Strongest types of weapons now?

[Larco]

How are people finding the different weapon classes stack up in 2.0 with the revised perks? The old game, it always felt to me that pistols (and blades) got way better perks than other types of weapons, and that pushed them quite some way past the others.

This time round, not so sure. The perks for LMGs/Shotguns don't look anything special, the pistol / sniper tree seems to have been seriously cut back, but the AR/SMG ones seem pretty good so far. Blades hmm. Looks like there's less there but they were always OP.

What are people seeing as the sort of weapon class tier list now? Does the availability of particular iconics change that round at all?

[Drahknon]

In 2.0, I've done pistol and melee playthroughs on hard difficulty with no trouble. Iconics didn't matter much to me. I think there are enough bonuses in cyberware and perks to make them viable.

[Rhapsody]

If you go all in for the capstone perks, you'll get plenty of bang out of any gun.

Tsunami stands out the most for me even though I rarely use it. No other gun is capable of putting several thousands of damage in headshot on multiple targets, regardless of whether they are lined up or not. That's a tech sniper so the choice of perks and attributes should be obvious.

Deadeye and Obliteration provide fun feedback from shooting, so I like those. Not sure if Salt in the Wound has any.

Anyway, what is most effective depends on your entire build, not just any single weapon or weapon type. If you go all in on Body, for example, you'll definitely want to use both machine guns and shotguns, as well as your gorilla fists or some other blunt. The only trouble there is that the new and better LMG is really rare find in any configuration. But fortunately those HMG turrets are plentiful.

One thing of note you should pay attention to is armor penetration. Especially/at least on very hard, enemies pack a lot of armor. It's at least as large factor as headshot damage multiplier is.

[Larco]

Yeah I'm starting to think that you maybe need to go "all in" with 2.0. Old game, the capstones really didn't seem worth it. Hell, blades you only needed to put maybe 14 points or something in to get the best stuff. Now, not so sure. Maybe need to plan around a 20 in reflex / body / cool rather than say tech...

[Larco]

Originally posted by Don't:

Shotgun builds will drop a cyberpsycho in a few seconds on very hard and will have zero problems tanking them at the same time. Against groups of enemies it feels like playing as a terminator. They just aren't optimal for a sandy build.

I struggled a lot more with SMGs and ARs, even found myself constantly running out of ammo.

What shottie are you using now btw? I loved headsman in old game but it looks like it's beennerfed so it's sort of not a shot gun anymore? Fires a single slug rather than 16(?) pellets?

[Phobos]

DB-2 Satara shots produces earthquake in my neighborhood since day one.

[myhv]

Katanas are still very strong, so are gorilla arms. That said, even with no perks thrown weapons are deadly AF, to the point where I use them just for the cool aspect. I can only imagine how much better they get with perks. But I feel that combat still gets incredibly easy once you're past the first 10 or 20 levels, regardless of weapon.

[Mei]

Weapons with a high base damage is the best. So snipers, revolvers, katanas etc. are all really strong.
On the other hand low damage weapons with high fire rate are terrible right now. SMGs and assault riffles do terrible damage, getting worse the higher the difficulty is and the higher your level.

As an example, my Shingen does less damage with a full mag into the head of an enemy, than my sniper does in 1 shot.

[BlueBangkok]

Overall, probably blades (as before in 1.63).

Firearms, pistols, as was already stated. I genuinely believe that pistols are op not because of perks, but because of just how many unique and very powerful pistols there are in the game (Bald Eagle, Malorian Arms, Tamayura, etc...). They are greatly balanced in terms of single shot damage, rate of fire, range, and ammo economy.

Second best in terms of firearms for me are assault rifles, actually, thanks to them being very universal, also with plenty of choices (uniques or otherwise).

[SaiColors]

Melee, throwing weapons, pistol, sniper

Others are a joke compare to these, you can still make all weapon works on very hard though.

[Krono]

Pistols and shotguns have been my go-to since the patch. I can't say I care much for the shotguns perks, they barely seem to do anything and none of them have any effect I'm actually looking for, but it's still fun and effective to just run at a guy like a chimp and blast him in the face.

Headhunter used to be my favorite shotgun because it just deleted people with its insane damage, now it's become my favorite "shotgun" as basically a bolt-action rifle. Tons of fun to go for headshots with the thing.

[Grenthy]

Shotguns have a new mod called "Kneel!" and is stupid strong. 25% to instantly down an enemy by shooting them in the legs. It seems to calculate that per pellet, so you dash around putting buckshot into the legs of skulls and ko'ing them.

The only downside is that it doesn't work on mechanical units or bosses.

[.: DBM :.]

i believe throwing-knives and shotguns have the upper-hand due to how frequently they stagger enemies. its very noticeable at the hardest difficulty

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Krono:

Pistols and shotguns have been my go-to since the patch. I can't say I care much for the shotguns perks, they barely seem to do anything and none of them have any effect I'm actually looking for, but it's still fun and effective to just run at a guy like a chimp and blast him in the face.

Headhunter used to be my favorite shotgun because it just deleted people with its insane damage, now it's become my favorite "shotgun" as basically a bolt-action rifle. Tons of fun to go for headshots with the thing.

You don't really need more damage with shotguns, just more reliability and usability, like armor reduction, chance to finish off enemies, increased reload speed, some defense from mitigation and all those goodies.

Originally posted by Grenthy:

Shotguns have a new mod called "Kneel!" and is stupid strong. 25% to instantly down an enemy by shooting them in the legs. It seems to calculate that per pellet, so you dash around putting buckshot into the legs of skulls and ko'ing them.

The only downside is that it doesn't work on mechanical units or bosses.

Never seen that mod, and I aim for the head and torso anyway. Carnage and double-barrels have good odds of knockdown by default and Vivisector and other mods work better with the perks. That kinda mod wouldn't be bad either of course... if it actually exists in base game and isn't part of some mod you're using?

Also, I just remembered the iconic SMG Buzzsaw has some armor penetration and increased dismember chance. It's probably the only power SMG worth using.

[Grenthy]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

Never seen that mod, and I aim for the head and torso anyway. Carnage and double-barrels have good odds of knockdown by default and Vivisector and other mods work better with the perks. That kinda mod wouldn't be bad either of course... if it actually exists in base game and isn't part of some mod you're using?

It exists in the base game, it's just rare and only spawns at T5.

[Tokenn]

I'm finding Smart weapons _really_ useful in the new game, esp. the SMGs. The mods you can put on them really boost their power. Tech weapons are also improved...the Senkoh and Iconic Raiju are excellent if you Perk and mod them right...the Bolt capability is dynamite. I've just picked up a two-shot Burya-type revolver called the Laika...seems crazy powerful although I haven't used it much yet.