what do you carry around with you, once you've built your character high enough?

are the Assault and the Combat Rifle still 'enough'? ^^ I feel like they struggle quite a bit against the big opponents :/

Shall I use the Gauss Rifle? Is there any way to get past the annoying 'charging' before each shot? Or is it just required to use this weapon?

Deliverer (the 10mm pistol) still does the trick for me (at level 80-something). If I get spotted (rarely) I mop up the runners with that Fusil Terrible shotgun. Sometimes for fun I snipe dudes with the Overseer's Guardian or Tinker Tom's rifle, but with the 10 PER perk even the Deliverer is a decent sniper. I sometimes even use the Kremvh's Tooth (which is a downright awesome weapon btw) but the melee sneak playstyle demands that I quicksave alot. It's fun though.

I recently toyed around with the Gauss rifle but I don't like it. It's big, noisy and clunky to use. Sure, it's base stats are wicked, but this is a Bethesda game so as per usual anything can be made to work.

In my experience you either need an END heavy build with good armor, or you need a sneak build. I prefer the sneak build as I don't like tanking things.

Good question. Depends on playing style I guess. I'm on Survival, but with 1x player damage instead of x0,5. With sneaking or power armor or ballistic weave over and over plus high Endurance or presumably VATS all may be valid, but I don't use VATS, don't like the weave, keep my Endurance low by intent and you cannot sneak anytime. I prefer a style where you can be killed relatively fast, so I also need high damage weapons to kill fast.

Even at my mid level (48) I start feeling that the two shot Overseer's Guardian combat rifle in .308 (180 damage for me with Rifleman 5) is too weak. I also find Le Fusil Terribles lacking. That's a problem if you prefer powder weapons. I really don't like the Gauss (The Last Minute would deal 347 damage for me) and I don't like to use energy weapons. It's easy to get high damage out of lasers or plasma but I will never use them. My temporary solution is to use a mod that buffs the .50 receiver of the hunting rifle. I always had the feeling that it should have been much stronger, on par with the energy weapon options. So now I'm back to low speed bolt action firing and running around a lot to avoid getting killed. I keep the Big Boy for desparate situations and try to lure some enemies into artillery fire.

Of course you could use one of the powerful legendaries, if you are lucky to find them. OP are the two-shot laser musket (I have one) or the explosive/bleeding variants of the shotguns and miniguns (had one in my first playthrough, sold them).

I carry a weapon for every ammo type.

what about the Cryolator? ^^

it's damage is so low and I haven't really found a chance to use it so far

does it freeze enemies? if so, for how long?

is it viable against more than one enemy at a time?

or will they unfreeze too quickly, before you can change to a better weapon to finish them off?

I'm also currently sneaking with a '.50 sniper rifle' and the 'two shot .380 combat rifle', but they both require quite some bullets once you actually get spotted

just wondered if they're supposed to be 'end game' weapons, or if it's smarter to use all that new Gauss/Cryo/Plasma stuff

I used the Overseers Guardian (semi auto and a reflex sight) and a fully modded Gauss Rifle at end game on normal difficulty. TBH it was mainly the Overseers Guardian, could still snipe effectively with it even with a reflex sight.

Me, I'm in the 100+ levels.

I carry a combat knife, a machete, a shotgun, a pistol and sniper rifle.

For fun I like to sometimes bash the toughest Deathclaws with a baseball bat.

I mostly use a combat knife, machete combo and whip out the shottie when I'm overrun to slow them down, using the ranged weapons to take out foes holding sniper positions.

I prefer to look them in the eye when I "Kill them all"

Except for foes in Power armour.

If it's a gunner I like to target their fusion core with a pistol in VATS, doing just enough damage to make them jettison the core, leaving me with another suit to add to the collection.

If the .50 mod is supposed to be an endgame powder weapon equivalence to laser/plasma, it's a failure in my opinion. But I'm on PC and there is a rather nice (modding) mod to make the .50 mod more powerful. I made it even more powerful than the mod mod, not Gauss level but not far away. (I wished they would call the ingame mods "crafts" or "adds", not mods. )

You'll generally want the Explosives Perk to deal with the hideously over-tuned Super Mutant Primus and Mythic Deathclaws for fights where you can't secure a stealth-kill or -cripple, or go heavily into the Heavy Weapons Perk and the Explosives Perk to max out the damage on a rocket launcher or fatman for when you absolutely must ruin something's day in a single hit.

Otherwise, a fully tricked out .44 pistol is great for picking off small fry or dealing some lethal damage in close range, the 10mm weapons tend to not do so well past level 80-ish unless you've got the right Companion Perks and/or a singular pistol, the Deliverer, which allows for some hilarious amounts of V.A.T.S. sniping from stealth.

Gauss Rifles, fully charged, can one-shot a great many things and failing that, can do ludicrous amounts of damage to highly armored targets.

An Explosive, Plasma or Wounding Assault Rifle or Automatic Combat Rifle can dish out hilarious amounts of pain and suffering to whoever you don't like at the time, and with Explosive weapons, their damage does scale up with the Explosives Perk, so that's fun.

I'm not sure if the 'Science!' Perk does the same for energy-based weaponry, or only those useless Gamma Guns. That said if you're aiming to kill off groups like the Brotherhood or the Railroad, a sufficiently advanced Gamma Gun with the Human-Bane Legendary Tag is ridiculously powerful and capable of one-shotting all but named NPCs or Power-Armor troops.

Melee is disgustingly effective, especially if you go for Swann's fist weapon for the fisticuffs-loving character, or a Furious Power-Sledge or the Baseball Bat from the Jamaica Plains quest. And let's be honest, using the Pain Train Perk plus a Furious Melee Weapon is just ridiculously fun. You knock just about everything over and deal insane damage, and then you get to beat on their asses as they pick themselves up while your Companion also gets some free hits in.

Lvl 100 Deathclaw gauntlet and a double shot .44 for ones I can't reach.

end-game story mode, exploration, or just screwing around?

story and exploration - silenced hair trigger assault rifle with rifle, sandman, and ninja perks

screwing around - a mod that lets you put any mod on a weapon.

i love the assault rifle it looks and versitality with gunnut rank 4 andd the right perks and late in the game 5.56 ammo becomes more available

for my stealth sniper late game it is the gaus rifle hands down

but alot of weapons are still great in hgh levels aslonng you got yjr tight perkd and upgrade your weapon with the exception of anything pipe i just use them to breakdown they are my main source of screws and copper in this game

Deathclaw Gauntlet...literally, that's it, I got it...like what, lvl.9? Nothing else, not even grenades, are in my inventory, just armor and..that. That's it. I've been slaughtering the entire population of Supermutants, Raiders, Ghouls and wild animals with just that and it's been pretty much going well.

too many turrets out of reach to run only with that for me and the gunners in vertabirds I shoot down.

Hello there! Too many turrets bothering you? Too far away, or up on top of something? Well I have news for you! Introducing Blitz! the teleporting perk!

I am currently level 65 (Survivor difficulty) and I carry the following non-legendary weapons.

1. 10mm automatic pistol

2. .38 automatic pipe rifle

3. .45 night-vision sniper pipe rifle

4. .308 recon sniper combat rifle

I might switch over to more powerful weapons at level 75 depending on the difficulty scaling at that point. But for the moment, the random higher tier normal / legendary weapons that I picked up so far are just stored in various weapon lockers. I got a couple of gauss rifles and plasma sniper rifles which are probably the most powerful normal randomly dropped weapons that I have found so far.

I don't VATS and it doesn't work on vertabirds may as well have a back up gun.

Vertibirds? PFFT they crash on their own, what are you talking about? If you're having trouble with Vertbirds, you must have -10 Endurance or something.

I don't rely on chance in battle, I come prepaired

10mm pistol

Combat shotgun

.50 sniper rifle

Sometimes a 10mm auto pistol.

I beef them up as perks allow, and can pretty much deal with anything that shows up.

I don't rely on chance as well, considering as soon as Vertibirds appear, they crash for some odd reason. Must be drunk pilots. If someone like them or a machine gun turret is shooting at me, I shrug it off. Their damage is like that of a pellet upon an Ultralisk, it'll do nothing but waste time.

In my experience, once you've built up your character's levels and perks to maximize their build, and modded up the appropriate weapon types your build uses, any of those weapon types is a good endgame choice. Obviously, a weapon with an excellent legendary mod is the best, but not necessary.

I'm at level 44 and almost exclusively use Deliverer for up close and personal work and a fully modded combat rifle for ranged work. I also carry a shotgun for fun and short range surprises. I play on Very Hard and one-shot everything in sneak mode, so I'm contemplating a fully modded automatic pipe rifle and Deliverer as my only weapons, just for the challenge. I have the Gauss rifle, but have absolutely no need for it.

What about the ones up on the walls? Can you still reach those via VATS?

I use an Instigating Recon .50 Sniper Rifle, the Overseer's Guardian, and an Explosive Combat Shotgun. I use Le Fusil Terribles instead of the Explosive Combat Shotgun sometimes if I know I'm going to be in really close quarters. It's easy to practically blow some of your own limbs off with that thing lol

I'm thoroughly done with the game, and I doubt that I'll change my standard load out at any point. I carry a gauss rifle sometimes instead of the sniper rifle. Occasionally I'll bring a missile launcher or Fatman with me if I know I'll need some heavy firepower.