Would melee sneak work on the new survival mode?

[Grantorino]

Sneaking makes more sense now because the game is harder and you can't just tank easily. What would be some good starting stats?

[Crimsomrider]

I find the melee sneaking awful in Fallout 4 unlike in Skyrim.

In Skyrim you could actually slit a throat while a guy was a meter away and still he wouldn't react.

Here they react to a slit throat even if they're 10 meters away and you have all the SNEAK perks and Shadowed gear. It really ruins the enjoyment of melee stealth kills.

[Fuhrer]

I wouldn't recommend that at all.

Stealth is poorly implemented in Fallout 4, and you'll have a really bad time trying to use it with melee. Basically, it'll be virtually useless 98% of the time. Then once you get the bobblehead and have all but the last two ranks, it'll be comically overpowered and trivialize the game. There's no in between state.

[Brechnor]

I find stealth is excellent but you do have to heavily focus on rifle skills and a little bit of stealth crit in the skill tree to make use of it. Stealth mele? maybe at a push with ballistic weave. That's a build I haven't tried yet but I can't imagine the stealth perks compliment the strength perks too well so early game might be a slog.

[Grantorino]

Originally posted by Brechnor:

I find stealth is excellent but you do have to heavily focus on rifle skills and a little bit of stealth crit in the skill tree to make use of it. Stealth mele? maybe at a push with ballistic weave. That's a build I haven't tried yet but I can't imagine the stealth perks compliment the strength perks too well so early game might be a slog.

Alright, I'll ditch melee for now. So what is better for sneaking, rifles or pistols? Should I invest in both perks.

[Pancakes]

Odd, you can use dagger (the one from pickman.) and clear most stuff in the game.

Anyhow, sniper rifles are always good for a sneak build.

[Brechnor]

Originally posted by 「Pliskin」:

Originally posted by Brechnor:

I find stealth is excellent but you do have to heavily focus on rifle skills and a little bit of stealth crit in the skill tree to make use of it. Stealth mele? maybe at a push with ballistic weave. That's a build I haven't tried yet but I can't imagine the stealth perks compliment the strength perks too well so early game might be a slog.

Alright, I'll ditch melee for now. So what is better for sneaking, rifles or pistols? Should I invest in both perks.

In my own experience, I buffed rifles alone because they have the most consecutive gain in raw damage, but pistols with silencer using none of the pistol perks works well as an unskilled secondary backup weapon because they will still benefit from the raw stealth damage added onto your rifle build.

Originally posted by XBoom:

Odd, you can use dagger (the one from pickman.) and clear most stuff in the game.

Anyhow, sniper rifles are always good for a sneak build.

Might try that myself if I do another play through at some point.

[Grantorino]

Originally posted by Brechnor:

Originally posted by 「Pliskin」:

Alright, I'll ditch melee for now. So what is better for sneaking, rifles or pistols? Should I invest in both perks.

In my own experience, I buffed rifles because they have the most consecutive gain in raw damage, but pistols with silencer using none of the pistol perks works well as an unskilled secondary backup weapon because they will still benefit from the raw stealth damage added onto your rifle build.

Really? I'm confused so silenced pistols only connect with rifle perks?

[Brechnor]

Originally posted by 「Pliskin」:

Originally posted by Brechnor:

In my own experience, I buffed rifles because they have the most consecutive gain in raw damage, but pistols with silencer using none of the pistol perks works well as an unskilled secondary backup weapon because they will still benefit from the raw stealth damage added onto your rifle build.

Really? I'm confused so silenced pistols only connect with rifle perks?

I think I made it sound more complicated than it is.

Basically,
I got all the rifle perks, put a silencer on my rifles, then added stealth damage perks.

The stealth damage perks will still boost silenced pistols nice enough without needing pistol perks until later.

...But honestly if you prefer pistols do that the deliverer is a great start and should last the whole game.

[azxcvbnm321]

Melee is hard because you need a lot of perks to make it work. It will still work really well if you have the necessary perks, but there are lots of perks that you have to take. Blitz and the first four levels of sneak are necessary at a minimum. Plus the melee buff perks and all the ninja perks to really make melee OP. That takes a lot of leveling.

It sorta reminds me of the melee characters in Borderlands 2. Both Zero and Krieg were pretty weak and had to mostly rely on ranged weapons until enough levels were gained so that their perks could synergize. Then they became very powerful melee fighters.

[Sea Serpent Named Nessie]

Stealth is more like getting the coin toss but you have a weak magnet in this game. the chances are better in your favor but they could still land on the side of the coin the enemy wanted. What happens if you try to melee stealth a legendary raider who you thought was only packing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ pipe weapon but the game decied to give him some god like rifle or shotgun? stealth needs range and high alpha damage to work decently over longated period of time. Although it still a god thing to have to start a fight but don't expect to win them single handly with stealth unless you aren't closed in (in the commonwealth instead of inside a building) and can run away/reposition. Keep in mind when you do fire that enemies will react to where you are firing from if too many shots come from the same spot, also companions suck at stealthing.

[Brechnor]

I'm actually looking at how people do mele stealth, if I find something good for you I'll copy paste the link. Reason being I'm curious now.

[Grantorino]

Originally posted by Brechnor:

Originally posted by 「Pliskin」:

Really? I'm confused so silenced pistols only connect with rifle perks?

I think I made it sound more complicated than it is.

Basically,
I got all the rifle perks, put a silencer on my rifles, then added stealth damage perks.

The stealth damage perks will still boost silenced pistols nice enough without needing pistol perks until later.

...But honestly if you prefer pistols do that the deliverer is a great start and should last the whole game.

All right, I will just snipe and use pistols for close range. Do you know any good starter perk builds? I want to play on survival.

[Brechnor]

Originally posted by 「Pliskin」:

Originally posted by Brechnor:

I think I made it sound more complicated than it is.

Basically,
I got all the rifle perks, put a silencer on my rifles, then added stealth damage perks.

The stealth damage perks will still boost silenced pistols nice enough without needing pistol perks until later.

...But honestly if you prefer pistols do that the deliverer is a great start and should last the whole game.

All right, I will just snipe and use pistols for close range. Do you know any good starter perk builds? I want to play on survival.

I'm sure I can dig out my old build which was one of the best in terms of damage and utility on survival. (Which I used to play exclusively) If some one doesn't post similar il work it out when I get back to my PC soon.

[Eustace the Monk]

I did melee stealth before survival, and I'm doing a quick run to see how it works in the new one. So far I'm doing all right.

Stats: Str 9, Per 3, End 1, Cha 1, Int 1, Ago 9, Lck 5 (I think that's right).

Pick up the SPECIAL book and boost luck. Build in Sanctuary to get at least 3 levels. Take Idiot Savant first (huge XP gains). Then get Rooted (Str 9) and Blitz (Agi 9). Then focus future levels on stealth, big leagues, ninja, and luck (need to boost that to 9 for all the luck perks). So far, I haven't died once and I'm to level 15. You have to be a bit more careful and walk when sneaking rather than running. It's also wise to get Per up to 5 for demolitions expert (grenades are you're friend).

I have the crippling problem of settlements due to the low Cha. Also, I do no crafting with this build (armor or weapons). And so far the only gun I've used was the minigun during the deathclaw fight. Drugs are big part of the build, and the new survival makes those a but more painful.

With my previous character (built mostly the same way), I'm level 55 and slaughter everything with ease. I found I actually need less perks to be effective. That character has his Cha boosted though for settlements now, but when I level up there aren't really any critical perks I need.

[Kasane Randell MFer]

I was doing a normal play through going melee assassin before the beta came out. So I tried it and the melee sneak wasn't bolding to well for me. Especially since I have been mostly getting items for sniping some reason. (Nothing wrong with that)

Stats: Str 3, Per 4, End 3, Cha 6, Int 4, Agi 9, Lck 1.

I picked up the SPECIAL Book and boost Charisma to a 6, picked up the perception bobblehead for a 4. I messed around with in sancturay before I went to concord. I scrapped everything and built my own player home, put in a few beds, harvested and replanted foods. Then went to red rocket, took stuff and went back to build up a small defence and water purifier. this was about a good 3 or 4 levels, so I had blitz, ninja, sandman, and sneak. I felt I was set. Boy was I wrong. So I just explored around sanctuary for some small random encounters for a bit, salvaging more stuff/gear. I was doing better with melee vs bugs then humans sadly. So Right now I'm basically just keeping my distance and sniping till I get pickman's blade and deacons cloak and dagger perk. I'm also currently level 24. I'll also list perks I have atm.

Armorer(2), Locksmith(3), Cap Collector (1), Black Widow(max), Local Leader(max), Hacker(3), Sneak(4), Sandman(2), Ninja(2), and Blitz(1).

I personally believe armorer has helped me out alot in this overhaul. I am running around in strudy leather armor modded with shadow, strenghted , and padded. I do have a set of sturdy combat armor sitting in a dresser at Sanctuary, but I feel that the shadow on that is low compared to metal and leather armor. Might aswell just go raider armor. I'm thinking about mixing up my 4 pieces of strenghten pieces to two, and go muffle for the legs. Now I will say I have had very little chances with using my sneak attack as a melee. I mostly get away with it if they are asleep and I don't do sandman kills. I just stab em with my combat knife (no upgrades) sadly. I've been mostly just finding weapon mods for rifles and now I have like 2-3 rifles on me verying on range of engages. short(tactical combat rifle), medium(pipe revolver rifle), and long(.50 cal hunting rifle) all with surppression. SO honestly, I am doing very well for sniping,but my melee game is very off putting. only way I can see me recover to go melee is if I start getting stealthboys. But even that isn't a garentuee. I was at some raider camp and sneak attacking with melee (2 ninja) wasn't one shotting them.