New World Builds; Best New World Builds, Tank Builds, Healer Builds, DPS Builds, PVP Builds
We go through some of the best New World Builds available for you to play.
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New World is one of the most popular and anticipated MMOs in 2021. New World’s mixture of Runescape like crafting and gathering combines with the political strife of games like Black Desert, Elder Scrolls Online and other titles makes it interesting,
However, one thing that stands out the most is how you define your own combat playstyle. Players can select two weapons they want to use and create interesting play styles and their own New World Build. We will go through the best New World weapons and share ideas for some New World builds for various content.
New World Best Weapon and Builds for PVE
By far the best weapons for damage for most content are the:
- Fire Staff
- Rapier
- Bow
- Musket
Please be aware that this is for the best weapons for mathematical DPS output and not how meta they are. If you are concerned with the meta., we recommend checking out our New World weapon tier list to see a more in-depth reason why we rank weapons for New World PvE and PvP content.
The reason why these weapons are the best is because of their damage output. We will go in-depth on each weapon below.
New World Bow Builds are great for PVP and PVE. Image via Amazon Games.
New World Bow Build PVE
The Bow is a very versatile weapon, with its marksman single target damage builds and AOE, / debuff focuses. The Skirmisher build is about dishing out great AOE damage, which is very good for kiting mobs in the open world and group content. You do this by using the Poison Shot to apply DoT to your targets while raining arrows from the sky.
If you prefer a single target build, which is great for PvP or killing bosses in PvE, the Hunter spec might be for you. The Hunter provides Rapid Shot, Piercing Shot and Splinter Shot. These abilities are heavy armour-piercing damage skills while adding in some cleave. However, the selling point is the buffs to doing damage the further away you hit a target and landing headshots. Once again, this playstyle requires a bit more aiming skill, especially since the weapon uses projectile aiming rather than hitscan. If you can find your mark often, then this New World build will feel like one of the best New World weapons.
New World Musket Build PVE
The Musket’s damage is incredible if you can land your headshots while in the SHooter Stance. The weapon locks you in place while empowering your shooting efficiency. However, the weapon does require fairly decent hit scan aim, so if you are not that great at first-person shooters, we advise avoiding the Musket.
As for the Musekt’s other skills, we advise taking the Power Shot and Powder Burn skills. Powder Burn adds additional damage over time on your target, which is always nice to refresh on your kill target. Investing ints passive make it do even more weapon damage every few seconds, along with landing headshots makes it even better. Meanwhile, the Power Shot deals guaranteed powerful shot, which also grants you the Empowered buff bolstering your damage for a short period.
New World Rapier Build PVE
The Rapier is a dexterity-focused melee weapon with one of the best New World Weapons for PvP and PvE. The Rapier New World build revolves primarily around Blood specialization. The idea behind the build is to continuously apply DoTs, using your Tondo skill to get to three stacks of bleeds. You’ll then use Flurish and Finasih to consume those bleed stacks for huge burst damage.
There are several alternatives to this build, such as using the Spear to get even more buffs going to enhance your debuff playstyle, or you could even use the Firestaff to go full critical strike bonus. If you want a more in-depth look at the Rapier, we highly recommend paying our New World Rapier build page a visit for the most fun rotation in the game.
New World Fire Staff Build PVE
The Fire Staff is the default caster weapon that any mage will use regardless of build. The reason is that the Firestaff has some incredible burst damage from both AOE and single target specs. The only questionable thing is the flamethrower spec, but it does make for a rather fun Battle Mage type build.
Anyway, you can opt for many different abilities that can fit what exactly you want to do with your Firestaff. Like the Rapier, we highly recommend checking out our more in-depth New World Mage build to get a full glimpse of what you can expect.
Best New World Builds for PvP
While the New World builds above are great for PvE, they are not entirely translatable to PvP. The Best New World Weapon Builds for PvP are:
- Hatchet
- Great Axe
- Rapier
- Life Staff
- Ice Gauntlet
New World Rapier Build PVP
The Rapier makes an appearance once again because of its Grace specialization. Grace is one of the hardest specializations to play. However, mastering this playstyle will have you dominating your opponents in PVP. Riposte allows you to mitigate incoming attacks, especially weapon skills. If you can spot an animation before it lands, you can riposte it and stun them, creating major swings. You also get an extra dodge ability that will increase your attacks speed and make you invulnerable. As you can see, it can easily counter many wildly swinging maniacs in the melee.
Read More: New World Rapier Build.
New World Hatchet Build PVP
The Hatchet is widely considered one of the best New World weapons in PvP. The Berserker specialization allows Hatchet wielders to enter Berserk, granting bonus movement speed and increased healing effects, and prevents staggers as long as Berserk lasts. Top that off with Sprint Attack being one of the best charge mechanics in the game, and you can gap close real easily.
The other upside is there is only really one counter to the Berserker’s Healing, and that is the Hatchet in the Throwing spec. The Throwing spec is the only source of anti-healing the game, with the Infected Throw skill applying a disease that reduces effective healing by 30%. It is, therefore, a reliable counter to Berserker Hatchet players and coordinated groups with Life Staffs.
New World Great Axe Build PVP
The Great Axe is one of the best melee weapons in New World for PvP. The reason why is because it has a very strong charge (Charge) and can grip (Reap) and continue to pull enemies closer to it with the Heavy Oull passive in the Mauler spec. If you combine it with one of the Great Axe’s damaging abilities like the Execute to burst low health targets or Whirlwind for those hectic close-quarter fights. We advise only taking one of these damage abilities since the Great Axe generally relies more on heavy attacks and controlling enemies.
New World Life Staff Build PVP
The Life Staff is one of the most important weapons to ensure you survive duels or beat enemy players in territory wars. The Life Staff can help your allies or increase your survivability by providing backup heals as a secondary weapon. There’s no point in going in too much depth, as it is fairly straightforward. However, if you want to focus on healing, we recommend checking out the New World Healer Build section towards the end of this article (navigate our Table of Content on the left side of the screen if you’re interested?).
New World Ice Gauntlet Build PVP
While the Ice Gauntlet is not necessarily a direct weapon for doing incredible damage, its support utility for extra mana and some of the most annoying CC in the game make it very powerful. It is the most reliable weapon for CC outside of the War Hammer, for example. Also, the weapon provides one of the strongest defensive cooldowns in the game. Casters will love this weapon as it allows them to coat themselves in a block of ice, preventing enemy damage while regenerating an unreasonable amount of mana while in the stasis effect. As you can see, the Ice Gauntlet makes a lot of sense for New World PVP builds.
New World Tank Build
Knowing decent New World tank builds is key if you need to play a tank for any of New World expeditions or World Bosses. Tanking in New World is fairly accessible. Many melee weapons have a taunt ability as long as their build contains a Cornelian Gem, which is necessary for getting taunt modifiers on melee weapons. Other than that, the best weapon for tanking is the One-handed Sword and Shield.
If you’re wondering what the best New World Weapons are for tanking, here they are:
- One-handed Sword and Shield
- War Hammer
- Great Axe
If you want a more in-depth build, head over to our best New World Tank build here.
New World Sword and Shield Build
The One-handed Sword and Shield is by far the best weapon for tanking. The weapon has a specialization called Defender, which provides defensive mitigation for the user (Final Stand). Moreso, the spec offers plenty of CC tools like Shield Charge that dashes forward and stuns the target, along with Shield Bash. Another important aspect of Shield Bash is that it AOE taunts as long as there is a taunt gem socketed. However, it is not entirely necessary as it generates a huge amount of threat anyway. Either way, you can see its appeal for tanking. No matter what tank build you go, the Sword and Shield is absolutely necessary.
New World Warhammer Build for Tanks
If you’re looking to tank without a sword and shield or using another weapon as your primary tanking tool, we recommend the Warhammer for its AOE stuns. The skill you’ll absolutely need is the fully upgraded Wrecking Ball, as it grants the Fortify buff, which reduces the damage you take and knocks down those you hit.
Shockwave is another skill you’ll want, which is located in the Crowd Crusher tree. Shockwave is another AOE stun that stuns all enemies within a 3M radius. It can also taunt all nearby enemies as long as you have a taunt gem equipped. Meanwhile, Clear Out is a great ability for creating gaps between you and your enemies, and it grants Fortify. The only downside is that it can potentially knock enemies out of your allies’ AOE damage abilities, such as Volley of 32 Meteors, causing angry DPS in your party saying, ‘but my DPS’ in voice or text chat.
New World Great Axe Build for Tanks
The Great Axe is another great New World tank build. The reason why is similar to why the Warhammer makes a great New World tank build weapon. Any Great Axe player can see how much control the weapon can bring. Reap grips enemies in range towards the player, with the perk keeps dragging enemies closer with heavy attacks, ensuring mobs stay aggrod to you.
Moreso, the Great Axe has an interesting ability called Gravity Well. The player throws their axe at a target area, pulling enemies in range towards the axe. The skill allows the Great Axe users even more control over the battlefield, which works incredibly well with AOE focused DPS builds. The other ability is optional as you can do some damage with Whirlwind or opt for a charge for movement and more CC. The preference is entirely up to you, especially in higher-level expeditions when builds are more established.
New World Healer Build
Lastly, we have New World Healer builds. While we have already covered healers builds much more extensively on our New World Healer Build page, we can give you the gist of it below.
New World Lifestaff Build
The Lifestaffis the only dedicated healing weapon in New World. It has two very different healing playstyles, with one all about chain heals and direct party healing, while the other is about fortifying and buffing your allies while healing simultaneously.
If you like the idea of healing allies up close and personal, placing healing on the ground, then you will want the Protector specialization. The specialization uses Orb of Light, which grants Fortify to allies hit with the heal. Meanwhile, Beacon uses AOE to heal allies, with passive upgrades that grant Haste buffs to those it heals. Lastly, you have Light’s Embrace, which does moderate healing and bonus healing for every unique buff on the target. It is relatively weak without the buffs. However, you can easily and continuously apply Haste and Fortify buffs through passives and your skills. It does mean it has a slight skill gap to make it effective.
On the other hand, you can opt for the Healing specialization. The more traditional healing specialization allows you to heal, buff the ground for AOE heals, and more. The three abilities in this tree are called Sacred Ground, Divine Embrace and Splash of Light. Sacred Ground is the healing spell that buffs the ground, while Splash of Light is a generic AOE heal. Meanwhile, the Divine Embrace is the single target heal. Consider the spec like your White Mage from Final Fantasy or your Holy Priest from WoW if you’re familiar with those MMOs.
We highly recommend using an Ice Gauntlet as your second weapon because of the mana regeneration passives. Alternatively, you can use Sword and Shield in PvP for the extra Fortify and defensive tools at your disposal.
This concludes our New World Build article. Is there any build that stood out to you? Perhaps you want us to go more in-depth in a particular build? Either way, let us know in the comments below!
