What Good Is The Courier Duster?

[dwaynegand]

When compared to Ulysses' Duster or Elite Riot Gear, the Courier Duster offers nothing in terms of critical chance. Depending on which one you get, you can get increased stats, action points, or carry weight.

All of my builds using criticals use either Elite Gear or Ulysses Duster depending on whether they take Light Touch or not. Critical builds built around the use of Automatics wear light armor because Light Touch adds a flat 5% bonus to critical chance which is unaffected by the low critical chance modifier of those weapons. But since the build uses other weapons too and their perks considering that you can max all skills, I'm wondering if Ulysses Duster is better if the critical chance bonuses affect other weapons.

So I'm starting to think that the Courier Duster isn't a very good choice of armor and wouldn't be used endgame for any build. So what good is it for? Are there any builds that do make use of it?

[GoatOnATree]

I don't like having the old world flag on my back

[Vex Hilarius]

It astounds me that people think this hard about what gear they're using. I always go for FASHION!

[Facetable]

You can get some bonus carry weight ig?

In terms of stats it’s kinda not worth imo: You’re either running a crit build and would be better off with Ulysses or you’re not and would be better off running something else

Works for rp, but yeah not much comes to mind aside from that

[fishhooks]

The "Neutral" version (where you cancel the launch) gives +1 Luck...I wear it in the casinos for better cards (hate running around in my Naughty Nighty). Other than that, who cares? It only weighs like 3 pounds

[Vassago Rain]

It looks cool, same with all dusters. If you like the look, pick whichever has the best combination of stats and abilities for your character. Personally, I prefer the NCR duster with extra carry weight and +1 END.
If you still want to be mister critical hits, and I've told you this before, all you have to do is get very high sneak, the silent running perk, and a silenced weapon, then all your attacks will always be boosted sneak attack criticals, and it's unlikely even deathclaws have enough perception to spot you.

If all you wanted was maximum critical chance, then take the elite riot armor , 1st recon beret, and lucky shades. If you don't like moving slowly, and don't like Ulysses' duster, go for Graham's armor (+3% critical chance) and get the light touch perk. Note that light touch is compatible with clothes, light armor, as well as naked. The description lies to you.

[Red_Returns]

about the time most players finish lonesome road they are already strong enough to tackle most enemies in the game, so fashion takes place at this point instead of its perks. Also i think the DT system is a little wierd anyway, i like to look cool when i wander the wastes, but i always bring some stronger armour with me in case i run across strong enemies and need a boost. Personally i wish some of the lower level armours were stronger because i like the look of most of them, like the sheriff duster (i think its that one, gives +1 char and +5 guns or something)

[dwaynegand]

Well I have once again come to the conclusion that if my character specialize in critical hits and uses automatics ranged weapons (with the exception of the Flamer), they may get some use of the Courier Duster since Light Touch is the only way to get any reasonable chance of criticals with those weapons since Light Touch's flat bonus is not affect by the very low critical chance modifier. The bonuses from equipment and perks that raise critical chance are rendered useless. Laser Commander adds another flat bonus of 10% not affected by the modifier, and VATS increases that bonus by 5%. So with those weapons, in terms of weight and defense, the Courier Duster may not be so useless after all.

[tbloyzz]

The majority of the items in FONV DLCs is useless, because by the time you have access to them, you already have much better gear. The HH .45 guns are a good example. Most people do this add on when they already have a fully modded 12.7 SMG GRA. Or take the 10mm SMMG of the LR as another example. The suvivalist rifle (HH) or the automatic rifle (DM) are total waste of space and weight. It can be fun to try them all out, but as far as usefulness is concerned, they are all rubbish.

[tbloyzz]

Originally posted by dwaynegand:

Well I have once again come to the conclusion that if my character specialize in critical hits and uses automatics ranged weapons (with the exception of the Flamer), they may get some use of the Courier Duster since Light Touch is the only way to get any reasonable chance of criticals with those weapons since Light Touch's flat bonus is not affect by the very low critical chance modifier. The bonuses from equipment and perks that raise critical chance are rendered useless. Laser Commander adds another flat bonus of 10% not affected by the modifier, and VATS increases that bonus by 5%. So with those weapons, in terms of weight and defense, the Courier Duster may not be so useless after all.

If you have Luck 10, Finesse, Laser Commander, the 1st recon beret and the elite riot gear, you do frequent criticals even with a gattling laser. A fully pimped laser rifle with a skill requirement of 25 does one shot kills more often than not. I would still go for the riot gear and forget about the light touch bonus.

[dwaynegand]

But with Light Touch, your critical chance bonus is further increased, meaning that it will have a much higher chance of critical hits than with Elite Riot Gear.

[tbloyzz]

Originally posted by dwaynegand:

But with Light Touch, your critical chance bonus is further increased, meaning that it will have a much higher chance of critical hits than with Elite Riot Gear.

Sure, but my point is that you will not really notice it in gameplay. You WILL notice, however, that you suffer more loss of health every time you are getting hit. And the combination of a) being more fragile and b) losing a precious perk option is a pretty bad deal. Ok, the latter may be avoided by chosing and it and then doing a respec before leaving Goodsprings.