Posted November 29, 2018
I am in the middle of my first play through and I haven't found an AMR yet and refuse to pay for one. I like stealthy sniper builds and here some sniper guns and my thoughts.
Ratslayer: LOVE it. I got this one early and have used it all the way so far (21st level now). I have a fairly good crit build, so with Ratslayers 5X crit, it crits almost all the time. Early on sneak crits from Ratslayer one-shoted just about everything. Now I often pull out bigger guns agains harder targets. Though Ratslayer still took out a couple of Legionary Assasins I caught off guard with AP ammo, one or two headshots and they were down. Death claws in the Quarry laughed with RS tickled them, but I sneak-critted a baby death claw in one show. It's my favorite gun, but falls a bit short on hard targets. Still my go to silenced weapon.
Gobi Scout: My new love. Wicked crit damage (if Wiki is believable 80). I one-shotted 2 Quarry Deatchclaws with sneak crits to the head, standing next to each other. At longish sniping range, it didn't even alert the second one. So noise is not that huge a factor in long range sniping. Took the Alpha health way down with similar headshot crit. Oh and I forgot to even switch to AP rounds, so standard ammo. The great thing about Gobi, is that while it dows awesome crit damage, it is also versatile and medium to closer range with higher rate of fire and bigger clip than standard Sniper and decent VATS. Its like a better Sniper rifle and battle rifle all in one. If I could only have one gun right now. I would take this.
Sniper+: The silenced sniper might seem great. It's like a powered up Ratslayer, But, for softer targets where I want silence I stick with Ratslayer and not waste 308 ammo. For harder targets (where I find you seldom need silenced) I tend to pull out Gobi for the extra damage and versatility. So Sniper+ languishes.
YCS-186: A recent recruit and more of a disappointment than I was expecting. In the Quarry it didn't one-shot deathclaws like Gobi. I just pulled up the stats again. While YCS has incredible base damage, it's crit damage is only 70, that might explain it, but it should still be doing more damage than Gobi on a crit. Maybe it's because I only have 90 in EW vs 100 in Guns. Either way. I was not as impressed as I expected to be.
Edit: It is possible I didn't get any headshots with the YCS, while I was clearly blowing up heads with the Gobi.
So, Ratslayer and Gobi are my favorite sniping weapons...
Ratslayer: LOVE it. I got this one early and have used it all the way so far (21st level now). I have a fairly good crit build, so with Ratslayers 5X crit, it crits almost all the time. Early on sneak crits from Ratslayer one-shoted just about everything. Now I often pull out bigger guns agains harder targets. Though Ratslayer still took out a couple of Legionary Assasins I caught off guard with AP ammo, one or two headshots and they were down. Death claws in the Quarry laughed with RS tickled them, but I sneak-critted a baby death claw in one show. It's my favorite gun, but falls a bit short on hard targets. Still my go to silenced weapon.
Gobi Scout: My new love. Wicked crit damage (if Wiki is believable 80). I one-shotted 2 Quarry Deatchclaws with sneak crits to the head, standing next to each other. At longish sniping range, it didn't even alert the second one. So noise is not that huge a factor in long range sniping. Took the Alpha health way down with similar headshot crit. Oh and I forgot to even switch to AP rounds, so standard ammo. The great thing about Gobi, is that while it dows awesome crit damage, it is also versatile and medium to closer range with higher rate of fire and bigger clip than standard Sniper and decent VATS. Its like a better Sniper rifle and battle rifle all in one. If I could only have one gun right now. I would take this.
Sniper+: The silenced sniper might seem great. It's like a powered up Ratslayer, But, for softer targets where I want silence I stick with Ratslayer and not waste 308 ammo. For harder targets (where I find you seldom need silenced) I tend to pull out Gobi for the extra damage and versatility. So Sniper+ languishes.
YCS-186: A recent recruit and more of a disappointment than I was expecting. In the Quarry it didn't one-shot deathclaws like Gobi. I just pulled up the stats again. While YCS has incredible base damage, it's crit damage is only 70, that might explain it, but it should still be doing more damage than Gobi on a crit. Maybe it's because I only have 90 in EW vs 100 in Guns. Either way. I was not as impressed as I expected to be.
Edit: It is possible I didn't get any headshots with the YCS, while I was clearly blowing up heads with the Gobi.
So, Ratslayer and Gobi are my favorite sniping weapons...
Post edited November 29, 2018 by PeterScott