Best perks to take to improve damage?

[Salem Graves]

I'm currently level 36 and have jjust been taking weight reducing perks up until this point and I've noticed my damage has completely fallen off. Anything stronger than a ghoul and it takes me 20+ headshots to kill them, forget fighting legendaries or large beasts, I'd break 3 different guns trying to bring one of them down. I use a lever rifle currently, so should I just stack rifleman perks or are there better perks to take? Like armor penetration?

[Sirius]

That depends on your weapon type, firstly.

There are cards for all kinds of gun and melee types, 3 each with 3 ranks each.

Lever rifle is single fire, so rifleman, expert rifleman and master rifleman.

Each card gives a 10% bonus damage and each rank adds 5%, for a total of 60% more rifle damage (someone correct if wrong, I'm very tried right now).

That's just for basic. VATS / Critical explanation and cards and other build specific quirks and additions I'm too far out there right now to write down, but the above should help you along for a while.

[BizarreMan]

You need to start taking damage perks. As you are using a lever action, take the rifleman perks.

Now here is where it may see, strange. There are 3 rifleman perks and each one can be ranked up to 3 stars.

1 star = 10% damage boost
2 star = 15% damage boost
3 star = 20% damage boost.

So if you have 3 points to spend for perk cards, you want to take one star each in rifleman, expert rifleman, and master rifleman. 3 x 1 star = 30% damage boost vs 1 x 3* = 20%.

[OutsidR]

I believe, or so I'm told anyway.. the 3-3* cards take 9 points. If you just use the 3-1*, gives you 30% more damage for only 3 points, as the above, you need 9 points. I'd rather use only 3 points and use the other 6 for other cards. The heck with the extra 30%.

[vhortex]

there is a perk per weapon type. get the correct matching perk

[lucg]

Don't underestimate the "Tenderizer" and the "Bloody Mess" perk cards, too ... .

[Mooman]

Originally posted by lucg:

Don't underestimate the "Tenderizer" and the "Bloody Mess" perk cards, too ... .

This. Tenderizer can be misleading based on the description, but it does far more than expected because it is a debuff to your target.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by Mooman:

Originally posted by lucg:

Don't underestimate the "Tenderizer" and the "Bloody Mess" perk cards, too ... .

This. Tenderizer can be misleading based on the description, but it does far more than expected because it is a debuff to your target.

I'll have to see if I have these perks next time I level up. Thanks for all the suggestions!

[climbingeastofwinter]

Originally posted by Unremarkable Rat:

Originally posted by Mooman:

This. Tenderizer can be misleading based on the description, but it does far more than expected because it is a debuff to your target.

I'll have to see if I have these perks next time I level up. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Do you have a weapon type you want to commit to? Advice is going to depend on what you're trying to do.

[Dracul]

Its really hard to get all the perk cards together especially early on, but you want Rifleman, Expert Rifleman and Master Rifleman, Tank Killer , and bloody mess all to max lvl alongside at least a lvl1 Concentrated Fire (which will let you target heads in VATS). Ground Pounder (mostly for reload speed) and Better Criticals are also nice to have but your starting to stray into 'need to be super high and working on leveling legendary perk cards' territory' at that point.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by climbingeastofwinter:

Originally posted by Unremarkable Rat:

I'll have to see if I have these perks next time I level up. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Do you have a weapon type you want to commit to? Advice is going to depend on what you're trying to do.

I tend to favor rifles and pistols, mostly non automatic rifles.

[Salem Graves]

Originally posted by Dracul:

Its really hard to get all the perk cards together especially early on, but you want Rifleman, Expert Rifleman and Master Rifleman, Tank Killer , and bloody mess all to max lvl alongside at least a lvl1 Concentrated Fire (which will let you target heads in VATS). Ground Pounder (mostly for reload speed) and Better Criticals are also nice to have but your starting to stray into 'need to be super high and working on leveling legendary perk cards' territory' at that point.

I probably invested too heavily into weight reduction because I'm currently level 40 but I have rank 1 of the three Rifleman perks and rank 1 Tank Killer, haven't unlocked bloody mess yet and I got concentrated fire.

[climbingeastofwinter]

That's rough. I haven't played semi-auto since I tried commando/heavy gunner. My inclination would be to recommend trying a gauss rifle, tesla rifle, or plasma rifle, and also work towards a high crit rate build. Gauss rifle should have a base damage something like double the lever gun, and is one of the more powerful non-automatic rifles. Using grenade weapons like mines, knives and frags might help soften up targets before you start shooting assuming non-stealth approaches.

I'd have to get back to you after I tried some things out, honestly. Most of what I'm seeing sort of assumes you already have an unyielding stealth kit and level 50+.

[martin77]

Originally posted by OutsidR:

I believe, or so I'm told anyway.. the 3-3* cards take 9 points. If you just use the 3-1*, gives you 30% more damage for only 3 points, as the above, you need 9 points. I'd rather use only 3 points and use the other 6 for other cards. The heck with the extra 30%.

Interesting idea!
Thanks for that :)

[Spartykins]

whichever perk gives armor piercing to rifles is pretty good

[saice]

Originally posted by martin77:

Originally posted by OutsidR:

I believe, or so I'm told anyway.. the 3-3* cards take 9 points. If you just use the 3-1*, gives you 30% more damage for only 3 points, as the above, you need 9 points. I'd rather use only 3 points and use the other 6 for other cards. The heck with the extra 30%.

Interesting idea!
Thanks for that :)

This is the way. 3 level 1 perks will do you for most content. Once you hit end game and want to min/max your build then look at maybe getting a set to 3. And I do mean a set so you have a set of 1s and a set of 3 for when you want to move your build around you will still have the cards shave 6 perk points you can use for something else.