One of the most powerful weapons in Dune: Awakening is the Spitdart, which is effectively a high-caliber rifle with poison-tipped bullets. This rifle packs a serious punch and that's why this build is centred around it.
Important Note: Let's get this out of the way early, right now melee builds are currently strongest for both PVE & PVP content. This is because most high-end PVE content consists mostly of shielded enemies which are easily dispatched with stagger + slow blade attacks, and for PVP, skills like Crippling Strike make it very difficult to play a ranged build effectively. Despite this - sometimes you want to play something that's fun, even if it's not optimal, and this build is by no means weak.
Although this build is focused on the Spitdart, it is also a versatile build which is extremely powerful for PVP but also more than sufficient to push high-end PVE content.
As with the Swordmaster Build, you can get an excellent Spitdart, Thufir's Best, for free by completing the Mentat Advanced Trainer quest chain. This weapon is good enough for even the toughest PVE content in the game.
Quick Links:
- Overview & Playstyle
- Strengths & Weaknesses
- Weapons, Armour & Equipment
- Abilities, Techniques & Skills
Overview & Playstyle
One shot, one kill. This build focuses on the mastery of high-powered ranged weapons and eliminating enemies from afar. This is not a squishy build by any means however, and we will also have the kit to engage in close, or melee, combat if required.
You will be continuously repositioning yourself around the battlefield with Shigawire Claw and your Full Suspensor, but you'll also have a Scattergun and Sword at the ready for those who get too close.
Strengths
- Poison is exceptionally strong in PVP
- Easier to play than melee builds
- Extremely high damage against unshielded targets
Weaknesses
- Weaker in melee (but not awful!)
- Weaker than melee builds for pure PVE content
- 'Heavy' NPCs can soak a lot of darts, even from a Spitdart
Weapons, Armour & Equipment
Primary Ranged Weapon (Sniper): Dunewatcher > Thufir's Best > Regis JABAL Spitdart
The poison sniper ('Spitdart') is one of the strongest weapons in Dune Awakening. It has very high damage, high range and it's poison is excellent for both PVP and PVE content. It's only downside is that you will need to reload often and it is costly if you miss your shots.
The Dunewatcher is the best sniper rifle in the game and is a Mk6 Unique Schematic, so again check out the Deep Desert Companion to see if it's in the Deep Desert loot tables this week. Otherwise, Thufir's Best which you get as a free reward for completing the Mentat Advanced Trainer quest line is second best.
Although it's a melee build, if you do find yourself in a PVP situation, a couple of headshots with the Spitdart and you're opponent will be downed. It's also excellent for thinning the ranks in Deep Desert Testing Stations, especially against the unshielded troopers.
Secondary Ranged Weapon (Shotgun)
The reason we recommend that you carry a Shotgun (Scattergun) is mostly so you have another tool in your kit when it comes to PVP. When you're in the Deep Desert and an enemy players gets to close range, you are going to want to have some options outside of your Sniper or Melee.
Almost all of the ranged skills & passives in this build also apply to your Scattergun so you can dish out some serious damage at close range too.
Melee Weapon (Sword) - Replica Pulse Sword > Regis Sword > Jolt-sword
You will likely still find it easiest to deal with melee enemies with a parry + slow blade or Shigawire Claw + slow blade combo. Therefore it is still important that we have a strong melee weapon equipped. The best possible sword you can equip is the Replica Pulse Sword. This is a Mk6 Unique sword so you have to find the unique schematic for it in the Deep Desert. You can check out the Deep Desert Companion to see if it's in the Deep Desert loot tables this week.
The great news however is that even if you don't have access to Mk6 swords yet, is that you can still obtain an excellent sword, the Jolt-sword, for free by completing the Swordmaster Advanced Trainer quest line. You'll receive it as a reward when you complete the final quest.
Armour
We're going to be using Heavy Armour for this build. Given that Heavy Armour provides dart mitigation and we're planning to be at range most of the time, this is a natural fit.
Just keep in mind that Heavy Armour increases the Stamina cost of dash which can leave you in a tight spot if you are not carefully and it also provides no heat protection so make sure you are stocked up with plenty of water at all times!
Equipment & Other
There's only a few of core pieces of equipment you need for this build and these are the same for any build really, as follows:
- Full Suspensor Belt
- Holtzman Shield (highest tier you can craft)
- Power Pack (highest tier you can craft)
The Full Suspensor Belt is essential for general movement and navigating combat situations.
I probably don't need to tell you how important the Holtzman Shield is but this is critical for survivability. The higher the level of the Power Pack, the faster our power is generating for our shield the longer our Holtzman Shield will last.
As with all builds, make sure you always have:
- Water (highest tier Literjon you can craft and keep it stocked up)
- Medkits (or bandages will do otherwise)
- Vehicle Fuel Cells (try and keep at least 2 full vehicle fuel cells with you at all times)
Abilities, Techniques & Skills
Your Abilities, Techniques & Skills here turn a simple ranged build into a lethal marksman build.
You can check out our Trooper and Mentat Advanced Trainer quest guides if you haven't completed them already. They will allow you to upgrade your skills to Level 3 once you get around half way through the quest chain and as mentioned earlier, you're going to want the rifle reward at the end of the Mentat quest chain.
Naturally how many points you are able to deploy will depend on your level in the game, so just upgrade each of the central abilities and passive skills to the highest level you can, and keep upgrading them as you go.
Abilities
Core Abilities:
- Trooper (Tactical Tech) - Shigawire Claw
- Trooper (Gunnery) - Energy Capsule
- Trooper (Tactical Tech) - Explosive Grenade
Shigawire Claw is our mobility ability. It allows us to position ourselves effectively and escape danger quickly. When combined with a Full Suspensor Belt, we can rapidly move around the battlefield and avoid getting pinned down. In a pinch you can also use it to stagger your enemy.
Energy Capsule is a huge 35% damage boost and with the Battle Hardened technique, it only has a 17.5 second cooldown. It does have an activation time of around 2 seconds before it kicks in, so keep that in mind.
The third ability here is actually a little more flexible but Explosive Grenade is a great ability for late-game PVE content where you face large groups of enemies at once. Feel free to test different abilities in this slot to see what works best for you.
Techniques
Core Techniques:
- Mentat (Mental Calculus) - Marksman
- Mentat (Mental Calculus) - Exploit Weakness
- Trooper (Tactical Tech) - Battle Hardened
Marksman is a no brainer for this build. We're always aiming for the head unless we're in close quarters so +20% damage is huge.
Exploit Weakness allows us to deal with unshielded ranged troopers extremely easily. You can also tag enemies before they pop their shield.
Battle Hardened is just an excellent technique in almost all builds, reducing the cooldown of all of our abilities by 30%.
Passive Skills
For this build, we focus less on some of the survivability/defensive passives which can allow you to pick up some melee damage passives too, if you have enough points for it. This rounds out the build nicely, smoothing out the build's inherent weakness in melee combat.
We are going to want the following passive skills, in order of importance:
- Mentat (Mental Calculus) - Ranged Damage (+9% Ranged Damage)
- Trooper (Gunnery) - Ranged Damage (+9% Ranged Damage)
- Mentat (Mental Calculus) - Rifle Damage (+15% Rifle Damage)
- Mentat (Assassination) - Headshot Damage (+15% Headshot Damage)
- Trooper (Gunnery) - Scattergun Damage (+15% Scattergun Damage)
- Swordmaster (The Blade) - Long Blade Damage (+15% Long Blade Damage)
- Swordmaster (The Blade) - Blade Damage (+9% Blade Damage)
- Bene Gesserit (Wierding Way) - Blade Damage (+9% Blade Damage)
- Trooper (Gunnery) - Gunsmith (+25% Reduced Max Weapon Durability Loss)
- Trooper (Gunnery) - Field Maintenance (+25% Reduced Weapon Durability Loss)
You'll note that the above list doesn't include any of the great Planetologist passives (like enhanced mining + compactor yields). Split between the above and Planetologist as desired dependent upon the content you are looking to tackle.
General note on builds: Once you reach max level in Dune Awakening, or get close to it, you'll have almost 200 Skill Points to spend across all the Skill trees. At this point you will have enough Skill Points to ensure you cover pretty much all bases, including ranged, melee and economy/planetology. However, to reach that point will typically require 200-300h+ of gameplay so for many of you, you'll want to know where to place your limited Skill Points for maximum effect. Our Build Guides are for those players, as well as providing useful information regarding weapons, armour, equipment and skills.
