New World Guide to Weapons for Beginners

This guide’s focus are weapons in New World. We’ll cover the Weapons and their strengths, weaknesses, and what each of their skill trees do!

Importance of Weapons in New World

New World operates off a classless system, so your “class” or build is defined purely by the weapons you choose to wield. You can use two weapons at any given time, and with the options that are available, there’s plenty of weapon and skill combinations.

This purpose of this guide is to briefly explain each weapon and its skills, talk a bit about it’s strengths and weaknesses, and some common pairings. By the end of this guide, you should have a decent understand of what each weapon can or would want to do in terms of combat and playstyle.

Table of contents

Melee Weapons

Sword and Shield

Swordmaster Tree

Defender Tree

Spear

Zoner Tree

Impaler Tree

Hatchet

Berserker Tree

Throwing Tree

Great Axe

The Reaper Tree

The Mauler Tree

War Hammer

The Juggernaut Tree

Crowd Crusher Tree

Rapier

Blood Tree

Grace Tree

Ranged and Magic Weapons

Bow

Skirmisher Tree

Hunter Tree

Musket

Sharpshooter Tree

Trapper Tree

Fire Staff

Fire Mage Tree

Pyromancer Tree

Ice Gauntlet

Ice Tempest Tree

Builder Tree

Life Staff

Healing Tree

Protector Tree

Melee Weapons

The Melee weapons in New World are a pretty mixed bunch. You got everything from quick, one-handed weapons to slow, two handed weapons. All of which are capable of being used for DPS, but only a few have the direct capability to tank, without relying on evading.

One-handed Melees tend to be the stronger DPS options, however Two-handers pack quite a punch but hit slower. Two-handed melee also offer a lot of crowd control and disruption potential, where most one-handed melees lack these.

Sword and Shield

The very first weapon you’ll use in New World, with balanced offense and defense. Focusing on the sword skills lets you become a very capable Melee DPS. Meanwhile, focusing on the Shield side of the tree let’s you be one of the premiere Tanks for Party Play.

For Early leveling, using mostly skills in the Swordmaster tree goes the farthest. You can just take Whirling Blade with any upgrades that interest you for the extra damage and AoE, then move over to the Defender side for Shield Bash and Shield Rush.

The Sword and Shield scales it’s damage with Strength and Dexterity, so these are the stats you will want to focus on the most. Strength is the primary stat for this weapon, which will scale its damage faster than Dexterity can. It’s often paired with the Hatchet for Tank Setups, but is flexible enough to be paired with just about any weapon. Though for magic weapons, it will require a gem to deal decent damage.

Swordmaster Tree

The Swordmaster Tree is of course focused on all things Sword. It offers a variety of damage focused sword skills in Whirling Blade, Reverse Stab and Leaping Strike.

Whirling Blade is a high damage attack that hits everything in a two meter range around you. Reverse Stab is in incredibly powerful single target attack with the highest damage ratio for the Sword and Shield. Leaping Strike is a quick leap, followed by a hard hitting attack.

Whirling Blade remains one of the best AoE options the Sword has, having a bit more range and coverage over Light Attacks. Reverse Stab is a powerful option with strong upgrades, even if you focus on shield skills otherwise. Leaping Strike tends to go unused, as Shield Rush from the Defender Tree provides more.

The Ultimate for this skill tree, Leadership, provides you and all your allies 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, and Defiant Stance.

Shield Bash is quick hit with the shield, which can cancel some attack animations. Shield Rush is a short distance charge with the shield, knocking them back when hit. Defiant Stance is one of the strongest defensive cooldowns in the game.

Compared to the skills in the Swordmaster Tree, all of the defender skills are incredibly useful. With the use of a Carnelian Gem, Shield Bash and Defiant Stance both become taunts; Shield Bash being mostly a single target Taunt and aggro tool, while Defiant Stance becomes an AoE Taunt. Defiant Stance itself is still the best defensive cooldown in the game, in terms of the high Fortify value it provides. Shield Rush remains a slightly better gap closer than Leaping Strike, due to the added utility it has with its upgrades.

The Ultimate ability for this Tree, Defensive Formation, reduces damage to allies within 2m by 30%. This Ultimate is really only decent for PvE content and will provide less for PvP.

Spear

The Spear is one of a couple melee weapons that has a ranged option. Both side of this weapon are good in their own ways. However, throwing the spear is more limited to PvP as it doesn’t provide too enough consistent damage to do anything more than supplement the Impaler Tree with a range initiation option.

This weapon is fantastic for both PvE and PvP. It offers a lot of potent crowd control and several statuses that can make it harder for your opponent to fight back.

For early Leveling, it’s best to stick more to the Impaler Tree, as the Zoner Tree doesn’t offer too much early on. Once you have extra points, Sweep is a fantastic pickup, and Javelin can provide some niche uses like pulling a mob away from deep water to fight it better.

Similar to the Sword and Shield, the Spear also scales with Dexterity and Strength. However Dexterity is the higher scaling stat for the Spear, with Strength being secondary. Primarily scaling with Dexterity as well as the amount of crowd control it can offer make it a good melee to pair with Bow or Musket. It’s lower Strength scaling does make it pretty viable to be paired with most other melees.

Zoner Tree

The Zoner Tree focuses on the ranged component and pairs it with multiple options for creating space and crowd controlling an opponent. It has three skills that go by Cyclone, Javelin and Sweep.

Cyclone is a quick radial attack that pushes foes back 3m and applies a 50% Slow. Javelin lets you throw your spear on a lengthy Cooldown, giving you a ranged option that also staggers the enemy on hit. Sweep is a quick melee-ranged knockdown which can be given a powerful follow up attack.

Out of this tree, Sweep has the broadest uses, being a great option for both PvE and PvP. Cyclone can be situational, but has one of the strongest slows in the game attached to it. Javelin is okay for open-world PvE, or as a ranged finisher in PvP, but the cooldown make it feel lacking.

The Ultimate for this tree, Reserved Strength, grants 25% damage while at full stamina. This passive is very situational in PvP, but likely to be active unless you’ve dodged recently. While it’s up frequently, it may not be as reliable compared to the Impaler Tree’s Ultimate.

Impaler Tree

The Impaler Tree is where most of this weapon’s strength is. Much like Sweep from the Zoner Tree, the abilities on the Impaler Tree are all universally good. These abilities are Perforate, Skewer, and Vault Kick.

Perforate can provide a quick burst of damage with it rapid hits and quick animation, while also applying Rend. Skewer is a single powerful hit which can also inflict a bleed, dealing damage over time. Vault Kick is a nice gap closer that also doubles as a stun.

Out of this tree, all of the skills have their uses. For PvE or PvP, you’ll very often want to take Vault Kick and either Perforate or Skewer along with Sweep from the Zoner Tree. This results in a flexible skill setup that works in any scenario.

The Ultimate for this tree, Exploited Weakness, is very easy to use in PvE. In PvP however, it may rely on a bit of setup from additional weapons, despite having Bleeds, Knockdown, Rend, Slow and Stun from its skills.

Hatchet

The Hatchet is one of a couple melees that has a ranged option. Half of its tree is dedicated to this range component, being the Throwing Tree. The other half focuses on relentless and powerful attacks, called the Berserker Tree.

It’s a great weapon for both PvE and PvP. However, its biggest drawback is that most of its power is in a single cooldown. This can make it feel bland and boring as a weapon as many others have many useful skills.

For Leveling Purposes, the skill combination of Berserk and Raging Torrent make for a good combination. The last skill can be Feral Rush for the short dash or PvP utility, or Rending Throw to dispatch enemies faster in PvE.

Much like the Sword and Shield, it scales with Strength primarily,with Dexterity being a secondary stat. Thanks to scaling with the same main stat, It’s often paired with the Sword and Shield to give extra sustain and damage to an already strong tank build. The Secondary scaling means it can also be paired with the likes of Bow, Musket and the Spear.

Berserker Tree

This tree is the go-to tree for the Hatchet. While throwing provides some additional utility, most of the Hatchet’s PvE and PvP strength lies in this tree. The Berserker path has three skills, Berserk, Feral Rush and Raging Torrent.

Berserk is a very powerful tool, offering a multitude of buffs that benefit both PvE and PvP players greatly. Feral Rush is a short range dash that has two follow up attacks. Raging Torrent is series of four attacks that are performed at twice the speed of the light attack chain for decent burst damage.

Berserk alone is what makes this the primary tree for the Hatchet, between this and the Ultimate Passive it gets which prevents death makes it invaluable for PvP, and equally strong for PvE.

The Ultimate for the Berserker Tree, Defy Death, negates an otherwise fatal hit leaving you at 50 Health. You’re immune to damage for 3 seconds afterwards and this effect has a 75 second cooldown.

Throwing Tree

The Throwing tree has some decent utility, offering several throwing abilities with useful effects. The Throwing Tree has three skills, which go by Rending Throw, Social Distancing, and Infected Throw.

There’s Rending Throw which reduces enemy Damage absorption, increasing your damage output. Social Distancing provides a slow coupled with backwards movement when can be good for spacing out opponents in PvP. Finally there’s Infected Throw, which is one of the only abilities that can apply the Disease status to reduce healing.

This tree also has a node which can replace your block with the ability to throw the hatchet. This coupled with additional nodes in the Throwing Tree can allow for a barrage of crits if you can hit your target in the head repeatedly. There’s also passives that refund stamina is the target is crit or afflicted with a status

The Ultimate for the Throwing Tree, Persistent Hindrance, extends the duration of all hatchet debuffs by 30% with a successful hit with a thrown axe. Since every thrown axe skill has a debuff applied to it, you can extend them for a much longer duration, keeping them slowed, rended, weakened and even diseased for decent lengths of time if you land your hits.

Great Axe

For a Heavy Melee weapon, the Great Axe offers a surprising amount of chase and catch potential, as well as a lot of damage potential. Both the Mauler and Reaper Trees are fairly balanced in what they offer.

The Great Axe typically can feel lacking in PvE. While it has great AoE with it’s high range cleaving attacks and lots of AoE skills, in terms of dealing damage it often feels lacking. However in PvP it can feel incredibly unbalanced, just due to the high amount of lockdown it offers.

For Early leveling You may want to start with Maelstrom and Whirlwind. If you’re focusing on using it purely for PvP, Charge and Gravity Well are often the skills to prioritize. In both cases the third skill is often Execute, unless you want to use Charge to traverse the open world slightly faster.

As a Two Handed Melee weapon, it scales only off Strength for damage. This often leads to it being used to supplement another Melee weapon, as it has no additional scaling. It’s most commonly paired with the Hatchet as it makes up for the lack of the Hatchet’s utility when going for the berserker build.

The Reaper Tree

The Reaper Tree is the more commonly used tree for PvP. It offers a great mix of Catch potential and damage between its skills. These skills consist of Charge, Reap and Execute.

Charge is a dash skills which can cover up to ten meters, making it one of the longest dash skills in the game. Reap is a very situational skill, which can pull any enemy that’s five meters away to you (or eight when upgraded). Finally there’s Execute, a slow wind-up but very powerful melee attack that gets stronger versus low health enemies.

Out of this Tree, Charge and Execute are used the most often. Charge is an extremely good gap closer, especially in PvP. While Execute isn’t a great skill, it does often complement the lockdown ability of this weapon and provides potent burst. Reap is very situational, because while it can pull a somewhat distant enemy to you, it doesn’t have a direct follow up attack, so there’s a window where the pulled target can hit you for free. The maximum 8 meter range of Reap is also easier and safer to close with the Blood Lust passive.

The Ultimate for this tree, Blood Lust, is what makes it highly used in PvP. A 30% Haste towards foes within 15m can make this an absolutely terrifying weapon to deal with. If they get on top of you, you’re gonna have to fight it out, as the chances of getting away are pretty low without a plan.

The Mauler Tree

The Tree is more favored for PvE aspects, outside of one particular skill. The Mauler Tree offers a lot of AoE, which helps it provide a ton of damage for PvE. The skills for this tree consist of Whirlwind, Maelstrom and Gravity Well.

Whirlwind is your casual spin to win ability, spinning up to four time when it connects with an enemy (up to seven when upgraded). Maelstrom is a pull skill, similar to that of Reap but in an small radius instead of a line. However since it’s often used in PvE where there’s less issues pulling enemies to you, it lets you get more enemies in range to deal a high amount of AoE damage with Whirlwind. Gravity Well is one of the strongest way to group or hold enemies in place.

The Combination of Whirlwind and Maelstrom make this weapon decent for PvE, though many one handed weapons can potentially outshine it due to slower, but harder hitting attacks. Gravity Well is exceptionally good for PvP, being able to hold most players in place or at least force a defensive cooldown out of them.

The Ultimate for the Mauler Tree, Mauler’s Fury, increases your damage by 3% for 3 seconds with each hit. This stacks up to 30% and encourages relentless attacking. This unfortunate side of this however, is the low duration of the buff and the number of hits required to fully stack it. In a lot of cases, one missed ability or attack can see this bonus falling off.

War Hammer

The War Hammer is much like the Great Axe; Decent for PvE but more useful for PvP. It may be a slow weapon but it also provides an immense amount of crowd control options between both trees. The Juggernaut Tree provide a lot of your single target options, while Crowd Crusher provides plenty of AoE.

The War Hammer is often typically only used in PvP, and even then scarcely due to the slow attacks and long wind-ups on many of its skills. It’s strongest use case is to wreak havoc in large scale PvP situations like organized Faction attacks and Wars, where it’s High Crowd Control and AoE work the best.

For the Early Levels, I’d prioritize Shockwave and Path of Destiny from the Crowd Crusher Tree to make the most of it’s AoE Potential with Armor Breaker or Mighty Gavel as a strong single target option for beefier targets. In PvP it’s much the same, though Wrecking Ball may provide more than Path of Destiny.

Similarly to the Great Axe, the War Hammer scales purely off Strength. It’d be best paired with a weapon like hatchet, which lacks AoE and a ton of crowd control of its own. It can also be paired with the like of Sword and Shield to focus on soaking damage and dishing out crowd control. You can even pair it with Great Axe, which cover its weakness of low mobility.

The Juggernaut Tree

The Juggernaut Tree is more heavily focused on single target damage, with only one AoE skill of its own. Between single target skills and the Armor Penetration provided, it can certainly hold it’s own in 1v1 situations for both PvE and PvP. The Skill of the Juggernaut Tree consist of Armor Breaker, Mighty Gavel and Wrecking Ball.

Armor Breaker is a hard hitting attack that’s coupled with Armor Penetration, making it a decent option for larger PvE enemies as well as opposing players. Mighty Gavel is a powerful overhead attack, which can be upgrade to hit twice, with the second hit dealing more damage. Wrecking Ball is the only crowd control on this side of the weapon tree, provide Flatten (similar to knockdown) to either single target or a small area.

The Ultimate for this tree, Justice For All, is linked to Mighty Gavel, giving it a second, stronger follow up hit. This make it a very powerful PvE attack, and with the setup the weapon has for it, it can also be very high burst for PvP, provided you can land both hits.

Crowd Crusher Tree

As its name would imply, the Crowd Crusher tree is focused on high AoE attacks and plenty of crowd control. With bonuses that layer on additional damage and crowd control, this powerful tree stands out in both PvE and PvP. The Skills of the Crowd Crusher Tree are called Clear Out, Path of Destiny and Shockwave.

Clear Out tends to be the more situational skill here, only offering a slightly increased damage ratio and a small knockback. Though paired with the Ultimate from this tree, it can create a good amount of breathing room. Path of Destiny and the high AoE and stagger it offers makes it potent for both PvE and PvP when fully upgraded. Shockwave may have smaller AoE compared to Path of Destiny, but being able to stun and weaken crowds in a decent sized AoE makes it pretty impactful.

Path of Destiny and Shockwave both seem to be go-to skills for the War Hammer, and for good reason. The amount of AoE and crowd control offered in just these two skills is pretty great.

The Ultimate for the Crowd Crusher Tree, Aftershock, applies an additional 20% slow for four second on top of any other crowd control effects. This passive alone can make it so once a War Hammer is on top of you, they’re going to stay there; making the War Hammer devastating in large scale PvP.

Rapier

The Rapier’s two trees, Blood and Grace each have their own distinct focuses. Blood focuses on Damage over Time and quick Bursts or damage. Grace focuses heavily on being a more defensive tree, focusing more on mobility and avoidance rather than raw damage.

Despite appearances, the Rapier has relatively high range for a one handed weapon. Though most of it’s attacks are narrow thrusts which reward precision and practice, capitalizing on that duelist fantasy as a selling point.

This weapon is great for both PvE and PvP, being both very flexible and generally able to provide consistent damage regardless of build for the most part. For Leveling purposes, I recommend the combination of Tondo, Flurry and Evade. This gives you pretty good damage output and an extra evasion tool.

The Rapier Primarily scales with Dexterity and has Intelligence as a secondary stat. The Primary stat often has it be great second weapon for Bow and Musket Users. The secondary stat often make it a go-to option to pair with Magic Weapons.

Blood Tree

This tree focuses on purely damage, both in providing consistent DPS and damage over time as well as quick burst. It does so through the skills called Tondo, Flourish/Finish, and Flurry.

Tondo is the main skill that ties the tree together, it provides a medium range damage skill with a stackable bleed. Flourish and Finish plays off these bleed stacks, giving the ability to detonate them for high burst damage. While Flurry provide very quick attacks that can be used to trigger cooldown reductions effects from the weapon or other passives.

This tree excels in PvE, giving you the most damage options and very easily outpacing a few of the other melee options. Need AoE/DoT Damage? Take Tondo. Need Burst? Pair Flourish/Finish with Tondo. Need raw DPS? Take Flurry.

Tondo and Flourish/Finish can both be great PvP options as well and reward skillful positioning. Though the Grace Tree has the more flexible options for PvP.

The Ultimate skill for this tree, Bloody End, is linked to Flourish/Finish. This skill makes you execute Bleed for 150% damage instead of 110%, enhancing the burst potential even further.

Grace Tree

If you’ve envisioned the Rapier as a 1v1 Duelist type of weapon, this tree hits that fantasy perfectly. With Evade, which gives you a low cooldown dodge that costs no stamina and a quick counter attack. Riposte gives you that satisfying parry effect, stunning the opponent if you successfully block and attack. Finally there’s Fleche which give you a dash, which goes though enemies which can let you get in quick backstabs or create distance to space yourself and make better use of your range.

This tree is very easily PvP oriented; unless for some reason you want to attempt to tank with Rapier like a madman. Evade is a fantastic positioning tool and extra dodge all in one, which make it quite good. Fleche let’s you reposition easily, and can even be decent burst when upgraded with the Interruption passive. Riposte is a little more niche, as while it is a counter, it’s one you’ll have to time just right against someone expecting it.

Fleche and Evade are also decently useful in PvE as well. The extra mobility and evasion tools are worth have for open world content, though the trio of skills from the Blood Tree are still better in group play.

The Ultimate skill for this tree, Momentum, grants 25% increased damage on your next Light or Heavy Attack after using an ability. Combined with skills like Evade which can be used frequently, this provides a pretty solid bonus to damage.

Ranged and Magic Weapons

All of the Ranged and Magic in New World are balanced around attacking slower than most melee options, however they have the range advantage. This does not make them in any way better or worse than Melee Weapons, but gives them a nice balance.

Ranged Weapons, being the Bow and Musket, both rely on Ammo, while also having to prepare each shot before being able to fire; whether it’s loading bullets, or nocking an arrow. With passives and practice, they can deal high damage at very high ranges without their opponent potentially being any the wiser.

Magic Weapons also rely on Mana, which without item or passive assistance can run out very quickly. Magic Weapons also tend to be more of a medium range damage option, often needing to just outside of melee range to deal damage effectively.

Bow

The Bow has two trees, Skirmisher and Hunter. The Skirmisher Tree focuses on primarily Utility and AoE Skills, but has a couple great damage options. The Hunter Tree Focuses entirely on high damage and precision attacks.

This weapon is great for both PvE and PvP where it’s rather surprising amount of burst can often catch people off guard or deal with threats before they get into range to damage you.

For Leveling, I recommend a skill combination of Rapid Shot, Penetrating Shot and Poison Shot. These skills are all fairly high damage output and great skills. If you want some AoE or plan to PvP, swapping Rapid Shot for Rain of Arrows can be a good consideration.

The Bow scales purely off Dexterity, making weapons like the Spear and Rapier great pairing options. It can also pair decently well with Sword and Shield or Hatchet as well, thanks to them also getting some damage out of Dexterity as well with provide a lot of Utility.

Skirmisher Tree

The Skirmisher Tree tends to be the preferred Tree for PvP, due to the options and utility it can provide. It’s not as reliant on constant precision for damage and makes it harder for you to be caught as easily. The Skills of the Skirmisher Tree are Evade Shot, Poison Shot, and Rain of Arrows.

Evade Shot is the typical bow attack combined with a backwards leap, letting you create distance from your foes. It can even be upgraded to have a Slow letting you create even more space. Poison Shot is a rather weak DoT effect, but can be upgraded to be one of the bows single hardest hitting skills. Rain of Arrows can provide a decent amount of damage, and be be further upgraded to apply both a Bleed and a Slow.

Evade Shot is more commonly used only in PvP, since what it offers as a skill is less useful in PvE. However, Poison Shot and Rain of Arrows can both be effective in PvE or PvP thanks to their damage potential.

The Ultimate for the Skirmisher Tree, Knee Shot, applies a 10% Slow for a short two second duration. This has it’s uses for kiting in PvP, but overall the power and duration of this Slow don’t contribute all that much in the long run. It can be a consistent slow, but without additional help, isn’t going to keep most melee player from reaching you.

Hunter Tree

The Hunter Tree is the preferred tree for PvE, thanks to it’s assortment of damage skills that can also be scaled up through both Headshot and Crits very easily. Both of which can be very easy to land on most enemies. The Skills of the Hunter Tree are Penetrating Shot, Rapid Shot and Splinter Shot.

Penetrating Arrow is a powerful damage skill, which is often used for its ability to cancel the heavy attack animation for quick bursts of damage. Rapid Shot lets you fire off three arrows at a much faster rate than manually firing them, with the last shot doing more damage. Splinter Shot is more of an AoE damage tool now, but with practice and good position can provide okay burst damage as well.

Of this Tree’s skills, Penetrating Shot is the most used. Its ability to animation cancel other skills and attacks makes it invaluable for both PvE and PvP content. Rapid Shot is often used in PvE, and very situationally in PvP because of the faster attacks it grants. Splinter Shot is rarely used, due to the precise positioning needed to really maximize its damage.

The Hunter Tree’s Ultimate, Concussion, is great for both PvE and PvP, giving you both 20% more damage on headshot and a chance to refund ammo. The ammo part is a nice bonus, but the extra damage for headshots the biggest part. In groups or large scale PvP, if you can go uncontested with a Bow and land headshots frequently, your damage output is insanely high.

Musket

The Musket has two very different skill trees in Sharpshooter and Trapper. Sharpshooter really pushes the general DPS side of things, while Trapper is both defensive and can provide high single target damage.

This weapon is great in PvE and PvP situations, being able to deal tons of damage but lacking AoE options compared to the Bow. It can surprise a lot of players in PvP, as unlike the Bow it can be fired while lying prone. Which can mean outside of following a very quick tracer trail, you can be incredibly hard to pinpoint.

For Leveling, I recommend the skill loadout of Power Shot, Powder Burn and Shooter’s Stance. This setup also does well for PvP, allowing for more consistent pressure on your enemy, whether it’s AI or another player.

This weapon scales primarily off Dexterity, but also scales with Intelligence. This makes the Rapier a strong pairing, but weapons like the Spear tend to be a better pairing. The Secondary stat can allow it to pair with the Fire Staff or Ice Gauntlet decently, since both have better close range options than the musket itself.

Sharpshooter Tree

As its name implies the Sharpshooter tree is focused on provided power through precision. Many of it’s passives and skill passives provide some benefit to accurate shots. The Skills for the Sharpshooter Tree consist of Powder Burn, Power Shot and Shooter’s Stance

Powder Burn loads a musket shot that deals a little extra damage and inflicts a burn that deals a portion of your weapon damage per second; this effect cannot be combined with Power Shot or Stopping Power. Power Shot loads a powerful shot for your musket that deals High damage; This effect cannot be combined with Powder Burn or Stopping Power. Shooter’s Stance has you enter a stance which makes you unable to move, but are able to load and fire rounds much quicker and expires after a set number of rounds.

Powder Burn is an excellent option in PvE or PvP. The extra and relatively strong DoT effect help the Musket deal consistent damage, filling the gaps during reloads. Power Shot is also great for both PvE and PvP, providing a single powerful shot as a good heavy hitting option, working the best when catching an enemy by surprise. Shooter’s Stance is also great in both PvE and PvP due to the burst it can provide, allowing you to get shots off much quicker, but comes with a risk for PvP.

The Ultimate for the Sharpshooter Tree, Sniper, Grants a bonus 15% damage to headshot, while enabling a higher zoom level with the Musket. Which if you can consistently land headshots, is where a lot of your damage in PvE or PvP will come from, making it a solid passive for either.

Trapper Tree

The Trapper Tree heavily focuses on the use of a few more utility skills. Many of it’s passive grant additional damage and utility for hitting targets with debuffs, which this tree is okay at handing out. The Skills for the Trapper Tree consist of Stopping Power, Traps and Sticky Bomb.

As the name of this tree would imply, Traps is the highlight of this tree. You place (or throw after an upgrade) a trap that roots any enemy that triggers it. Stopping Power is distinctly a PvP option, giving the loaded shot a small bonus to damage, a Stagger, and a short knockback. Sticky Bomb throws a sticky bomb that can stick to players or surfaces eventually detonating after three seconds for high damage in a 3m AoE.

They can be tricky to use in PvP, but Root and can also apply Rend to trapped enemies. In PvE, it’s easier to get enemies to follow you into them, but there’s better skills for PvE. When upgraded Stopping Power can also get access to Exhaust and Slow, making it a good kiting option. Sticky Bomb is a very high damage option, but with very limited range which tends to be it’s biggest draw back, and generally requires a slow or Root to land effectively.

The Ultimate for the Trapper Tree, Lethal Combo, grants 20% damage against targets with a Trapper Tree status effect. This means in addition to the Rend on Traps, or the slows on Sticky Bombs or Stopping Power, you effectively gain Empower during those statues.

Fire Staff

The Fire Staff has two Skill Trees, Fire Mage and Pyromancer. The Fire Mage Tree focuses heavily on AoE spells with high damage. The Pyromancer focuses on a slower, DoT style of damage with more focus on utility.

This weapon is exception in both PvE and PvP, but works best in PvE. For it to work in PvP, it’s generally better in Wars and in large scale skirmishes where it’s area control and damage can shine through. It does skill pack enough punch to really hit you hard if you get caught by surprise and you don’t react to the skills fast enough.

For Leveling, I recommend the skill setup of Fire Pillar, Fireball and Burn Out. Fireball and Fire Pillar provide strong damage while Burnout is great utility. You could replace Burn Out with Incinerate for additional damage but lesser utility.

Being a Magic Weapon, this weapon scales entirely with Intelligence for damage. This often get it paired with the Rapier for an off hand, but the Ice Gauntlet or Musket can also work well. Through the use of one of the elemental gems, you can also make just about any weapons scale decently with Intelligence, though to a much lesser degree than even a secondary stat would.

Fire Mage Tree

The Fire Mage Tree focuses primarily on AoE, but also high burst damage spells. It gets bonuses to spell casts like an increased chance to crit, burn on crit and more crit damage. The Fire Mage Tree features the classic spells of Fire Pillar, Meteor Shower and of course, Fireball.

Fire Pillar casts an area on the ground, which erupts moments later with a pillar of fire dealing high damage. Meteor Shower deals one hit of damage followed by a consistent AoE that deals Damage over Time while channeling. Fireball is actually an impact spell that can deal high damage like Fire Pillar, but also leaves a patch of burning ground wherever it hits.

Fire Pillar tends to work best in PvE, as the delay can make it very predictable and easy to avoid in PvP. However if it’s the first thing you land in PvP, it can make a huge impact and hit really hard. Meteor Shower is almost PvE exclusive, but its large AoE can make an impact in War or other large Scale fights if you’re decently well protected during cast. It can also gain Grit during cast, making it easier to get the full channel off if you’re not just getting focused down. Fireball does a heavy burst of damage on impact, and leaves a pretty mediocre burning field. It can force people to reposition, but rarely due to the low damage.

The Ultimate for the Fire Mage Tree, Runes of Helios, places two meter AoE on the ground which increases your spell damage by 30%. This lasts for 7 seconds and can activate every 30 seconds. This is more useful in PvE where you don’t often have to worry about standing relatively still. If you’re well protected, it can greatly increase your damage output in large Scale PvP. For small scale PvP, it’s a little bit harder to use due to having to be in the AoE to use it.

Pyromancer Tree

The Pyromancer Tree focuses on utility and more single target damage. It deals consistent damage through inflicting burns, but also has a burst skill of it’s own which doubles as a utility skill. The Pyromancer Skill Tree features the skills of Flamethrower, Incinerate and Burn Out.

Flamethrower does exactly as you’d expect, channeling a stream of flames from the end of your staff over a short distance. Incinerate is a skill that deals high damage in a small area around you and pushes enemies back 3m while inflicting a burn. Burn Out cloaks you in flames as you dash forward a medium distance, inflicting damage and a burn on enemies that you pass though.

Flamethrower is your consistent damage tool for PvE, dealing moderate DPS, but also rapidly stacking up a burn. This skill is a channel and you can channel it for as long as your mana allows. It can be used in PvP but can be tough to utilize. Incinerate has a low range, but can combo with Burn Out, making it easier to land both skills. It also has a passive that makes it deal it’s high burst damage twice, while also stacking the burn twice. Burn Out is mostly a positioning tool, used to setup for Incinerate or follow up on it. It’s also a very strong utility skill, give the amount of mobility it can provide.

The Ultimate for the Pyromancer Tree, Reheat, increases your Mana Regen by a significant amount when not using a fire staff skill for 6 seconds. This should mean that after casting your skills, you’ll almost guaranteed to be back up to or near full mana for the next set of casts. As the Fire Staff can be very mana hungry, this makes this a good passive for both PvE and PvP, but is a bit more PvP favored. This combined with mana regen foods and potions can make it easy to keep your mana topped off and ready to go.

Ice Gauntlet

The Ice Gauntlet has two Skill Trees, Ice Tempest and Builder. Ice Tempest is a more offensive tree, which has a lot of AoE damage and area denial skills. The Builder Tree focuses on duration based skills that provide a mix of offensive, and defensive power.

This weapon tends to do better in PvP, specifically large scale PvP, as while it’s pretty light on damage compared to the Fire Staff, it’s absurdly good at crowd control. This lack of raw damage make it a harder to pull off weapon in PvE, but it can still do decently well regardless.

For Leveling, I recommend the skill combination of Ice Storm, Ice Pylon and Entomb. All of the listed skills are great for damage, with Entomb doubling as a defensive skill. combined with some of the passives for Frosted Ground, you also end up having a bit less mana troubles, but can still run out very easily.

Being a Magic Weapon, this weapon scales entirely with Intelligence for damage. This often get it paired with the Rapier for an off hand, but the Fire Staff or even Musket can also work well. Through the use of one of the elemental gems, you can also make just about any weapons scale decently with Intelligence, though to a much lesser degree than even a secondary stat would.

Ice Tempest Tree

The Ice Tempest Tree is where you’ll find both your highest damage skill and one of your strongest utility/zoning skills. This tree primarily focuses on direct damage while, other effects seem to be more secondary. The Skill for the Ice Tempest Tree are Ice Spikes, Ice Storm and Wind Chill.

Ice Spikes sends out a cascade of frozen spike that deal light damage, ending with a larger Mighty Spike that deal very high damage. This skill can be canceled early for short range or for quicker burst. Ice Storm casts a large AoE that slows enemies while dealing rapid damage. Wind Chill is create a column of freezing winds that pushes back enemies within 5m in front of you, and also deals 20% increased damage to enemies beyond that 5 meters.

Ice Spikes are unfortunately a niche skill, and and used mostly only in PvE content. While the damage potential is there for it to be a good skill for PvP, there are just other skills that provide less damage but massively outshine it in utility. Ice Storm is both one of the best zoning tools you have, as well as as the best AoE damage you have. The mass Slow potential and rapid damage hits can whittle down huge groups in large scale PvP. Wind Chill is also pretty niche, it’s an okay-ish utility for pushing enemies out of protective zones, but doesn’t see much use in PvE or PvP.

The Ultimate for the Ice Tempest, Ultimate Chill, makes your abilties apply chill for 3 seconds on hit, increasing Ice Damage by 35%. This passive alone can really make Ice Gauntlets deal pretty substantial damage, making more usable in PvE, and stronger for large Scale PvP where multiple Ice Gauntlets can be playing off one another to keep enemies slowed and chilled for long period of time with Ice Storm.

Builder Tree

The Builder Tree is almost entirely Utility focused, though there is still some okay damage to be found with the utility. It’s not very high damage, but it can help deal more damage regardless. The Skills of the Builder Tree consist of Ice Pylon, Ice Shower and Entomb.

Ice Pylon creates a pylon that attacks enemies within a pretty decent range of where it’s placed, dealing half of your weapon’s total damage. Ice Shower creates a icy shower in the area in front of you, applying Frostbite. Frostbite is a powerful debuff that roots, then slows by 50% after the root subsides. Entomb is a defensive skill that allows you to encase yourself in Ice to block damage. The skill can be canceled for free, or with an extra cost that also deals damage and knocks back enemies.

Ice Pylon is typically a distraction or diversion for PvP, or a means to continues to deal damage when you’re otherwise unable, keeping the pressure on your opponents. In terms of PvE it’s a decent skill that can contribute meaningful damage in solo or group play. Ice Shower is purely PvP utility. The skill doesn’t do enough to really warrant use in PvE, despite applying Frostbite naturally. Entomb is great utility and damage for PvE and PvP alike. Being able to avoid a chunk of incoming damage and then retaliate can turn the tides of 1v1; or a situation where you became outnumbered in PvE by giving some breathing room to get other cooldowns back.

The Ultimate for the Builder Tree, Ultimate Frost, is attached to the Ice Pylon skill, doubling it’s heath and increase the frosted area radius of the pylon to 5 meters. Inside this frosted area, the Quick Frost and Empowered Frost passives are doubled. This means 20% Haste and 6 mana back on spell cast. This passive is pretty bad. Because not only does it provide very little effect, it also forces you to spend 2 points you may not have otherwise taken to fully benefit. Just, please use the other ultimate until this one is buffed, PvE or PvP.

Life Staff

The Life Staff has two Skill Trees, the Healing Tree and the Protector Tree. both work exceptionally well for healing, but have drastically different skills and mechanics to offer. The Healing Tree is primarily slower to cast and, but much stronger heals. The Protector Tree mostly focuses on healing over time while providing additional buffs.

The Life Staff is easily one of the most flexible and and useful weapons to carry for solo PvP. It does it’s job well, maybe in some regards a little too well depending on who you ask. For PvE or PvP its a great secondary for a Tank, allowing them to heal themselves in combat more effectively. It’s primarily a support tool, and very rarely a damage tool.

For Pretty much every scenario, the skill combination of Sacred Ground and Beacon are essential. They are easily yoru two strongest group healing abilties, despite being healing over time. The last ability would be Orb of Protection for Solo, or Splash of Light for groups.

Unlike the other Magic Weapons, the Life Staff scales with Focus. This means has no real stand out pairings right away. However with an Amber Gem, you could potentially pair any weapon you want with it. Sword and Shield is a strong option, providing you a lot of defensive power, while most other melees can be a solid option for damage dealing.

Healing Tree

The Healing Tree is primary burst heals which have a longer cast time, but a much higher single instance heal. They will often heal for the entirety of any of the Heal over time options, however the heal over time options often outshine these skills due to the persistent nature of these skills. The Skills for the Healing Tree consist of Divine Embrace, Sacred Ground and Splash of Light.

Divine Embrace is a potent single target heal which takes a couple seconds to cast, which can eventually be upgraded to be multi-target heal. Sacred Ground is a heal over time skill that casts as station Aoe on the ground that heals for a small amount every second for 15 seconds. Splash of Light has a shorter cast time compared to Divine Embrance but functions mostly as a panic heal, as it’s a near instant cast.

Divine Embrace is rarely used, due to the long cast time for PvP. In PvE the high healing potential can easily pull enemy aggro to you, which is also a huge downside. If used at th right time though, it can save a group from a wipe in PvE content. Sacred Ground is a go-to skill for healing, as it covers a decent AoE, and also increases healing to targets in the AoE, so there’s no reason to ever not take it. Splash of Light can be good if you’re healing for group PvE or PvP, but it’s not worth using when you’re solo.

The Ultimate for the Healing Tree, Divine Blessing, is a passive that increases you healing by 30% on targets below 30% health. This can be an incredibly potent heal boost for those panic casts of Divine Embrace or Splash of Light. In general, it’s the better of the two Ultimates for the Life Staff.

Protector Tree

The Protector tree is less focused on direct healing, and instead focused on providing buffs and healing over time. Almost all of the Protector Tree’s skills are instant cast AoE skills, with the exception of the Burst heal for this tree. The Skill for the Protector Skill Tree are Orb of Protection, Beacon and Light’s Embrace.

Orb of Protection is a skill that releases and orb which heals allies for a small amount and provides Fortify for a long duration or damages enemies. Beacon is a projectile that emits a healing field from where it lands, and can be stuck to both friendly and enemy entities; enemies also take a high amount of damage when hit by this skill. Light’s Embrace is the burst heal skill for this tree, which heals for a high amount, and also scales with active buffs on a target.

Orb of Protection is a powerful skill, not for the initial weak heal, but rather the Healing over time it can provide alongside the Fortify buff. It’s not a potent heal by any means, but when paired with Fortify it gets the job done. Beacon, much like Sacred Ground is pretty much a must have skill. While it’s not a skill that increases healing output, it does benefit from that increase from Sacred Ground quite heavily. Light’s Embrace is arguably a worse Divine Embrace. While it can be stronger, that power come from keeping track of active buffs on a target for maximum effect. It may be used later on for healing tanks in Raids, if New world gets that kind of content, but for now it’s very niche.

The Ultimate for the Protector Tree, Magnify, is unfortunately attached to the Light’s Embrace skill. Magnify extends the duration of Lifestaff buffs by two seconds when healed by Light’s Embrace. This passive is not clear whether it affects all buffs on every party member applied by the Life Staff, or just the healed target. Either way, there’s no point in taking this skill or passive.

There’s a passive in the tier below this one called Glowing Focus, which increases Life Staff buffs by 20%. Since the meaningful ones come from Orb or Protection and last 10 seconds by default, you’ve gained the extra two seconds, without needing to take what is an otherwise niche healing skill.

This concludes our New World Weapons Guide. Hopefully you have learned what you came here for. If you need more in-depth information, read the detailed individual Weapons Guides we have available.

New World releases on September 28 2021 and it is a major part of the VULKK.com’s focus as a game. We have a ton of New World guides for you available on release and will continue to update them and release new ones as the game grows and evolves. We also strive to keep you up-to-date with all of the latest patches, news and information about New World.

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