More than one weapon type?

[RubrumCustode]

Anyone ever try to spec into more than a single weapon type: Commando/Explosive, Rifleman/One-Hand, etc?

I'd honestly think having that variety would be a lot more immersive than solo-building one particular category.

I've been thinking about making a sort of demolition/combat engineer by combining the Power Fist/Commando/Explosive trio so all the ranges are covered and then using selective perks from all SPECIAL categories to boost them;

For example:
1) Unarmed Perks for the fist.
2) Bullet Shield and One Gun Army (Demolition/Grenadier from Int)
3) Tank Killer and Anti-Armor Legendary for the Short-ranged 10mm SMG or Handmade with maybe Expert and Master Commando.
4) Chemist/Chem Fiend/Chem Resistant/Super Duper (Vending the excess)
5) Fireproof (because dear lord self-inflicted explosions suck)

A bevy of perks from across SPECIAL without an over-reliance on VATS or Unyielding/Bloodied stacking.

[Mari]

I liked until now commando- Handmade or Enclave plasma rifle build and melee-Chainsaw
but now I would like to test only one thing and that is Heavy weapons-since I am a grandmother who gets tired quickly, it is quite a difficult undertaking

[RubrumCustode]

Originally posted by teksuo:

i ran both rifleman and commando for a bit... wasnt really great. hybrid has too much opportunity cost.

It all depends on how you approach it.

The black powder rifle is great for damaging limbs out of VATS, so stacking tormentor and tank killer makes it good for control, while you can dump more damage perks for your automatic.

Or split the damage and have the lever action be your sneak weapon as your automatic is the backup.

[rdkehoe]

I mean I run a Railway Rifle and a Tesla Rifle, but they are both rifles, and both have automatic receivers so Commando covers both weapons. Not quite what you are talking about though I don't think. Railway is for big boys, Tesla is for cleaving/tagging. It just feels like there aren't enough SPECIAL points to equip perk cards for 2 weapon types.

[Phantom]

I use

Heavy Weapons - Two shot weapon speed gauss minigun, Two Shot Explosive minigun, Plasma Caster, nuka launcher, mirv launcher, anti armour weapon speed peppershaker (for strangler heart), etc
Commando - Fixer, Railway, Telsa, Holy Fire, Cryolator, etc
Rifleman - Two Shot Explosive The Dragon

for my PvP.. but the heavy weapons are more of a mocking tickle gun than something intended to kill someone... if you die from a two shot explosive minigun tickle cannon you shouldn't be doing PvP

[Dracul]

Rifles go well with just about anything, except pistols. Pistols are an AGI hog and that tree is just too stuffed to the gills of handy abilities. I mainly use a Cremator+cold shoulder combo on my main, its pretty easy to fit in reload/spread/cripple perks for the shotgun while having dmg and weight for the cremator.

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by Dracul:

Rifles go well with just about anything, except pistols. Pistols are an AGI hog and that tree is just too stuffed to the gills of handy abilities.

Pistols and rifles work fine together, you need to do some small compromises in AGI and pistol damage perks that depend on rest of your build but haven't had any issues with my Guerrilla/Rifleman/Demo Expert. But pistols and shotguns don't really work together, too many compromises since Enforcer is in AGI too.

[Serath]

Been playing that for a while with Commando as main, and Heavy Weapons as secondary, but neither was a full 3/3/3 (or 60) increase in damage, in order to make room for other perks.

Now I'm Commando main, Explosive secondary, and Shotgun minor. i dumped Heavy Guns cause I was wasting too much ammo for big dude killing, Instead I now use the Plasma Thrower because it conveniently classifies as a Rifle. But I'm wondering if the Shotgun is worth it. Cold Shoulder is fun and all, but not a big enough oompf for the little perk cards I could spare.

[Vinnolo]

sub optimal builds is the reason why you see so many threads about lvl 30+ ppl saying they deal no damage, it just doesnt work

[Hefutoxin]

Originally posted by RubrumCustode:

Anyone ever try to spec into more than a single weapon type: Commando/Explosive, Rifleman/One-Hand, etc?

I'd honestly think having that variety would be a lot more immersive than solo-building one particular category.

I've been thinking about making a sort of demolition/combat engineer by combining the Power Fist/Commando/Explosive trio so all the ranges are covered and then using selective perks from all SPECIAL categories to boost them;

For example:
1) Unarmed Perks for the fist.
2) Bullet Shield and One Gun Army (Demolition/Grenadier from Int)
3) Tank Killer and Anti-Armor Legendary for the Short-ranged 10mm SMG or Handmade with maybe Expert and Master Commando.
4) Chemist/Chem Fiend/Chem Resistant/Super Duper (Vending the excess)
5) Fireproof (because dear lord self-inflicted explosions suck)

A bevy of perks from across SPECIAL without an over-reliance on VATS or Unyielding/Bloodied stacking.

It'll work. Just need to understand how the game calculates damage.

Biggest damage boosts are Sneak Attack and VATS Critical, NOT the 3 perks devoted to increasing the damage of one weapon type (Like Commando).

Bloodied is top damage, but the 50% Aristocrats/Junkies aren't bad either. Anti-Armor will likely do better on guns with low base damage.

I'd definitely use Stabilized Perk and Power Armor for heavy weapons.

I've done Stealthy VATS Crit + Heavy Power Armor. Switch between them depending on what will be optimal.

You'll do more than enough damage to not feel like you are being carried, but you won't be hitting Bloodied Build numbers. You DO need to be more selective of what you pick up though, you don't have the space for any hoarding mentality.

[Sythalin]

With how the enemy scaling is in the game (aka bullet sponges), it's just not optimal to try and specialize in multiple weapons. There simply isn't enough S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to support 2 weapons and still be able to keep up, even if you are one of the 2534098 people using meta bloodied builds.