On the wiki it says the Thermic Lance is affected by the Slayer perk. How does this make sense? If it is a constant attack, how does it attack faster? Does it just boost the dps? Does anyone know?

is the lance very effective? cause i havnt bought it yet

Er.... sometimes? Personally I think this weapon is suffering from some weirdness. It *says* it does something ridiculous like 90 damage per attack, but it's also fully automatic and gives the impression of delivering several jolts per second. It is definitely not doing the 450 DPS or whatever it ought to be doing if the "apparent attacks" actually matched up to the listed damage per attack. It feels more like it's doing maybe 15 or 20 damage per attack, based on its lackluster performance on tougher enemies.

So. Decent for carving up unarmored targets (literally: carving. Low level enemies will basically collapse in a pile of limbs), and kind of svcktastic for tough enemies despite what it says on the tin. Personally I cannot recommend this weapon at all, the sledgehamer, fire axe, and super sledge all do a far superior job.

I actually tried out the thermic lance, got 100 melee, enough strength, heavy handed trait, etc. And while i do believe it does the 125 dmg it says on the pip boy, it seems to only do it over a period of 1 second. If you take out the weapon, and give a moderately quick click of the mouse button, the animation will put the lance forward, turn it on, and keep it there for about a full second. This leads me to believe it does a single attack of 125 dmg over the course the full second animation. In the end, this makes it's killing power subpar compared to other melee or unarmed weapons (main contender being the ballistic fist, which can do 104 dmg in a single quick punch, and can punch at least twice within a full second). Theres also the fact that the thermic lance has a crit multiplier of 0, meaning it is incaple of landing critical hits. Im unsure as to how the slayer perk affects the weapon (i could actually test it out in a minute), but i dont think it would have enough of an effect to make it a weapon worth using over others that are available.

A shame really, i wanted to make some melee karate master who uses a massive thermic lance like a bow

Damn I'm doing a melee build just for this weapons. Oh well cause ive got Oh Baby. Sweetest Super Sledge ever

You might try using the weapon correctly, the thermic lance is used like the ripper you hold down the attack button and it attacks constantly, assuming it attacks 1/second when holding down the button it attack once every 42 seconds with the slayer perk.

Anyone with GECK know how many attacks it does per second while holding down attack?

Best melee weapon: Knock Knock, fire-axe.... Seriously, get this and you'll forget that rusty ol' sledge within a few swings.

I found the Thermic Lance quite effective against Ranger Vets in the final Legion quest. Killed them in a couple seconds.

It's not as strong as advertised, but it's still effective. Highly durable, too, not to mention it's VATS attack which more closely represents it's true DAM.

Tried it Oh Baby! is more effective

Thermic lance is quite powerful.
You can one-hit deathclaws with it (with enough skill, strength ofc)
Never found oh baby or knock knock. But yeah i love fire axes

My theory:
It deals damage once every few seconds, and with the Slayer perk the time intervals between the damage is shorter.
But I just started a melee character and I'm still crushing skulls with a sledge hammer, so I wouldn't really know.

Edit:
Oh it seems I was thinking of anyother perk D:

If you understood my post, i only pressed it quickly to see how long a single attack lasts. I know you are supposed to hold it down. It still doesnt change that fact that the 100 damage its rated at occurs over a full second, not the 100 dmg repeatedly within a second as it would seem. I also dont know what difficulty you guys are playing on, but on hard, it takes longer to kill say, a cazador with the lance than it does with ballistic fist. A ballistic fist can easily do 200+ base dmg within the time it takes a thermic lance to do 100 dmg.

I know this was mentioned earlier, but does the VATS attack bring it up to the full DPS?

I've always been a bit dubious on the DPS for most weapons though....saying something does X damage per second is a bit irrelevant if you only get 2 shots every 4 seconds or so...

I think a 'rate of fire' or 'rate of strike' figure would have been more appropriate. I admit I haven't checked to see if the DPS changes as your skill etc changes, as does the weapon damage figure.

Where do I get said weapon.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune

Do I need to get into the Hidden Supply Cave to get that or can you bypass that step? I've got 5 in lockpick, and 45 points is a substantial investment when my key weapon skills are both far from maxed.

I love knock-knock but it's HP is too low, it needs repairing way too quickly. I almost wish I had a fire ax again so I didn't have to repair as much. If Oh Baby has better HP, I might go with that if I ever find it.

Kill the guy in Searchlight for the Key, then go to the fire station...if you don't feel like doing the quest.

Excellent, thanks. Consider him dead. I'm sure the HP will be fine along with Full Maintenance.

Same here, can't finish the quest too :cryvaultboy:
They could put a key inside that hollowed out rock near entrance