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...

Completing Dead Money gives you effectively infinite .308 ammo, so the Sniper Rifle and its variants are the most versatile weapons IMO. My Sniper RIfle+ definitely saw a lot of use.

However, for close quarters combat and at higher levels (especially in the bullet spongey areas such as Old World Blues and Lonesome Road) you'll want a semi-automatic laser weapon. Get Finesse + Better Criticals + Light Touch + Laser Commander, stack +crit gear (e.g. Joshua Graham's Armor + 1st Recon Beret + Lucky Shades) and IMO it's the most OP combo late game. You'll mow everything down, no need for being sneaky, it's even detrimental at this point IMO.

To give an example, with AER14 you can reach a 75% critical hit chance outside of VATS. That's just crazy. And you can pick up this weapon whenever you want, it's not a quest reward or a DLC only weapon.

I always was a fan of a modified Varmint Rifle for some reason. Mainly for hunting the smaller animals and taking out powder gangers. It's lightweight, and I generally restricted myself to how much ammo/weapons I would carry just to make the game a bit more difficult.

I ended up picking up a rifle from store called Paciencia, or something similar to that. It did a good job against death claws for me.

AER14 is great EW and sniper, and may be a better overall weapon than something like Gobi, but I think you exaggerate a bit. The only unique crit booster if Laser Commander, which ads flat 10%, so if you can get 75% with Lasers, you can get 65% with other 2X guns like the Gobi.

But Sniping is largely a Sneak crit business and there bigger first shot damage is kind of the point. And if you want to talk about after sniping fails and the enemy charges, the Gobi is plenty versatile to handle that.

AER14 base damage:
35, DPS 105, +35 crit, and 1.8 damage/action point

Gobi Base:
48, DPS 103, +80 crit, and 2.0 damage/action point

I think many people discount how versatile the Gobi is. But really I was really only talking about sniping weapons, and for mainly Sniping, and I think Guns beat EW, with true silenced options: Ratslayer, Sniper+ and COS, and devastating options AMR, and versatile options like Gobi.

If we are talking about medium-close range and crowds, then that is what Survivalists, Riot Shotgun etc... are for.

Wanting EW is about wanting EWs, not needing them. I really like the flavor of bullet guns more than EWs, and I don't want to split perks to cover both. I did both in one FO3 build but you could have almost everything in FO3. Here I think it is best to pick one weapon group and maximize it.

You mean you prefer the actual modded Varmint over Ratslayer, which is the special version better in every way, including lighter?

Yeah Paciencia looks tasty. I will have to get over my aversion to buying guns as that one appears purchase only and brutally expensive with my 15 barter.

I am intrigued by the 3.5X zoom iron sights and the Crit damage is fantastic.

Actually I never picked up a rifle called Ratslayer. Many portions of the game I didn't go through as I try not to do a complete play when I play games anymore. That way I have new stuff to experience when I play through the game again. Ratslayer sounds awesome though.

I want to say I picked up Paciencia in the big dinosaur looking thing that was a shop. It's coming up time for me to start New Vegas again. There's only bits an pieces that I remember clearly, which was exactly what I was waiting for. I may go ahead and try out the New California mod out first though, since it's supposed to be the events before New Vegas.

Fair enough, however my answer is an GRA AMR (holy TLA Batman) with all the GRA mods and explosive bullets.

I know the explosive bullets aren't exactly stealthy, but damn if they aren't super fun AND effective!

I have Christine's CoS silencer rifle and I love it.

I really want that gun, but I am in no hurry to play the DLC.


Edit: have that gun now, and it is my new go to weapon. Though it is overkill for the vast majority of enemies in the wasteland, which can still be taken down by Ratslayer, but I am going to reluctantly leave RS at home...

Finally using this. Those Explosive bullets are kind of OP.

I got the drop on three members of Legionary Assassin Squad, and did a headshot sneak crit on one, and it killed all three of them with the explosive damage!

If you don't care about stealth this is a crazy beast. Now buying every explosive round I can find.