New World

Best PVE and PVP Builds

Please note that the New World Team has stopped covering the game as of Update 1.2. Information on certain pages may not be up-to-date.

Builds and Character Guides.png
This is a guide on the best PVE and PVP builds and character guides for New World's current meta! Read on to see the best builds for PVE and PVP content, starter builds to help you push through the early stages, and builds for all weapons in the game!

Tier Lists and Weapon Guides
Weapon Tier List top.pngBest Weapons Tier List Best Weapon Combos.pngBest Weapon Combos Builds and Character Guides.pngBest PVE and PVP Weapon Builds

All Build Guides

All Weapon Builds

Best PVE and PVP Weapon Builds
Sword and Shield BuildsSword & Shield Rapier BuildsRapier Hatchet BuildsHatchet Spear BuildsSpear
Great Axe BuildsGreat Axe War Hammer BuildsWar Hammer Bow BuildsBow Musket BuildsMusket
Fire Staff BuildsFire Staff Life Staff BuildsLife Staff Ice Gauntlet BuildsIce Gauntlet Void Gauntlet BuildsVoid Gauntlet

Best Role Builds

List of Role Builds
Starter Tank Builds.pngBest Tank Builds Starter Healer Builds.pngBest Healer Builds Starter DPS Builds.pngBest DPS Builds

Parties in MMORPGs usually consist of three major roles:

  • Tanks would take enemy aggro and shield the team from harm with their natural toughness.
  • Healers keep the party topped off through heals and buffs. Applying debuffs on foes to assist in taking them down is also viable for some builds.
  • DPS focus on taking down threats as fast as possible with high damage.

Check out our best role builds for each of these roles to prepare for your co-op adventures into Aeternum!

Best Builds For PVE

Life Staff / Hatchet Support DPS Healer Build

Life Staff Hatchet Build

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PvE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・High healing output
・High DPS
・Balanced offense and defense
・Lower DPS than offensive focused builds
・Weak against ranged enemies

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Focus → Strength
Strength
50
Dexterity
5
Intelligence
5
Focus
150
Constitution
5

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Life Staff ImageLife Staff Hatchet ImageHatchet
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon.png Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Headwear Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Zealot
(Focus & Strength)
Torso Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Zealot
(Focus & Strength)
Gloves Weight: Medium
Stats: Zealot
(Focus & Strength)
Leggings Weight: Medium
Stats: Zealot
(Focus & Strength)
Boots Weight: Medium
Stats: Zealot
(Focus & Strength)

Build Playstyle

This build is for more offensive healers that can heal and deal damage. You have your Life Staff for sustain, allowing you to take a bunch of damage and still continue to fight, and your Hatchet will allow you to dish out the damage. Having an Amber gem in your Hatchet slot will allow you to deal more damage even if you are putting your points in Focus!

You will be using your Hatchet to deal your damage, whether you are starting a fight or ending it, you will mostly have your Hatchet out. Berserk is an amazing buff and when upgraded with passive skills it can make you an unstoppable DPS machine. Raging Torrent will further increase your DPS, while Social distancing is going to be used as an escape when you are in danger, creating distance to allow you to swap to Light Staff and heal.

Your Life Staff will be your defensive option when you are in danger. When you need to heal you will just have to gain some distance and use Divine Embrace and Sacred Ground, using your ranged attacks to continue dealing damage. You can also use Sacred Ground and Beacon before you jump in with the Hatchet, allowing you to heal while fighting.

War Hammer / Great Axe Glass Cannon Build

War Hammer / Great Axe Glass Cannon Build

Build Purpose
PvE
Strengths Weaknesses
・Ultimate attack power ・Close to zero defensive capability
・Not viable in PvP
・Not very useful if the player isn't able to avoid damage successfully

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Strength
Strength
195
Dexterity
5
Intelligence
5
Focus
5
Constitution
5

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
War Hammer ImageWar Hammer Great Axe ImageGreat Axe
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Armor Type and Perks

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Shield Icon Type: None
Stats: -
Headwear Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Torso Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Gloves Weight: Light
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Leggings Weight: Light
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Boots Weight: Light
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)

Build Playstyle

The War Hammer / Great Axe Glass Cannon Juggernaut Build is centered on absolute melee power. All Stat points will be put into Strength first, creating a character who is fragile but can deal the most amount of damage in a single blow.

Because they are fragile, speed and mobility is preferred over tanking damage, hence the need for Light Armor. All Passive skills are focused on increasing damage output with a few ones focusing on Haste buffs for mobility.

This build is intended primarily for PvE, as the attack patterns of enemies are much easier to block and avoid compared to human enemies. This is intended for more advanced players who are confident in their ability to consistently dodge enemy attacks.

Great Axe / Hatchet Dual Axe DPS Build

Axe

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PVE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Superior DPS, hits very hard
・Very good a chasing down and executing running enemies
・Great Axe swings are very slow
・Can serve as a tank but not as well as other tank builds

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Strength → Constitution
Strength
145
Dexterity
5
Intelligence
5
Focus
5
Constitution
50

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Great Axe ImageGreat Axe Hatchet ImageHatchet
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Shield Icon Type: None
Stats: -
Headwear Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Torso Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Gloves Weight: Medium
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Leggings Weight: Medium
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Boots Weight: Medium
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)

Build Playstyle

The Great Axe / Hatchet Dual Axe Manhunter Build is a DPS build all about doing fast damage. You stick close to the tank, who will keep the enemies in check, while you dish out mad damage from the side.

The Great Axe passive skills are geared to maximize crit chance and damage, making for deadly swings, and the Hatchet passive skills emphasize speed and attack damage.

This build is unforgiving as it deals a lot of damage and is excellent at chasing down retreating enemies, as its skills can either cover a lot of distance (Charge and Feral Rush) or increase movement speed (On the Hunt) or strike from afar (Aimed Throw) or pull an enemy in, stopping them from escaping (Reap).

Best Builds For PVP

Bow / Spear Close-Range Crit Build

Bow / Spear Close-Range Crit Build

Stat Priority Dexterity
Strength 5
Dexterity 195
Intelligence 5
Focus 5
Constitution 5

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Bow ImageBow Spear ImageSpear
Active Skills
Passive Skills
Best Armor and Perks
Perks Best Perks
Headwear Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Ranger or Cavalier
(Dexterity or Dexterity + Strength)
Torso Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Ranger or Cavalier
(Dexterity or Dexterity + Strength)
Gloves Weight: Light
Stats: Ranger or Cavalier
(Dexterity or Dexterity + Strength)
Leggings Weight: Light
Stats: Ranger or Cavalier
(Dexterity or Dexterity + Strength)
Boots Weight: Light
Stats: Ranger or Cavalier
(Dexterity or Dexterity + Strength)
Town Board Marker Icon light.png Tips from Game8 A build that mixes Bow's versatile kit with the Spear's ability to close in on targets and hinder movement. This duo lets you dance around enemies and deal solid damage primarily through Splinter Shot and Poison Shot.

Best Bow Builds

Spear / Rapier Bleeding DPS Build

Spear Rapier Bleeding build

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PvE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・High single-target DPS
・Causes lots of bleeding
・Bad at dealing with multiple enemies

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Dexterity → Constitution
Strength
5
Dexterity
150
Intelligence
5
Focus
5
Constitution
50

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Spear ImageSpear Rapier ImageRapier
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon.png Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)
Headwear Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)
Torso Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)
Gloves Weight: Medium
Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)
Leggings Weight: Light
Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)
Boots Weight: Heavy
Stats: Brigand
(Dexterity & Constitution)

Build Playstyle

This build uses the huge single target potential of the Spear and the Rapier. The Rapier will be your opening weapon and will be used to deal damage and apply bleed, then follow up with the Spear's strong single target damage and disables.

The Spear is going to be used as DPS and crowd control to follow up after dealing damage with the Rapier. Your Perforate is going to be your main source of damage with the Spear. dealing tons of damage and staggering. Sweep is used if you need to create some space for yourself or to secure a kill when an enemy tries to getaway. Finally, Vault Kick is going to be another move to make sure you can secure your kills as it's great for chasing and closing gaps.

The Rapier will be the opening weapon, focusing on dealing damage and applying bleeding, which both the Rapier and Spear benefit from with the passive skills. Tondo is a great move to open with especially how it can deal more damage farther away and causes bleed. Flourish and Finish is another move you will be using to stack even more bleeding. Fleche will not add to your bleeding stacks but is a great gap closer or finisher if you need to get in close quickly.

Void Gauntlet / Life Staff DPS Heal Build

New World - Void Gauntlet / Life Staff DPS Heal Build

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PvE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Good for keeping party members alive.
・DPS on top of heal.
・Mana problems.
・Very Squishy.

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Focus → Constitution
Strength
5
Dexterity
5
Intelligence
5
Focus
155
Constitution
45

Stats obtained through armor are not accounted for in this table.

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Void Gauntlet ImageVoid Gauntlet Life Staff ImageLife Staff
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon.png Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Headwear Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Torso Icon Weight: Light
Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Gloves Weight: Light
Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Leggings Weight: Light
Stats: Sage
(Focus)
Boots Weight: Light
Stats: Sage
(Focus)

Build Playstyle

This build balances dealing damage through Void Gauntlet's Spells and supporting your team by healing and granting buffs.

Life staff will be your healing tool during fights. Place down your Sacred Ground whenever possible and apply Beacon to have a passive heal going. Use Light's Embrace only as an emergency tool if you have trouble healing.

Not only does Void Gauntlet's spells damage opponents, but it heals allies as well! Void Blade will be the spell you'll be using a lot as your DPS tool, as it also inflicts DoT to your enemies.

Angle your Orb of Decay, especially during tank pulls when you use it to maximize the number of enemies getting damaged and to heal your tank or party members when it comes back. Essence Rupture will also help with healing whenever someone attacks the target under its effect.

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