just bought the game and want to start as a sniper after the first recon round yesterday.

what is the best build for a sniper?

Thx

Sniper is so good you don't need a build.

:facepalm: thx

i meant what would god base stats be

S4~8 (Depends how much special and implant you have left)
P5+1(+1 from Implant)
E6~7(More endurance = more implant)
C?(Your personal preference, recommend at least a 4 in hardcoe if you are bring companions.)
I4~8(before/after Implant don't care, just depends how well you utilize aids and stat boost clothing.)
A6~7(Silent Running is gold imo, but otherwise 4 will do.)
L8+1+1(Intense training+implant, but I rather save a perk since 5% not crit isn't a big deal imo)

Traits:
Stay away from Trigger Discipline (ironic isn't it) and Four Eyes (unless you wanna cap an SEPCIAL off)

i play as a sniper bascially and i always take 4 eyes trait, i use silenced sniper rifles, i add one point to perception and that along with 4 eyes plus a baseball cap or other perception rasing hat and you'll have plenty of perception, and light clothing, reinforced leather armor, armored vault 34 suit or anything light really, and long range weapons, sniper rifles, both the regular sniper rifle, and ratslayer are good as well as the marksman rifle,i like that one a lot, put points into sneak and raise your weapons skills.

Perception give you like 1% distance scale bonus....so your 95% VATS zone is like 2' more.........

Eitherway, you should be on 7with a hat and for increase enemy detection you would have ED-E in your party (and you can just tell it to wait for you at some where safe if you worry about its well being).

S: 5 (with the implant and weapon handling perk, you'll be able to do well with any weapon
P: 5 (get the implant too, this is really only for the perks)
E: 7 (it lets you get 7 implants, and it's a good solid stat)
C: 1 (it's far from the best stat imo, but it is better if you play hardcoe because you need to rely on companions more)
I: 9 (when the game starts run to new vegas and get the intelligence implant for maximum skill points)
A: 5 (a solid stat, get the implant)
L: 8 (get intense training perk and use it on luck, and get the luck implant)

that's a pretty good sniper build, but play around with it to personalize it

"I: 9 (when the game starts run to new vegas and get the intelligence implant for maximum skill points)"

or just put it to 10 and get and get the DT implant instead. just IT back the point you lose, there arent that many good perks anyway.

other than that shadow has a good one. use his.

I cannot disagree more about Int 10.

You got 400+ skill points to allocate when you have Int 4 and Educated.

Combine with clothing, magazine and drugs, the only non-combat skill you want to be high is Repair.

This is the skill points my int 4 character @ level 30:

Barter			32Energy Weapons		30Explosives		30Guns			75Lockpick		75Medicine		70Melee Weapons		100Repair			90Science			70Sneak			100Speech			32Survival		55Unarmed			100

wow, that just looks bad. i dont think i could ever tolerate having those stats at level 30. science, lockpick, speech, and one combat skill need to be maxed AT LEAST for me. besides, its not like youre missing out on anything if you put it to 10. there is no goog reason to not have it that high. charisma is a dump stat unless on hardcoe, and nothing else is as good as intel. and you can always IT stuff up later if you really need to. again, most perks arent that great.

you have a a good bit of non combat skills below 80, if you had 10 int, you could boost them all to 80, allowing you to pass any skill check with a magazine and the comprehension perk.

With Melee and Unarmed at 100 he won't need to talk much.

The difference between INT of 4 and INT of 10....87 skill points. More than made up for by specializing the character.

I actually dump Speech with this character if you notice how I have both 75 GUN, Melee & Sneak @100

BTW this is my SPECIAL:
10,6,9,2,4,7,10

87 points is almost enough to max another skill from its starting value, and again, you really dont have to give anything up for those other 6 points. you gain much more than you lose if you max intel. so there is still no good reason to not do so.

above: why is your charisma 2? seems an odd number to have it at. on hardcoe youd want 4 or 5 and on non-hardcoe anything over 1 is a waste.

with lockpick at 73, i can get the gobi. with speech at 70, i can pass every speech check in the game, same goes for science at 70.
apparel and magazines do the rest, easy peasy.
this is my lvl30 build, INT8, comprehension, no eduction

Guns 100
Energy 100
Lckpck 73
Repair 84
Science 70
Medicine 70
Survival 75
Speech 80
Barter 40
Sneak 60
Melee 30
Unarmed 28
Explosives 60

i'm totally fine with these stats

if youre ok with it great. but youre still missing my point, theres almost no reason to not have it at 10, you lose next to nothing for doing so. the only reason to not have it at 10 is for role-playing.

Got to spend some caps man.

Educated is like extra 4 int form level 4....imo a superb way to bring your special up.

having it at 10 would mean to make sacrifices elsewhere. and as i'm already able to factually max out 8 skills with an int value of 8(without the education perk), i'd rather dump these points in other areas.

but thats the thing, there are no sacrifices. nothing gives as good of bonuses as intel does, and you can always up the other stuff with IT later since most perks arent that great.

Errr.....it is actually otherway around, there is no point to be Int 10 other than roleplay and stuff up your overall ability.

2 more points in:
Strength - 20lbs more capacity and no need for Weapon Handing Perk
Endurance - if it ain't 7, you can boost it up for 2 more useful implant
Charisma - gives Companions 10% more damage and DT
Agility - one point for it to get Slayer
Luck - save you some Intense Training

Given Perks are more important than Skill points in general, there is just no reason to have Int 10.

In the world on New Vegas 10 INT matters less than you would think. I tend to run with a starting INT of 6-7 myself with no worries. Just need repair, sneak and a ranged weapon skill at 100. A few skills can be outright ignored and the rest just need to be high enough for key parts of quests.

Strength: 5
Perception: 5
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 5+1 from small frame=6
Luck: 6

Toss in Intense Training at level 2 for an extra point of strength and I'm set.

but again, most perks arent that great. so you can just use IT to get everything else up whenever, but if you do that with IN you lose points. and theres no reason to have charisma over 1 out of hardcoe, companions are mostly there for holding stuff, i dont want them getting too many kills anyway so its good if they have low damage.

and slayer is really only good if youre using unarmed.

anyway, my suggestions for a sniper build, hardcoe mode

S 5 -> 6 with implant

6 meets the requirement for the sniper rifle. in addition more strength can easily gained by the use of certain foods and chems, if needed

P 5 -> 6 with implant

you need this at 6, since some very useful perks require that

E 5

that is enough, since you'll be relying on distance, and 5 implants are sufficient to cover your needs

C 5

when playing on hardcoe, your companions can die. this stat determines your companions armor and damage output. so better don't set it 1
I 7 -> 8 IT perk at lvl 2, as the other perks there aren't that useful

that will give you enough skillpoints

A 6-7 -> 7-8 with implant

you need it at least to be at 6 to get some very useful perk, it also determines your reloading speed, and it provides AP.


L 6-7 -> 8-9, definitely get the implant here, i also took another rank of IT at level 6, again not much useful perks for a sniper at this moment(actually there are 2, but they have certain skill requirements you aren't likely to meet that early).

for each point of luck you get 1% base critical hit chance, and what a real sniper wants is a high crit chance, since your preferred weapons will have a x5 multiplier, thus resulting every further point of luck into an increase of 5%. also it will help a lot when gambling.

traits: bulit to destroy (+3% crit chance, ratslayer and the sniper rifle will make that 15%) is almost a given, another useful trait would be four eyes.
i went with wild wastelands for the lulz though

overall useful perks

comprehension (if you're not to be bothered with searching for skill books, stick with education)
travel light - makes you running 10% faster with light armor, and as a sniper you usually stay out the heat, so sticking with a reinforced leather armor will do fine.
if the going gets really tough, you can always add 50% damage resistance by just taking med-x and slasher
finesse - +5% base critical chance, again, your tools will make that a 25% increase
silent running - very useful for a sneaky sniper
hand loader - enables the crafting of .308 JSP ammo, +50% damage for your sniper rifle
better criticals - +50% critical hit damage, no brainer
meltdown - if you are also going the energy weapon route, this perk will get marvelous

if you are using VATS

sniper
grim reapers sprint
action boy

why would you want to have any less than a starting luck of 8 as a sniper? if you are using a sniper, you should have 10 luck by the time you have it. because of it's 5x crit hit multiplier, having 10 luck, finesse perk, and the first recon beret give you a 100% chance to crit hit.

The difference between 9 and 10 luck is actually quite low, since you would be doing sneak attacks most of the time, you just need a decent chance for it.

Build to Destroy is pretty good in hardcoe since it does save you some points for Charisma.