's Power Armor has 3 more DT and the Power Helmet has 2 more DT. The Tesla Power Armor has 1 more DT.

I think that covers everything.

Charisma should be kept at three or lower, preferably. My followers do fine on Hard Difficulty with 1 Charisma, so long as you give them Power Armor ASAP. Agility is good when its high, especially for weapons like the Gauss Rifle; it will make the reloads lightning quick.

Yea, I forgot about the Gauss Rifle. It's my secondary weapon. Just added it to the list. Very useful in Quarry Junction.