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The Bow might be one of the most reliable and versatile weapons in New World. Suited to single-target damage, the bow excels in PVP, although with the right build the weapon can also be used for Expeditions.
RELATED: New World: Best Weapons, Ranked
Our preferred build is to pair the Bow with the Hatchet, which is a build we covered in brief in our best build to level up fast guide. For this guide, we'll cover some different weapon pairings and build ideas for the Bow. There are a few good options, including the Rapier and sword.
Best Bow Build In New World
The Bow is incredibly strong, arguably the best ranged weapon in the game, overpowering the musket with its damage, fire rate, and mobility via its mastery trees. In its current state – remember, this is the Closed Beta, so things are subject to changes and tweaks – the Bow is the perfect weapon for PVP.
Here's the best way to build a Bow for PVP. Thanks to NewWorldFans for providing a great platform to experiment with builds.
Best Masteries For The PVP Bow Build
For the most part, you want to stack your active skills and passives into the Skirmisher tree.
- Evade Shot – Leap back and fire a shot at an opponent, deals 125 percent weapon damage. If tiered up with Evasive Knockback and Go The Distance, this becomes your main source of mobility.
- Poison Shot – Fantastic for PVP, the Poison debuff prevents enemies from healing, especially during the early game when most people are munching on rations to get their health back. This is an AOE ability that you fire at the ground (it creates a cloud) so try and predict your opponent's movement.
- Passives in the Skirmisher tree – This build focuses on mobility, so you pick up passives like Dodge and Weave (after you dodge, gain haste for a small period) and Archer's Speed, which grants you a speed boost whenever you switch to the bow.
However, you also do want to venture into the Hunter tree for the Rapid Shot active skill.
- Rapid Shot – This is a great active skill to follow up your Evade Shot with. Bounce back, fire off three rapid shots, and then drop a poison cloud. The third shot will also deal knockback if it connects. Just adds a little more CC to your kit.
- We also suggest picking up two passives from the Hunter tree: Long Range (extra damage from a distance) and Finishing Shot (deals extra damage to enemies that are below 50 percent health.) Long Range gives you that stronger initiate from distance and Finishing Shot might help you finish off an enemy that is running away. People love to run when they get low health. Fair enough.
RELATED: New World: Beginner Tips
Tips For A Bow Build
Here are some general gameplay tips for a Bow build, as well as which attribute points you should use, and which sort of armor you should wear.
- A Bow Build is all about taking as little damage as possible. You need to make good use of your Evade and Dodges to reduce incoming damage.
- Light Armor is preferred. That extra mobility with dodge can come in clutch.
- You want to stack your attributes into Dexterity mostly. You can play around with different attribute builds depending on your secondary weapon, but Dex is what the Bow scales off of.
Best Weapons To Pair With The Bow
The Bow works well with a few other weapons: the Hatchet, Sword, or Rapier are good examples for duelist-style PVP builds.
- Our favorite during the early leveling phase has been the Hatchet and Bow, thanks to the movement boost each weapon provides. It cuts down that quest-travel time significantly. The Hatchet might just be one of the best weapons in New World, even after its Closed Beta nerfs. The Berserk tree just seems so strong. Watch out for this one: we spy more nerfs on the horizon when the game fully releases.
- The Bow and Sword is a reliable build if want a strong solo-leveler or Expedition tank. You dive into the Constitution attribute tree and stack passives and active skills in the Sword's Defender tree, picking up skills like Shield Bash and Defiant Stance. The Bow is used as your primary damage dealer, stacking heavily into the Hunter tree rather than the Skirmisher tree. You still pick up Poison Shot and Evade, but pick up the passives in the Hunter tree instead. Mobility isn't as crucial if you're building tanky.
- The Bow and Rapier are similar to the Hatchet build, but provides even more mobility and burst damage. A fully glass-cannon build, you won't have the sustain of the Berserker tree to keep you alive. We can see this becoming a pretty high skill-gap PVP build. Some active skills to consider for the Rapier include Tondo, for Bleed damage, and Riposte, for CC. The Evade skill with the Rapier pairs nicely with the Bow's Evade Shot. You'll basically be jumping and zipping all over the place, but if you get caught…well, you're probably just dead.
You can check out some of our other build ideas here:
- New World: Best Ice Gauntlet Build
- New World: Best Spear Build
- New World: Best Musket Build
- New World: Best Support Healer Build
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