The focus of this guide is on weapons in New World. We'll cover all the Weapons and their strengths, weaknesses, and the skills each of their trees do!

The significance of weapons in New World

New World operates off a classification system that is not based on classes, which means you're "class" or build is defined purely by the weapons you decide to wield. It is possible to use two weapons at any given moment with the various options that are available, you can choose from many weapon and skill combinations.

The purpose of this guide is to give a brief overview of the different weapons and their abilities in addition to a brief discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon, and some common pairings. When you're done with this guide, you should have a decent understand of what each weapon can or would want to accomplish in terms of combat and playstyle.

Melee Weapons

The Melee weapons in New World are a pretty diverse set of weapons. You got everything from quick, one-handed weapons to slow, two handed weapons. They're all suitable for DPS however only a few possess the direct capability to tank without having to rely on evading.

One-handed melees are generally the stronger DPS options, however Two-handers have a lot of punch, but can be slower to hit. Two-handed melees provide plenty of crowd control and potential for disruption, while many melees that are one-handed lack these.

Sword and Shield

The first weapon you'll ever use within the New World, with balanced offense and defense. Focusing on the sword's skills allows you to become a highly skilled Melee DPS. Focusing in your Shield part of the tree can help you become one of the most renowned Tanks to play Party Play.

For early leveling, making use of mostly skills in the Swordmaster tree will get you the best results. It is possible to pick up Whirling Blade with any upgrades that interest you for the extra damage and AoE, and then switch into the Defender side for Shield Bash as well as Shield Rush.

The Sword and Shield scales its damage with Dexterity and Strength. So these are the stats you should be focusing on most. Strength is the most important stat of this weapon. It will increase its damage more quickly than Dexterity will. It's often paired in conjunction with it's Hatchet for Tank Setups However, it's also adaptable enough to work with just about any weapon. For magic weapons, it's going to require an item that can deal substantial damage.

Swordmaster Tree

The Swordmaster Tree is of course focused on all things Sword. It offers a variety of swords that focus on damage in Whirling Blade, the reverse Stab and Leaping Strike.

Whirling Blade is a high damage weapon that hits everything in a two meter area around you. Reverse Stab is in incredibly powerful single target attack with the greatest damage to damage ratio for it. Sword and Shield. Leaping Strike is an explosive leap followed by a powerful attack.

Whirling Blade remains one of the best AoE options the Sword can offer, with a bit more range and coverage over Light Attacks. Reverse Stab is a powerful option that offers powerful upgrades regardless of whether you concentrate on shield abilities in other ways. Leaping Strike is a popular choice, but it's not used often in the same way that Shield Rush from the Defender Tree offers more.

The ultimate of this skills tree, called Leadership, offers you and your friends with a 10% increase to damage while in a party.

Defender Tree

The Defender Tree is highly focused on the shield side of the Sword and Shield. It offers three shield-reliant skills in Shield Bash, Shield Rush, along with Defiant Stance.

Shield Bash can be a quick hit with the shield, which could cancel certain attack animations. Shield Rush is a short distance charge made with the shield, which knocks it back after hitting. The resolute Stance is one of the strongest cooldowns for defense to be found in the game.

Compared to the skills in that of the Swordmaster Tree, all of the defender skills are incredibly useful. When you use a Carnelian Gem, Shield Bash and Defiant Stance both turn into taunts. Shield Bash being mostly a single target taunt and aggro tool. Defiant Stance transforms into an AoE-based Taunt. Defiant Stance remains the most effective defensive cooldown on the market, in terms of the high Fortify value it provides. Shield Rush remains a slightly superior gap to Leaping Strike, due to the added utility it has thanks to its enhancements.

The ultimate power of this Tree, Defensive Formation can reduce damage at allies within 2m of 30%. This Ultimate is really only decent for PvE and is not as effective for PvP.

You can learn a lot more by reading our extensive Sword and Shield Guide and Best Builds article. It's very in-depth and will allow you to master the style of combat faster.

Spear

The Spear is among two melee weapons that have an option to range. Both side of this weapon have merit in their individual ways. However, throwing the spear is limited to PvP because it doesn't provide too enough constant damage to accomplish anything other than augment the Impaler Tree by launching a range option.

This weapon is excellent for PvP and PvE. It has effective crowd control as well as several options that hinder your opponent to counter.

In the beginning of Leveling the best option is to stick more to the Impaler Tree in the beginning, since the Zoner Tree doesn't offer too much early on. Once you have extra points, Sweep is an amazing choice for a pickup. Javelin can provide some niche applications, such as pulling a mob away from deep water to combat it off better.

Like like Sword and Shield, the Spear can also be scaled in strength and dexterity. But Dexterity is the more powerful factor for scaling the Spear, with Strength being an additional. The primary reason for scaling is Dexterity and the control over crowds it provides makes it an excellent melee to use in conjunction to Bow or Musket. Its lower Strength scaling make it feasible to use in conjunction with other melees.

The Zoner Tree focuses on the part that is ranged and it pairs it with several options for creating the space needed and controlling crowds for the opponent. It has three skills that can be described as Cyclone, Javelin and Sweep.

Cyclone is an incredibly fast radical attack that throws enemies forward by 3m, and also applies a 50% Slow. Javelin lets you throw your spear with a lengthy Cooldown, giving the option of a ranged attack that also staggers the enemy on hit. Sweep is a swift melee-ranged knockdown that can be followed by a devastating follow-up attack.

Of this tree Sweep has the broadest uses, being a great option for PvP and PvE. Cyclone has its own uniqueness however, it also has one of the fastest speeding options in the game tied to it. Javelin is okay for open-world PvE, or as an option to finish PvP from a distance however the cooldown can make it feel lacking.

The ultimate for this tree is Reserved Strength. It provides 25% damage at full stamina. This passive is very situational in PvPbattles, but it's likely to be in play even if you've dodged it recently. Although it's often active, it may not be as reliable as the Impaler the Tree's most powerful.

Impaler Tree

The Impaler Tree is the place where the majority of the weapon's power is. Much like Sweep off the Zoner Tree, the powers that are on the Impaler Tree are universally great. These abilities are Perforate, Skewer, and Vault Kick.

Perforate can provide a quick blast of damage through its rapid hits and quick animation, as well as applying Rend. Skewer is a single , powerful strike that can also cause bleeding, causing damages over the course of. Vault Kick is a nice gap closer that can also serve as a stun.

From this tree, all of the skills have their own uses. For PvE or PvP, you'll most likely need to pick Vault Kick and perforate, or Skewer in addition to Sweep From the Zoner Tree. This gives you an incredibly flexible skill configuration that can be used in any situation.

The most powerful of this tree, Exploited Weakness, is very simple to play in PvE. It is also very effective in PvP However, the weapon may require a little setup from additional weapons, despite having Knockdowns, Bleeds and Rend. It also has Slow and Stun in its capabilities.

Berserk is a highly effective tool, giving a wide range of buffs that benefit both PvE and PvP players immensely. Feral Rush is a very short-range dash with two follow up attacks. Raging Torrent is a set of four attacks that are performed in twice the rate of a light attack chain for a decent amount of damage.

Berserk alone is what makes it the main tree for the Hatchet with the Ultimate Passive it gets which stops death, making it invaluable for PvP, and also for PvE.

The Ultimate for the Berserker Tree, Defy Death, negates an otherwise fatal hit leaving you with 50 health. The damage is averted for 3 seconds afterwards and this ability has a cooldown of 75 seconds.