Fallout 2 Heavy Handed. Why Heavy Handed is great + How/Why it works

QUOTING THE MANUAL on Heavy Handed: "...you ALWAYS do more melee damage". ALWAYS.
But there is so much more to it than just that.

With Heavy Handed your melee damage ALWAYS increases for your critical hits, and the critical chance remains the same, but the CRITICAL EFFECT is reduced. So, more damage. Same chance. Reduced critical EFFECT opportunities like blindness, knockouts, and crippled limbs.

IMPORTANTLY. You wont be beating your enemies with critical effects so much as you will be killing them with pure blunt force trauma. Study my work, and see me deal massive blows to Deathclaws very reliably, while still consistently getting positive critical effects on them such as "Blindness", and "Lose turns". It works great, and I'm able to defeat dangerous enemies faster than non-Heavy Handed builds.

Lets look at some facts backed up by countless hours of testing by myself (Examples assume identical accuracy, weapons, and aimed shot):
-Heavy Handed ALWAYS does more melee damage than non-Heavy Handed builds.
-Heavy Handed + Better Criticals will ALWAYS do more Melee damage than Better Criticals alone.
-Heavy Handed kills bad guys faster.

Bad arguments that distract people:

-"Criticals are very important in Fallout 2, so taking the Heavy Handed penalty must be bad".
REBUTTLE: Eye Shot Criticals with Heavy Handed do more damage than eye shot criticals without Heavy Handed.

-"It makes the game harder"
REBUTTLE: Heavy Handed simply makes the game easier, and more fun.

-"It would be trading off significant late-game damage for a relatively small amount of early-game damage".
REBUTTLE: Heavy Handed increases early/mid/late game melee damage progressively, and significantly as the melee weapons increase in both power, and special weapons perks like piercing.
REBUTTLE: Nearly all people beat the game by using Sgt. Granite's men + Turrets for assistance. This large group of players will NEVER feel a drop in late game performance, because the Player cannot lose the fight.
REBUTTLE: Just make eye shots with 95% with a Mega Power Fist, and your Heavy Handed damage will be incredible.
REBUTTLE: Watch my runs, and you will see that Heavy Handed builds absolutely crush opponents when properly equipped.

-"Heavy Handed is a Flat Penalty to all crits".
REBUTTLE: New players will not understand what your talking about.
REBUTTLE: Even seasoned players have extraordinarily low confidence/understanding of the critical hit table, so this argument is just badly worded.
REBUTTLE: Half True. You are partly right about a "Penalty". There is a -30% modifier to the critical hit table with Heavy Handed. But every body part has it's own critical hit table, unique modifiers, and critical effects.

-"Melee fighters rely on criticals"
REBUTTLE: What is your point? You'll be scoring just as many critical hits with Heavy Handed, as you would without it, plus you'll be scoring more damage with each swing. And THAT is what Melee fighters really "need".

Lets look at some examples. (ALL EXAMPLES ARE EYE SHOTS CRITICALS)

WITHOUT Heavy Handed
4 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 4 Damage
4 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 4 Damage
6 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 6 Damage
6 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 6 Damage
8 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 8 Damage
8 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE

WITHOUT Heavy Handed + Better Criticals
4 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE
4 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 4 Damage
6 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 6 Damage
6 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 6 Damage
8 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 8 Damage
8 times damage. X 1 Melee Damage = 8 Damage

WITH Heavy Handed
4 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 20 Damage
4 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 20 Damage
6 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 30 Damage
6 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE
8 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE
8 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE

WITH Heavy Handed + Better Criticals
4 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 20 Damage
4 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 20 Damage
6 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 30 Damage
6 times damage. X 5 Melee Damage = 30 Damage
8 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE
8 times damage. NOT APPLICABLE

The math speaks for itself, which supports the Game Manuals claim that "...you always do more melee damage" with Heavy Handed. And indeed even the worst Heavy Handed eye shot critical outperforms the best NON-Heavy Handed eye shot critical by a hefty amount in terms of pure damage output.

EVIDENCE

In closing:
-Heavy Handed is always the best choice for Melee builds as a general rule of thumb.
-Power fists unlock Heavy Handed's true potential, because of the "Weapon Penetrate" perk.
-Heavy Handed + Better Criticals is a crucial for beating Frank Horrigan 1v1 unarmed
-Heavy Handed and machine guns are the perfect combination.
-Stick to Eye Shots with Heavy Handed builds in virtually every situation to include ranged attacks.
-With a proper Heavy Handed build you will be killing bad guys faster than a non-Heavy Handed build, because odds are more favorable that you'll beat enemies with pure damage BEFORE any "Instant Death" critical would have a chance at happening.

FEI