If you’ve been playing Amazon’s Studios’ latest MMO, New World, you might have noticed that weapons, as well as the attributes you decide to level up, play a crucial role on your ability to take on missions successfully, as well as your chances of staying alive.
If you’re a new player, the good news is that you can actually reset your attributes up until level 20, which is something you’ll definitely end up doing as you explore different weapons and classes to figure out which combination best works for you. After level 20, resetting your attributes will come at a cost.
The class, weapons, and attributes you eventually decide to stick with depend on your personal, party or company’s needs. Though the game certainly allows you to go out solo on various missions—particularly during the first 20 levels, there will be more advanced missions and opportunities, such as expeditions, invasions, and outpost rushes, that will require you to team up with at least two other players to be able to complete them.
As with most MMOs, there are four archetypes you can choose from that will determine which weapons and attributes you decide to level up: tank, DPS, healer, and mage.
Here are the best PvE builds to level up in New World for every class.
Tank Build
- Main Weapon: Sword and Shield
- Secondary Weapon: Great Axe or War Hammer
- Attributes: Strength and Constitution
Sword and Shield is one of the most balanced, all-round effective weapons in New World, especially if you’re looking to build your character to become as tanky as the game allows. It allows for a great balance of crowd control and personal defence, which makes this weapon combination one of the most alluring, especially to new players.
The secondary weapon in this build should be one of the two-handed weapons available with a high level of damage. Your best options here are the Great Axe or War Hammer. But there are alternatives such as the Spear, which, although considered one of the weaker two-hand options available in the game, has a knock-back attack available which can be incredibly useful for you as a tank, since you’ll be attracting all the monsters while your teammates can get the job done.
Abilities
As you level up each of your weapons, you’ll need to carefully decide which abilities you decide to unlock for the three available slots each weapon has.
For the Sword and Shield, we recommend unlocking Shield Bash, Defiant Stance, and Reverse Stab. These abilities will give you the ability to stun enemies for a few seconds, reduce incoming damage, and perform a special attack that deals 175 percent of your weapon’s damage, respectively.
If you choose the War Hammer as your secondary weapon, make sure to unlock Shockwave, Armour Breaker, and Path of Destiny. These abilities will allow you to inflict a high amount of damage and to unlock the true potential of that weapon. If you decide on Great Axe instead, unlock Maelstrom, Gravity Well, and Reap.
DPS Build
Main Weapon: Musket or Rapier
Secondary Weapon: Fire Staff
Attributes: Dexterity and Intelligence
If you’re looking for a strong DPS build for your party, this one will allow you to do great amounts of damage, especially in scenarios in which you’re surrounded by multiple enemies.
Having the Fire Staff as your secondary weapon will allow for the crowd control you will need, which a Musket or Rapier won’t be able to provide. While it’s always a good idea to set some attribute points aside on Constitution to make sure you’re not reduced to dust in a matter of seconds, if your party has a decent healer, you should be able to concentrate and direct those points to either Dexterity or Intelligence. You will need both to unlock the full potential of the weapons you’re wielding.
Abilities
If you choose to go for the Musket, you’ll need to unlock Power Shot, which overloads the weapon and deals 150 percent damage, and Powder Burn, which lets you deal 110 percent weapon damage on shots, with a bonus of a baffling 260 percent weapon damage when you manage to upgrade the ability with Chronic Trauma. If you choose to go with the Rapier instead, unlock Riposte and Evade for a combination of stun power, high damage, and better mobility.
For the Fire Staff as a secondary weapon, unlocking Fire Ball and Burn Out will give your Musket or Rapier a good extra dose of magic damage that makes this build one of the most popular ones in the current meta. Remember to also unlock the passive skills for each of your weapons that you need for your playstyle in order to truly take advantage of this build’s potential.
Healer Build
- Main Weapon: Life Staff
- Secondary Weapon: Hatchet
- Attributes: Focus and Constitution or Dexterity
The fact that the Life Staff is the only healer weapon available in New World means that it’s also one of the most flexible builds, depending on what you need as a healer. Other weapons do offer healing buffs, but the Life Staff is the only weapon in the game in which you can use those healing buffs on either yourself or other party members.
PvP and PvE builds for healers are very different. In PvP, you need to be better equipped for high-level player encounters and fill in the damage gaps of your party. But if what you need is a high-damage, effective healer build to go about your missions in PvE, whether solo or in a party, the Life Staff-Hatchet combination is unbeatable.
The Hatchet is one of the most popular secondary weapon choices for healers, and for good reason – apart from giving you the ability to inflict a high level of damage, this is a lightweight weapon that offers healer buffs by levelling up the Berserker mastery.
Abilities
The first ability you need to unlock on your Life Staff is Sacred Ground. This is also the one you’ll find yourself using the most, as it heals over time and increases the speed of mana and life regeneration by 100 percent. Divine Embrace and Splash of Light are the other two abilities that will most benefit you and your party, which give you the ability to heal a target for 150 percent of weapon damage and the ability for a group heal, respectively. To unlock the true power of Splash of Light, make sure you get its Purify Upgrade, which removes any negative effects on the allies it heals.
Levelling up your Hatchet as a secondary weapon needs to be focused on the Berserker Mastery. Berserk is the first ability you need to unlock, as it is one of the best pairings for the Life Staff. It’s also important that you level up the Berserk branch with Berserking Refresh for additional health regeneration, and Uninterruptible Berserk—which will save you from being knocked out of a healing circle by enemies. If you need an ability that will allow you to escape and stay safe, go for Social Distancing, which will create distance when you’re in a dangerous situation and give you the necessary space to swap to your Life Staff to heal.
Mage Build
- Main Weapon: Fire Staff
- Secondary Weapon: Ice Gauntlet
- Attributes: Intelligence and Constitution
The fire mage build is one of the strongest and most popular builds at the moment, and works especially well in a group or party dynamic. The abilities that the Fire Staff offers are the perfect combination for a Tank member, as they position enemies to fall inside of your ring of fire with the Fireball skill. The Fire Staff is currently the best weapon when it comes to dealing magical damage, since it is paired with abilities that allow for decent enemy knockbacks.
The key to this build is the Fire and Ice power combination, which is why having the Ice Gauntlet as your secondary will make this build completely lethal. Intelligence is the obvious choice for both these weapons when it comes to attributes, but remember to equally make sure you’re leveling up Constitution so that you have the durability that this kind of power requires.
Abilities
For your Fire Staff, make sure to unlock Pillar of Fire, a targeted spell that will allow you to deal 134 percent of your weapon’s damage. Remember, the key to a Mage build is that you keep your distance, but make sure to be prepared in the case of being overwhelmed with enemies around you. To do this, unlock Incinerate, which causes a fiery explosion of 130 percent damage and pushes back all enemies about 3 meters away. For your third ability, Burn Out will allow you to dash through targets while dealing 129 percent weapon damage on hit, which can also be used to get out of a hasty situation, allowing you to speed out of a cluster of enemies.
The most important ability for the Ice Gauntlet, on the other hand, is Ice Storm. This is a ranged attack that will deal 17 percent of weapon damage every 0.25 seconds, and will simultaneously slow enemies within the affected area. This is key for crowd control, and paired with Ice Spikes, which will create a trail of spikes in a straight line dealing 56 percent of damage—is the perfect companion for some really powerful fire and ice combinations. Lastly, Entombed on the Ice Gauntlet is an ability that you will absolutely need if you want to make sure your mana doesn’t run out in the middle of an intense fight. With this ability, the player can entomb themselves in ice, turning invulnerable while their mana bar quickly fills up again for more spell carnage.
