I'm going Energy Weapons, with Guns as backup because I've found myself going for stretches without easy access to cells. I was regretting taking the trait where you shoot faster at the cost of 20% accuracy, but it turns out Gunslinger and Commando (at least mostly) nullify that disadvantage.
Currently rocking Joshua Graham's armor, but I was wearing the NCR patrol armor for a while since I don't think my character's going to support the Legion (found Boone easy enough and was disgusted after finding the bill of sale for his wife and unborn child).
Speaking of, is it me or are most of the traits either ridiculously situational or just plain drawbacks with little to make up for them? Very few of them looked worthwhile to take at all.
If you're looking for good end game Energy Weapons, there is a few I can think of, depending on what you're looking for:
*AER 14 is found in Vault 22, the one with the plants. It's in a tiny isolated room full of mantises and there is no cells nearby, so you will have to bring your own ammo. This is arguably the best workhorse energy weapon in the game, it has great damage output and accuracy as well as fast firing speed, it is an upgrade over the regular laser rifle in every regard. If you're boring, it is easily good enough to solo the entire game with if you just want to use it.
*Not a unique weapon, but it might as well be as you will rarely see any Plasma Casters in the game. It is a heavy weapon and an alternative to AER 14 that trades accuracy and hitscan projectiles for slower moving plasma ones and lower ammo capacity that hit harder than almost any other energy weapon(with the exception of LAER). With a mod, the projectiles it also fires move really quickly. You can easily steal one off of Van Graffs(you can take it to the bathroom with you) as they don't actually sell it, or kill them for it. Don't recommend that option as they are the only good energy weapon shop in the game. There is a unique variant, Smithy's something or other, but it is a weird full auto hybrid that runs out of ammo almost instantly, requiring constant reloads, and does less damage. Regular Caster is more reliable. It can also be found at later levels on enemies in DLC areas like Lonesome Road or Old World Blues if you go there.
*Holorifle is the Anti Material Rifle of the energy weapons, and the most efficient one ammo wise. You need to go to Dead Money, which is it's own rabbithole, but if you're prepared and can live with temporarily losing your current equipment, it should not be a problem. It only has 4 round capacity, but it uses one cell per shot, is pump action and does tremendous amounts of damage. This weapon can melt any and all opposition in the base game and hits even late game enemies in DLCs like a truck, it is one of my favorites sniper weapons in the game. Only downside is that you have to do arguably one of the hardest pieces of content in the game to get a hold of it, also companions can't use it for some reason as Arcade would do really well with it. Very fun to just evaporate enemies from afar with this one, and a great alternative in the end game to Gauss Rifles or Anti Material Rifles.
*Sonic Emitter - Tarantula is the best weapon in the game. Now, you might be confused, but hear me out: Sonic Emitter is a generic weapon given to you at the start of Old World Blues and you can buy more from the sink CIU later. Base Sonic Emitter(Revelation) is crappy, but you can upgrade it to various variants that have differing stats and critical damage effects. You can forget about all of them, only Tarantula matters, and it is found in the same area(Higgs Village) where the Jukebox needed for upgrades is found anyways. So, what makes it so special, you ask? Well, that's simple, it's critical damage effect just straight up kills any enemy in the game, period. Legendary Deathclaw? Gone. Legendary Bloatfly(which is even more dangerous)? Gone. Rawr, the most dangerous Deathclaw in the game found in Lonesome Road? Gone. Ulysses? Gone. Legate Lanius? Gone, all you need is a critical hit, which is guaranteed while sneaking and there is a way to raise critical hit rate with a certain character build and gear to always be 100%. The downside is that the weapon doesn't fire right away, it charges up for a second and fires this weird blue projectile, similar to the one Lakelurks and Robobrains use. It is hard to hit enemies at range and misses a lot, so it should be used in close-medium range. Without criticals, it hits hard but too slow to do any real damage in a prolonged fight. Still, a bugged one-hit kill is not something you should overlook, none of the other Sonic Emitters even come close to being as effective. Perfect sidearm to put those energy cells to use, and you need to keep at least one Sonic Emitter in the DLC for taking down force fields anyways.
*LAER is found in Old World Blues as well, and it is the equivalent of Pulse Rifles from Fallout 2 or Alien Rifles in Fallout 3. It is the most damaging generic energy weapon in the game, much more so than AER 14 and does more damage to robots and power armor as well(almost every enemy in Old World Blues is a robot). However, it breaks extremely quickly, so having repair kits and Raul is strongly encouraged(or you can give one to Arcade and watch him melt away enemies like hot knife thru butter). There is a semi-unique variant called Elijah's LAER which fires even quicker but breaks even faster, one of the most fragile weapons in the game actually. Either one is good, altho Elijah should definitely be given to either Veronica or Arcade.
*You probably grabbed it already, but in Honest Hearts, there is an "energy weapon" of sorts. In a cave network near Dead Horses Camp there is a taser, called "Compliance Regulator". It is the progenitor to the basic Sonic Emitter, as it stuns an enemy on a critical hit. Thing is that it actually works a lot better than Sonic Emitter - Revelation by being better at stunning and not doing half-assed damage per shot and extra to robots, Compliance Regulator instead trades off nearly any damage for basic projectiles for better critical hit chance and longer stun time. It also fires a laser beam, which makes it more accurate and lets you stun enemies at longer ranges, remember that sneak criticals are guaranteed. If you use this gun more as a tool or a gadget, it works wonders and is fantastic to use with every build, regardless of what weapons you use, but it isn't all that good as an offensive weapon unless you have your companions do most of the killing and you run support(this kind of playstyle is actually fully viable in Outer Worlds, with weapons like the shrink ray or mind control gun and others which solely exist to debuff your enemies as your companions take them down for you). If you completed Honest Hearts, you can actually go back at any time to grab any loot you missed, it's just that all NPCs are despawned and so are most of the enemy spawns(If you were looking to make the special Gecko Hide armors, you might be out of luck as Green Geckos spawn much less frequently now as well, but they still technically do if you look for them).
