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The Spear is an extremely versatile weapon in Amazon's new MMO, New World. This best build guide covers mostly what you're looking for in PVP, although it can also be changed and tweaked to be used for leveling and PVE.
RELATED: New World: Best Weapons, Ranked
There are two very strong choices for a secondary weapon: either the Hatchet or Musket. This build will cover pairing the Spear with the Hatchet for PVP, although the Musket works just as well. If you prefer, you can exchange the Musket for the Bow. Both weapons have pros and cons.
Note: New World is currently in Closed Beta, which means this guide is subject to change. We will continue to update this guide, and our other build guides, for the full release of the game.
Best Spear Build In New World
For the purposes of this guide, we'll cover the best Spear and Hatchet combo. The Hatchet is arguably one of the very best weapons in New World, mostly thanks to its powerful Berserk ability.
We'll cover the benefits of the Hatchet below, but first up, the Spear. Here's a look at the best attributes and masteries for the Spear, as well as which active skills you should pick up.
Best Spear Masteries
For this build, we've headed deep into the Zoner tree to increase critical hits and scale critical damage via the passives. Thanks to NewWorldFans for the ability to craft and tweak builds via their site, you can visit them here to try out your own builds. Here are the active skills you should pick up.
- Sweep – Sweep is a crucial skill for this PVP Spear build. When activated, Sweep will knock your enemy's legs out from underneath them, disabling them for a short period. This is very effective in PVP.
- Vault Kick – A powerful PVP CC ability that will also stun your opponents, and allow you to be mobile during the fight.
- Javelin – When combined with the Hatchet, the Spear has very little range unless you pick up the Javelin. Not only does this give you a chance to get an attack off from distance, but the Javelin will also knock your opponent into a stagger.
The entire purpose of the Spear is to control your enemy. Keep them downed for as long as possible, and then switch to the Hatchet in Berserk to either chase down an opponent or start dealing more damage.
Key things to remember about the Spear:
- The Spear scales off Dexterity, although does have a secondary stat for Strength.
- The Spear also has the longest weapon reach of any melee weapon in the game, ideal for keeping your enemies at a distance during a PVP fight.
RELATED: New World: Beginner Tips
Best Hatchet Masteries
The Hatchet is one of our favorite weapons in New World. Not only do its various speed-boosting abilities, make it much easier to traverse the wide-open spaces of the game, but it's also incredibly versatile and can be paired with many other weapon types. For this build, we went quite deep into the Throwing tree, mostly for range during PVP and to scale those debuffs and headshot multipliers via the passives.
- Berserk – Berserk is a fundamental skill for the Hatchet. It provides you with speed, sustainability, and damage. Activating Berserk is a great way to chase down a fleeing enemy (most players run away in PVP if their health gets low) and also to give you a boost if you've taken too much damage.
- Social Distancing -Social Distancing provides you with more mobility, with dodge and evades akin to using the Bow rather than the Hatchet. Either will work for this build, remember. However, the Hatchet's throwing passives and abilities (like Infected Throw) give you the opportunity to deal more damage as you dodge and weave around your enemy.
- Infected Throw – This is a key skill during PVP. Inflicting your opponent with Disease will prevent them from healing for a short period, particularly during the start of the game when people are mostly using Rations to heal.
Key things to remember about the Hatchet:
- The Hatchet scales off Strength. You can make the choice between whether you are using the Spear or Hatchet more, although for the ideal Spear build you want to spec into Dexterity for the Spear.
- The Hatchet is a fantastic weapon to switch to while a) trying to run away from an opponent, b) trying to chase an opponent down.
Gameplay Tips For A Spear Build
- This Spear build mostly focuses on PVP, although with some tweaks it can also be useful for PVE. Those CC abilities with the Spear can be used against large numbers of enemies, especially if you switch out to the Cyclone AOE ability rather than the Javelin, for example.
- The best armor to use for a Spear build is probably Light Armor. That extra mobility is crucial for PVP. If you're using the Spear for Expeditions or PVE, you may want to switch it out to a full medium set of armor.
- You want to initiate combat with the Spear and then switch to the Hatchet. Apply the various active debuffs (knockdown, stagger) with the Spear, then switch to the Hatchet for rapid attacks.
You can check out our other weapon build guides here:
NEXT: New World Standard Edition Vs. Deluxe – Which Is Better?
