Lucky shades, naughty nightware (though I don't recommend you wear this in combat :P), and the +1 luck implant can be found in the base game and there are DLC items that boost luck as well.

Sniper, for those situations where you are too close and have to hit the head to kill someone, then you can still have VATS to fall back on.Īlso, remember you need high luck to boost your critical chance, but there are items in the game that permenantly improve luck.

Pack Rat to drastically reduce ammo weight.

Strong Back to carry that extra ammo/gun around.

Weapon Handling to help you lower the str requirement for the rifle.

Jury Rigging so you can repair your guns more easily.

Silent Running to help boost your sneak, which is extremely important.

Living Anatomy for bonus damage and to see if a target is armored or not (so you can swap from incendiary ammo to AP ammo).

Better Criticals for even more damage when hitting for criticals.

Finesse for more crit chance (this is only useful if you are spotted).

Hand Loader for the awesome hand loaded ammo that does tons of damage.

Bloody Mess (5% damage), note some people doesn't like this for the gibbing effect.

Cherchez La Femme/Confirmed Bachelor for 10% damage to same sex.

Black Widow/Lady Killer for 10% damage to opposing sex.

Since most of my fights tend to happen at extreme range where VATS isn't as useful, I tend to focus more on crit and damage with my perks: The only drawback is that if you are playing on hardcore, the ammo is extremely heavy and scarce.

For the more difficult enemies, I will use the hand loaded ammo to go with the shot. Its high damage/attack means I can pretty much 1 shot anything in the game, including all the difficult DLC zones like lonesome road. I generally prefer gun builds when I go ranged for New Vegas, mostly because of this beast of a gun:

New vegas best energy weapons