The BEST Legendary Perks in Fallout 76
Fallout 76 Legendary weapons and armor seem to drop fairly often, but I get the question “Which Legendary is best for ________” about 10 times a day. Well, here’s a guide to help you figure out what’s ACTUALLY worth your time, and what you should just automatically scrip as soon as you see it.
Remember: Some Legendary’s that are only decent with ONE Legendary perk can greatly improve with a good Major or Minor Legendary perk. Don’t automatically throw something away just because the MAIN Legendary perk doesn’t seem good.
If you haven’t already, make sure you’ve looked over my Legendary Perks Guides, as they will walk you through ALL the potential Legendary Effect you can get:
Best Legendary Weapons
It seems as though most Legendary weapons in the game are highly dependent on specific perks, as the game (for some reason) has created this drastic rift in META. Some perks are complete garbage no matter what, some do decent if buffed by the major or minor legendary perks, and then some can be a 1 star legendary but be better than the rest with JUST that one star.
There are two types of weapons: Ranged and Melee. Each has good and bad perks, so here’s some quick guidance as to what’s good and what’s not.
Legendary Ranged Weapons
When I say legendary, I mean ANYTHING that shoots a bullet, as that’s what Ranged weaponry in this game is. If it fires any sort of ammo, it’s Ranged. Thing is, even though they’re all ranged, they don’t all shoot the same. For example, on a Sniper rifle, you’d be fine if you got a perk like Instigating or Stalker’s, whereas on something like a 50. Cal, you wouldn’t mind Quad, Furious, or Executioner’s. All depends on your rate of fire for certain perks, but there ARE universal Legendary major effects that are good on any weapon, no matter what. If you get the Main effects:
- Anti-Armor
- For guns, Anti-Armor can be a GREAT Legendary effect to find on any ranged weapon. It drastically improves the rate in which you can clean up enemies, ignoring a ton of their armor.
- Bloodied
- This is probably the best perk to have on a Ranged Weapon. The lower your health, the more damage you deal, and because you’re RANGED, typically the enemies are dead before they see you. Can deal absolutely insane damage with any weapon it’s on.
- Berserker’s
- I recommend this ONLY on certain builds. No Power Armor, no Armor in general, completely naked with you and a gun. You CAN deal substantial damage, but typically only on snipers do I recommend this due to all the death you WILL endure if you’re right up in combat with no armor on.
- Junkie’s
- Right alongside Bloodied, this deal not AS much damage, but still a hefty amount. With this, you deal more damage based on how addicted you are to various chems.
- Two Shot
- Two Shot is another REALLY sought after effect, especially on incredibly fast firing heavy guns. This, combined with faster fire rate or explosive can deal heaps of damage.
ANY of those will be beneficial on ANY weapon, as not only do they deal the MOST amount of damage possible, they aren’t reliant on accuracy or rate of fire, they simply just buff the heck out of whatever gun you use, no matter how you use it. If you get ANY of those on a ranged weapon, you basically have the starter kit to being overpowered.
On top of those MAIN effects, there are also MAJOR and MINOR effects you want to look out for. These are the second and third stars on your Legendary’s that just make it even stronger. The Major Effects you want to look out for would be:
- +50% Limb Damage
- 25% Increased Fire Rate (NOT on Black Powder weapons)
- V.A.T.S. Crits do +50% Damage
- +10% Damage while Aiming
- Explosive
- +33% V.A.T.S. Hit Chance (Especially on LONG range weapons)
Most of the Major effects are pretty good. The MINOR Effects you want to watch out for would be:
- +1 Agility
- +1 Perception
- 15% Faster Reload Speed (THIS is what you want on Black Powder Weaponry)
- V.A.T.S. Crit Meter fills 15% Faster
- 90% Reduced Weight (GREAT on Heavy Guns)
Although 95% of the time you won’t roll a weapon with all 3 of the best Legendary effects you can get, these are the ones that, if you DO roll a good 3 Star Legendary, you’ll be hoping you get! They will hands down help you create some of the strongest builds in the game.
Legendary Melee Weapons
As for Melee Legendary Weapons, there are also specific effects that you should hope you will be so lucky to roll. Obviously you can’t get perks like “Two Shot” or “Quad” on a melee weapon due to them not… exactly… shooting ammo, BUT you can still get some pretty amazing effects, qualifying them as some of the most powerful weapons in the game.
Now, some of the Major effects I’m about to list as the better ones are actually better than ALL the other “better” ones. If that makes sense. For example, a Furious Faster–Swing–Speed Sword is really good, but NOT better than a BLOODIED Faster Swing Speed sword, due to Bloodied giving out a much higher DPS. This doesn’t make the Furious bad by any means, but it just gives you something to think about, how you want to build your character.
For Main Legendary Melee Effects, you want to watch out for:
- Anti-Armor
- Great against practically any enemy, deals a substantial damage boost ignoring their armor.
- Bloodied
- Potentially the best Legendary effect, but also the riskiest. This requires you to be at low health, and with melee, that means nothing but constant danger. The lower your health, the more damage you deal, so build tanky.
- Furious
- I ONLY recommend this when you have the Major Legendary effect “Faster Swing Speed” as furious, on it’s own is OKAY, but combined with fss you get an insane damage boost.
- Instigating
- This is good if you have a BIG two Handed weapon for the most part. It helps you one shot most enemies (if you build right), and combined with faster swing speed, you can quickly chop through groups of enemies.
- Junkie’s
- This is the Bloodied without the low health… and quite as much damage. Instead of having low health, you just need to be addicted to a lot of chems, which helps slightly with the dying all the time part.
As you can see, all of those are on the Ranged list as well. Except for Instigating, as with Melee it’s a lot more efficient than Instigating on a gun fire 100 rounds in 10 seconds, as only the FIRST bullet counts towards the instigating effect.
For Major Legendary Effects on Melee Weapons, I’d recommend looking for:
- +50% Limb Damage
- 40% more Power Attack Damage
- 40% Faster Swing Speed
Each of these gives a substantial boost in power and can greatly benefit any melee focus build.
As for your Minor Legendary Effects, look out for:
- +1 Agility
- 90% Reduced Weight (Mostly for Two Handed Weapons)
- +1 Strength (Literally a damage boost)
- +1 Endurance
- Take 15% Less Damage while Blocking
Each of these, as you can tell, can help Melee builds not only survive better but also get power boosts. Any Melee Weapon that draws from those three pools of potential effects is going to be quite the damage dealer.
Best Legendary Armor
Now we have the Best Legendary Armor you should constantly be on the look for! It also highly depends on your build, so if you’re going Bloodied or possibly Berserker’s (which are on opposite ends of the spectrum with health), you’ll want to make SURE you use the right stuff.
Lets talk about that Major effect, the big first star. This is the perk that, because Armor is so reliant on what build you’re running, will determine whether or not to trade it to an alternate character that fits the build, or if it matches your build in every way. It’s hard to come across an armor set that will be exactly what YOU need, so always be checking shop vendors for what other players don’t use that might fit what you’re looking for.
In the case of the Main Legendary Armor Effects, you want:
- Chameleon
- Only under the case of running a stealth driven build do you want this. It can really benefit snipers who make use of the perk Covert Ops, making them deal pretty insane amounts of damage without being detected constantly.
- Vanguards
- NOT BLOODIED BUILD FRIENDLY! This is for HIGH health builds, and can be the absolute best for players using Legendary weapons that don’t rely on low health. Also, Berserker’s, remember that this ADDS resistance the higher your health is, so this isn’t your set either, it’ll only nerf your damage.
- Bolstering
- This is the first Bloodied Build friendly set we’ll talk about. This is great for building up resistances, and can greatly help low health using builds from dying constantly.
- Unyielding
- Potentially the best Legendary Effect to watch out for, Unyielding gives players a HUGE advantage when low on health, giving them +3 to ALL stats except for Endurance. This is probably the best Legendary Effect that a Bloodied build user can get ahold of. Or mix and match with Bolstering, that would help too.
- Assassin’s
- It kinda hurts to put this one in, but Assassin’s actually isn’t bad for the PvP players (however few there may be). The chance to reduce damage, and wearing a FULL set of this? If you’re doing PvP, you might as well go for full Sentinel Assassin’s gear.
Those are the Main Legendary Effects I recommend to players, as they seem to provide the sheer best amount of damage resistances and boosts as long as you are built for them.
For Major Legendary Effects, I will always recommend:
- Increases AP Refresh Speed
- +1 Strength (Melee Builds Rejoice)
- +1 Perception
- +1 Endurance
- +1 Charisma
- +1 Intelligence (Great boost while XP Farming)
- +1 Agility
- +1 Luck
Yes, I basically used all of them, besides the specific resistances which I believe don’t also add the most value to armor. With Wastelanders being a thing, the more stats you have, the more you can benefit from conversations, as well as each individual stat gives pretty good perks on it’s own.
Finally, for the Minor Legendary Armor Effects, I recommend looking out for:
- Become Harder to Detect while sneaking (Chameleon specific)
- 50% More Durability
- This is potentially the best one, as armor breaks ridiculously fast
- Falling Damage Reduced by 50%
- Can never have enough fall damage resistance, especially in this game where everyone uses Marsupial to jump to ridiculous heights
- Ammo Weight Reduced
- Food, Drink, Chem weight Reduced
- Weapon Weight Reduced
All of the weight reduction is by FAR the most sought after, especially weaponry. The more weight reduction armor you wear, the more it stacks up!
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