New World

Best Sword and Shield Builds for PVE and PVP (Update 1.2.1)

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.

New World - Sword & Shield Builds

This is a guide on the best Sword and Shield builds in New World. Read on to see the recommended stats, skills, armor, and playstyle guides of the best and latest Sword and Shield builds for PVE and PVP as of Update 1.2.1!

Sword and Shield / Life Staff Paladin Build

Sword and Shield Life Staff Build

Build Purpose
General (PvE & PvP)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Perfect for soloing
・High survivability
・Can swap between tanking and healing
・Low offensive power
・Not very agile

Build Stats and Skills

Stat Priority Strength
Strength
5
Dexterity
5
Intelligence
5
Focus
100
Constitution
95

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

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Sword and Shield ImageSword and Shield Life Staff ImageLife Staff
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon Stats: Nomad
(Constitution & Focus)
Shield Icon.png Type: Tower
Stats: Cleric
(Focus & Constitution)
Headwear Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Nomad
(Constitution & Focus)
Torso Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Cleric
(Focus & Constitution)
Gloves Weight: Heavy
Stats: Nomad
(Constitution & Focus)
Leggings Weight: Heavy
Stats: Cleric
(Focus & Constitution)
Boots Weight: Heavy
Stats: Nomad
(Constitution & Focus)

Build Playstyle

The Sword and Shield / Life Staff Paladin Build is a Healing & Defense centric build that relies on crowd control, debuffs, and healing to outlast enemies.

The Sword & Shield skills Shield Rush and Shield Bash are used when enemies are starting to pile up and get out of hand. Hunker down with Defiant Stance when you're being ganged up on.

The Life Staff skills present you with more options to deal damage with Orb of Protection and Beacon, which can also function as healing spells. These are the ideal skills for a Paladin build. Sacred Ground offers supplemental healing and is a good skill to have.

This build's passive skills are geared towards decreasing incoming damage, bolstering the effectivity of your shield, boosting healing output, and granting buffs on yourself and your allies.

Sword and Shield / War Hammer Battle Tank Build

Sword & Shield / War Hammer Knight Battle Tank Build

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PVE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Superior defense, great for tanking
・Great crowd control and AoE skills
・Lesser damage output
・Poor mobility
・Heavily reliant on other classes for support

Build Stats and Skills

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

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

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Sword and Shield ImageSword and Shield War Hammer ImageWar Hammer
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon.png Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Shield Icon.png Type: Kite or Tower
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Headwear Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Torso Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Gloves Weight: Heavy
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Leggings Weight: Heavy
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)
Boots Weight: Heavy
Stats: Knight
(Constitution → Strength)

Build Playstyle

The Sword & Shield / War Hammer Knight Battle Tank Build is a hardy tank build that is both offensive and defensive but focuses a bit more on defense. It takes two weapons that scale well with Strength, using the best skills from both skill trees.

The Sword and Shield prioritizes defense with skills like Shield Bash and Defiant Stance. Whirling Blade can help add a bit of offensive force.

The War Hammer has active skills that can do crowd control like Clear Out and Path of Destiny, while also having good smiting potential with Mighty Gavel.

The Sword and Shield skills tend more toward defense, while War Hammer's passive skills skew towards offense.

The War Hammer / Sword & Shield Battle Tank Build is a formidable force on the front lines, boasting solid defensive grit with a bit of offensive power when in a pinch. This build is very versatile and can adapt to any situation on the fly.

Sword and Shield / War Hammer Pure Defender Tank Build

Sword & Shield / War Hammer Pure Defender Tank Build

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PVE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Excellent Defense, supreme tanking ability
・Great crowd control and AoE
・Very little offensive power
・Slow, poor mobility
・Can do very little against long range attacks.

Build Stats and Skills

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

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

1st Weapon 2nd Weapon
Sword and Shield ImageSword and Shield War Hammer ImageWar Hammer
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon.png Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Shield Icon.png Type: Tower
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Headwear Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Torso Icon Weight: Heavy
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Gloves Weight: Heavy
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Leggings Weight: Heavy
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)
Boots Weight: Heavy
Stats: Sentry
(Constitution)

Build Playstyle

The Sword & Shield / War Hammer Pure Defender Tank Build is a pure tank build that relies solely on Constitution for survivability. This build does not have much offensive capability, leaving the damage-dealing to the DPS builds. What this build does have is the ability to deflect as much damage as possible while also being able to stun or knock enemies down when things get too hot.

This build exclusively uses abilities from the Defender and Crowd Crusher skill trees, which are good at negating damage and crowd control. You can use Shield Bash, Shock Wave, and Path of Destiny to stun, while Shield Rush and Clear Out can knock enemies down.

The passive skills are focused on increasing the effectivity of defense and regeneration, as well as increasing stun debuffs on your enemies.

You generally want to be on the front lines and in the center of all the action, where it would be easier to stun enemies and deflect the majority of damage.

Sword and Shield / Great Axe Barbarian Build

Sword & Shield / Great Axe Barbarian

Build Purpose
General (PvP and PVE)
Strengths Weaknesses
・Powerful short range, decent AoE
・Diverse skills for charging, pulling, and knocking down
・Powerhouse tank
・Not as hardy as other tank builds
・Not very mobile
・Will have a hard time against long range and agile opponents

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
Sword and Shield ImageSword and Shield Great Axe ImageGreat Axe
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
Shield Icon Type: Kite or Tower
Stats: Barbarian
(Strength → Constitution)
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 Sword & Shield / Great Axe Barbarian Build is an offense-focused tank build.. It takes two weapons that scale well with Strength, using the best skills from both skill trees.

The Sword and Shield has good offensive capabilities with Leaping Strike. Shield Bash can do crowd control when you're overwhelmed, and can be coupled with Defiant Stance, which bolsters your defenses.

The Great Axe's active skills for this build can do very different things: Gravity Well can pull enemies together, Whirlwind can do AoE damage, and Execute can go for the kill.

The Great Axe's passive skills improve your offense while the Sword and Shield skills improve your defense.

Sword and Shield / Hatchet Max DPS Build

Sword & Shield / Hatchet Max DPS Build

Build Purpose
PvE
Strengths Weaknesses
・Hits hard and fast
・High crit, damage, and speed
・Good at chasing retreating enemies
・Lacking HP and defense
・Limited AoE

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
Sword and Shield ImageSword and Shield Hatchet ImageHatchet
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Best Perks and Equipment

Perks and Equipment Stats
PerksBest Perks
Weapon Icon Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Shield Icon.png Type: Round or Kite
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Headwear Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Torso Icon Weight: Medium
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Gloves Weight: Medium
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Leggings Weight: Medium
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)
Boots Weight: Medium
Stats: Soldier
(Strength)

Build Playstyle

The Sword and Shield / Hatchet Max DPS Build is a DPS PvE build all about 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 passive skills from the Swordmaster and Berserker are geared to maximize crit chance, damage, and speed, making for deadly swings.

This build is unforgiving as it deals a lot of damage and its skills can either cover a lot of distance (Leaping Strike and Feral Rush), deal AoE damage (Whirling Blade) or increase attack and movement speed (Berserk and On the Hunt), or just deal a ton of damage in one go (Reverse Stab and Raging Torrent)

New World Related Guides

New World Builds

Best PVE and PVP Builds

List of Role Builds

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

Best 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

Comment

1 Mordaxabout 3 years

Sword and Shield / Great Axe Barbarian Build Active Skills: Leaping Strike Whirling Blade Defiant Stance But on PASSIVE skills you have Intimidating Bash and Concussive Bash for UNLOCK these you need UNLOCK first Shield Bash, but you have already 3 Active Skills .. so how ? where is Bug ? Thanks

Author

    Walkthrough Menu

    Please participate in our
    site improvement survey 11/2024
    Would you assist in
    improving Game8's site?
    ×
    This survey will take about 1 minute.
    Your answers will help us to improve our website.
    We are listening to our users' valuable opinions and discussing how to act on them.
    The information collected through this survey will be used for the purpose of improving our services. In addition, the information will only be disclosed a part of a statistic in a format that will not allow identification of personal information.
    Begin Survey

    All rights reserved