Mason, your 3,4,4,2,6,4,4, set up leaves one point to put wherever. Could just throw it into charisma and not have to worry about getting the charisma bobblehead. or put it into luck and grab the bobblehead for better criticals?  How'd you intend this to be?

Sorry mate, the special book always throws me out...

It goes in INT to get closer to Nuclear Physicist at game start. Thanks for that!  

It's better to hold out on Lone Wanderer until later in the build after you've picked up the companion perks you want.

I like it! Not surprised we're seeing some beastly powerbuild from you straight off the bat but I guess that's your thing Not a big fan of the save-scumming/legendary grinding but I guess that's what it takes to get the optimal gear for this setup. Kinda wish they put some random legendaries in shops too.

Did you consider using Heavy Weapons at high levels at all! I've read that the explosive minigun with the second barrels (the high fire rate ones) is absolutely beastly - with Bloody Mess, Heavy Gunner and Demolition Expert maxed it does over 100 damage per shot. I suspect we might have a similar situation on our hands to what happened with Extra Effect and Augment perks in Skyrim - since the weapon is tagged as both heavy and explosive the two perks stack with each other on both damage values.

Since you're using Nuclear Physicist the Gatling Laser could be worth a look too - Nuclear Physicist doesn't increase the (already huge) capacity of the weapon, but instead of discharging the entire core when you go through your 500 rounds it just takes it down to 50% charge. Not sure what legendaries can come up on it (only legendary Gatling Laser I've seen is Maxson's unique one) but something to think about for future.

There are items with effects on them in shops 

Thanks mate! Yeah, I've heard it's possible to gain access to legendary weaponry with some of the best settlement shops but I've not tried it personally (not a local leader fan just yet) and I bet even then you have to jump through hoops to get the specific item you want (lots of waiting). It's true, I've definitely been doing a lot of save-scumming but it's mostly because I want to try different effects out and see what the games capable of...(honest ) ...overall, it isn't strictly necessary as you can get by with just one or two of the weapons available from regular traders until a legendary drops you something awesome, I didn't get my freezing combat rifle or my instigating plasma rifle from farming.

I'm saving myself on the heavy weapons, I've tried the maxed scrounger perk before and it's very effective at keeping ammo supply high. With a gun basher build you can possibly run a minigun/power armor set-up straight from concord, 5mm ammo really adds up.

Yeah, the explosive weapons need gimping big time, I landed an explosive assault rifle on this build and did some tests on normal difficulty while naked to absorb the splashback and it's hitting for a bonus 70+ explosive damage per round and they can critical hit and most probably sneak attack as well (I've noticed that molotov cocktails can sneak attack due to them detonating instantly). Even the wounding property on auto weapons is overpowered due to bleeding damage not only stacking but also bypassing all armor damage reduction. The legendary effects need a second look. Agreed that it's another Extra Effect/Augmented Element situation...

Tried an upgraded gatling laser but it just lacks the precision of some of my other (none OP) weapons on this build and the weight was getting on my nerves! I need to run a pure heavy gunner at some point with some melee thrown in...

The only really necessary thing to Local Leader is really the ability to make your main base in ANY settlement, rather than just those that start with every crafting station. (Sanctuary, Red Rocket and, uh, ...) You supposedly can get Level 4 merchants that will sell unique gear, but from what I understand the NPCs that you need for that are almost all incredibly buggy.

But not random ones in my experience. Can't really do what you could in Skyrim by shopping around at various blacksmiths for random enchanted weapons (or random legendaries in this case).

I know you can get bleed

I'd go for it if I didn't dislike the majority of the settlement locations, many of them are too restrictive in size or don't have a decent place for crops or a water supply. I made a very advanced settlement over on thingy-island and it didn't get attacked once! Lets face it, when you make an awesome settlement you do kind of want it to be attacked so that you can test your defenses/perfect it.....one invasion over 4 whole days of play doesn't exactly keep you motivated to work hard on your base of operations...

Yeah, I've heard the merchants are buggy as hell and your trading posts bring in less coin than a simple water purifier...I'm holding back until they fix things.

...a nose bleed? Or a period? Choose...