With the next update, New World will receive its first new weapon since release. The Void Gauntlet combines damage and healing abilities. This makes it not only strong for healers but especially for solo players in the open world. MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch has already tried it out on the PTR.
What kind of weapon is this exactly? The Void Gauntlet is a magical weapon that scales with the attributes Intelligence but also with Focus. So far, only the Life Staff scaled with Focus, making the weapon directly interesting for any healer.
Overall, the Void Gauntlet focuses on CC, a lot of self-healing, and acceptable damage. This makes it particularly interesting for solo players in the open world who often have problems with their hit points.
We will present the abilities and the ideal application area of the weapon in more detail.
When will the weapon be released? It is supposed to be released with the big update this week. You can find out more about the update here: New World: Update 1.0.6 is coming this week – What do we know before the patch notes?
The 6 abilities in preview
The new weapon offers you two skill trees – Obliteration and Decay. Both trees have damage abilities and useful effects related to healing. However, it is important to note that healing scales solely with Focus. Players running a build with a lot of Intelligence will not benefit as much from healing.
Also curious: You lose hit points when you want to block. This is called Essence Harvest and is a special effect of the weapon. You don’t actually block but convert hit points into mana. With certain passive effects, you take less damage from Essence Harvest and can even reduce your cooldowns.
Thus, the Void Gauntlet puts more emphasis on evading or getting health back through lifesteal rather than defending through blocking.
What does Obliteration do?
- The ability Dread Blade transforms your auto-attack from a ranged to a melee attack. It lasts for 15 seconds and has a CD of 25 seconds. You can then use light and heavy attacks, with each attack causing the debuff “Decay”. Decay inflicts an additional 5% weapon damage over 8 seconds and can be stacked up to 3 times. Through passive effects, you can also gain buffs, 10% additional crit damage, and 5% lifesteal through “Decay”.
- The ability Void creates a 5m field around you, in which you deal 30% weapon damage per second. The field lasts for 6 seconds and grants you and allies within it “Empowerment”. Through additional passive effects, enemies receive weakness and you and your allies gain +15 stamina per second.
- The ability Petrified Scream is a ranged attack that deals 100% of weapon damage and roots enemies for 2 seconds. Through passive effects, you can extend the root duration and gain “Buff” for each enemy hit.
- The ultimate passive ability at the end grants you a stack of Dread Essence with every hit from an ability. At 6 stacks, these are consumed, and you gain an aura that deals 30% weapon damage to enemies within the vicinity and heals allies for 30% of weapon damage. This effect lasts for 5 seconds and has a 20 seconds CD.
Additionally, there are passive effects through which you deal more damage (+10% damage at less than 50% mana, 10% higher crit chance at more than 50% health), as well as an ability with self-healing (on a critical hit you receive 15% of damage dealt as healing).
What does Decay do?
- The ability Decay Sphere fires an unstoppable projectile that deals 100% weapon damage and causes “Decay”. “Decay” inflicts an additional 5% weapon damage over 8 seconds and can be stacked up to 3 times. Once the projectile reaches maximum range, it transforms into a healing orb and returns to you. In doing so, it heals for 20% of weapon damage per second.
- Through passive effects, you gain 5% mana for every enemy hit, enemies are slowed, and you get a new option. Once you press the ability key again, the orb explodes. Depending on its state, it either deals damage or heals allies.
- The ability Unearthly Bonds ties you to an enemy. Each second, they are weakened by 4%, and you are strengthened by 4% (up to a maximum of 20%). The bonds break if you move more than 15m apart. Through passive effects, you gain additional mana regeneration while the bonds are active and heal for 80% of weapon damage when the target dies with active bonds.
- The ability Rending Essence is a projectile that sticks to the target for 10 seconds. Anyone who attacks the hit target receives 20% of the damage dealt as healing. Through passive effects, players additionally receive 15 stamina when attacking and are healed for 80% of your weapon damage when Rending Essence ends.
- The ultimate passive ability at the end of the tree allows you to build a stack of Dread Essence with every ability. At 4 stacks, the next heavy attack resets all cooldowns of the Void Gauntlet.
The skill tree also contains interesting passive effects, including useful self-healing (dodging with full mana heals you for 80% of weapon damage) or additional damage (10% more damage to targets that are at least 8m away).
You can watch all the abilities of the new weapon in this short video:
Strong weapon for healers, but especially for solo players
What is the first impression? The overall damage of the weapon looks good. The light attacks are smooth and quite swift. In the first battles in low-level areas and in balance, the Void Gauntlet left a solid impression.
In duels with other players who did not use the Void Gauntlet, the weapon even felt a bit OP. With the Dread Blade and through lifesteal, one could even hold their own against users of the war axe and the sickle in close combat. Especially the lifesteal is useful in all situations.
The fact that I cannot block felt hardly restrictive. Mostly, you want to attack or heal with this weapon anyway.
For whom is the new weapon interesting? The weapon is especially interesting for healers looking for a complement to their Life Staff. Here, especially the abilities Void, Petrified Scream, and Decay Sphere are interesting in PvP.
- With Void, you empower allies
- With the Scream, you can root enemies
- The Decay Sphere deals damage but primarily focuses on AoE healing, which is useful for dungeons and PvP.
We also recommend leveling the Obliteration tree all the way down. We have put together a build that looked useful on paper and in early tests. This is primarily aimed at PvP players who should also rely on the Life Staff and heavy armor:
On the other hand, the weapon also appeals to solo players who want a bit of extra healing in the open world. Here, especially the abilities Dread Blade, Unearthly Bonds, and Rending Essence are interesting.
- The Dread Blade deals a lot of damage in melee combat
- The Unearthly Bonds deliberately weaken an enemy while strengthening you in return
- The Rending Essence allows for significant self-healing when you consciously target an enemy
For solo players, the numerous passive self-healing effects are also a positive. Here, we recommend leveling down to the effect “Gaze of Dread” in the Decay tree. As a second weapon, a Life Staff or a weapon focusing on Intelligence, the second attribute of the Void Gauntlet, is advisable.
A possible build focusing on damage and Life Staff could look like this:
What is your impression of the weapon so far? Will you try the Void Gauntlet? Or have you already found your favorite weapon set? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
While many players are eagerly awaiting the new update and the accompanying changes, there are currently numerous issues in the game itself. The coin transfer is currently disabled because some players have exploited dupes.
Amazon has now announced that they will take stronger action:
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