Are all builds viable?

[BiggieCheese]

I'm well aware that some builds might be stronger then others and or more optimized as is usually the case in games like this but i want to know if all builds are viable to run later into the game? Or are you forced into a couple meta builds in order to stay relevant damage wise at higher levels?

[Vinnolo]

just have propper damage cards of your weapon of choice, thats all you really need along with a decent legendary

[NIkto Barada]

the latter, sry, a semi pistol build is hands down worse than commando +whatever, we tried everything.

[BizarreMan]

Define viable.

Some are more viable than others. But you can most likely have fun with any build. You do not have to min/max yourself to oblivion.

[RMPyro]

Heavy and assault rifle builds seems to be best. Shotgun, singlefire builds mediocre. Pistols and smg builds bad. Melee is okay.

Then there are the legendary builds, bloodied is best, then anti armor, then the other lesser dmg increase builds. Juggernaught is one of worst dmg increase builds.

[Jeff Kaos]

As a new player who is just now nearing level 50 after 2-weeks of intense playtime and doing tons of Events my takeaway with builds is that everything works. This game is not difficult in any real sense and since there's no PvP there's no real meta like other online games. Some builds seem inefficient like others have said but even with those you should still be able to survive most encounters.

[Admiral Hackett [N7]]

Best build is still the build you like the most, but if you are aiming for the highest DPS build? Then the Bloodied, Commando build like i have, like many people have is a no brainer.

[SolusiRadikal]

76 has more diverse build than other fallout series because of the respect and perk card system

[doublejesus]

Yes but also no, there's a list of mobs that was recently put up for nerf on the PTS they are just too tanky for any off meta build. When I play a gunslinger or bow build for fun on my alts there's a reason I usually still bring an auto-axe and have incisor perk to swap to.

Because the sad truth is that if a group of gulpers come at me, an auto-axe with just the 3 incisor perk slots is stronger than my 18 slot gunslinger build.

(edit: there is a 26 card slot gunslinger build that slaps, but good luck getting a quad/ffr enclave plasma pistol)

[Mr Fox]

you can play pretty well with any build but the big determining factor is equipment stats and perk cards. that being said some builds are less viable in this game than its offline counterparts.

[climbingeastofwinter]

If you want to damage-carry, first understand that low health builds start with about +145% damage before perks, from the 'bloodied' weapon affix they'll be using and the 'adrenal reaction' mutation, both of which provide increasing damage bonuses as character current health decreases.

There's another +100% (+130%?) damage bonus any character can easily pick up: +60% damage bonus from weapon specific perk cards, +15% from bloody mess (luck perk), and perhaps 25% damage bonus from the psycho drug. So, low health builds start with considerably more damage. If you're also using an energy based weapon, you can add another +30% from the science perk cards.

So, expect a low health meta build to do far, far more damage than non-damage-optimized builds. Additionally, with consumables fueling VATS criticals, and very high special bonuses from low health with an unyielding set of armor, meta low health builds can live in VATS and get additional damage every other shot through the critical system.

You can play and enjoy the game with pretty much any armor/weapon choice, and you can contribute even in Kaiju style boss fights by supporting your teammates in any of a very large number of ways be it debuffing bosses with suppressor, tormentor, follow through, take one for the team, using 'team medic' or 'friendly fire' to keep your team alive, 'Injector' and other charisma perks to apply buffs to players who you revive during fights, or you can take limb crippling perks and crowd control additional monster spawns, etc.

Just understand that while you can play anything, only a very specialized build is going to have the damage to solo-carry the few fights in the game that were designed to be group boss encounters (only 3-4 come to mind) in the allotted 30 minutes for those specific fights. They have so much health and damage resistance that you can literally run from one end of the map to the other in less time than it would take a non-optimizied build to handle them solo.

[Kriminaal]

Fun

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2944394713

More Fun

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2889813383

Pistols would be way more fun if their perk cards were not in AGI, should be in PER.

[Firaveus-]

Messaggio originale di Jeff Kaos:

As a new player who is just now nearing level 50 after 2-weeks of intense playtime and doing tons of Events my takeaway with builds is that everything works. This game is not difficult in any real sense and since there's no PvP there's no real meta like other online games. Some builds seem inefficient like others have said but even with those you should still be able to survive most encounters.

There is PvP

[Heathy]

I played a high Int crafting build for a while, damage is terrible, but it doesn't matter too much in events, you have to use psycho constantly. Might as well bind it to a quick slot. I think eventually you have more wiggle room if you pick special stats as your legendary perks.

The gauss rifle is pretty decent for high damage single shot if you only have spare perception points in your build, It's just got a terrible reload, magazine size and rate of fire. these days I just do high str, big guns, I like the explosive minigun from the eviction notice event. but I don't do bloodied. there are too many random one shots and I don't like playing it that close to the belt where you pull aggro and just instantly get downed.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Messaggio originale di Heathy:

I played a high Int crafting build for a while, damage is terrible, but it doesn't matter too much in events, you have to use psycho constantly. Might as well bind it to a quick slot. I think eventually you have more wiggle room if you pick special stats as your legendary perks.

The gauss rifle is pretty decent for high damage single shot if you only have spare perception points in your build, It's just got a terrible reload, magazine size and rate of fire. these days I just do high str, big guns, I like the explosive minigun from the eviction notice event. but I don't do bloodied. there are too many random one shots and I don't like playing it that close to the belt where you pull aggro and just instantly get downed.

If you want to play around with low health but are afraid of the one shots, try a non-unyielding build that uses power armor. The 'emergency protocols' torso misc mod for power armor provides 50% damage reduction, on top of the ~42% you're already seeing from the power armor itself, on top of the actual physical energy resists. Armor piercing mutated enemies and very large hits can still be trouble but emergency protocoled power armor makes low health pretty comfortable. You just won't have that bonus 15 SPCIAL from unyielding to boost your VATS game.

[jvjd]

Yes , you can have a clown build and solo elder in ops. Some streamer did it naked with just a flame thrower.

When its comes to pvp however the damage is capped . The first hit will do reduced damage, This means multiple shot weapon is the deal here.