Early perks for melee char

[Sevzzen]

So i decided to have some fun with a melee char and went 9 into str and 8 into endu, rest in perception and intelligence but i wonder what some good early game must have perks are.

[Intra]

You'll regret not getting 9 AGI for Ninja, Action Boy and Blitz. Hell I would regret not going LUK for criticals even in a melee build.

You really don't need more than 4 STR for a melee build. Strength does very little for damage and Rooted is way too limited when your enemies move about. Plus is it worth getting Rooted by putting in 5 extra points that gets you nothing else useful for combat?

Compare 5 points for Rooted versus what another build could get:
Life Giver
Critical Banker
Grim Reaper's Sprint
Four-Leaf Clover

Does +50% damage (which is additive, not multiplicative so it's not +50% period) and some crappy DR while standing still make up for all those things? Because 9 in AGI is essential for Blitz as a melee build.

You know how Ninja offers 10x melee damage in Sneak Attacks? Blitz increases your damage and effective range to use a sneak attack, making it both more powerful and more practical. On top of that? You can queue a critical hit into that sneak attack to literally one-shot any creature on the planet because they stack.

You're going to be spending most of your time going from enemy to enemy killing them very swiftly that Rooted won't even be active most of the time. Standing still for Rooted also feels like a very unnatural playstyle that is inconvenient.


I would go 4 STR / 1 PER / 3 END / 1 CHA / 1 INT / 9 AGI / 9 LUK

You can spend the "You're Special" book to get 10 AGI if you want, or put yourself closer to Lone Wanderer / gain access to Black Widow by bumping Charisma to 2.

Good news is this build has some serious synergy with firearms too. With the perception bobblehead, you have access to Rifleman. As a critical / sneak / VATS build, you can run Gunslinger to abuse VATS, especially with Gun Fu once you reach 10 AGI.

Main difference between a gun build and this build is gun users want Gun Nut and Science (+5 INT) and don't need Blacksmithing. Yes you will sacrifice some melee mods by going without Science 1, but we're talking about 5 points of INT for no other benefit here. That's just a nuisance in a melee build.

END has pretty useless perks.

[LaZeeNoVa]

Root is pretty good along with erm, something on the agility tree where you can sprint and take less damage/energy damage

[Crixus]

Big leagues, rooted and blitz are all must haves I would say.

Also It's best to have a high damage option like crit or sneak. I use ninja just to 1 hit the main boss and it does kill anything in the game 1 hit on any difficulty setting even from far away distance thanks to blitz. So I kill the main guy then charge in and smash the rest :)

[LaZeeNoVa]

Originally posted by Crimefridge:

You'll regret not getting 9 AGI for Ninja, Action Boy and Blitz. Hell I would regret not going LUK for criticals even in a melee build.

You really don't need more than 4 STR for a melee build. Strength does very little for damage and Rooted is way too limited when your enemies move about. Plus is it worth getting Rooted by putting in 5 extra points that gets you nothing else useful for combat?

Compare 5 points for Rooted versus what another build could get:
Life Giver
Critical Banker
Grim Reaper's Sprint
Four-Leaf Clover

Does +50% damage and some crappy DR while standing still make up for all those things? Because 9 in AGI is essential for Blitz as a melee build.

You know how Ninja offers 10x melee damage in Sneak Attacks? Blitz increases your damage and effective range to use a sneak attack, making it both more powerful and more practical. On top of that? You can queue a critical hit into that sneak attack to literally one-shot any creature on the planet because they stack.

You're going to be spending most of your time going from enemy to enemy killing them very swiftly that Rooted won't even be active most of the time.Standing Still for Rooted also feels like a very unnatural playstyle that is inconvenient.


I would go 4 STR / 1 PER / 3 END / 1 CHA / 1 INT / 9 AGI / 9 LUK

You can spend the "You're Special" book to get 10 AGI if you want, or put yourself closer to Lone Wanderer / gain access to Black Widow by bumping Charisma to 2.

Good news is this build has some serious synergy with firearms too. With the perception bobblehead, you have access to Rifleman. As a critical / sneak / VATS build, you can run Gunslinger to abuse VATS, especially with Gun Fu once you reach 10 AGI.

END has pretty useless perks.

You stand still when hitting someone, the damage increase is worth it regardless when talking about root. and this is on survival.

Dumping points in Strength and Agility is amazing, you don't want a lot of int early on either, since you can put some points up in luck as well, giving you access to savant idiot.

I'm bi/tri shotting legendaries in V.A.T.S with it in my build.

Went toe to toe with some legendary deathclaws too, still have to try a behemoth but that one would definitly be funny to try.

[Intra]

Originally posted by OverTake:

You stand still when hitting someone, the damage increase is worth it regardless when talking about root. and this is on survival.

It doesn't multiply Big Leagues damage though. So instead 200% *1.5 you're doing 200%+50%.

1/4th damage bonus while standing still or constant criticals, nearly infinite AP, tons of damage from those criticals.

Overall DPS favors Luck.

And DPS > damage resist, because excess damage resist has diminishing returns and also doesn't work against Energy Weapons while killing people faster has no diminishing returns and works on everyone.

[madocs]

I almost find melee OP!!
I use grognak's axe, and the number of hits I get in is just massive! Then add in crits, and using VATS - It is too OP!

Half thinking of donning grognaks gear as well, just to complete the setup lol!

[Sevzzen]

Originally posted by madocs:

I almost find melee OP!!
I use grognak's axe, and the number of hits I get in is just massive! Then add in crits, and using VATS - It is too OP!

Half thinking of donning grognaks gear as well, just to complete the setup lol!

Mind linking/talking about your perk setup?

[Dear next of kin...]

Get the luck to get Idiot Savant. It's ridiculously useful with 1 Intellect. Don't know the percentages for sure, but it feels like around 20-30% chance at 1 intellect. You'll get level upon level just from fixing up Sanctuary and Crafting. And it can proc from minor quests, don't know about major ones.

[madocs]

Originally posted by Sevzzen:

Mind linking/talking about your perk setup?

Wow you got it? How awesome is that! But for everyone elses sake:

Just topped up melee weapon damage, and sneak attack, and action boy, mod the crap out of melee weapons, with luck and strength focus, and some agility... The most important perk in my mind is blitz of course!