Bonus rate of fire perk

[Spiffy McBang]

After mangling my first character's setup, a friend who's played the game a few times offered some suggestions in order to make the game go more smoothly. One thing he said was, later in the game, to use Tag on energy weapons and get Bonus Rate of Fire to make the super gun as super as possible. I got Tag at 12, but I haven't seen the rate of fire perk yet, and I'm wondering why that might be.

The only thing I can think of is that he said you're offered the perk at level 9, but I took Skilled, so I only get perks at 4/8/12/16. I thought available perks carried over, though. Is that not the case? I have the option for hand-to-hand AP reduction, so it's odd I can't get the one for guns. I killed Boneyard Deathclaws for four levels just to try and get the better rate of fire. x.x

Also, if there is a reason and I'm screwed out of it, any suggestions on what's next best? I'm looking at the improved critical chance, since the damage on them is ungodly, but I'm open to ideas.

 

[Per]

The stat requirements for BRoF are AG 7, IN 6 and PE 6. Try using drugs if you don't have those. Better Criticals is one of the best perks, yes, and would probably have been more useful than Tag, although that may depend on how you've managed your normal skill points.

 

[Spiffy McBang]

I'm a sniper whore. Being able to get 95% to the eyes from max range makes me happy. Since I didn't tag energy weapons at the start, it was pretty much a no brainer for me.

Ok, I popped a Mentats and upped my PER and INT high enough to get the perk, so thanks for that. But it wore off, and now both those scores are 3. I've been resting for three days, but the degraded abilities won't improve. I've tried using doctor and first aid, too. What do you do about that?

 

[Per]

If you didn't get addicted, it should wear off in about that time. If your character sheet shows you're addicted it'll take a week to recover. (Or you could keep taking it...)