What Vigor upgrades should I prioritize for a 1999 mode playthrough?

I've cleared the game on the normal difficulty, and now I'm going back over it again in 1999 Mode. One thing I noticed during my first playthrough is that there's just not enough money to buy everything - weapon upgrades and vigor upgrades are particularly expensive.

I spent my cash in my last playthrough willy nilly, but I feel like with the increased difficulty I need to make some more considered decisions. My money and salt budget are likely to be very tight.

Are there Vigor upgrades that are overpowered or essential for play at higher difficulties? Are there any in particular I should ignore outright as being completely useless?

Solution 1:

I just finished 1999 yesterday and honestly what I found surprised me. It really seemed like the vigors were balanced, even in 1999 mode. As long as you are utilizing them properly, all of them are effective. If I were to focus on three, they would be Murder of Crows (for Handymen and to distract peons while taking care of heavys), Shock Jockey (allows perma-stun of 80% of enemys), and Overtow (this is critical when you get to the Hand of the Prophet, as you can literally just knock all of the enemies off the Zeppelin instead of fighting them.)

If there was one that was underpowered it was Possession. Any enemy that you posses will get demolished by other enemies almost instantaneously without dealing any measurable damage, and at a high vigor price to boot. The only way I could even use Possession was to get by some turrets without destroying them to preserve ammo (presuming you are going for the Scavenger Hunt achievement as well.)