Fallout: New Vegas: 3 More New Perks

PCGamer revealed three new perks today which will appear in Fallout: New Vegas.  Sadly they were not as detailed as the ten shown earlier this week at Gamespot: there are no details about the required level or stats for any of the new perks!  I will update this post with that information as soon as it makes itself available.

Slayer!
Required level: UNKNOWN
Required stats: UNKNOWN
Effect: This perk increases the speed of all melee attacks by 30%, letting you wield anything from your bare fists to a golf club with ninja efficiency. The increased speed will be especially useful when fighting in VATS, letting you queue up more strikes on your opponents.
My thoughts: Attack speed is going to be important in Fallout: New Vegas. Certain weapons will require certain stats or skill levels. If your character doesn’t have the required stats, they can still equip said weapon, but their accuracy and attack rate will suffer. With that in mind, this perk’s importance should be obvious to melee users: attacking faster means more damage!

Spray ‘n Pray
Required level: UNKNOWN
Required stats: UNKNOWN
Effect: This perk significantly reduces the damage of friendly fire, so you’ll be able to nuke an area without having to worry too much about the safety of your companions. This perk is even more useful in Fallout: New Vegas because the companions you recruit will themselves grant you extra perks.
My thoughts: This perk’s usefulness is up in the air for me. In my last few play-throughs of Fallout 3, I chose to fly solo. This heightened the difficulty as well as the tension and made the game much more enjoyable than when Charon mowed everyone down with his surprisingly accurate shotgun.

In New Vegas, however, companions seem more important than ever. Not only do they provide backup, a mule, and unique perks, but companions now also have their own story with quests and can even influence the ending the player receives. I suppose I would need to see the effects of friendly-fire on my allies to really see how valuable this perk is.  If healing of allies has a delay as it does with your main character in hardcore mode than this may be worth it.  It would probably be a must for explosive users and totally useless for melee characters.

Super Slam!
Required level: UNKNOWN
Required stats: UNKNOWN
Effect: Another good perk for players who like to get up close and personal, taking Super Slam means unarmed and melee weapon attacks have a chance of knocking down your opponent, leaving them vulnerable to a further beating.
My thoughts: This reminds of the extremely helpful Paralyzing Palm perk from Fallout 3.  There is no reason a melee user would not want to get this ability.  Combining it with Slayer’s faster attack frequency would increase the likelihood of knocking down an enemy making a deadly combo.

With only five days until the game’s US release I find myself  debating between the familiarity of small guns and the revamped world of melee.  I better get on the ball and plot my character out pronto.  I am taking a couple days off work (10/20 & 10/21) to really get into the game and will live-blog the experience via a twitter account I made for my character.  I will tweet my SPECIAL, tagged skills and how that build works for me, plus the occasional anecdote about the taste of dog and/or molerat meat.

Related Entries:
All Kotowari articles on Fallout: New Vegas can be found here