What legendaries do you look for on a Plasma Caster?

[Salem Graves]

Trying yet another new gun and I quite like it, now just wondering which legendaries I should look for. I got a ffr/crit charge and a quad/crit damage one so far.
I'm not using PA so I imagine AA would be desirable?

[MonkeKing13]

Wisdom +1, Crit rolls, hopefully wizard hat to boot.

(Sorry couldn't resist lmao.)

[Spartykins]

crit stuff mostly, firing speed and reload does feel nice but idk how it would compare to quad/crit damage/AP cost in terms of DPS

I recall reading crits ignore armor so idk how AA would work vs other options, if anything it would help with normal shots

I don't really like quad personally since I feel you'll run out of AP before you expand your ammo and a reload is generally long enough to allow for AP to regen but if you like having tons of ammo loaded it's perfectly fine

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by Spartykins ❤:

crit stuff mostly, firing speed and reload does feel nice but idk how it would compare to quad/crit damage/AP cost in terms of DPS

I recall reading crits ignore armor so idk how AA would work vs other options, if anything it would help with normal shots

I don't really like quad personally since I feel you'll run out of AP before you expand your ammo and a reload is generally long enough to allow for AP to regen but if you like having tons of ammo loaded it's perfectly fine

Yeah wasn't sure about quad myself because of that reason. I tend to reload when my ap runs out anyway. Soo maybe Bloodied/crit stuff would be best?

[Percello]

Depends on your build.

[(✿ =‿‿=)]

Anti armor or Bloodied depending on the Situation. 50 crit dmg and 25 lower ap cost are the ones i would go for

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by Percello:

Depends on your build.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3273018827
With uny armor. So I'm spamming the crits.

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by (✿ =‿‿=):

Anti armor or Bloodied depending on the Situation. 50 crit dmg and 25 lower ap cost are the ones i would go for

Those would be my choices too.
That said, plasma caster is powerful enough that with proper low health build you can make most prefixes work just fine. My main toon's plasma caster is Mutant's +50% vats crit, with just 4 mutations the Pip-Boy damage is 175+175 which is high enough for me and haven't bothered rolling a better one since I don't use them that often.

[PotatoBasket]

Anti armor was my initial roll. Did a troubleshooters, any damage increase is good so long as you're perked for it. Top tier weapon, iconic for the series, and well implemented by the devs (A+).

As Eriskumma mentioned anything works well with it. For your enjoyment you might want to roll several of them for varied situations if you like it - and also try some of the less popular prefixes.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by PotatoBasket:

Anti armor was my initial roll. Did a troubleshooters, any damage increase is good so long as you're perked for it. Top tier weapon, iconic for the series, and well implemented by the devs (A+).

As Eriskumma mentioned anything works well with it. For your enjoyment you might want to roll several of them for varied situations if you like it - and also try some of the less popular prefixes.

How does Vampires work on a slow firing weapon? I like vampires a lot because I dislike born survivor a lot. xD

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by Unremarkable Rat:

How does Vampires work on a slow firing weapon? I like vampires a lot because I dislike born survivor a lot. xD

In general vampire's is best with faster firing/hitting stuff, shotguns being the exception due multiple projectiles. It does work on slow firing/hitting weapons too but not as well.

[Percello]

Originally posted by Unremarkable Rat:

Originally posted by Percello:

Depends on your build.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3273018827
With uny armor. So I'm spamming the crits.

Judging by this, I'm gonna assume you're Bloodied. So, maybe a Bloodied vats plasma caster.

[Insane]

Quad with FFR is a very strong combination, keep it. -25% ap cost is a waste. I would rather go for crit bonus to win 1 more special point of Luck.

God tier options are:

Anti armor with 50% vats accuracy
Anti armor with crit damage bonus
Anti armor with FFR

Bloodied with 50% vats accuracy
Bloodied with crit damage bonus
Bloodied with FFR

Executor with 50% vats accuracy
Executor with crit damage bonus
Executor with FFR

Aristocrat with 50% vats accuracy
Aristocrat with crit damage bonus
Aristocrat with FFR

Junkie with 50% vats accuracy
Junkie with crit damage bonus
Junkie with FFR

Quad with FFR

Good tier options are

Mutated with 50% vats accuracy
Mutated with crit damage bonus
Mutated with FFR

Gourmet with 50% vats accuracy
Gourmet with crit damage bonus
Gourmet with FFR

Giant with 50% vats accuracy
Giant with crit damage bonus
Giant with FFR

Quad with 50% vats accuracy
Quad with crit damage bonus

Notice how all god tiers starts with only 2 stars? That's because third star doesn't really matter when it comes to Plasma caster. It's mostly irrelevant.

But if you care about it, best options are:

+1 Special
+15% crit bonus
-90% weight

-25% AP cost is a waste. You have more than enough of AP to use weapon without this bonus.

I would consider -90% weight as probably the best of them all in a long run.

[KitKat]

With or without PA, I think Anti-armor as the first effect would be most desirable.

Vampire is simply not as viable here, as it would be on any aother faster-firing weapons. Simply because the heal effect does not depend on how much damage you deal, but rather how many "hits" you make, regenerating 2% HP for each hit. And Plasma caster fires slow, with a singular shot, even if high damage, so... Vampire should be best left for something different.

The only possible alternatives of the first effect comes to mind is maaaaaaaaybe Instigating, for that +100% dmg to full hp enemies, since the plasma caster deals good damage either way. And since you run Critical Savvy... Just go for 33+ Luck, just so you could have crit shots every other shot (crit - non crit to charge back to 100% - crit - non-crit - repeat). And with Instigating + Crit, you'd one-shot pretty much almost any non-boss enemy. The "elite" units (Blue Devil, Mirelurk King/Queen, etc) might become a problem tho, as Instigating only gives bonus to 1st shot...

So... If it's not Anti-Armor, nor Instigating... Bloodied? Aristocrat? Nah, AA all the way, I think.
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Followed by 2nd star being... Perhaps increased VATS accuracy or better yet, crit damage? Not that you'd need THAT much damage for non-boss enemies, since you also run Better Criticals and - I assume - crit damage food, yes?

Maybe AP regen then? Or - considering Plasma Caster's slow fire rate - might try the fire rate boost.
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As for third star... -90% weight? Durability? Less VATS cost? Maaaaaaaybe faster reloading is "alright", but only if you roll it with other good options on first two stars and don't wanna re-roll for a chance at an even better.

[Salem Graves]

Thanks for all the tips! Random question, but would Quad/Crit damage do more damage than a bloodied on a build that crits every other hit? Or does the bloodied crit deal more damage than a crit damage crit?

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Unremarkable Rat:

Thanks for all the tips! Random question, but would Quad/Crit damage do more damage than a bloodied on a build that crits every other hit? Or does the bloodied crit deal more damage than a crit damage crit?

Not even close crits scale off the damage so bloodied crits are dramatically higher

Quad on this gun is a script roll its terrible

You want

Damage that matches (ex bloodied)
Faster Fire Rate
Faster Reload (ideal roll) or -25% ap (if you are full health and not nearly as good)

The gun defaults to 20 rounds and even with ffr and mousing its got a lot of time between reloads

Ex.

Bloodied, Faster Fire, Faster Reload = one hit kills MOST regular enemies [things like the hermit crab, mirequeens or other larger ones nah]... one hit crits any regular enemy and most 3*

My typical bloodied plasma caster regular shot is 1200 - 1800 {depends if the enemy has a good weak point} and it crits for far far far more