Dual wield death claw gauntlets, show those mean savage brutes how it feels to be mince meat!

I think that's a pretty big assumption to make (that leveling faster is best) and will seriously limit your other stats.

Is anyone else, before actually playing, going to give themselves all perks etc. to test what each one does - the same goes with attributes? I can't be the only one that's paranoid of picking something that I'll regret 1-10-100 hours down the line?

since there are not limits to leveling there are no limits to stats, we can max them all over time.

Well theoretically you are right, maxing intelligence will give you the most xp and have you presumably level faster.

HOWEVER, if you start by putting all points in intelligence to focus on "more xp" and ignore other stats and perks then you will be handicapped in other areas. For example, you don't take any perks or stats that make you deal more damage faster. So while you will gain more XP from every kill because of your intelligence, you will have a harder time killing the enemies and maybe even die a few times and have to restart the area, thus ending up leveling slower.

So it is not that simple to say "oh I will max intelligence first and level a lot faster then everyone" since your character will be weaker in other areas and have a hard time and might end up leveling slower even.

I think they all might be good, depending on your playstyle.

I think its been established that VANS and Local Leader are useless early

By capping INT your faced with leveling faster which in turn levels the world around you faster...

Also being gimped somewhere else in stats...

Then there is the thing about leveling too fast like not having enough of the right equipment..

I suppose animal friend/wasteland whisperer/intimidation would be rather pointless to take right away because they only affect targets a lower level than you.

Established by who??

I'm curious to see what the hacking-related perks are this time around. I know in previous games it was a must-have (in my opinion) but I had zero use for the...Computer Whiz, I think it was. The one that allowed you to attempt a hack after you'd messed it up. Since I'm very good at that minigame and a compulsive quicksaver anyway, I never needed that perk. It goes for that lockpicking perk too, as I never broke a lock. If those are in the game they'll very likely be easy skips, at least as far as active perk choices. If however I'm required to take perks to hack they way I previously had to put in skill points, those become a must-have instead...probably, unless hacking itself is gutted.

Hmm, others that I'm not seeing as useful (according to the Orcz chart, yeah I know it's guesswork but it's a base), at least for my first character...

Cannibal, yeah, that's out.

Chem Resistant. Rarely bother with chems.

Party Girl. Probably. I tend to use alcohol like I use chems, for a specific bonus I need right then, and most times I forget they're an option anyway.

Lead Belly.

Fortune Finder. Caps aren't a problem and this doesn't (well, hasn't) help much anyway.

Scrounger. Ammo either.

Pickpocket. She's just not the type.

Iron Fist. I'll use melee at times but it'll be either with the gun or a knife. I ought to make a brawler type one day.

Mr Sandman. Haven't found a use for this yet. Not into evil characters in Fallout (though I love them in TES), have never seen an enemy asleep.

Immovable Object, Locomotive, Nerd Rage, Atomic, VANS...none of these seem of use.

Subject to change of course. I'm coming at this from an RP standpoint, you can probably tell.

As i said before.. this is mostly a response to the guy who said maxing intelligence ect with no strength boosting thing would always be bad.. well my character is going to be 10 int and 10 charisma and focus on using companions and talking her way out of trouble and build a settlement as soon as possible.. shes going to be a scientific leader.. a scientist in charge of her own settlement so high int and high charisma is only logical =D

Also according to a rumor the inspiration perk at max level supposedly gives you another companion slot so you can have 2 companions... but thats just a rumor... though the inspiration perk is all about boosting companions.. so who knows...maybe its true.

I think building a settlement early will be beneficial, and you will see results real quick. Apparently there is settlement exclusive quest, you get money from trade, and it gives a port in the storm. All that is simply what we know, can't wait to find out more.

Well lets see, if you go ranged then the majority of the H2H perks are probably useless.

If you go Mellee then probably the majority of the ranged perks are useless.

other than that we just dont know.

Yeah I think having some chests and lockers to stash your equipment and junk items in is a great idea

Cannibal.. You don't want to come directly out of the vault and be all "hey alright, time to eat some folks."

not really useless, but the mostly a combination of a list of the most redundant/useless perks the perk chart has to offer, to the point you might as well scratch your head and go "WHY BOTHER? THANKS BETHESDA":

Strength: Iron Fist, Big Leagues and Defender, Locomotive was going to be on this list, since it could've just been a built in feature(the larger your strength, the more capable you are in tackling things down), but it's SOMEWHAT unique, I suppose.

-The reason these just seem horribly redundant in my opinion is how they're all forced into categorization and specifics, when it could've been all just placed nicely in "Melee Damage", Could easily have two perk slots open for more creative applications for Strength.

Perception: Friend of the Night

-Always has been, always will be a useless perk that never really seen any use in-games, unless of course night REALLY is night, dark as pitch without any light source to show the way. If Cateye is back again, consider this perk forgettable.

Endurance: Rad Resistance, Lead Belly, Cannibal, and Nuclear Anomaly.

-Rad Resistance and Leady Belly are completely redundant and should be merged together, with the resistance to irradiated food/water as a bonus within the ranks of Rad Resistance, allowing an open perk slot for more interesting perks.

-Cannibal could potentially be one of the coolest perks, but is yet again a useless perk for what it offers. I rather prefer if it was renamed "Ghastly Scavenger" and with each rank, you'll be allowed to consume Animals, Humans, Supermutants/Ghouls, and finally, the top of the food chain of the Wasteland: Deathclaw. The final rank could also provide great bonuses when consuming such a powerful beast, think of it as a tribal warrior kind of ideal.

-Nuclear Anomaly? Why is this back? It's always been considered a joke perk before, it can be considered as a joke perk now. What a waste of a good perk slot.

Charisma: Attack Dog, Animal Friend and Wasteland Whisperer

-Attack Dog is such a biased perk when it comes to companions, the developers actually assumed 90-100% of the players WILL be using Dogmeat, which shows how little faith they have in Codsworth. Not only that, but this is a waste of a perk slot, Dogmeat SHOULD be able to do these features as his natural abilities as a damn DOG. I mean c'mon, what about Codsworth? There hardly is any focus on him, and I think he should be more focused upon because of the story's plot they're focusing on (What makes a human "Human", A.I.'s, etc.). This should seriously be removed, give Dogmeat the abilities, and replace in it's spot a perk that focus on buffing all companions either through damage, damage resistance, load capacity, or even granting each companion a unique ability per rank.

-Animal Friend and it's bastard child, Wasteland Whisperer, are such redundant perks, I feel it's idiotic to try to split these two functions apart into two different perk slots. It would've made more sense as to place them together into a new perk "Friend of the Wasteland" or just "Animal Friend", shove it up to the 9 Charisma slot, and make the last rank a locked section until you hit a high level, as so no one will exploit it and tame an Army of Deathclaws. There, we got a perk focused on animals, and we have a free perk slot for Charisma.

Intelligence: V.A.N.S, Nerd's Rage, Gun Nut

-It's the V.A.N.S. perk, nuff said.

-Nerd Rage really doesn't sound useless, perhaps, but I feel like it shouldn't belong in Intelligence, especially on how it's a Intelligence 10 perk, baffling me on how high of a demand it is, yet the effects are more focused on survival/strength than one's intelligence. Not only that, but this could make the whole "Don't put your points all into Intelligence, you'll be held back" point moot, as Nerd Rage increases your survival, hardiness, and damage once you drop below a threshold, and I believe it'll never go away until you're properly healed. Really imbalanced, and should probably be in Endurance, replacing Nuclear Anomaly's perk slot.

-Gun Nut is on here not because it's redundant or useless, but how it's in the same Stat as Science! As to be competitive, but it's at a much lower stat requirement than Science!, to the point it's kind of silly to see where it is. I prefer if it was replacing Mr.Sandman perk as to make a player focus on one side first over the other, rather than just say "Screw it" and dump it all into Intelligence.

Agility: Mr.Sandman

-I never, not once, had seen a single use for Mr.Sandman, not when it came to killing, stealthy operations, or fun. Most of the targets I desired to be killed usually were never really asleep but on patrol in a set routine in a location, along with a large gang of other hostile enemies as well, reducing the effectiveness of this perk to uselessness. I rather prefer this perk to be merged with Ninja, with it's bonus as the final rank in it. Hopefully the A.I. will be a bit more 'realstic' in Fallout 4, but I seriously doubt it.

Luck: Dumb Luck, Fortune Finder, and Scrounger.

-All three of these are useless perks, honestly. Unless Bethesda decided to make living in Fallout 4 harsh and making the player think on choices on their ammo, scrap, and caps in order for the right choice, I seriously doubt any one of us will be in a sticky situation like these provide solutions for.

Runner up: Dodger

An interesting perk, but the only reason I put this up here as a runner up is how vague it is overall. How does Dodging actually WORK in Fallout 4? Does the player suddenly begin an animation when the 'dodge' is procced? Will it just be a simple function of if an attack hits, but the Dodger is active, it'll just ignore the damage that would usually occur? If it's the former, this may be the most annoying perk in existence when placed in certain situations, such as Rapid fire enemies like Sentries and a large group of Raiders, watching your SS duck left and right over and over in rapid succession to bullets/lasers/fists flying at him/her would get old really fast, and it might even be a hindrance, preventing you to fight back until your animation is done.

This is basically like Diablo 2's Amazon who had a dodge skill as well. The Amazon, when a projectile or attack would get proc'd, would simply make a swift animation of leaping back and going "YIP!" as to show she has dodged this attack. It's decent in some fights, but this could also be a death sentence when a [censored] Druid (Example: me), thinks of what would happen if he would erupt a Volcano under the Amazon, only to soon die of laughter as the Amazon is stuck in the animation of "Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!" before utterly dying after too many failed procs.

I strongly disagree.

technically there is still a buff all companions perk zerg.. with inspiration if you believe the rumors the final rank of it will let you bring 2 companions with you.. first rank improves them and makes them unable to harm you... no idea what the second rank of it will do.. but it will be related to companions somehow.

many of the perks are mixed in with these new ones.. like how paralyzing palm is now rank 5 of unarmed perk who knows what the bonus ranks of some of these perks will be.

those can easily be placed in the remaining perk slots that I stated, or added upon as the one perk, such as one perk focused primarily on new combat moves in melee, giving unique actions such as Paralyzing Perk, super slam, and perhaps even Melee special moves for Swords/bats/etc. Again, it doesn't matter honestly, Dogmeat is still getting the biased attention upon the perks, and as such, I believe it should be removed and replaced with something more balanced, as to give players more motive on seeking out others instead of just Dogmeat.

We have no idea what most of the perks actually do... it's a little too soon to call them redundant, especially when additional ranks are factored in. Radiation Resistance and Lead Belly might be redundant if they're exactly the same as before and have no additional ranks; but if additional ranks of Lead Belly function to remove any food-related debuffs, and additional ranks of Rad Resistance roll in effects like Rad Absorption, they're suddenly not that redundant.

This is from just a first viewpoint of what we're looking at, so take it for what you think. I personally don't give a damn, but if people are asking what looks useless and whatnot, I placed a list.

Awww.. c'mon. At least work up to being a cannibal from bad things happening in the wastes. hmmmm... unless maybe we ate everyone down in the vault and that's why we're the sole survivor. A new theory comes to light.

Also depending when you meet Dogmeat than the Attack Dog perk might be useless at first

I know you meet him shortly after exiting the vault, but am assuming you will level at least once before it