Yep, sniper. Need to get my perception up so I can get some of those Sniper perks too:)

I took Lockpicking followed by hacking

Mysterious Stranger. Sure sometimes he shows up to pop a ghoul, but those times when it's a Suicide Mutant who's starting to spike the ball....

I prioritise it along the lines of:

Lock Pick

Hacking

Gun Nut

Armourer

Science!

Scrounger

Scrapper

(Gunslinger, Commando, Rifleman, Heavy Gunner)

Lone Wanderer

Local Leader

Then I'll just grab perks that tickle my fancy as I level. Things like Bloody Mess, Life Giver, Medic, Cap Collector, etc.

I started with of all things Nerd Rage this time.

*Hmm, it double posted on me*

Solar Powered. Anyone who listened before release knew I would, since I always said it. The first rank isn't exactly thrilling, although the bonus carry weight in the sunlight is nice. But the second and third ranks are amazing. After I took the second rank I pretty much never needed to worry about radiation damage again, unless I was in the Glowing Sea or fighting someone with a Gamma Gun.

I've actually been really successful going through the game without some of the so-called essential perks. My first character never touched the Gun Nut perk, and managed to get by almost entirely by taking components from found weapons and Frankensteining them onto my Legendary versions - but he primarily used energy weapons, so Science! was enough for him to get by. My pirate queen hasn't touched Rifleman, either, and has only taken two ranks in Gunslinger and Big Leagues - I'd say her primary weapon is actually explosives. And incidentally, a six-cranked Laser Musket is still a mighty powerful weapon for her.

And, this is hilarious, none of my characters have ever touched Lockpicking. I thought I would with my pirate queen, but I just never felt the need.

Nerd Rage is one of the best perks in the game but it won't appear much in this thread because few (non-cheat) characters start with 10 INT. My third character started with Nerd Rage. He's the character I'm making damage sacrifices on because he's going the settlement route and loses a lot of his perk points to that: so in addition to INT and CHR I've tended to give him END perks for survivability.

Two of my charactera started with Idiot Savant because if you're getting it, get it a.s.a.p.

Aqua Girl is also a pretty good choice because it lets you do a couple of early quests easily.

I tend to use whatever weapon comes to hand for most of my characters so go for the weapon damage increase perks: my main character got the melee boost very early because it's in my design for her, but with ammo being short it's risky to concentrate too much on one weapon class.