I am here to express my utter disgust with "Meltdown." In Fallout: New Vegas, the perks earned upon each second level up are exclusively positive. Unlike those a player can choose at the beginning of the game, There is not a supposed to be a downside for ANY perk, and yet there is one. One perk that I will always regret choosing. Meltdown. It's not a "Perk," it's a liability. It completely eliminates the safe use of close quarter energy weapons. Not only that, but it severely limits the use of VATS, being that many enemies can quickly close the gap within a single turn of VATS, increasing the chance of getting caught in the blast. That is all not to mention that in any situation where you are in close quarters with weaker friendly NPC's (the Battle of Hoover Dam, the assault on NCRCF) you are likely to kill them, or at the very least turn them hostile.

But, some people might say, you can use it effectively with Spray n Pray and Admantium Skeleton. Assuming you don't have any DLC's, you'll only be getting 15 perks through leveling. Using 1 for Meltdown, and then 2 in an attempt to balance out it's unnecessary negative traits is hardly justified.

I simply cannot understand why this trait is in the game in its current form? I've always played under the fair assumption that no "Perk" I chose would hurt me in anyway. But using energy weapons is now one of the most awkward, dangerous things to do in the game. Am I missing something?

It all depends on your playstyle.. If you never get into close-quarters combat, then Meltdown can be quite helpful. If you know that you prefer to fight enemies close up, then don't take the perk. Pretty simple.

what about Terrifying Presence? on my character with that perk, I only found like 2 instances where it came into play over like 60 hours

I personally love Meltdown. Though most of my fights are long range and my playstyle is Maximum Carnage, Minimum Effort so... :shrug: guess it depends on your playstyle.

I think I spend too much time in corridors. I rarely get to fight at long range, so perks like Meltdown, even though I love me some eweps, are right out.

Wouldn't it be a hoot to use in Vault 34? That was the first place that made me wish for a multiplas or tribeam on me.

One time I look Bloody Mess...lets just say Three-Card Bounty ended... :banghead:

Have to agree on meltdown- I haven't used it myself, but after reading the perk's affects, and also reading about its dangers on the web, I passed it up on my recent EW char. I didn't want to have to major in BOTH energy weapons and guns, just EW. And despite my preference for ranged combat too, it is inevitable that I end up in close fights in a lot of places, regardless. Unavoidable, if you want to do all the quests and go through all the indoor buildings and tunnels and vaults. What they should do, is make it a toggle-able perk, which you can turn on or off as needed with a keypress. That would make it much less dangerous to the user. If it has to be always-on, then it will be never-chosen, by me.

Make a few weapon repair kits
Go to the Silver Rush
Steal the multiplas rifle or tribeam laser rifle off the counter
Repair
?????
Profit

Robotics Expert. There are robots where?!

Pulse Rifle + long range + Meltdown + Clustered enemies + decent energy and sneak skill =Short work.

In Old World Blues, I'm thinking. Might finally beat that Challenge. (Hopefully Lonesome Road will have Supermutants.)

I will never take Meltdown again, either, OP. You can't snipe all the time, and in close quarters it's a real pain in the yingyang.

It's really kind of impossible to beat the uselessness of Here and Now.

Well actually if your doing the "28 perk" glitch "here and now will" halt your relevel up. So plenty of people do find it useful.

Personally, i always choose meltdown on my energy weapon characters. The advantages just seem to outweigh the negative consequences, especially when fighting swarms of enemies like cazadors or a mob of ghouls.

I'd vote for Here and Now... total waste. Meltdown is nice though as long as there is a skill for cqc.

Here and Now really comes in handy if you have to bump up a skill in a short period of time to be able to accomplish certain things to help with your quests, looting, etc.

You still complete the quest, you just get less caps as a reward ... its a question if maybe loosing 600 caps is more important that 5% more damage with all weapons.



Here and Now is one of those perks you really just take when you have nothing interesting available as either you already taken the perks you wanted or you still dont qualify for the perks you want, its uselessness is more because Intensive Training can be taken 10 times and its more useful that Here and Now.

But yes, of all perks Here and Now is usually the least useful as you are just skipping a level and since there is a cap limit there is really not much point in that.

We have a winner. Funny that this perk made it into so many games. Pretty much a joke.

P.S. meltdown rules, love a perks that have a +/- aspect about them, even if we already have (a few) traits.

I always thought Swift Learner was pretty useless in a game where you have a level cap and a limited number of perks :shrug:

I have to agree with this one, the only time in my life I ever got the perk was when me and my brother were seeing who could get there character a higher level in 1 week.

Here and now is a wasted perk at level 35, along with Swift Learner.

Swift Learner and Here and Now are in the same boat. IMO
Both are for people who are impatient about a level or just need a quick level to help with a quest/looting/etc. Nothing bad about either though so. I guess it just boilds down to what you want most. :shrug:

Well, Melt-down itself is not bad, yet the problem is it cannot be turned off.

My worst Perks would be Quick Draw, because on vanilla, there's no speed difference between holstered and unholstered, computer whiz, because, at the level you qualified for this perk, you might learn how to avoid the lock out (save/load or just turn the computer off at the final attempt), and infiltrator, because, YOU DON"T HAVE TO FORCE LOCK, EVER.