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The Water Wars 1.4 update for Dune Awakening introduces 10 new Weapons, 3 Garments and 14 Augments, in addition to two new Overland Map locations. "The Water Wars" is a cosmetic DLC, however the new Overland Map locations are being released free for everyone as a part of the 1.4 update. The new weapons, armor, and augments can all be found in one of the new locations, The Old Quarry, a Testing Station that offers scalable content players can complete to earn powerful rewards.
We've spent a lot of time in the Public Test Client running the numbers and trying out the new augments in different combinations to see how they hold up. These rankings reflect how well we expect the augments to perform in update 1.4, but we'll update our ratings if they are rebalanced after the update goes live.
Ranking Disclaimer: When deciding how to rank these items, we've considered their viability in both PVE and PVP content. We've also been testing and theorycrafting the New Weapons & Armor in Dune Awakening 1.4, rating their performance against the current meta picks.
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New Augments in 1.4 Tier List
This Tier List focuses on the strength of Augments at higher Grades, where the bonuses become much more substantial and outweigh any listed drawbacks. The augments in this list can all be obtained as rewards from The Old Quarry.
S-Tier Augments
S-Tier augments are build defining and are usually the best first choice.
Scattergun Rampage-Enhancement
Compatible with Perforator and Shellburster.
This is easily the best augment released in the 1.4 update and is an absolute must have for shotgun users. Up to 70% Ranged Damage and 100% Clip Size on a single augment is absolutely incredible. The downside of -15% headshot damage makes no difference shotguns, because they were never used as a headshot weapon. Shotguns were already top tier for DPS and this just makes them even stronger.
Maula Pistol Antipersonnel Rounds
Compatible with Way of the Misr and Shishakli's Bite.
We've seen how powerful augments that stack Headshot and Ranged Damage can be on other weapons and we think this augment does enough to drag the Way of the Misr out of C-Tier. The damage goes a long way toward correcting the weakness of Maula Pistols, unfortunately this boost is largely tied to the guns ability to land consistent headshots, something Maula Pistols struggle with. This augment is amazing, but it might not be enough to put the Way of the Misr on peoples radar.
Heavy Metal Blade Coating
Compatible with all melee weapons.
This is a damage augment for melee weapons with practically no downside and is a very welcome addition to the augment pool. Melee users will rejoice because there's finally an alternative to using Edge Optimizer on melee weapons. Heavy Metal Blade Coating and Scattergun Rampage-Enhancement are set to be the most sought after new augments.
A-Tier Augments
A-Tier augments are good as the second augment in a weapon. None of the new augments in update 1.4 make it into A-Tier.
B-Tier Augments
B-Tier is made up of situational augments that usually have better alternatives.
Disruptor M11 Personnel-Buster
Compatible with A Dart for Every Man, Sardaukar Intimidator, and Spitting Cobra.
We've skipped right over A-Tier and landed in B-Tier with the Disruptor M11 Personnel-Buster, which isn't a bad augment, it just faces some strong competition in the SMG augment pool. The Rate of Fire is nice, but landing headshots with the spread of SMGs isn't a viable strategy, so the Headshot Damage isn't doing that much for us. The penalty to Shield Damage and Effective Range aren't doing it any favours either.
Missile Launcher Obliterator
Compatible with The Ancient Way.
The Recoil and Accuracy on this augment effectively do nothing to The Ancient Way, so this is just an augment with +20% Shield Damage. Shield Damage isn't a stat that The Ancient Way is usually looking for, but as group Testing Station strategies develop, we're seeing The Ancient Way used more for dealing with groups. This augment could be used in a shield breaking Ancient Way and with no real downside it's good for that purpose.
Lasgun Concentrator
Compatible with Black Market K-28 Lasgun.
Increased damage for the Lasgun at the cost of extra Power Consumption Per Shot is something the Lasgun Focuser already does, but the Lasgun Concentrator hits you with a -10% Rate of Fire, which makes it a worse option. The Accuracy increase the Lasgun Concentrator gives isn't noticeable and Lasguns are really only tools for base raiding and vehicle destruction, so it wouldn't matter anyway.
C-Tier Augments
C-Tier augments have bonuses that are too small or not useful.
Blade Blood Grooves
Compatible with all melee weapons.
Losing 10% Blade Damage for reduced Attack Stamina Cost is an absolutely horrible trade. It would be better to have no augments on your weapon at all rather than use this one. If you really want this benefit, just use a Blade Grip Adjuster.
Rafiq Snubnose Marksman
Compatible with Seethe, Regis Disruptor Pistol, and Hell-Fury Pistol.
The possibility of 50% increased Effective Range from this augment sounds pretty good, but the negative of -25% Clip Size really hurts on this weapon type. This is already the kind of augment you'd slot third in specific situations and the Clip Size penalty really makes it hard to come up with a use case.
Karpov 38 Sniper Barrel
Compatible with Experimental Lightning Gun, Salusan Vengeance, The Angry Adder, and Indara's Lullaby.
This augment gives Accuracy and Effective range for a weapon group that really needs more damage to be competitive with other weapons. The problem with augments like this is not always that they're bad in a vacuum, although they often are, it's that they compete with augments that provide noticeable damage increases, which is ultimately what most builds want.
Pyrocket Decimator
Compatible with Plastanium Pyrocket.
One of the worst weapons in the game, with some of the absolute worst shield DPS, gets an augment with 40% increased shield damage. Not only is this augment useless for the Pyrocket, but it also slaps you with a -25% Clip Size penalty. The Pyrocket is in a sad state right now and it really needed something incredible to help bring it back, but this augment is a joke.
Flamethrower Decimator
Compatible with Glasser and Vaporizer.
The Flamethrower Decimator is an augment with 40% bonus Shield Damage at the cost of -10% Rate of Fire and it would be a pretty good augment on almost any other weapon. However, the flamethrower's shield damage is the lowest in the game and even if you increased it by 100% you would still burn someone to death before you broke their shield.
Drillshot FK7 Spray-and-Pray
Compatible with Ambition, Penetrator, and Regis Burst Drillshot.
Drillshots already struggle with capacity, so trading Clip Size for Rate of Fire is only something you'd consider after adding Drillshot FK7 Sprayer first. The problem is the Sprayer already comes with Rate of Fire and what drillshots really need is more damage. It gets even worse because even if you wanted rate of fire, Quick-release Trigger would give it to you without a wall of penalty text.
VULCAN GAU-92 Accelerator
Compatible with Bashar's Command, The Hateful Barker, and Plasma Cannon.
There's no problem managing the Recoil of heavy weapons and Accuracy from augments has little to no effect on bullet spread, so this augment really only gives a little Reload Speed. It's basically a whole lot of nothing, when what we're really wanting is more power. Heavy weapons have many drawbacks and this augment does nothing to fix them.
JABAL Spitdart Ranger
Compatible with Blind Fury, Dunewatcher, and Regis Tripleshot Repeating Rifle.
This augment helps your Recoil and hurts your Rate of Fire, with only a small increase to Reload Speed. Recoil has no effect on reticle bloom or bullet spread and only reduces the kickback of your weapon, making this a low priority.
