They definitely need a buff. Im sure the first patch will fix a lot. Also,using them on certain enemies is definitely good.

On Xbox One i'm finding strange hit registration with laser weapons too. Everything else seems perfectly fine, but I can be dead on with the laser rifle and nada. I ended up swapping from the legendary laser rifle I found to a .45 combat sniper because of it.

Gatling laser is probably one of the strongest weapons in the game. Normal lasers though? Haven't had too much experience with them, they don't seem amazing, but don't seem unusable either.

I've already done a play through using lasers almost exclusively. I've not noticed any real problems with most of them, except the scattered lasers don't do damage anywhere comparable to a normal shotgun.

I am finding Lasers to be quite good and at the moment the legendary Righteous Fury to be quite strong. I am not that far in the game. Playing Survival mode and I upgraded it a bit ( Only level 14 or so, playing on PC) It took out a couple of Legendary Mylurks in a water plant.

Once you're level 30 or so, you'll start to find that Righteous Authority just doesn't cut it. Its crit damage is terrible in comparison to even a normal combat rifle. It's not bad against targets with little to no resistance, but it quickly becomes horribly ineffective compared to other weapons against even slightly armored targets with decent health pools.

I only use lasers against people in power armor.

I don't have a problem with my laser sniper rifle. This evening, I took out some Legendary Mirelurk Dangerclaw, or something like that. Took about 12-18 shots in the torso, and down it went. Well, 12-18 per iteration. Damn thing evolved three times.

What I have noticed, though, is enemies on fire take zero damage until the flames are out (at least, in scope view). This is one of the most annoying glitches. I can free fire and hit them, but through a scope: no dice.

I've used several stock and modified versions of laser and plasma weapons and haven't noticed anything odd. The only seemingly oddity I've found is The Institute weapons. They seem a bit under-powered considering the Institute is technologically advanced.

I used that weapon and modded the crap out of it, found it to be a very powerful weapon (alongside the right damage perks). Melted everything.

My tricked out gatling laser is fusiontastic. It rips through any target on survival difficulty, even ones with reflective armor. I think you just need to get a better laser weapon with some upgrades or a legendary affix.

If you mod laser weapons enough they can become very powerful. If you want damage then you need to get the splitter mods(makes it kind of like a shotgun).

If you havent modded righteous authority at all of course it isnt powerful, its like a level 15 weapon that you are trying to use at level 30.

I'm more of a Plasma guy...but I see what you mean. Laser weapons IMHO seem a bit weak.

I dont find laser pistols weak, currently playing on survival. I can't tell you how laser rifles perform however, or gatling guns.

I have a wounding laser pistol, maximized and fully modded with a scope, plus gunslinger 4 and it's handling pretty sweetly. Does about 120+ damage as base, plus the DoT.

....I suspect the reason laser weapons seem weak is due to certain weapons perks not taken?

Are you talking about energy weapons in general or just the laser weapon class? Because my char is a pistol specialist (rank 4 gunslinger perk currently) with 3 fully-modified pistols, being pipe, 10mm, and Institute, and the Institute one is by far my best, so I try to only use it for the cheese fights, like one-shotting ghouls just to make the fight quicker. Normally I only have to use no more than 3 body shots on most enemies with it, whereas the other two I really have to spam that trigger finger to get them down quickly.

I don't know what energy weapons you're using, but my weapons are wrecking balls.

I'm level 31 with 4/5 rifleman perk.

My Righteous Authority does 90 damage. Maxed out with overcharged capacitor, improved long barrel, and fine tuned focuser. This is what I use against most enemies.

My Plasma rifile does 97 ballistic, 97 energy, AND 100 radiation (thanks to legendary modifier). It has the maximized capacitor and improved sniper barrel. Its ballistic/energy damage can get bumped to 108 when I get Science 4 for overcharged capacitor. Due to low clip size, having to lead targets, and rarity of ammo, I save this for harder enemies. I wish there was a improved long barrel for this weapon,

Lastly, my unique Gauss rifle " The Las Minute". Comes with shielded barrel, capacitor boosting coil, compensator, and long range night vision scope. That thing does 345 ballistic damage with 50% increased limb damage (thanks to modifier). This is my sniper rifle.

All you really have to do is test out a calibrated powerful combat rifle. Compare its damage, especially against targets with resistance, to that of Righteous Authority. You'll find that the combat rifle deals substantially more damage, and substantially more crit damage. Laser rifles and pistols are usable, but they suffer badly from the fact that their paper damage is significantly less than their actual damage due to range modifiers and resistance bugs, which (at least for rifles) don't negate resistance as they should with the Rifleman perk. Check out the Fallout wiki's critical hit page under Fallout 4, and look at energy weapon damage. It's gimped compared to ballistic damage. Playing on Survival and having vaguely decent weapons exposes just how substandard laser rifles and pistols are.

Gauss rifles and plasma rifles seem to be doing fine. Plasma weapons deal a mix of ballistic and energy damage and have a rather high base damage, which negates the fact that resistances don't work properly in conjunction with Rifleman. The same principle applies to the gauss rifle -- its damage negates the fact that it doesn't penetrate armor as it should with Rifleman.