Which Perks do you think are the most under-rated or have the biggest unexpected impact on your game or playing style?

Cannibalism when I am too lazy to eat when my FOD is low.

Some I found out were very good in play throughs Rapid reload and super slam.
One that had a role play use and turned out handy the professional its bounus to sneak crits makes a pistol very usefull.

One that suprised me and I think due to FO3 is the most under rated tag.
First playthrough I wanted a certain set of skills and needed them to do the things I wanted, but had few points to spare.
So having little other choice I grabbed it, and opened up later choices due to it.

Ferocious Loyalty, hands down. Until you play with it you don't realize what a huge, huge difference it makes to companion tanking ability. Factor in that it can be taken as early as level 6, and you have a winner. It's the early game that's the hardest, after all.

Hand Loader deserves a mention just because many people don't know how amazingly good the crafted ammo is since the description of the perk doesn't tell you.

Rad Child for melee/unarmed characters. It's so handy to heal to full in between fights for free (in addition to the healing you get in combat).

Cowboy. Late game there are many great weapons around that don't use this perk, but early game the Cowboy Repeater is a pretty big deal to get +25% damage on. The fact that it buffs the Brush Gun too makes it not a wasted perk late game either.

Pack Rat, I just love being able to carry twice as many bottles of booze and pieces of scrap metal and cigarette cartons. And it's even more useful in HC mode.

Miss Fortune, who is far more useful than her opposite number, being as she can knock out whole groups of enemies. Even deathclaws.

Also, I've always been a fan of Chemist, it lets my Buffout go twice as far.

Hand Loader, .308 ammo is very cheap when I make it myself.

Strong back, very good for hardcoe and no followers.

Quick Draw...for a Melee character...Running up on some one with no weapon drawn then "unsheathing" it at the last second. With lack of perks for a pure melee/unarmed build, taking this perk doesn't hurt, especially if your wearing lighter armor.

Entomologist for me. The 50% damage bonus saved me quite a few times against giant radscorpions

Must agree on Rad Child (and it's available so early!).

I am personally a huge fan of Travel Light. Every character I make without this perk feels so sluggish. Yes, taking it means putting points into Survival, but just a few points more and you can make Bighorner Steaks!

I don't think Super Slam or Hand Loader are underrated – I get the impression these are among the most beloved perks around these forums, and with good reason. Super Slam is arguably even overpowered considering how easy it makes it to disable groups of enemies even at lower levels.

Never considered Quick Draw for melee before – neat idea. (But I beg to differ that there is any lack of pure Melee/Unarmed perks. I can't even fit all the ones I want to take! Toughness, Super Slam, Stonewall, Piercing Strike, Slayer, and two levels of Toughness are essential – that's about half your perks right there before you even consider optional ones in my book like Paralyzing Palm, Unstoppable Force, and Purifier, plus various tangentially useful ones like Adamantium Skeleton, Bloody Mess, Action Girl, Better Criticals, Silent Running...)

Once I took Pack Rat, I can't believe how I was able to live through playing hardcoe without it. Having it slash all of the little things in weight by half makes it far more useful than Strong Back, in my honest opinion.

Ferocious Loyalty deserves a second mention as some companions have DT's that seem to not be surpassed once you're under half. I even didn't heal for quite some time just because I wanted the perk in effect for my companions. I could take care of myself after all.

For being 'unique' and all:

Nerves of Steel. Apparently, the NV Geck has it listed at 20% increased AP regen instead of the good old 1 HP per 10 Seconds in Fallout 3. I timed it and it seems to actually work around that amount. Sure, in actual fact, its more like shaving off a second or two but you never really know when that second or two is going to come in handy. Add in Rebound, and its VATS spam galore. Definitely didn't regret taking this.

I like Long Haul better personally

Cowboy also makes Chance's Knife one of the best melee weapons in the game. Still, Cowboy ends up feeling like a bit of a waste in the late game, as the best guns aren't affected by it, and killing Deathclaws with a Cowboy Repeater isn't going to be easy.

But you can can one shot them using a Trail Carbine with a precise head-shot, or just blow them away with the brush gun that will be hitting right up there with an AMR for 1/4 the weight. What's holding back Cowboy perk right now is the hilariously bugged state of revolvers and leaver action weapons.

Back on topic, Entomologist perk. Fighting Cazadors and Radscorpians is just so much easier with that perk.

Pack Rat is pretty amazing. I went from having 260/260 pounds worth of gear on me to 152/260 after taking the perk. Its usefulness depends on how many items 2 pounds & below pounds you carry with you. Which for most players is ALOT. Especially on hardcoe mode, where ammo has weight.

So after my previous post I took on a bunch of Deathclaws with the Brush gun, and yeah I was one-shotting them in the head! And the annoying reload bug drove me nuts too. BTW, left mouse lick followed by right mouse click fixes it, but still annoying.

Hmmm. Some good suggestions here that I hadn't thought of. Travel Light sounds like a real time saver when just running around from place to place. Light armor only is a bit meh, but since you can switch to whatever mid-combat it really isn't a drawback. Survival stinks, but 50 Survival gets you steaks as someone said and 50 + a magazine gets you enough for .44 crafted ammo from Jules.

Entomologist was a great suggestion too. Other than Deathclaws the banes of the lower level character are Giant Radscorpions and Cazadors....+50% dmg against both of those is very siginficant.

Cowboy perk. Extra 25% damage for my trail carbine? Yes please! :celebration:

I wouldnt consider a pure melee/unarmed character to be all that sneaky, I mean he could be but hes mostly just running up and pounding on things. You don't really need Action Boy since you take Kamikaze as a trait, not to mention VATS isn't as necessary with a melee/unarmed build. Both of my Melee builds had room to take Quick Draw, even with all of the Melee/unarmed perks.

Hand loader + Cowboy perk combo is insane, I don't know if it's under rated, I personally ignored both perks until I randomly checked the Hand loaded ammo stats and realized how good they were and how well they dovetailed with the Cowboy perk (+50% damage, with -DT and better accuracy with most of the cowboy guns)

Jury rigging, I don't know how many folks use this one either, but I can't make a character without it now, especially if you are using unique weapons and/or enjoy fixing power armor helmets with pre-war hats lol.

Math Wrath. I can shoot 2x with my AM rifle in vats! (Well, once I get my action boy)