Best Weapons In New World

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New World is a brand new MMO from Amazon, set on the bizarre island of Aeternum. This game is massive and people are still just getting to grips with the Closed Beta period.

The leveling and weapon system in New World is quite unique. You level up your abilities with each weapon throughout the game rather than your character as a whole. These are called Mastery Points. This means you'll spend a lot of time with a single weapon over your playthrough. Different weapons promote a different playstyle and you can have a primary and secondary weapon to create more complex builds.

Many of these weapons might be subject to change and balancing before the full release at the end of August.

The Life Staff And Ice Gauntlet

The Life Staff is the classic Support weapon of choice. Its two trees – Healing and Protector – are packed out with abilities that are more about keeping your allies alive rather than dealing damage.

Typically, the Life Staff would be paired with an Ice Gauntlet in your off-hand for a Support build, but because of abilities like Sacred Protection (boosts healing by 10 percent while you're holding the Life Staff), it's better to keep the Staff out during fights.

Great for a Support build
Pick up mastery points in Sacred Ground, Orb of Protection, Ice Pylon

Sword And Shield

It doesn't get much simpler than the Sword and Shield combination. Designed for tanks, the two trees – Swordmaster and Defender – have a range of skills for taunting, defense, and a relatively low damage output compared to more DPS heavy builds.

Tanks will likely stack more points into Defender rather than Swordmaster. You want to pair taunt gems (the Carnelian Gems) with your Sword to bring aggro towards you in fights. Then make use of the self-healing abilities in the Defender tree, such as Recuperation.

Standard build, easy to use for new players
Specializes in tanking with skills like Shield Bash and Shield Rush, can be paired with taunt gems

Rapier And Bow Build

Unlike some of the other weapon builds already mentioned, the Rapier and Bow combo makes use of both weapons. A lot. You'll be zipping around, applying Damage Over Time effects (poison and bleed), and regularly swapping between the two weapons.

The Rapier trees, Blood and Grace, promote applying Bleed damage via the very first Tondo skill, and dodges and movement with the Evade skill. For the Bow, you want to pick up Splinter Shot first (a small AoE) and Evade Shot, which pushes you back a short distance when you fire. This combination of Bleed, Poison, and extreme maneuverability make this a great PvP build for the future.

Strong Expeditions class or great for PVP
High mobility and applies a lot of DoT with bleed and poison masteries

Musket And Rapier

This build has already seen a bit of play in PVP, making use of the range of the Musket and the combination with its Trapper tree, with skills like Stopping Power and Traps. It's going to be an extremely useful weapon for the endgame large-scale PVP that's expected with the game's full launch.

It's a good idea to pair the Musket with a weapon that allows you to get out of a tight space. Some have talked about pairing it with a Bow and using the Evade Shot skill, as well as making use of the poison shot. However, the Rapier is probably the best for its movement speed buffs and its attack speed buffs with Evade. It combos really nicely with the Musket.

Strong PVP build, Traps work well in the chaos of battle
Musket works well when paired with the mobility of the Rapier

Fire Staff and Ice Gauntlet

This is another strong PVP build, although it's also effective for leveling fast. The potential damage output of the Fire Staff is huge. However, in its current state, it's extremely mana intensive to keep up sustained skills. This is why you pair it with the Ice Gauntlet.

The Entombed skill in the Builder tree for the Gauntlet significantly boosts mana regen for a short period. You can't move or do anything, and the tomb can be broken by another player, but with a short 30-second cooldown this means you can basically be constantly full of mana. The Ice Gauntlet also helps balance the lack of defensive skills for the Fire Staff.

Massive damage output from the Fire Staff
You need to take the Entombed mastery from the Ice Gauntlet to be able to continue dealing damage

Spear And Bow

This is an interesting combo that could probably use some tweaks before the full release, but playing around with these two weapons just massive damage output feels very satisfying. You've got to be a bit careful though because there is no way of getting out of trouble, and a severe lack of defensive abilities.

There's a focus on Penetrating Shot and its subsequent skills for the Bow (heading down the Hunter tree) and pretty much maxing out the Zoner tree for the Spear. It deals massive damage, but you're basically relying on the combo of Evade Shot and Evasive Maneuvers to keep you safe in a difficult situation. This build could be great for Expeditions, just blasting through runs quickly, or for skilled PVP players who are great at kiting.

High damage build, low on defense
Evade Shot and Evasive Maneuvers is all that is keeping you alive

General Weapon Tips For New World

Different weapons scale off the various class attributes, like Dexterity or Intelligence. For example, the Bow and Rapier should have a focus on Dexterity, whereas the Life Staff is dependent purely on Focus.
There are five tiers of weapons you'll find in New World. Some tier five weapons of high rarity will come with extra gem slots, perks, and other buffs.
There are dozens of different gems that can be fused with weapons and armor. Some gems are linked with specific traits, so you could find a gem that works exactly for one weapon and one part of its skill tree. The theory crafting behind this is already staggering just because of the sheer number of combinations possible.

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