I want to remake my character and I need help with the perk planning for this sniper I have remade twice already. I have THREE perk slots on paper and FIVE perks. I could use some help. Plus I want to restart on account of recalculating the books from dead money. :banghead:

S 6
P 6 With Implant brings it to 10 at times
E 4
C 4 With implant
I 3 With implant makes two perks possible
A 8
L 9 With implant comes to 10 I love this as a sniper

Just going to note perks
Start: Four eyes and either small frame or trigger discipline I haven’t decided.
Lvl2 Rapid reload
Lvl4 Educated
Lvl6 Bloody mess
Lvl8 Commando
Lvl10 Finesse
Lvl12 Comprehension
Lvl14 Sniper
Lvl16 Better crit
Lvl18 Center of mass
Lvl20 Silent running
Lvl22 Jury rig
Lvl24 Weapon Handling
Lvl26 Nerves of steel
Lvl28 Gunslinger* Up for debate as well
Lvl30 ______Reason for posting
Lvl32 ______Reason for posting
Lvl34 ______Reason for posting


At this point I have three slots and a bunch of perks I would like to consider. Kind of trying to use vats more as a way to play the game using vats more and it is kind of confusing me.

2 Action boy - for the 15x2 AP
Grim reapers sprint - for the +20 AP per kill in vats as I am a sniper
Math wrath - 10% less AP needed
Pyromaniac - with both the sniper and Gobi being kind of nerfed, I would like to start to rely more on the incendiary .50 rounds. I haven’t even experimented with hand load ammo and I don’t know if that is even worth it since the two guns I would use them with are missing their 5x crit. All I know is at level 35 it takes me more bullets than one to take down a deathclaw and that is unacceptable.

-Gunny out.

.46 ACP what perks should I take instead? Yeah because I am looking to have 7 slots including your recommendations.

Possible perks
Hand Loader[very worth it, the .308 handloaded is still 1.5x damage]
[incenerarry rounds only deal a minor bit of fire damage ontop of the shot, not worth pyromaniac
Living Anatomy so you can see just how dead that guy was after you blew his head off.
Toughness


Also consider starting your intelligence at 4, and using the implant on strength or agility. [skill points aren't retroactive agility is]

Actually as your dumping the VATS perks you also won't need an agility more then six[for silent running] So maybe drop your agility to 5[implant later] and put those 3 points into intelligence and skip the Int implant.

You only need six perception for the better criticals perk so drop four eyes and avoid that headache.

For traits consider good natured, how many weapon skills will you us vs Medicine, Repair, Science, and Speech. Usually its a net gain.
On highly accurate weapons you probably won't notice trigger discipline. A sneak attack to the head with a sniper rifle using hand loaded .308 ammo while you have the better criticals perk will still kill just about everything.

I keep on coming back to hand load ammo and stealth. Can I make hand load ammo out of things I can buy? What is the process behind it.

1. Get your repair up to at least 70 (100 if you want to use .50MG hand loads)
2. Take the Hand loader perk
3. Always take empty shell casings and hulls from defeated enemies and vendors (they cost nothing)
4. (Optional) Purchase boxes of casings, primers and powder if you wish from Gunrunners (and occasionally others)
5. (Optional) Save up some scrap metal to convert to lead.
6. Go to a reloading bench and breakdown every cartridge you have. This will net you all the components you will need. You'll want to avoid selling Guns ammo and will lose out on some caps, but it's worth it. You can still sell energy and explosives ammo all you want.
7. Select the caliber of hand load you desire (obviously you'll want lots of .308 JSP). Because of the higher volume of raw components the hand loads use, you'll be turning 100 regular .308 rounds into something like 82 hand loads. That's where breaking down all the other ammo sizes will help. Don't use 5mm? Great. Break 'em down to get the rifle powder and lead. Don't use .45-70? Fantastic. Break 'em down to get the large rifle primers, powder and lead. The only limit on what you can make will be the number of empty .308 cases you have.

-Gunny out.

Not be a jerk or anything but how is Rapid Reload a VATS-related perk and Nerves of Steel and Center of Mass aren't? Just have to point that out. The rest of what you did mention is pretty much what I had in mind.

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Regardless, for the most point, if you do use V.A.T.S., its meant for last ditch efforts rather than initial attacks, unless you want to use one shot with Steady which pretty much compensates for Commando and is usable for a long enough period of time to finish most group battles.

My suggestions:

- If you're going to use the Anti-Material Rifle, get Strength up to at least 7 as it has a requirement of 9 I believe so Weapon Handling will drop it to 7.
- Drop Luck to 8 and get the implant for it just so you have an additional SPECIAL point. The difference between 9 and 10 is a bit pointless.
- Intelligence and Endurance is a little low, especially considering that you do need at least an Intelligence of 5 or 6 as there are skill points needed for general skills, not just your build skills. Endurance also helps in how you can build your SPECIAL as you can always make it up with Implants.
- If you plan on going non-V.A.T.S, replace Gunslinger, Commando, Sniper, Nerves of Steel, and Center of Mass with Pack Rat, I.E. Carry twice as many .50 MG Rounds, Hand Loader, already mentioned, Entomologist, Hunter, and ether Tag!, for more skill points / basically a level up, or Intense Training, in order to compensate for other perks.
- If you plan on using V.A.T.S alongside with Free Aim, I suggest just taking Nerves of Steel and ditch the rest. If you need better aim in V.A.T.S you can always just inject yourself with some Steady.

Hand loaded is crafted at the ammo bench no differently then regular ammo it just takes slightly more materials.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_crafting

By buying some extra powder and breaking down some unused ammo for more lead you can basically use hand loaded ammo exclusively.

If you don't want to make the major barter investment[or your not playing on hardcoe] then pick up strongback instead.
An extra 50lbs of weight can be several hundred rounds of ammunition and spare ammo can be stored at a your house.

Just wanted to point out Int 4 is enough for Educated and Comprehension...which decent planing you would have enough skill points.

And I think AMR's Strength Requirement is 8....but Alcohol, Brahmin Steak, Buffout and T-45 should have it handled (if getting 7+1 Strength was much a leap of faith) I would also like to note since AMR have such a low RoF, the sway from Strength alone can easily be compensate.

Touche. To be honest, the more skill points, the less careful planning you have to do. I also prefer it to be at least 6 for its associated skill points. It is also why Tag! is important to take at times in order to compensate for the lack of Intelligence you may have or you're in need for setting up for your next perk, I.E. You can go from 40 to 70 in Barter with Intelligence of 6 and Tag to set you up for Pack Rat. Like I said, general skills play as much as an important role as build-specific skills. Barter can really help ya out if you can't hand-load .50 rounds and it has a nice perk that goes really well with .50 rounds.

And yep the AMR strength is 8. I also thought it would be closer to 9 due to its .50 MG ammo. Still puzzled as to the weight to strength requirements on certain things.

Edit: I think you can now see I'm no longer in my element of play.

Although it have been discuss quite a few times already, Barter and Pack Rat is overrated.

You see everyone talk about how they swim in caps, you also have to aware Pack Rat isn't as useful Strongback, which gives flat 50lbs for your leisure; one of the best example is missiles, which cannot benefit from Pack Rat, but you can have 16 more with Strongback.

And then the additional weight from the missiles is compensated based on your food / drink items, which, in some cases, equal to or be greater than the additional weight of the missiles. You also have to keep in mind that there's only two ammo types that don't apply to Pack Rat, Missiles and Mini Nukes, both of which are under Explosives and, without fixing the Demolition Expert List, can be overshadowed simply by the Grenade Machinegun and its Pack-Rat sized 25mm grenades. So its only affecting one type of character. I have run with a Missile setup for a bit without Strong Back. While I only carry about 30 or so at a time with another weapon type as backup, you're only going to bring it out for either chuckles, large groups or high HP enemies. Course, the weapon type was melee and I was in a dress while doing all this so I was more or less just having fun. Still, I had about 50 pounds left over with APA in my inventory. Mind you, I also rarely use stimpacks, so what I used for healing was mainly food, lots and lots of Bighorner Steak, then some Doctor's Bags and Hydra.

So honestly, I can find a use for both and it depends on the build. However, I've also grown to like Pack Rat a lot. Also, I don't mind not swimming in caps because I rarely buy anything to begin with, aside from ammo for the most part or high tier weapons that are in low condition. The # just looks big. The perk is the only reason why I even take Barter in the first place nowadays.

For the build in question, it really depends whether or not he's playing hardcoe. 4 MG rounds take up a pound in hardcoe, so with max strength, 250 lbs, that would be 1000 MG rounds. Add in Pack Rat, you can carry double. With Strong Back, it only gives you another 200 rounds. This is in the case where all you're carrying is MG rounds.

Well unless he plans to invest heavily in explosives packrat will may add more to his character in terms of carrying capacity then strongback. Assuming he plays on hardcoe.

At any rate I'm not a fan of meltdown, the times it will blow up in your face[literally] out number the times your going to take out multiple enemies.

Missile is just one example, what I am trying to illustrate is the fact that you need 100lbs worth of >2lb stuff to make Pack Rat as good as Strongback.

Most of the my carry weight is occupied by scavenged weapons; which Pack Rat only helps with 9mm IIRC.

Then its just how we play that makes each perk make better use than the other. So, like all sensible semi-offtopic discussions, agree to disagree? Because really, whenever I do take Pack Rat, my weight gets cut by at least 70 pounds, so its really just a difference in playstyle.

I'll second what Gunny said in his first post (pretty much everything he's said so far is first rate), I've played two snipers up to 30th level, and I only ever enter VATS if I'm absolutely desperate, so lose the VATS perks, snipers rule outside VATS. I'd lose bloody mess too, because the bonus is negligible and you'll spend so much of your time so far away from your enemy, you won't really be able to "enjoy" the gore. Plus, it's useful to be able to see the corpses in the distance, because you might not even find your kills if you take bloody mess. And you'll want to find them for the loot.

Strong Back was a useful perk for me, because I don't like companions when I play a sniper. I dictate when I enter combat with a sniper; when you have companions, they like to decide when the fight starts. They mess with my "mojo". Sounds like Pack Rat would be useful too.

Except you have to pay 40~60 skill points up front for Pack Rat.