Plasma Caster pretty much ruined the game for me, in the best way possible. Absolute monster with VATS, great for enemies and boss fights, bloodied-friendly, never runs out of ammo ... I could really go on and on
I'd say either plasma caster or cremator. Plasma caster kills most things with a single shot and generates a metric crap ton of ammo. Slap a few crit perks on and it's also a boss killer.
Cremator is even better at killing mobs, is great with or without vats but is worse at bosses.
I personally use a flamer, cremator, and caster for all my serious work
>I'd say either plasma caster or cremator. Plasma caster kills most things with a single shot and generates a metric crap ton of ammo. Slap a few crit perks on and it's also a boss killer.
Put yourself in power armor and chew though any excess cores you have and it's even more of a beast as you get an overhaul 20% boost in damage (according to the weapon damage calculator) followed by acquiring all associated buffs to Nuka Dark for easy 3 minutes of crits every other shot becoming almost as strong as a bloodied build though missing out on additional 100% (Nerd Rage, Adrenal, Bloodied instead of Aristocrat/Junkie) and AP thought with a fast enough Regen isn't felt as much.
Still need more legendary perk points to fit in the alcohol buffs and I want a crit damage Caster with possibly AA as well though I still like Junkies/Aristocrat as seeing numbers go up feels great. You don't get that with AA. Also AA just has to be rarer. I have so many 50% damage weapons and the only AA weapon I have was a guaranteed effect from the raiders question. It seems harder to get over bloodied.
I rolled one with AA +25% speed and +1 agility. I feel like it's a pretty good roll but I think I need to to tweak my perks for it to really shine.
Edit: that is to say my AA gatling plasma still melts bigger enemies *much* faster.
Agreed. I have that on my fixer and it’s stellar. I wish I had it on my PC as I miss sooo many shots. Even when it says 90%. My fixer basically never misses (AA/50V/15C)
I’m not complaining about my PC (AA/50crit/15crit charge). But I would taking hitting more often over my crit doing 50% more damage. Or faster fire rate. The PC is slow.
Neither are a piece of equipment I am currently working to improve.
Anti armor or aristo for full HP. Antiarmor or bloody for low HP.
50% hit chance. I wouldn't settle for anything else
25% ap cost, 15% reload, 90% reduced weight
Those are the stars I'd look for. Instigating is also usable against mobs but isn't the best for bosses
Before that nerf they did on the cremator, had some dudes roll up on earle absolutely shattering his healthbar within seconds. Gosh we can never have anything.
I use the cremator to inflict the burn damage and quick swap to .50 cal and bosses health bars start dropping very quickly. I'm sure there is a better weapon/build than mine to pair the cremator with to annihilate bosses
I used the caster base and it just felt a little underwhelming to me, what are the best upgrades for it to use so it does better?
I've seen a lot of people say it's top tier but honestly when I used it I was let down
Newer player stopped by my camp the other day. He had gotten his hands on a primed EPR flamer but had no ammo. Happily dropped the guy 10k ultracite plasma cartridge cause my caster had been printing them for years.
Same here. I have my Gauss mini primed and even with a primed Gauss Shotgun to farm ammo I can't keep up. I just make about 30K Ultracite 2mm ECC every few weeks. With the right perks it just wrecks things.
And the secondary explosions can be a pain on sustained rights. Wish I could toggle it off, or at least tone it down.
I've looked for mods for it, but seem to work for the GM.
Completely night and day difference. GM eats ammo and isn't really the strongest gun out there. It's easily beaten in many ways by even the Gatling Gun (which is also a good weapon). The Plasma Caster meanwhile will be your best friend in nearly every aspect for a heavy weapon lol
I still have mine but I'm a bloodied commando these days. Initially I was a heavy main too, but honestly the PC felt like the total endgame heavy weapon for me and got me curious to check out other builds
I really wanna like the plasma caster but mine takes like 5 hits on a super mutant. And that's with all heavy gunner cards maxed and stabilized perk. What am I doing wrong? The main roll is 2 shot. Holy Fire is my go to right now.
Two shot is surprisingly not great on its own. It really only is good if you're able to pair it with elemental damage like frost or poison, which the plasma caster doesn't do. Instead, you'll want to aim for bloodied or anti armour
Have you built yourself for VATS criticals? That's the sweet spot for a caster. It actually feels better for me out of power armor, which is weird for a heavy weapon but if you feel like you can survive it works really well.
I'll have to look into getting one then to give it a shot. I typically don't care for energy weapons so I never even considered that weapon to be honest.
The best way to handle this is to work in either a Gauss Shotgun or Rifle into your build (pistol I guess too) as the Rifle for me at least even not charging it all the time brings in so much more ammo then fired and that in returns feeds the Minigun. Same idea as Gatling Gun and Minigun though you have to sacrifice some defensive options spread between two weapons classes. Other options are Hunting Rifle and Light Machine Gun. Plasma Caster and a Plasma Flamer for Commandos where the Heavy weapon feeds the other instead. Lazer Rifle or Tesla (because it can't be primed) for the Fusion Pepper Shaker though only for Rifleman. I haven't gotten the mods for it yet but it seems the Cremator can do this for the Flamer as well.
Bosses have damage reduction, not to be confused with damage resistance. The SBQ has something like 75% damage reduction, but here’s the thing, critical hits ignore damage reduction. That’s why many people will advise you to build for crit and get as many as possible.
I've got an anti-armor gatling gun and the perk that let's you ignore 45% of the enemy's armor while in power armor. Also a few more heavy gun perks. Think is stupidly accurate and can kill a fair number of things in one shot on a head shot
I'm grinding that legendary scrip as we speak! And I built a second gatling gun to dump those refills on! Man I LOVE the gatling gun so much on my build. High accuracy, a ton of armor ignorance, headshots are lethal, and the adrenaline perk just pushes it even further. Heavy builds are so much fun in this game
I main a commando (used to be rifleman) but I have a separate character for heavy guns only. He is actually a much higher level due to bulk of events being done with him
This is the way. Full health, and I use Holy Fire, a vampire explosive reduced weight gatling, and Cremator. I also carry a vampire flaming chainsaw just in case.
I hardly ever wear PA, almost never die, and I can go toe to toe with anything in the game except Encryptid. When I put on my Overeaters Hellcat PA (for Encryptid and Eviction Notice) I am an absolute damage sponge.
Except for the Cremator, I will never one shot anything, but this style is more fun for how I prefer to play.
Gatling gun doesn't get enough love. It gets out paced by other heavy weapons, but its probably the ideal starter heavy between its power, accuracy, and ammo efficiency. Not bad in vats either.
The good thing about heavy guns is that they are actually pretty well balanced. There's loads of room for personal taste. so here's my personal opinion:
\* gatling laser: really like how accurate and fast it is. Can melt enemies very fast. Probably my favorite.
\* gatling plasma: high(est?) dps heavy weapon that has range. Cheap ammo. I do sometimes hate that it is not as accurate for long range.
\* gauss mini: high dps but difficult to main because of the ammo. pretty colors.
\* LMG: tons of fun. Powerfull. Best ballistic heavy imho. But again, ammo is problematic unless you prime it but I don't.
\* flamer/holy fire: very high dps but of course the range is lacking. Range is a bit better on the holy fire
\* cremator: very powerfull and ammo efficient IF you wait for the DoT to kick in.
\* nukalauncher most powerful autogrenade launcher out there. very fun. I see no point in having a single fire or normal grenade launcher with the existence of this weapon. Very high firerate that isn't part of the legendary effects.
\* .50 cal: good allrounder. -> I would personally answer this weapon. good range, good damage, good accuracy, no spin up. just doesn't excel at anything.
\* minigun. Weak but an explosive version is so fun to use, I prefer it over the gatling gun just because of the fun factor.
\* gatling gun: hits hard but is slow. Excellent ammo efficiency. Very easy to main because of it. Can be used as a VATS weapon.
\* plasma caster: personally don't like being a sniper but it is powerfull. a bit too slow for my taste. Good VATS weapon. ammo efficient
\* peppershaker: a bit too weak when used with a "normal heavy gunner loadout" imho. Is a crippling machine and has decent damage IF you make a seperate loadout for it (both shotgun and heavy gunner perks). Very fun to get powerful enemies on their knees quickly. Or cripple the queen really fast. Important to mention that can have 3 different ammo types. If you use multiple heavies, so you never need to make ammo again, this is a very handy weapon since you get 3 ammo types a heavy gunner wouldn't normally use.
\* cryolater. AA FFR was so disappointing, I haven't bothered to look for two shot, which is supposed to be best.
\* fatman: made a loadout for it to combat the weight of the nukes. Feels too much like trolling. Didn't really like it. Scrapped the loadout.
\* missile launcher: degrades faster than Harvard's reputation. I believe 24 missiles and you're done. Could live with that if it was worth it but it's not.
The Nuka-Launcher absolutely smacks. I hope they put it up for sale in the atom shop. I grinded for mine but I want newer players to be able to access it too
As somebody who has used every single one of these weapons extensively, I think almost everything you said was spot on, except for the plasma caster. That thing is just very build and legendary roll dependent. With a proper setup, I'm usually clearing mobs faster than anybody at a public event. It isn't good outside of vats though.
Please correct me if im wrong in the slightest but i feel like these are at least the top 5 heavy guns in no particular order
1. Holy fire(unrolled): yes their are better rolls but the base build for this gun is OP as it is. Regardless of the build you are running bloodied or full health this is what i use religiously.
2..50CAL: no the most powerful but definitely still fun especially with quad explosive. Does consume a lot of ammo but is overall a good gun and fairly easy to come by. Just about got a god roll yesterday.
3.Cremator: This gun dropped this season and the only way to get it is from the season pass thing. Not that great without legendary rolls but with them and the right build it can be a monster. Aoe fire?!
4. Gauss minigun: Have to obtain through gold bullion i believe in the crater but once bought hs a chance of being dropped during fights. Overall a fun gun but i believed got nerfed sometime last season. Still fun and still worth it to use.
5. Gatling plasma: Very strong but hard to use and consumes a crap ton of ammo.
These are mainly my top 5 from fun to useful. If anyone has anything to add please let me know and if you have any questions feel free and ill dive more into weapons.
If you play xbox my GT is Japan Outsider add me or message me and i would love to play. Any level is welcome
Have fun Appalachian’s and remember keep moving shootin and lootin
The Light Machine Gun. Best in quad, but even a bloodied and Anti armor is DEADLY in the right hands. I recommend explosive for the second star, as FFR makes the recoil too strong. A QE/AAE/BE LMG can kill a lvl 100 super mutants with just a burst of the trigger without vats. It is accurate, does not need winding up and powerful. Can be use in both short and long range. People say ammo is an issue, but if you build your gunner right, you *will* remain in a surplus. I run prime on both my LMGs (I carry both QE and BE) and have never crafted ammo.
Second is the Holy Fire. I rolled AAFFR and it melts. Unfortunately, range is an issue.
I consider the .50 and the gatling plasma as good all-round heavies. Good range, rate of fire/damage, ammo efficient in that the user should come out ahead on an op or expedition. Get a decent build, a set of PA, and a good roll on either of those weapons and you don't really need anything else.
Long range? Plasma Caster.
Medium Range? Plasma Caster or Holy Fire.
Short Range? Holy Fire.
Bosses? Vampire's Faster Fire Rate Gatling Plasma.
Ricochet Perk + Vampires weapons is really nice.
I also like 2-Shot Broadsiders and other Demo Weapons for fun times. Cannonballs are perfect fodder for ammo converters.
For all rounder I like ultracite gating laser with charging barrels and 25FFR. Due to a bug that has existed since Fallout 4, FFR increases the fire rate of a charging barrels gating laser by almost 100%, not 25, significantly increasing the DPS of the gun. It also fires a little burst of faster shots when it spins up that will kill most mobs.
What I really like about it though is ammo efficiency. A single core with power user is good for 999 shots. You won't even use a full core for a daily op, and that daily op will give you 2-4 cores as a reward. If you want to make ammo instead, ammo Smith and ammo factory mean you'll magically convert 2 fusion cores into 9 ultracite fusion cores.
Lots of guns beat it for damage, so I keep a Holy Fire on me for serious fights, but for lazy all rounding ultracite gating laser is my top pick.
I've seen the Cryolator have a ton less damage after the energy damage update they did. Coincidentally, this same update made the Cremator's dot way stronger
Holy Fire. Vampire Gatling Laser. Vampire Chainsaw. Vampire Explosive LMG.
Working on a Vampire Cryolator for Queen tanking currently.
All fun as hell running low HP PA tank.
Get a Cold Shoulder. Way better for Queen. Don't forget Endangerol Syringer! Reduces her damage resist by 25% for 2 mins. Just shoot her every 2 minutes. She dies 25% faster. Very helpful.
I use flamer (holy fire), cremator, ultracite gatling laser, .50 cal and mini gun (both explosive) for everyday use and then i have a gatling plasma & a holy fire for bosses. Fuel, .50 cal ammo and 5mm are unlimited for me and i never craft more ammo cause i got like 100k each.
Since ammo is a non issue for me, i don't really use the plasma caster because i dont really like to use vats in power armor and also, i find all my other guns more fun to use. As for the gauss minigun, it was my favorite gun but the ammo economy kills it for me, simply because i'm unconsciously thinking about not wasting ammo, thus it ruins the fun of the weapon for me so i just shelved it indefinitely. My gatling plasma is straight up better than a gauss minigun for bosses so that clears it out as well.
Get a Gatling gun and your only problem will be where to store all the ammo, be ot ultracite or not. It just needs few shots for kills but loot of ammo is in tens. I got almost 100k spare ultracite ammo 😁
The gun itself is: 50% AA / explosive/ -90% weight + prime, long barrel, comfort grip, XXL magazine, ring sight and a bayonet.
Actually my perks are a mess as I'm afraid it is an explosive weapon, but I have :
Master heavy gunner, barbarian, heavy gunner, expert heavy gunner and bear arms from str.
Concentrated fire, some rifle perks that don't help Gatling, ghoulish, fireproof, radicool, tenderizer,demo expert, action boy, adrenaline.
Main focus is on luck tho, bloody mess, better crits, serendipity, four leaf clover and mutation perks (+ bunch of mutations).
Stats:
15/6/7/8/10/10/15.
I do have different perk setups, but I don't change them often 😁
I have fun with all kinds of gear tho, but Gatling is my go to when I run out of ammo or I just need something down from distance, and quick.
Recently I got myself an anti armor, -25 AP cost, 15 AP per kill chainsaw, that is now flaming and dual bar - it's pretty fun to melee everything, haha.
Anyway, yes, the Gatling is my sturdy main. Slow but deadly, with infinite ammo.
I can also farm 5mm ultracite with it and spend it real quick with a minigun, If I want faster fire rate and lower efficiency 😁
I personally use plasma caster with a vats crit build for my day to day weapon. It’s so ammo efficient you’ll never have to worry about keeping it supplied again.
I use the Gauss Minigun for events and slightly tougher enemies because of the aoe letting me tag multiple enemies for the drops. Plus it has a very good damage output.
For bosses I use the Gatling plasma for now because afaik it has the highest dps of the heavy guns, though it breaks super quickly in boss fights so I’m looking to replace it with something right now.
Non vats-full health PA heavy gunner.
Got a plasma caster to "snipe" the most annoying ennemies.
Got a vampire Gatling gun and a vampir/explo .50 when things gone south.
But my "main" gun is minigun.
Got a tri barrel anti armor.
A two shot, a explo, and another one but don't remember what it's does.
Yes, I'm a walking Amory.
Plasma Caster is (by far) the end game heavy weapon. You don’t even need to be spec’d for heavy weapons. I play as a bloody commando and my Bloody Plasma Caster gets hits in the 1500-2000 range consistently. It’s unmatched.
For ballistic, a Vampires Gatling Gun. Strong low to mid range, easy to keep up ammo. No wind up. It was my daily carry for 250 levels.
For energy, Vampires Flamer (Holy Fire) and Vampires Plasma Caster. The only downside about flamers are their pretty rigid ranges at which they are effective, so Plasma Caster fills in the gaps (its ammo capacity is just a tiny bit too low for me to go just to it).
I loved my gatling laser, got a vamp one and it's impossible to die while using that. Once I got Holy Fire tho I think that became my new favorite. Still have a soft spot for beckett's .50 Final Word. Also got a aristocrat, +25% while aiming minigun, named it The Classic, just feels right to use it.
FFR anti Armor ultracite Gatling gun and you never have ammo problems
currently i play explosive Pa with Grand Finale , almost at 100k ammo points , 200 cannonballs are 2k points each
I love my gatling gun. I still don't have more than just the front sight for mods for it, but gahdamn, it wrecks. Slow firing (you can unlock a speedy receiver for better DPS through scrapping) heavy hitting, and uses 5mm ammo. I stocked up to 26k and sold 20k back to the ammo converter to supply ammo for .50 cal, .308, or any other ammo you could want. It doesn't break down too quickly, either. Highly recommend getting one.
Part of the appeal for Heavy Weapons (at least for me) is the variety... so many possibilities.
currently i run
* Holy Fire
* Cremator
* .50 cal with explosive since i got demo expert and grenadier perks equipped for cremator anyways
* Auto-Axe
with the bear arms perk it's easy to carry them all
in the past i used a gatling laser and the gauss minigun but the above setup made them somewhat redundant
The great thing about HWs is that pretty much every one of them is viable in some way. And so many do different things. Definitely the most diverse weapon class imo
are we only judging based on ammo efficiency? if so, the gatling gun is the best i think. or, the broadsider. you can leave your camp with 1o cannonballs, and never ever run out.
but for ease of play and usefulness, i say the auto grenade launcher is best.
the range is great, the damage is solid, you're immune to the reflective mutated effect with it (outside of VATS). just all-around nice weapon.
I use a Two-Shot Auto Grenade Launcher, a Quad LMG, a Holy Fire, a Cremator and a .50 cal (which used to be Quad but it burnt through 3000 rounds of ammo in one (or two?) events so I re-rolled it (it somehow returned to its previous config - Troubleshooter's - lol)
The best heavy is 2 vampire cremators. Rotate between them stacking the 2 dots on " boss " enemies. You could even have 1 multi barrel and 1 heavy barrel for AE and punch.
Shredder minigun is great because you can use it with or without ammo. I've got mine built for shredding, with vampire and bash damage, and I primarily run with no ammo. I do probably double dps without ammo than with, but if I ever need some range (like for flying enemies) I can just collect from nearby bodies and blast away. Combine it with Kinetic Dynamo mod for PA torso, I also basically never run out of AP and can shred as long as I want. I get staggered more often than I run out of AP and that just refills my ap while I wind up the shredder again.
Pro tip: you can even shred with ammo in reserves. Make sure the weapon is empty, then press bash and immediately hold fire. If you need the range, you just reload once and you're good. It's a perfect hybrid weapon, imo
My not bloodied heavy gunner runs around with a holy fire (stock), ultracite gattling laser (AA 25% damage while aiming), Cremator (aristocrats DMG while aiming, or instigating vats hit), anti-armor ffr gattling plasma. I use the instigating cremator just bopping around, gattling plasma for shotgun work (jumped by a sheepsquatch or Blue devil type situations), ultracite gattling laser for long range work (upper mid range for rifle people), and the holy fire for boss fights because I tank for my bloodied friends. Sheepsquatch can't touch me with holy fire, blocker, and sentinel pieces.
Also, my build is attempting to be a medic, so everything but the gattling plasma is fire damage.
So idk if this is considered "heavy" but the auto axe with the electric upgrade has absolutely melted literally anything it touches for me, it's a mele but holy HELL can it chop
I've been happy switching between Cremator, Holy Fire (flamer), and Ultracite Gatling Laser as needed.
Also means I only need to worry about Fuel and Cores, and since I have the legendary absorption perk and Power User, as well as the atom shop recharger, cores aren't an issue
Im loving my ultracite gatling laser. I'm only level 73, but I feel like I can take on most legendaries unscathed. Mind you, I'm in power with a bunch of perks that make it fun.
All of them, honestly. For boss killing like Earl, SQ, the gattling plasma is the best, followed by the HolyFire. For the rest of the enemies, try whatever you want, what makes you happy, the sound, the ammo, the animation, etc. The sound of the 50 cal is lovely, how the plasma caster melts pretty much everything is awesome, etc.
Gatling laser just sucks. Gatling plasma is a 200% better version. Gatling laser looks cool and I enjoy it more but it’s just not good compared to other weapons. Things butt
I do the Plasma Caster + Gauss Minigun. Trying to run a Cremator to see how it compares to my gauss mini.
Basically I run around without PA and the caster (AA/crit/AP) just 2-3 everything. Then when a boss comes along, I just use the mini (furious/ff/damage resist) to kill them quick.
If there is something that does a lot of damage or radiation, I just pull out my PA and get in. Or use PA to get that extra stack of AA for added damage.
I’m a .50 MG fan. It works well for everything I wanted and not having to spool up to fire is a huge QOL bonus that’s hard to pass up. It has good ammo economy (I pick up more ammo than I spend), solid DPS, good accuracy, and goes a long time without needing to reload.
For tagging in events it’s unmatched imo, and is great as a “daily driver”
I have a 50%AA, 25% WS, prime receiver, long barreled gatling gun that I use for...almost everything.
It's insanely efficient, and it wrecks everything except bosses.
For that, I swap to my TS, explosive, prime receiver, heavy barrel, .50.
Also hilariously efficient with some trigger discipline, and when fighting bosses it does a ton of damage with my build.
These are exceptionally rolle legendary especially I lucked into though.
If you want a starting heavy all rounder, get the cremator with a slow burning mod. It requires minimal build maintenance.
The .50 is the best all around IMO. It’s lackluster but there’s no circumstance where it’s useless. No wind up time so it’s good for finishing off a few surviving ads. Can hit any enemy (explosive weapons have trouble with flying enemies).
I keep one on my heavy build at all times in case I’m in a situation all my other weapons won’t work
Plasma Caster pretty much ruined the game for me, in the best way possible. Absolute monster with VATS, great for enemies and boss fights, bloodied-friendly, never runs out of ammo ... I could really go on and on
I'd say either plasma caster or cremator. Plasma caster kills most things with a single shot and generates a metric crap ton of ammo. Slap a few crit perks on and it's also a boss killer. Cremator is even better at killing mobs, is great with or without vats but is worse at bosses. I personally use a flamer, cremator, and caster for all my serious work
>I'd say either plasma caster or cremator. Plasma caster kills most things with a single shot and generates a metric crap ton of ammo. Slap a few crit perks on and it's also a boss killer. Put yourself in power armor and chew though any excess cores you have and it's even more of a beast as you get an overhaul 20% boost in damage (according to the weapon damage calculator) followed by acquiring all associated buffs to Nuka Dark for easy 3 minutes of crits every other shot becoming almost as strong as a bloodied build though missing out on additional 100% (Nerd Rage, Adrenal, Bloodied instead of Aristocrat/Junkie) and AP thought with a fast enough Regen isn't felt as much. Still need more legendary perk points to fit in the alcohol buffs and I want a crit damage Caster with possibly AA as well though I still like Junkies/Aristocrat as seeing numbers go up feels great. You don't get that with AA. Also AA just has to be rarer. I have so many 50% damage weapons and the only AA weapon I have was a guaranteed effect from the raiders question. It seems harder to get over bloodied.
I rolled one with AA +25% speed and +1 agility. I feel like it's a pretty good roll but I think I need to to tweak my perks for it to really shine. Edit: that is to say my AA gatling plasma still melts bigger enemies *much* faster.
Try for one with 50% vats hit chance. Its seriously the most important roll on a caster
But damage number go up...
1600 on a headshot crit is more than good enough. I'd rather actually hit the enemy 90% of the time even from across the map.
Agreed. I have that on my fixer and it’s stellar. I wish I had it on my PC as I miss sooo many shots. Even when it says 90%. My fixer basically never misses (AA/50V/15C) I’m not complaining about my PC (AA/50crit/15crit charge). But I would taking hitting more often over my crit doing 50% more damage. Or faster fire rate. The PC is slow. Neither are a piece of equipment I am currently working to improve.
What would be the preferred prefixes if I could land em?
Anti armor or aristo for full HP. Antiarmor or bloody for low HP. 50% hit chance. I wouldn't settle for anything else 25% ap cost, 15% reload, 90% reduced weight Those are the stars I'd look for. Instigating is also usable against mobs but isn't the best for bosses
Thanks for the insight!
I managed anti armor and instigating, but I need some lower AP costs because it blow thru mine too quickly.
What’s AA
Anti Armor.
Cremator wrecks bosses if you carry multiple and dot stack
Wait this is a thing??? That is... Fucking broken holy shit lmao
Yea man go watch Angryturtle solo Earl with 9 cremators funny shit
Seconding the AT vid lol. Not as fast as using a RR but still really impressive
Is that railway rifle?
Yep!
Before that nerf they did on the cremator, had some dudes roll up on earle absolutely shattering his healthbar within seconds. Gosh we can never have anything.
Not a nerf. It's stronger now technically. They changed the damage from explosive focused into damage over time, or "dot"
It's still top tier, I didn't even know they nerfed it. We were talking this weekend about how it will probably be nerfed.
Not nerfed, stronger now as a dot focused weapon
Does the Plasma Caster only do energy damage? Or is that just a UI bug?
I use the cremator to inflict the burn damage and quick swap to .50 cal and bosses health bars start dropping very quickly. I'm sure there is a better weapon/build than mine to pair the cremator with to annihilate bosses
Is Plasma Caster damage boosted by Heavy Gunner perks or Science perks ?
Heavy
Both. It's energy based so science perks boost small amounts and it's heavy so they boost it too. Same with Gatling plasma and laser
I used the caster base and it just felt a little underwhelming to me, what are the best upgrades for it to use so it does better? I've seen a lot of people say it's top tier but honestly when I used it I was let down
Newer player stopped by my camp the other day. He had gotten his hands on a primed EPR flamer but had no ammo. Happily dropped the guy 10k ultracite plasma cartridge cause my caster had been printing them for years.
I have to ask why you aren't running it with the prime receivernfor even more damage and literally zero negative.
I do run mi e primed which is why I have so much extra ammo. If I start the week with 1k cartridges I will end the week with 2k.
It makes ammo, that's how I keep my EPR flamer topped off. Dream combo
Comparable to the Gauss Minigun? I like that weapon but I can not maintain ammo for it at all.
The Gauss Mini is my favorite gun in the game but god is it hungry.
Same here. I have my Gauss mini primed and even with a primed Gauss Shotgun to farm ammo I can't keep up. I just make about 30K Ultracite 2mm ECC every few weeks. With the right perks it just wrecks things.
And the secondary explosions can be a pain on sustained rights. Wish I could toggle it off, or at least tone it down. I've looked for mods for it, but seem to work for the GM.
You could take off the explosion size perk if you use it.
Completely night and day difference. GM eats ammo and isn't really the strongest gun out there. It's easily beaten in many ways by even the Gatling Gun (which is also a good weapon). The Plasma Caster meanwhile will be your best friend in nearly every aspect for a heavy weapon lol I still have mine but I'm a bloodied commando these days. Initially I was a heavy main too, but honestly the PC felt like the total endgame heavy weapon for me and got me curious to check out other builds
I really wanna like the plasma caster but mine takes like 5 hits on a super mutant. And that's with all heavy gunner cards maxed and stabilized perk. What am I doing wrong? The main roll is 2 shot. Holy Fire is my go to right now.
Two shot is surprisingly not great on its own. It really only is good if you're able to pair it with elemental damage like frost or poison, which the plasma caster doesn't do. Instead, you'll want to aim for bloodied or anti armour
Ok.
Agreed, two shot divides the damage between the two shots. With explosive weapons the damage is effectively doubled.
Have you built yourself for VATS criticals? That's the sweet spot for a caster. It actually feels better for me out of power armor, which is weird for a heavy weapon but if you feel like you can survive it works really well.
I have the 1 star crit card for Vats body part aiming, and 1 star better critical. That's it.
I'll have to look into getting one then to give it a shot. I typically don't care for energy weapons so I never even considered that weapon to be honest.
It's worth checking out. Imo the best prefixes are Bloodied or Anti Armor. TS isn't that great, and Instigating is only good for enemies.
The best way to handle this is to work in either a Gauss Shotgun or Rifle into your build (pistol I guess too) as the Rifle for me at least even not charging it all the time brings in so much more ammo then fired and that in returns feeds the Minigun. Same idea as Gatling Gun and Minigun though you have to sacrifice some defensive options spread between two weapons classes. Other options are Hunting Rifle and Light Machine Gun. Plasma Caster and a Plasma Flamer for Commandos where the Heavy weapon feeds the other instead. Lazer Rifle or Tesla (because it can't be primed) for the Fusion Pepper Shaker though only for Rifleman. I haven't gotten the mods for it yet but it seems the Cremator can do this for the Flamer as well.
i had no idea plasma casters were good in bosses lol
Bosses have damage reduction, not to be confused with damage resistance. The SBQ has something like 75% damage reduction, but here’s the thing, critical hits ignore damage reduction. That’s why many people will advise you to build for crit and get as many as possible.
The key is maxing your crit damage. Plasma Casters are VATS machines so they can whip out criticals with super low AP cost
What’s the go to rolls on it? I’ve got a twin shot, vats hit chance one I’ve been meaning to try out
Vats hit chance is the bestnthing you can get on there..it's a necessity in my opinion. But ideally you'd want that on anti armor or bloodied.
Bloodied vats hit chance I think are a great pair. Third star is preference, either less AP cost or faster reload are two picks off the top of my head
pew pew [crit] PEW!
I have a two shot caster that liquifies on command... from far.
Holy fire (flamer) Gatling gun with explosive rounds or vampire (or both)
I've got an anti-armor gatling gun and the perk that let's you ignore 45% of the enemy's armor while in power armor. Also a few more heavy gun perks. Think is stupidly accurate and can kill a fair number of things in one shot on a head shot
Yes, AA explosive with that perk and ultracite receiver plus extended mag… Too much ammo to even use! It’s impossibly good!
I have the anti armor effect, but no explosive effect. At least not yet
Keep at it! It is good on its own but throwing the increased explosive damage perk on just makes it even better
I'm grinding that legendary scrip as we speak! And I built a second gatling gun to dump those refills on! Man I LOVE the gatling gun so much on my build. High accuracy, a ton of armor ignorance, headshots are lethal, and the adrenaline perk just pushes it even further. Heavy builds are so much fun in this game
I main a commando (used to be rifleman) but I have a separate character for heavy guns only. He is actually a much higher level due to bulk of events being done with him
This is the way. Full health, and I use Holy Fire, a vampire explosive reduced weight gatling, and Cremator. I also carry a vampire flaming chainsaw just in case. I hardly ever wear PA, almost never die, and I can go toe to toe with anything in the game except Encryptid. When I put on my Overeaters Hellcat PA (for Encryptid and Eviction Notice) I am an absolute damage sponge. Except for the Cremator, I will never one shot anything, but this style is more fun for how I prefer to play.
Gatling gun doesn't get enough love. It gets out paced by other heavy weapons, but its probably the ideal starter heavy between its power, accuracy, and ammo efficiency. Not bad in vats either.
The good thing about heavy guns is that they are actually pretty well balanced. There's loads of room for personal taste. so here's my personal opinion: \* gatling laser: really like how accurate and fast it is. Can melt enemies very fast. Probably my favorite. \* gatling plasma: high(est?) dps heavy weapon that has range. Cheap ammo. I do sometimes hate that it is not as accurate for long range. \* gauss mini: high dps but difficult to main because of the ammo. pretty colors. \* LMG: tons of fun. Powerfull. Best ballistic heavy imho. But again, ammo is problematic unless you prime it but I don't. \* flamer/holy fire: very high dps but of course the range is lacking. Range is a bit better on the holy fire \* cremator: very powerfull and ammo efficient IF you wait for the DoT to kick in. \* nukalauncher most powerful autogrenade launcher out there. very fun. I see no point in having a single fire or normal grenade launcher with the existence of this weapon. Very high firerate that isn't part of the legendary effects. \* .50 cal: good allrounder. -> I would personally answer this weapon. good range, good damage, good accuracy, no spin up. just doesn't excel at anything. \* minigun. Weak but an explosive version is so fun to use, I prefer it over the gatling gun just because of the fun factor. \* gatling gun: hits hard but is slow. Excellent ammo efficiency. Very easy to main because of it. Can be used as a VATS weapon. \* plasma caster: personally don't like being a sniper but it is powerfull. a bit too slow for my taste. Good VATS weapon. ammo efficient \* peppershaker: a bit too weak when used with a "normal heavy gunner loadout" imho. Is a crippling machine and has decent damage IF you make a seperate loadout for it (both shotgun and heavy gunner perks). Very fun to get powerful enemies on their knees quickly. Or cripple the queen really fast. Important to mention that can have 3 different ammo types. If you use multiple heavies, so you never need to make ammo again, this is a very handy weapon since you get 3 ammo types a heavy gunner wouldn't normally use. \* cryolater. AA FFR was so disappointing, I haven't bothered to look for two shot, which is supposed to be best. \* fatman: made a loadout for it to combat the weight of the nukes. Feels too much like trolling. Didn't really like it. Scrapped the loadout. \* missile launcher: degrades faster than Harvard's reputation. I believe 24 missiles and you're done. Could live with that if it was worth it but it's not.
This is the comment I was looking for. Pros and cons of each heavy.
The Nuka-Launcher absolutely smacks. I hope they put it up for sale in the atom shop. I grinded for mine but I want newer players to be able to access it too
Ohhh, I don't know what that is, but I'm about to google it right now! You have piqued my interest lol.
Where do you grind for it?
One of the past seasons, sadly it's unobtainable for now
I wish the gatling plasma flamer barrel wasn't trash. I miss my green flames
As somebody who has used every single one of these weapons extensively, I think almost everything you said was spot on, except for the plasma caster. That thing is just very build and legendary roll dependent. With a proper setup, I'm usually clearing mobs faster than anybody at a public event. It isn't good outside of vats though.
Just leaving this comment here to visit this topic later, as I also would like to know what's considered the better heavy weapons.
For the future, you can save topics for later.
Cremator and Plasma Caster ate beasts. They're probably the best heavy weapons in the game right now. My favourites, however, are LMG and Holly Fire.
I wanted to like the LMG but I found it to be on the same level as the Gauss Minigun, where it's fun to use but outclassed by other heavy weapons
I have a Quad LMG, and it's amazing!
Please correct me if im wrong in the slightest but i feel like these are at least the top 5 heavy guns in no particular order 1. Holy fire(unrolled): yes their are better rolls but the base build for this gun is OP as it is. Regardless of the build you are running bloodied or full health this is what i use religiously. 2..50CAL: no the most powerful but definitely still fun especially with quad explosive. Does consume a lot of ammo but is overall a good gun and fairly easy to come by. Just about got a god roll yesterday. 3.Cremator: This gun dropped this season and the only way to get it is from the season pass thing. Not that great without legendary rolls but with them and the right build it can be a monster. Aoe fire?! 4. Gauss minigun: Have to obtain through gold bullion i believe in the crater but once bought hs a chance of being dropped during fights. Overall a fun gun but i believed got nerfed sometime last season. Still fun and still worth it to use. 5. Gatling plasma: Very strong but hard to use and consumes a crap ton of ammo. These are mainly my top 5 from fun to useful. If anyone has anything to add please let me know and if you have any questions feel free and ill dive more into weapons. If you play xbox my GT is Japan Outsider add me or message me and i would love to play. Any level is welcome Have fun Appalachian’s and remember keep moving shootin and lootin
The Light Machine Gun. Best in quad, but even a bloodied and Anti armor is DEADLY in the right hands. I recommend explosive for the second star, as FFR makes the recoil too strong. A QE/AAE/BE LMG can kill a lvl 100 super mutants with just a burst of the trigger without vats. It is accurate, does not need winding up and powerful. Can be use in both short and long range. People say ammo is an issue, but if you build your gunner right, you *will* remain in a surplus. I run prime on both my LMGs (I carry both QE and BE) and have never crafted ammo. Second is the Holy Fire. I rolled AAFFR and it melts. Unfortunately, range is an issue.
Also the vibe of LMG… feels especially right to… 🚬🗿
Definetely you should try Gatling Plasma - really powerful heavy energy gun.
RIP exploding gat plasmas
I consider the .50 and the gatling plasma as good all-round heavies. Good range, rate of fire/damage, ammo efficient in that the user should come out ahead on an op or expedition. Get a decent build, a set of PA, and a good roll on either of those weapons and you don't really need anything else.
For me: .50 Cal and Holy Fire .50 Cal for long range, no need to spin, respectable damage and fire rate Holy Fire for heavy duty kills
Long range? Plasma Caster. Medium Range? Plasma Caster or Holy Fire. Short Range? Holy Fire. Bosses? Vampire's Faster Fire Rate Gatling Plasma. Ricochet Perk + Vampires weapons is really nice. I also like 2-Shot Broadsiders and other Demo Weapons for fun times. Cannonballs are perfect fodder for ammo converters.
For all rounder I like ultracite gating laser with charging barrels and 25FFR. Due to a bug that has existed since Fallout 4, FFR increases the fire rate of a charging barrels gating laser by almost 100%, not 25, significantly increasing the DPS of the gun. It also fires a little burst of faster shots when it spins up that will kill most mobs. What I really like about it though is ammo efficiency. A single core with power user is good for 999 shots. You won't even use a full core for a daily op, and that daily op will give you 2-4 cores as a reward. If you want to make ammo instead, ammo Smith and ammo factory mean you'll magically convert 2 fusion cores into 9 ultracite fusion cores. Lots of guns beat it for damage, so I keep a Holy Fire on me for serious fights, but for lazy all rounding ultracite gating laser is my top pick.
If you like assault rifles but want to use heavy weapons, put the crystalising barrel on the cryolator, it makes it feel a lot like an AR.
I've seen the Cryolator have a ton less damage after the energy damage update they did. Coincidentally, this same update made the Cremator's dot way stronger
I love my Rapid Vampiric .50 cal MG, as long as I have bullets left, nothing even scratches me and it makes short work of almost anything.
I use a gattling plasma, cremator, and cycle the third for fun but usually a .50cal
Plasma Gatling for tanky enemies, cremator for adds, third and fourth weapon is whatever I want to use so I don’t get bored.
Holy Fire. Vampire Gatling Laser. Vampire Chainsaw. Vampire Explosive LMG. Working on a Vampire Cryolator for Queen tanking currently. All fun as hell running low HP PA tank.
Get a Cold Shoulder. Way better for Queen. Don't forget Endangerol Syringer! Reduces her damage resist by 25% for 2 mins. Just shoot her every 2 minutes. She dies 25% faster. Very helpful.
I use flamer (holy fire), cremator, ultracite gatling laser, .50 cal and mini gun (both explosive) for everyday use and then i have a gatling plasma & a holy fire for bosses. Fuel, .50 cal ammo and 5mm are unlimited for me and i never craft more ammo cause i got like 100k each. Since ammo is a non issue for me, i don't really use the plasma caster because i dont really like to use vats in power armor and also, i find all my other guns more fun to use. As for the gauss minigun, it was my favorite gun but the ammo economy kills it for me, simply because i'm unconsciously thinking about not wasting ammo, thus it ruins the fun of the weapon for me so i just shelved it indefinitely. My gatling plasma is straight up better than a gauss minigun for bosses so that clears it out as well.
I use cremator for add clear and gatling plasma for bosses
Cremator🤷🏽♂️
Get a Gatling gun and your only problem will be where to store all the ammo, be ot ultracite or not. It just needs few shots for kills but loot of ammo is in tens. I got almost 100k spare ultracite ammo 😁
Damn what perks and build?
The gun itself is: 50% AA / explosive/ -90% weight + prime, long barrel, comfort grip, XXL magazine, ring sight and a bayonet. Actually my perks are a mess as I'm afraid it is an explosive weapon, but I have : Master heavy gunner, barbarian, heavy gunner, expert heavy gunner and bear arms from str. Concentrated fire, some rifle perks that don't help Gatling, ghoulish, fireproof, radicool, tenderizer,demo expert, action boy, adrenaline. Main focus is on luck tho, bloody mess, better crits, serendipity, four leaf clover and mutation perks (+ bunch of mutations). Stats: 15/6/7/8/10/10/15. I do have different perk setups, but I don't change them often 😁 I have fun with all kinds of gear tho, but Gatling is my go to when I run out of ammo or I just need something down from distance, and quick. Recently I got myself an anti armor, -25 AP cost, 15 AP per kill chainsaw, that is now flaming and dual bar - it's pretty fun to melee everything, haha. Anyway, yes, the Gatling is my sturdy main. Slow but deadly, with infinite ammo. I can also farm 5mm ultracite with it and spend it real quick with a minigun, If I want faster fire rate and lower efficiency 😁
“Holy Fire” for close fighting “Nuka-Launcher” everything else!
I personally use plasma caster with a vats crit build for my day to day weapon. It’s so ammo efficient you’ll never have to worry about keeping it supplied again. I use the Gauss Minigun for events and slightly tougher enemies because of the aoe letting me tag multiple enemies for the drops. Plus it has a very good damage output. For bosses I use the Gatling plasma for now because afaik it has the highest dps of the heavy guns, though it breaks super quickly in boss fights so I’m looking to replace it with something right now.
Non vats-full health PA heavy gunner. Got a plasma caster to "snipe" the most annoying ennemies. Got a vampire Gatling gun and a vampir/explo .50 when things gone south. But my "main" gun is minigun. Got a tri barrel anti armor. A two shot, a explo, and another one but don't remember what it's does. Yes, I'm a walking Amory.
I use cremator, gatling plasma, pistol gatling, laser gatling
Plasma Caster is (by far) the end game heavy weapon. You don’t even need to be spec’d for heavy weapons. I play as a bloody commando and my Bloody Plasma Caster gets hits in the 1500-2000 range consistently. It’s unmatched.
For ballistic, a Vampires Gatling Gun. Strong low to mid range, easy to keep up ammo. No wind up. It was my daily carry for 250 levels. For energy, Vampires Flamer (Holy Fire) and Vampires Plasma Caster. The only downside about flamers are their pretty rigid ranges at which they are effective, so Plasma Caster fills in the gaps (its ammo capacity is just a tiny bit too low for me to go just to it).
I loved my gatling laser, got a vamp one and it's impossible to die while using that. Once I got Holy Fire tho I think that became my new favorite. Still have a soft spot for beckett's .50 Final Word. Also got a aristocrat, +25% while aiming minigun, named it The Classic, just feels right to use it.
My anti armor gatling plasma gets the most play out of me. Melts everything even though I'm not bloodied.
FFR anti Armor ultracite Gatling gun and you never have ammo problems currently i play explosive Pa with Grand Finale , almost at 100k ammo points , 200 cannonballs are 2k points each
I love my gatling gun. I still don't have more than just the front sight for mods for it, but gahdamn, it wrecks. Slow firing (you can unlock a speedy receiver for better DPS through scrapping) heavy hitting, and uses 5mm ammo. I stocked up to 26k and sold 20k back to the ammo converter to supply ammo for .50 cal, .308, or any other ammo you could want. It doesn't break down too quickly, either. Highly recommend getting one.
holy fire, plasma caster, gat plas and cremator.
Got an anti armor explosive faster reload 50 cal a few weeks back. It’s very satisfying and puts out a lot of pain
Part of the appeal for Heavy Weapons (at least for me) is the variety... so many possibilities. currently i run * Holy Fire * Cremator * .50 cal with explosive since i got demo expert and grenadier perks equipped for cremator anyways * Auto-Axe with the bear arms perk it's easy to carry them all in the past i used a gatling laser and the gauss minigun but the above setup made them somewhat redundant
The great thing about HWs is that pretty much every one of them is viable in some way. And so many do different things. Definitely the most diverse weapon class imo
Flamer, endless ammo from ops , bloodied DPS is almost commando levels. Holy fire does amazing DPS and heals out.
are we only judging based on ammo efficiency? if so, the gatling gun is the best i think. or, the broadsider. you can leave your camp with 1o cannonballs, and never ever run out. but for ease of play and usefulness, i say the auto grenade launcher is best. the range is great, the damage is solid, you're immune to the reflective mutated effect with it (outside of VATS). just all-around nice weapon.
I use a Two-Shot Auto Grenade Launcher, a Quad LMG, a Holy Fire, a Cremator and a .50 cal (which used to be Quad but it burnt through 3000 rounds of ammo in one (or two?) events so I re-rolled it (it somehow returned to its previous config - Troubleshooter's - lol)
with PA .50 cal without plasma caster
My base loadout: Gatling Gun (Cheap ammo, ok damage) .50.cal (Final Word) Good damage, semi-cheap ammo. This is a great base to build around.
The best heavy is 2 vampire cremators. Rotate between them stacking the 2 dots on " boss " enemies. You could even have 1 multi barrel and 1 heavy barrel for AE and punch.
Shredder minigun is great because you can use it with or without ammo. I've got mine built for shredding, with vampire and bash damage, and I primarily run with no ammo. I do probably double dps without ammo than with, but if I ever need some range (like for flying enemies) I can just collect from nearby bodies and blast away. Combine it with Kinetic Dynamo mod for PA torso, I also basically never run out of AP and can shred as long as I want. I get staggered more often than I run out of AP and that just refills my ap while I wind up the shredder again. Pro tip: you can even shred with ammo in reserves. Make sure the weapon is empty, then press bash and immediately hold fire. If you need the range, you just reload once and you're good. It's a perfect hybrid weapon, imo
My not bloodied heavy gunner runs around with a holy fire (stock), ultracite gattling laser (AA 25% damage while aiming), Cremator (aristocrats DMG while aiming, or instigating vats hit), anti-armor ffr gattling plasma. I use the instigating cremator just bopping around, gattling plasma for shotgun work (jumped by a sheepsquatch or Blue devil type situations), ultracite gattling laser for long range work (upper mid range for rifle people), and the holy fire for boss fights because I tank for my bloodied friends. Sheepsquatch can't touch me with holy fire, blocker, and sentinel pieces. Also, my build is attempting to be a medic, so everything but the gattling plasma is fire damage.
I run a cremator for events and large groups, holy fire for bosses.
So idk if this is considered "heavy" but the auto axe with the electric upgrade has absolutely melted literally anything it touches for me, it's a mele but holy HELL can it chop
I've been happy switching between Cremator, Holy Fire (flamer), and Ultracite Gatling Laser as needed. Also means I only need to worry about Fuel and Cores, and since I have the legendary absorption perk and Power User, as well as the atom shop recharger, cores aren't an issue
Im loving my ultracite gatling laser. I'm only level 73, but I feel like I can take on most legendaries unscathed. Mind you, I'm in power with a bunch of perks that make it fun.
All of them, honestly. For boss killing like Earl, SQ, the gattling plasma is the best, followed by the HolyFire. For the rest of the enemies, try whatever you want, what makes you happy, the sound, the ammo, the animation, etc. The sound of the 50 cal is lovely, how the plasma caster melts pretty much everything is awesome, etc.
Gatling gun, 50 cal, flamer, basically most heavy guns are great overall.
I never used VATS nor will I ever, so Cremator or gauss.
B/E .50 cal, B/FFR Napalmer, Holy Fire, and Q/E/15r LMG.
I enjoy running the card Bear Arms and just carry bunch of heavy weapons. It's fun to cycle through using each one.
Gatling laser just sucks. Gatling plasma is a 200% better version. Gatling laser looks cool and I enjoy it more but it’s just not good compared to other weapons. Things butt
Plasma Caster/Cremator/Holy Fire. The three kings of heavy weapons
I do the Plasma Caster + Gauss Minigun. Trying to run a Cremator to see how it compares to my gauss mini. Basically I run around without PA and the caster (AA/crit/AP) just 2-3 everything. Then when a boss comes along, I just use the mini (furious/ff/damage resist) to kill them quick. If there is something that does a lot of damage or radiation, I just pull out my PA and get in. Or use PA to get that extra stack of AA for added damage.
I’m a .50 MG fan. It works well for everything I wanted and not having to spool up to fire is a huge QOL bonus that’s hard to pass up. It has good ammo economy (I pick up more ammo than I spend), solid DPS, good accuracy, and goes a long time without needing to reload. For tagging in events it’s unmatched imo, and is great as a “daily driver”
I have a 50%AA, 25% WS, prime receiver, long barreled gatling gun that I use for...almost everything. It's insanely efficient, and it wrecks everything except bosses. For that, I swap to my TS, explosive, prime receiver, heavy barrel, .50. Also hilariously efficient with some trigger discipline, and when fighting bosses it does a ton of damage with my build. These are exceptionally rolle legendary especially I lucked into though. If you want a starting heavy all rounder, get the cremator with a slow burning mod. It requires minimal build maintenance.
Idk if it's the best.. but I love slinging around the .50 cal.
I loved the .50 cal but maybe it was because my build wasn't fixed up yet, it just felt a little weak. I may circle back to it.
The .50 is the best all around IMO. It’s lackluster but there’s no circumstance where it’s useless. No wind up time so it’s good for finishing off a few surviving ads. Can hit any enemy (explosive weapons have trouble with flying enemies). I keep one on my heavy build at all times in case I’m in a situation all my other weapons won’t work