So I decided to make both Guns and Energy Weapons my tag skills for my current character build. Right now, my character is level 8 with 52 in Energy Weapons and 54 in Guns (I distribute XP to other skills).

Anyways, I've noticed that the energy weapons I've come across don't seem to pack nearly as much punch as they used to. I just recently got a Plasma Pistol, but a 10mm Pistol easily outclasses it in DAM and DPS by a long shot. I also got a Plasma Rifle, but my Cowboy Repeater that I picked up 5 levels ago easily outclasses that in those areas as well. I mean, weren't plasma weapons the strongest Energy Weapons in all the Fallouts?

With these statistics, it's making me think I wasted a tag skill on something that isn't nearly as beneficial as it should be. But I want to be sure.

So have energy weapons been severely nerfed for some reason, or are laser and plasma weapons pieces of crap now? Are there any energy weapons out there that outclass any of the Guns?

The Plasma Caster, The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle, Pulse Gun, Recharger Rifle/Pistol, Plasma Defender, Alien Pistol, and Elucid's C-Finder.

The plasma rifle only needs 3 str and 25 skill to use the laser rifle only needs 2 str and 25 skill. But ya early energy weapons are a tad odd.

Huh. I have yet to compare stats on everything there but the Recharger rifle. The stats on the Recharger rifle are still weaker than those on my Cowboy Repeater. So far, the only good perk I see for it is that you don't need ammo for it. :shrug:

I will say this though. Seeing the Plasma Caster on shelf at Silver Rush made me drool. It's as if I'm playing Fallout 2 again. :drool:

Too bad that it's apparently not showing up in the barter list yet. :sadvaultboy:

I agree that it feels weird.
Maybe they should just let EW be rare in the next fallout game and stick to their old "extremely powerful" way.
But Incinerator is like the new Metal Blaster so we got something way powerful already.

Agreed. That was the usually the reason why one invested in Energy Weapons early on. They were hard to find, so by the time you did find one, you could use it to its full potential and slaughter people with them easily.

Interesting. The Incinerator I have is actually weaker than my Plasma Rifle, even though it's in better condition. :huh:

MFCs weigh too much... Cass uses the Q35 and kicks ass with it. I use rifles...

Energy Weapons are very much a later game investment weapon class, as they have been historically. The problem with NV seems to be that they now rely very heavily on critical chance to be useful, as I'm only now discovering. It's possible to spend the whole game maxing energy weapons and getting the best equipment, only to find out that they're not very effective because you didn't invest in luck, finesse or any of the other critical enhancers.

To use energy weapons effectively in every other fallout, you could get away on simply maxing your energy weapons skill. The crits helped, but they weren't required.

Also, the incinerator (which is apparently a energy weapon in this game) is pretty much useless. Even the heavy variation doesn't do much on all but the weakest enemies.

I wouldn't say the EW skill is gimped. I would just say it was executed poorly.

Well although some of the standard energy weapons are a bit lacklustre, using the Q-35 is seriously better than any of my other guns, so much so I started to put points into energy weapons over guns for it...

It really seems like the payoff in energy weapons is the ones you can get way later on. The standard ones from Fallout 3 (laser/plasma pistols and rifles) seem to be introductory weapons this time around, hence why their DAM and DPS are so much lower than what you'd expect them to be. However, the later ones (Plasma Caster, Gauss Rifle, Gatling Laser, Tesla Canon) seem to be VERY powerful when acquired, almost even more so than their counterparts in Guns.

Of course, I can't confirm this as I haven't gotten all that far, or that high leveled, in the game yet.

So it seems like the perk about Energy Weapons has changed from being rare and powerful, to somewhat common and average, with the ultra powerful energy weapons being hard to come by.