In the mid and endgame, New World offers some content especially for PvP fans, including duels in the open world, fortress wars, and the new Outpost Rush mode. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch presents 3 strong PvP builds in this guide: a selection of skill trees for rapier and bow, spear and musket, and war hammer and life staff that you should definitely try in New World for solo and group PvP.
What are these builds? The builds compiled here are primarily intended to help you succeed in your first steps in PvP.
All three are well suited for the instanced content War and Outpost Rush. The two duel builds also work great alone in the open world. However, the war hammer build also focuses on healing for teammates, so you should only play this when you are in a group.
The finished skill trees, which you see embedded as images, come from the website Newworldfans.com, which already has a tool for creating builds.
- If you prefer to be active in PvE, you can find 3 strong PvE and leveling builds for New World here.
- For fans of dungeons, we have the first builds here: The best builds for tanks in expeditions.
Rapier and Bow – Duel Build in New World
Why is this combo played? The combination of rapier and bow is so strong in PvP because you inflict damage over time (DoTs) on the enemy while avoiding many of the opponent’s attacks yourself. You have abilities like Evade on the rapier or Evade Shot on the bow, as well as numerous passive effects that help you evade damage.
Moreover, the bow is excellent for inflicting damage on enemies who are only equipped with melee weapons before they can even reach you.
However, this is a so-called glass cannon build. If you are bad at dodging, you will have problems with this setup.
How do I distribute the attributes? Dexterity is the main attribute for the bow and the rapier. Accordingly, you invest 300 points or even more in this path. You can complement it with points in strength or constitution if you want a bit more health.
How attributes work in general, we explain here: What are attributes and how do they work in New World?
Which skills do I use with the rapier?
- Slice
- Cutting Torrent
- Evade
Basically, you first skill the respective lines of the three abilities down to the bottom. It is noticeable that you do not select any of the passive abilities from the highest tier. Both increase your direct damage, but that is not what matters with the rapier.
Your focus is on inflicting bleeding on the enemy, thereby causing damage and otherwise evading enemy attacks. Therefore, you also skill in the bleed tree the passive abilities Unerring, for more damage to targets that have bleeding, and Deep Stick, which extends the duration of bleeding through heavy attacks.
In the Grace skill tree, you focus on Swiftness for more haste after a hit.
Which skills do I use with the bow?
- Evade Shot
- Poison Shot
- Shard Shot
Similar to the rapier, the focus is on inflicting poison on the enemy, which in turn causes damage over time. Again, you have the Evade Shot ability to evade enemy attacks.
In the Skirmisher tree, you have both damage and survival. Through the passive effect “Marking,” you inflict more damage on targets that have a debuff—in this case, bleeding, poison, or slow. The slowing comes from the passive ability Knee Shot at the end of the tree. Also strong is the passive Precision Shooting, which increases the duration of debuffs. The last strong passive from the tree is Evasive Tactics, which increases your damage after you have dodged.
In the Hunter tree, you mainly skill the ability Shard Shot all the way down. Also included are the passives Arrow Range and Hit the Mark.
What does the equipment look like? The build focuses heavily on damage and evasion. Accordingly, you should use the lightest equipment you can find. As for attributes, you should mainly focus on dexterity and dexterity + strength.
What does the rotation of the abilities look like? Typically, you start the fight with a Poison Shot, followed by light attacks and an Evade Shot as soon as the enemy gets too close.
In melee, you use the Slice ability on the rapier to inflict bleeding on the enemy. Cutting Torrent provides additional damage while you try to evade enemy attacks. The Evade ability also helps you by making you temporarily invulnerable while dodging.
Spear and Musket – Duel Build in New World
Why is this combo played? The combination of spear and musket primarily focuses on strong ranged damage. In wars, you can effectively defend a fortress from the wall or take out defenders on the wall.
Your main weapon is the musket, for which you should always have enough ammunition. You need including saltpeter, and here we reveal where you can find it in New World.
The spear, on the other hand, is used for crowd control and the powerful ability Throwing Spear.
How do I distribute the attributes? The build focuses on dexterity, which is also the main attribute of both weapons. Additionally, you allocate 200 points in constitution to have a bit more defense.
Which skills do I use with the spear?
- Throwing Spear
- Leg Sweeper
- Jump Kick
All three abilities from the spear bring you crowd control. The Throwing Spear knocks enemies to the ground, the Leg Sweeper also knocks them to the ground, and the Jump Kick stuns them for 1.5 seconds.
You skill in the zone domination tree both abilities down to the bottom. In addition, you use the passive abilities Deadly Reach and Ruthless Strength for more damage, as well as Evasion for less stamina consumption when dodging backwards.
In the Puncturer skill tree, you skill all talents from Jump Kick and also focus on the passives Precise Stabs and Death Strikes for more damage against enemies, as well as Aggressive Manoeuvres, which reduce the cooldown of your spear abilities when you hit an enemy right after dodging.
Which skills do I use with the musket?
- Powder Burn
- Shooting Stance
- Traps
With Powder Burn, you inflict burning on enemies, and through the passive effect of Smoke Gas Explosion, you inflict 12% more damage to burning targets. After that, you want to quickly get off as many shots as possible. The Shooting Stance helps with this.
In the Precision Marksman skill tree, you will also find the passive effects Empowering Headshot for additional damage after a headshot, Critical Reload for skipping the reload after a headshot, as well as Ballistic Advantage, which allows you to hit targets that are more than 50 meters away.
From the Trapper tree, you primarily focus on the passive effects Tactical Reload, which allows you not to have to reload directly every 6 seconds, and Salting the Wound for extra damage to targets that have less than 30% health. You should also skill the trap nearly all the way down.
What does the equipment look like? For the equipment, you should opt for light to medium armor, as your focus is on damage and evasion. Useful attributes are dexterity and constitution.
What does the rotation of the abilities look like? Basically, you spend most of your time with the rifle. There you deal a lot of damage through the mentioned combo of Powder Burn and Shooting Stance. It is also useful to set traps between you and the opponent if they try to attack you.
With the spear, the strongest ability is the Throwing Spear. Through Deadly Range, the damage increases significantly when you hit distant targets, and it is further increased when you have full stamina. In addition, you also have the crowd control of knocking down. Otherwise, use the spear mainly when enemies get too close to control them with crowd control.
War Hammer and Life Staff – Team Build in New World
Why is this combo played? The combination of war hammer and life staff turns you into a PvP healer who can take a lot of damage while stunning the opponent and inflicting debuffs. A useful combo when you are in a group during wars or in the Outpost Rush.
The life staff provides healing and buffs for yourself and your group. The war hammer, on the other hand, has damage, debuffs, and crowd control.
How do I distribute the attributes? You should invest 200 points in focus. This gives you additional healing, more mana, and longer buff duration. However, it is usually not worth putting more points into focus.
Instead, put 100 points in constitution for more health and armor and the rest in strength for additional damage with the war hammer.
Which skills do I use with the war hammer?
- Armor Breaker
- Powerful Hammer
- Shockwave
The Armor Breaker ability is ideal for reducing the opponents’ defense, from which the entire group benefits. With the Shockwave, you stun enemies in your vicinity.
In the talent tree Moloch, you skill the Powerful Hammer all the way down, while in the Armor Breaker you skip the last talent Opening Act. The bonus is usually not worth it. The other passive effects are Crashing Spawn for more damage, Exhausting Attack to hinder enemies from dodging, and Strength through Pain, a very strong passive for more damage.
In the Crowd Crusher tree, you skill the two talents under the Shockwave, as well as Shattering Strike for more damage and Undying Spirit, which heals you for the damage from Shockwave. Also strong is Enabled Expedition, which grants you movement speed when you hit a weakened target. Weakness refers to debuffs caused by Armor Breaker and generally all War Hammer abilities.
Which skills do I use with the life staff?
- Blessed Ground
- Embrace of Light
- Beacon
The Beacon ability is your damage with the life staff and simultaneously heals allies between you and the target. With Embrace of Light, you have a strong healing skill for allies, while you use Blessed Ground mainly just before switching to the hammer and attacking enemies in melee.
In the Guardian tree, you skill the lines of Embrace of Light and Beacon all the way down. The general rule is that you should dodge before a heal to activate the passive Lightbreaker. After dodging, your healing is increased by 20% for 5 seconds. Also strong is the ability “Protector’s Touch,” which grants you Fortify after an attack with the life staff, thereby reducing incoming damage.
In the Healing tree, you skill the ability Blessed Ground through. You also use the passives Absolution, so your attacks cost no mana, Strike of Joy for passive healing from attacks, and Enchanted Justice, which gives you a passive aura that heals you and nearby allies.
What does the equipment look like? It should be more medium to heavy. This reduces incoming damage. Useful stats are constitution and strength to increase your survival and damage.
What does the rotation of the abilities look like? This varies greatly. The general rule is that you want to stand back with your staff to hit enemies and heal allies standing between you and your enemy. If damage is needed or enemies attack you in melee, Blessed Ground from the healing staff will help, and then you switch to the hammer.
With the hammer: First use Armor Breaker to reduce the target’s armor, then follow up with Shockwave. If the enemy is stunned, use the attack Powerful Hammer.
New World is still in beta. You can find out how the beta is currently being received here: New World receives a lot of praise and criticism during the beta – In one point, everyone agrees.
