Lvl 57 gunslinger starting to struggle with scaling mobs...

[Altonu]

So, I am an altoholic and never actually finished any content other than Nuakworld and the robots DLC, and news of Fallout 76 got me in the mood to finally try to finish the stuff I never got around to (farharbor, main quest, vault DLC etc).

The character I'm playing now is a lvl 57 gunslinger/stealth/ninja build, and I'm starting to run into problems with bullet sponge enemies (specifically super mutant masters and warlords who seem to like to show up in packs of 3 or more). When I get a group of storong bullet sponge enemies, I can usualy take down one or 2 of them easy enough, but my non-vats FPS aiming under pressure skills are not-gud, so I fiind myself frequently getting owned shortly after my vats points run out whenever I encounter supermutant squads (raiders, gunners and ghouls are usually managable overall, but I imagaine far horbor stuff could be bad for me too when I get around to that).

I have 10 per, 10 agil, 7 luk, 3 str, 1 end, 6 cha, 6 int
I have 1 point in penetrator, concentrated fire and 2 in crit banker, but most of my points have gone into stealth, gunslinger, ninja, science and gun nut.

My primary weapon is Deliverer which I'm getting 107 damage per shot and get a ton of vats shots with, but I'm also using more 10mm ammo than I'm finding or can buy...

I also have Hubs blaster modded to use normal energy cells at 102 damage per shot (less damage, less vats shots, and not silenced, but it is a different ammo type) and a double shot plasma pistol doing 144/144 damage per shot which is quite good, but only get 3 or 4 vats shots with it.

I've got 10 levels worth of perks saved up, but I cant decide how I want to spend them. I could either double down on the gunsligner approach and pump them into things like better crits, crit banker, fout leaf clover (need more luk for that one too), and gun-fu, or I could spend the points to max out rifleman and put a couple points into some of the above. I also question the value of grim reapers sprint at higher level but I have heard good thingsa bout it and not actualy tried it. I realize most or all of the perks I'm considering would also work with rifelman, I'm just not sure if spending the 5 points to max rifleman would make more of a difference than using them on other stuff.

On a side note, I'm tempted to invest some in armorer since I'm just using the upgraded shroud armor at the moment, but I prefer to take the kill them before they get to me approach which worked well through the early 50s... With better armor, maybe I could stand toe to toe with muties and blast them with my plasma outside of vats.

On a previous character I had a nice double shot combat shotgun that was very effective, but I don't think I've found any good legendary shotguns or short range high power rifles in my current game.

Thanks for any insights from other Gunslinger build characters.

[S-P]

As you have the luck, you could go with "Bloody Mess' perks as this does add multiple damage bonus with chance of other enemies also exploding. Also Scrounger perk may help with ammo problem, although it's best taken early.

[Sir Snuffles]

get fatman

/thrad

[Shellbie]

From 50-75 you keep getting weaker while the enemy keep scaling. Start farming legendary and switch to automatics.

OP legendary prefixes

1- Wounding - +25 bleeding damage
2- Sentinel - 15% damage taken when standing still and not moving.
3- Explosive - Bullets explode on impact and inflict 15 AOE damage
4- Mutant Slayer's - +50% damage vs. Super Mutants
5- Never Ending - Unlimited ammo capacity (no reload)

[jackhickman999]

If you have the nuka world DLC get the western revolver it can hit some crazy damage if you've built right.
It can hit over 2.7k damage a shot.

Other than that you want experiment 18-A from the insititute which you just buy.

Protectrons gaze is the best for laser pistol.

The deliverer is quite good if you got a vats build.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

You gotta use a Plasma Pistol if you want to be a Gunslinger with decent lategame DPS. They really should have had a Desert Eagle .50 for the late-game Pistol option in vanilla, with the option to convert to .45 for less damage.

[Nite69]

You need to get an instigating legendary pistol, that will greatly increasing the damage when the target is at full health

Instigating pistol, + sneak + sandman + ninja perk its a very deadly combination and can take out most enemys with a single hit, its way stronger then the deliverer

[ghpstage]

MOAR damage buffs including Conc. Fire 3 and Gun Fu (you didn't mention it). If on survival you can farm adrenaline too. There are enough damage buffs available to make it possible to kill a level 100+ mythic deathclaw with one shot from a .38 rifle before you pick up the boosts from Far Harbour or Nuka World.
Don't forget about Psycho, Overdrive or other chems when **** hits the fan.

Suppressors allow you to repeatedly gain the sneak attack bonus damage, abuse the hell out of it. Even if pipe guns are most viable for doing so with pistols at times.

Equipment.
3-4 shots from a plasma gun with 10 AGI is very low, I assume it has a long scope or some such?
Either replace it with a reflex sight, or bring one that has one as well. This alone will make a significant difference. If you want to make heavy use of VATS then build Agility further with military fatigues (+2) and well rested (+2), lightweight armour mods and sharp legendary gear. Better yet bring VATS enhanced amrours if you can find them, two can be bought, one on the Prydwen, one in Vault 81.
Action Boy/Girl helps too.

Numerous random legendary weapons may prove more effective than the Deliverer in different circumstances, keep an eye out for two shot, instigating, mutant slayers, kneecapper and others.

Energy DAM is bugged in such a way that they lose ground against ballistics every time a damage buff is applied or increased so pure energy weapons tend to fall miles behind late game, even before the lack of suppressors is accounted for.
Plasmas are still solid though, especially when you've been found out.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by ghpstage:

MOAR damage buffs including Conc. Fire 3 and Gun Fu (you didn't mention it)..

This, and abuse the hell out of luck. The strength of gunslinging is low VATS cost and how quickly you can build up crits, so you'd be crazy not to go all out on luck and VATS.

I'm currently playing a gunslinger character at level 80-something on Very Hard, and I have no problems keeping up so far. My go-to weapons are my Two-Shot Wester Revolver (yes, it's hard to find, sorry about that), my plasma pistol and Ultimatum/Deliverer (Ultimatum is actually slightly better if you have Tunnel Snakes Rule). If you have the Captain Cosmos creation, the cannon is actually quite alright as long as you don't go for the standard laser barrel.

Play strategically and stack up bonuses with Gun-Fu and Concentrated Fire to unleash your crits at the best time. If there are e.g. 2 weak enemies and one strong, I'll take a few shots at the first two, hopefully taking them out and then line up the crits on the thirds one's head.

PS: Hub's Alien Blaster sadly isn't all that. I badly wanted it to work well, but I'm getting more out of my other weapons.

[ghpstage]

Gun Fu effects can be triggered by using caltrops

[Altonu]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Might have to spend some time farming more legendary weapons and armor.

I can see where an instigating pistol of some kind would help a lot, as would lucky if I combined that with gun-fu 3, and having a mutant slayer weapon for those cases would help too.

I just modded my plasma pistol. It had no scope, but putting reflex sight changes vats shots from 4 to 5. I may tinker more with it, but I think the sniper barel is also hurting vats a lot even if it is boosting damage and range. May be worth giving up range and damage for a couple extra shots if I put more points in concentrated fire.

I checked my difficulty, and it was on hard, so maybe swallowing pride and lowering it to normal might be worth it in some parts of the map.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by ghpstage:

Gun Fu effects can be triggered by using caltrops

Oh, really? I may want to look into that :)

[Tavman (4)]

Try and get an automatic kneecapper gun for all the melee enemies.

Other than that have you considered putting points into demolition expert? Throwing explosives from a distance can take the edge off a fight.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by Altonu:

I checked my difficulty, and it was on hard, so maybe swallowing pride and lowering it to normal might be worth it in some parts of the map.

Yeah... the thing is, super mutant warlords in particular become crazy bullet sponges on high difficulties. They become much tougher than behemoths :)

It's not enjoyable unless you've farmed up some crazy gear.

Danse's companion perk is really good here, by the way.

[Ragnorok]

Hmmm have you gotten the gainer? Or a good western revolver? When it don't have those I deck out a plasma gun with sniper barrel and pistol grip

[lordoftheapes79]

I usually pull out the big guns(literally) for supermutants. They're also dumb, so sometimes I'll let them chase me around a building while I drop mines.