So I'm half asleep, on Fallout Forums, and I thought to myself. I never made a playthrough focused solely on ranged weapons, so why not make a Ranged Weapon Specialist? So I thought since I'm half asleep and not exactly in sound mind and body. I'd ask you all for help. Though, please keep in mind, I am not including Thrown Weapons. I am only including weapons that take ammo in one form or another. Ammo, not the stock that you'd call Throwing Knives/Hatchets/Spears. Also keep in mind, I don't use VATS a whole hell of a lot, and when I say that, I mean rarely, if at all. So here it is, any comments/help/critique would be greatly appreciated as this is my first Weapons Specialization playthrough.

EDIT - Sidenote: I will be using Light/Medium Armour. I don't like using Heavy Armour if I can help it.

Strength - 7
Perception - 9
Endurance - 2
Charisma - 1
Intelligence - 9
Agility - 3
Luck - 9

-Tag-

Explosives
Guns
Energy Weapons


-Perks-

Light Frame - +1 Agility for a total of 4. Limbs are more easily crippled, but will be dealing with things from a distance anyway.
Educated - Simply because I like having extra skill points. 62 extra skill points makes me a happy person.
Light Touch - +5% critical hit chance and your enemies suffer a -25% critical hit chance while wearing light armour. I like LA and the crit bonus will help with Meltdown in the future.
Finesse - +5% Crit chance, or +5 Luck, however you wanna take it. Need it for Meltdown Later on.
Laser Commander - +15% DAM with EW and +10% Crit Chance. Build is a weapons specialist, so this makes sense to have.
Meltdown - Damaging corona of energy is released on critical hit. I love this ability, and the damage it causes.
Travel Light - Increases Movement Speed by 10%. I like to be able to move fast, hit my target, grab the loot, and make myself scarce.
Agility Implant - Bumps my Agility up to 5, moving faster is never a bad thing.
Luck Implant - Bumps my Luck up to 10. Gives another percent for my crit chance so I wont complain.
Strength Implant - Bumps my Strength to 8, wont have to worry about weapon strength requirements.
Endurance Implant - Bumps my Endurance to 3, wont complain about more HP.
Demolitions Expert - +20% Explosives DAM. Same reasoning for Laser Commander
Vigilant Recycler - More likely to recover spent EW ammo. Will need.
Bloody Mess - +5% DAM. Simply because I like, well, creating a bloody mess.
Shotgun Surgeon - -10DT when using a shotgun. I find myself loving the Riot Shotgun now so....
Strong Back - +50wg. Simply because I like looting.
Hit The Deck - Will be using explosives a lot, this is a must.
Splash Damage - Increased AoE. Need I say more?
Jury Rigging - Repair any item with a similiar item. Love this perk. Have to have it.
Toughness (Rank 2) - Total of +6 DT. Gonan be wearing LA so this helps.


-Optional Perks (not so sure about these)-

Rapid Reload - Reload 25% faster. Eh, I dont notice much difference. Expecially with 10 Agility.
The Professional - +20% Sneak Crit damage w/ revolvers, pistols, and submachine guns. I don't sneak much with any of these.
Cowboy - DAM increase for all dynamite, hatchets, knives, revolvers, and lever-action guns. On the fence about this one... Ehhh....
Quick Draw - Weapon Equip and Dequip 50% Faster. Same with Rapid Reload.
And Stay Back - Chance to knock enemies back w/ a shotgun. On the fence about this, sounds nice but... I've never used it.
Pyromaniac - +50% DAM with flame based weapons. Eh, I rarely use the flamer now as is...or incinerater for that matter.
Heavyweight - Any weapon above 10wg is cut in half. Simply because I'll be carrying a lot of heavy weapons.

-Skills-

Basics for outline for skills will be this:

100 Guns
100 Energy Weapons
100 Explosives
100 Lockpick
100 Repair


which leaves about 89 Skill points or so for me to distribute where I see fit. 30 of which may or may not go into Survival for Travel Light. Which leaves about 59 or so for science which I hope to max when HH comes out. Assuming the level cap increases.


Thanks for the comments/critiques/help in advance. As in all likelyhood I will be heading to bed shortly after posting this.

I think you might need perception for accuracy. Why so much strength if you're doing long-range weapons? Most of them don't require high strength, unless they're missile launchers or heavy weapons, and most of those are either inefficient or don't shoot very far to begin with.

What he said. Also, if you don't use VATS very much why have AGL so high?

What you have looks more like a Melee/Unarmed build TBH.

Yeah, that's way too melee of a SPECIAL spread, I'd say. Perception is very important for accuracy, and you should need no more strength than 7. +1 from implant, + weapon handling will let you use all the weapons easily. If you want to free up another point by wearing power armor (for another +1 strength) then you only need 6. And if you won't be using VATS, I'd bring the agility down to 6 or 7. Endurance is nice, but if you're going for ranged work, that's another one that you don't really need above 6 or 7. Luck, on the other hand, you want HIGH. Especially with energy weapons and rifles.

You'll also want more focus on science if you're going for energy weapons, so you can keep your ammo stock up, and later on, concentrate the charges. I never use explosives, so I can't really comment on them, but Guns and Energy Weapons are my standard. This Machine is an excellent choice, btw. I use it for everything. Turrets, Deathclaws, Cazadores, Fiends, Bighorners, Nightkin...everything. Even killed the Legendary Deathclaw with it. Well worth making it a priority to acquire. If you're focusing on eweps first, then the Q35 Matter Modulator is well worth a trip to REPCONN.

I'm not going to go through the perks, though. I'm no good at pre-planning perk selections. Just remember that Vigilant Recycler is very important for EWeps. Otherwise, keeping your stock of ammo up can get annoying.

Thanks for your input everyone. :thumbsup: I honostly don't know why, that's usually my standard build so I was basing it off that. I'll have to tweak the SPECIAL because I do have to agree it does seem more like a Melee/Unarmed build now that I'm awake. Haha.




I was wondering about this, because honestly I wasn't sure. :unsure: Thanks for helping me out. :thumbsup:

Some general comments on your build...

- special is all messed up for a ranged fighter
- you won't be getting all the Implants you have planned out with only 2 Endurance
- no need to go for 100 in all 3 ranged fighting skills unless you're doing it for the sake of doing it as a single skill @ 100 and a secondary at a high level (75+) should be more than sufficient

Recommended SPECIAL stats:

S - 5 + 1 = 6
P - 5 + 1 = 6
E - 7 + 0 = 7
C - 3 + 0 = 3
I - 7 + 1 = 8
A - 5 + 2 = 7
L - 8 + 1 = 9

Note: all +1 adds are implants, the +2 for Agility is implant and Small Frame trait

- 6 Str + Weapon Handling Perk lets you use every ranged weapon in the game save the Minigun
- 6 Per is all you need for Better Criticals, a very good perk to have
- 7 End means 7 implants available, which is like free SPECIAL points or other useful abilities given how easy money is to get in this game
- 3 Cha is variable, take it to 1 if you think it's a dump stat and need the points (I wouldn't but this is your character)
- 8 Int gets you plenty of skill points, could drop the choice back to a 6 or 7 and never notice it probably
- 7 Agl is plenty of AP and reloading speed
- 9 Luck and a Finesse perk will have you critical hitting all the time, highly suggested to keep it at this level for an Energy Weapons playthrough

Tag Skills:

Guns OR Energy Weapons (not both - Guns is the easier choice but E Weps are still very viable)
Explosives (backup and room clearing skill)
Repair OR Lockpick (both are useful to have)

Traits:

Small Frame
Built to Destroy (1st choice) OR Good Natured

Critical Perks:

Educated
Demolition Expert (as many ranks as you can)
Finesse
Splash Damage
Better Criticals

Other perk choices are up to you and your weapon focus as well as playing style. If you're going Energy for example, perks like Meltdown and Laser Commander are obvious choices. A Guns build will find perks like Hand Loader, Cowboy and Shotgun Surgeon to be good choices. If you're going to be using VATS a lot, look into things like Commando, Sniper, Grim Reaper's Sprint and Nerves of Steel. Other perks such as Silent Running, Pack Rat, Strong Back, Jury Rigging, and many more are left up to your choice. They're all useful depending on how you want to go through the game but you need to pick the ones that support your way of playing.

In any case, hope this has helped.

Ah, completely forgot about that tidbit haha. Thanks for reminding me. And it has. :thumbsup: I think i'll go with this build, with a few minor tweaks to suit my playstyle.

Thanks to all who helped. :celebration: Cheers!