New World has a lot of different weapons available, and each type of weapon has two mastery trees you put points into to unlock new abilities and buffs. These points are unlocked by using the weapon itself, so you’re really rewarded for sticking to your guns, staffs, and swords.
The good news is that you can mix and match to your heart’s content and have two separate weapons equipped at a time, each with up to three abilities, which are easily swapped between mid-combat. So, what are the best weapons in New World?
New World Best Weapons
This comes down to personal taste and we’ve found that many different playstyles work well. However, since you’ve asked, we’ll break down the weapon types and tell you their pros and cons.
Hatchet
The hatchet works best when played aggressively and the masteries represent this well. Within just a few points you can unlock berserker damage bonus, a movement speed buff for it, and an additional charge ability. There are also some powerful ranged abilities available that you can use to open a fight.
Fire Staff
Who doesn’t love fire? We know New World does because the fire staffs are some of the most dangerous weapons in the game. This doesn’t come without problems though, and it’s only when maxed out that mana ceases to be a problem. That said, when combined with something else, it provides a lot of firepower and burn effects.
Life Staff
The life staff has a mastery upgrade that removes the mana cost for light and heavy attacks, leaving that mana free for healing and removing debuffs when most needed. This is mostly for group members but you can also pair the life staff up with another weapon and give yourself some AOE heals mid-fight.
Sword and Shield
This sounds like a combination of weapons but don’t panic, the shield uses an armour slot, meaning you can still have a second weapon slotted in. The mastery branches allow you to specialise in either attack or defence, or even a mix of the two. It really is a jack of all trades.
Ice Gauntlet
The ice gauntlet is also a jack of all trades, with some good AOE damage, CC, armour buffs and debuffs. Plus, it has a spawnable ice pylon that deals half your weapon damage with perfect accuracy and is a bit of a force multiplier when fighting alone. There’s also a passive upgrade that gives you mana when standing on frost - very useful for longer fights.
Great Axe
A weapon that isn’t as clunky as it sounds. It’s able to do massive damage to a wide area or a single target and its mastery tree is full of spectacularly powerful attacks such as Execute, which deals 300% damage to enemies below 50% health and has an upgrade granting it a guaranteed critical on those below 30%.
Spear
We’ve heard a lot of talk about just how good the spear is, especially for PvP combat. Its abilities include stuns, slows, bleeds and knockdowns and just like the hatchet, includes a ranged attack. That said, it suffers a little in PvE.
Musket
Imagine a sharpshooter crossed with a grenadier crossed with a trapper, and that’s the sort of playstyle you’re looking at with the musket. It rewards accuracy and advanced planning, making sure you stay safe while you’re stacking damage bonuses with every shot.
Rapier
This sword isn’t really the best for anything, but as it scales with Intelligence, it doesn’t do a bad job as a backup weapon for magic users. It’s also quick and manoeuvrable, able to keep a lightly armoured character out of harms way.
Bow
The bow is a tricky weapon to really appreciate. It has some decent mobility and ranged damage but as it uses ammunition with every shot, light attacks are almost a waste. For this reason, it’s most suited for gatherers out in the woods more than fighting close-quarters battles.
Warhammer
Slow, ponderous, and agonising to both attacker and the attacked. The warhammer really is the weapon of the tank, it’s good against armour and has some decent CC, but outside of group play, it is unlikely to impress.
If you’re looking to gather some ores to make your own weapons, check out our Iron Ore Locations guide, and if you run into issues with the servers, information on New World server status can be found here.
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