This guide is designed to give our readers the necessary knowledge on melee weapons and how to utilize them. We will discuss the weapons’ benefits, strengths, and weaknesses and when best used. Of course, one of the first things you’ll want to do is ensure you’re always well-equipped.
You can confirm this by buying New World gold. We recommend this because weapons are rare and expensive, so you’ll want to be prepared for what’s to come. With that being said, let’s check out some of the New World melee weapons!
Why are weapons in New World important?
Since New World operates using a classless system, your “class” or build will be determined by the weapons you choose. You can use two weapons in-game, creating skills and combinations that suit you best. This guide will provide sufficient insight into the weapons so you can better make an informed decision on your New World journey.
What are Melee Weapons in New World?
The melee weapons are in-game weapons that range from swift blades for a quick one-handed takedown to those more heavy, two-handed brutal-bashing weapons. You can use all of the above for DPS (damage per second); however, only a few don’t have to rely on evading for the direct capability to the tank. So, keep that in mind moving forward.
We recommend one-handed weapons as they fare better in DPS; however, two-handed weapons offer quite a hit. Unfortunately, they need the speed of their predecessor. However, they have reasonable crowd control, which most one-handed melee weapons often lack.
Now that we’ve covered a basic description of these weapons let’s get onto them as individuals and dive into the details.
Sword & Shield
This is one of the first weapons you’ll encounter in the game, and it can set you on a good path almost instantly. Focusing on sword skills can put you on a sound footing, providing good capability with Melee DPS. Giving your attention to the Shield side of things can allow you to be one of the Party Play premiere Tanks.
Using skills in the Swordmaster tree will get you the furthest for early leveling. Take Whirling Blade and the upgrades you wish to keep for extra damage and AOE. When you need to work on defense, go to the Defender side to deal with Shield Bash and Shield Rush.
Sword & Shield Attacks
Sword
- Whirling Blade(Swordmaster) – high damage attack with a two-meter range surrounding the user. This is one of the best AOE options for the sword, with coverage over Light Attacks and slightly more range.
- Reverse Stab(Swordmaster) – powerful single-target attack with the highest damage ratio for this weapon. This attack also has strong upgrades, even if your focus is mainly on shield skills.
- Leaping Strike(Swordmaster) – a quick leap followed by a hard blow to opponents. This move should be more utilized because Shield Rush provides more benefits. ●
- Leadership(Swordmaster) – the ultimate for this skill tree. It provides you and your allies with a 10% increase in damage dealt while in the party.
Shield
- Shield Bash(Defender) – a quick hit with the shield can cancel some attack animations. Used with Carnelian Gem becomes a taunt. It can then act as a single-target taunt and aggro tool.
- Shield Rush(Defender) – a short-distance charge using the shield, knocking opponents back when hit.
- Defiant Stance(Defender) – one of NW’s strongest defensive Cooldowns. When used with Carnelian, Gem becomes an AOE taunt.
- Defensive Formulation(Defender) – this reduces damage to allies within 2 meters of the user by 30%. Again, this is most effective in PvE and less beneficial in PvP.
Spear
This is one of only a few melee weapons with a ranged option. The Spear is a double-sided weapon; both are beneficial in their way. However, for PvP throwing the Spear might not be the best option as it needs to provide more consistent damage. That’s not to say this weapon can’t be used in PvE and PvP with great returns. The Spear has excellent crowd control and plenty of statuses to make it harder for your enemies to hit back.
For the early steps of the game, you’re best to stick to the Impaler Tree as the Zoner tree offers little early. However, once you’ve earned some extra points, Sweep is a great pickup, and Javelin can help by dragging a mob away from deep water for a better battle.
Spear Attacks
Cyclone(Zoner) – a quick radial attack, pushing back enemies 3 meters and applying a 50% slow. Depending on your situation, this attack can prove well worth it due to having one of the strongest slows in New World.
Javelin (Zoner) – allows you to throw the Spear on a long Cooldown, giving a ranger option that staggers foe when hit. Unfortunately, this attack isn’t considered the best, as its Cooldown leaves something to be desired.
Sweep(Zoner) – a quick melee-ranged attack that can be followed up by a powerful attack. Sweep is also a great attack from this weapon, having multiple uses. PvP and PvE alike can benefit from this move.
Reserved Strength (Zoner) – is the ultimate for the Zoner skill tree, granting 25% damage while you’re at full stamina. It is considered situational in PvP, but it is likely to be active unless you have dodged it recently. Unfortunately, this ultimate is less reliable than that of the Impaler Tree.
Perforate (Impaler) – provides a quick burst of damage in the form of rapid hits in a short animation; also applies Rend.
Skewer (Impaler) – a single powerful hit that can inflict a bleed, causing damage over time. Vault Kick (Impaler) – acts as a significant gap closer and doubles as a stun.
–Exploited Weakness (Impaler) – the ultimate for the Impaler skill tree. Easy for use in PvE, but may require setup from additional weapons in PvP.
Hatchet
This is another of the few ranged option melee weapons in New World. Like the Spear, it is separated by range and power; the Throwing Tree and the Berserker Tree represent this. Though the Hatchet has its benefits in both PvE and PvP, it has one massive downfall. Most of its power is in a single cool down, meaning it often comes across as a boring choice.
Hatchet Attacks
Berserk (Berserker) – a powerful skill that offers a range of buffs that are beneficial in PvP and PvE.
Feral Rush (Berserker) – a short-range dash coupled with two follow-up attacks.
Raging Torrent (Berserker) – four attack sequences carried out at twice the speed of light attack chain. Proving the player decent burst damage.
Defy Death (Berzerker) – the ultimate for this skill tree deflects an otherwise deadly attack to leave you with 50 health. It also gives immunity to damage for 3 seconds following—a 75-second Cooldown.
Rending Throw (Throwing) – reduces enemies’ damage absorption, increasing damage output.
Social Distancing (Throwing) – provided a slow, paired with backward movement, can prove beneficial in spacing out enemies in PvP.
Infected Throw (Throwing) – is one of NW’s only abilities to apply the Disease status to deplete healing.
Persistent Hindrance (Throwing) – the ultimate for this skill tree increases the time a hatchet debuffs by 30% when a thrown axe makes a successful hit. Since the thrown axe skill has an attached debuff, you can extend the duration. Keeping them slowed, weakened, and possibly diseased for solid periods.
Great Axe
Next in our guide, we have the Great Axe, a heavy melee weapon that offers some chase and catch and a lot of damage potential. However, it can sometimes fail to live up to expectations in PvE. Despite having good AOE skills and high-range cleaving attacks, and despite its damage potential, sometimes dealing damage feels subpar. This is only sometimes the case in PvP, sometimes even feeling unbalanced because of the high amount of lockdown on offer.
Great Axe Attacks
Charge (Reaper) – one of the most prolonged dash skills in NW that can cover 10 meters.
Reap (Reaper) – a situational skill that can pull any foe from 5 meters to you (8 when upgraded).
Execute (Reaper) – a slow wind-up but powerful melee attack that gets stronger against low-health enemies.
Blood Lust (Reaper) – the Reaper Tree ultimate; a 30% haste toward enemies within 15 meters. Great for PvP, but if the enemy descends on you from above, ensure you have an exit strategy.
Whirlwind (Mauler) – spin to win ability; when connecting with an enemy, it will spin four times (7 when upgraded).
Maelstrom (Mauler) – similar to Reap, but using a small radius rather than a line, Maelstrom is a pulling skill.
Gravity Well (Mauler) – the strongest way to group or hold your enemies where you want them.
Mauler’s Fury (Mauler) – the ultimate for this skill tree, increasing your damage by 3% for 3 seconds with each blow landed. This can stack to 30%, encouraging relentless attacks where possible. Unfortunately, this comes with a low duration of the buff, and the number of blows needed to stack it puts yet another damper on this attack.
Greatsword
The Greatsword is a heavy weapon, ideal for offensive and defensive movements. It was introduced in the new Brimstone Sands update and played around two passive stances. Defiant and Onslaught, each triggered by skills in their respective trees; Onslaught Tree and Defiance Tree.
The defiant stance gives you an incredible defense by minimizing incoming damage, but your damage output will also take a hit; you can use heavy attacks to block passively. The onslaught stance, however, will increase your damage. Unfortunately, this means increasing the damage you receive. However, this does allow heavy attacks to be charged twice as fast, so your damage output might make it worth the risk.
Crosscut (Onslaught) – a purely offensive skill that offers three strong hits to deal a grand total of 400% weapon damage.
Relentless Rush (Onslaught) – a skill that combines offensive power with some mobility, making this Greatswords only mobility tool.
Skyward Slash (Onslaught) – merges offensive power and strong debuffing potential. Ultimately producing a decent Rend (also Disease when upgraded).
Unrelenting Onslaught (Onslaught) – the ultimate for this skill tree. This is the only Cooldown Reduction you can access in the Onslaught Tree. It allows you to recover quickly by offering a reduction in both light and heavy attacks. However, heavy do provide more of a reduction.
Calamity Counter (Defiance) – gives you a short burst of defensive power to drastically reduce your stamina consumption for blocks.
Roaring Rupture (Defiance) – an AOE skill that can serve as a taunt with Carnelian Gem. It can also generate double the threat while providing you with Fortify.
Steadfast Strike (Defiance) – a quick two-hit attack that can pull enemies, restores stamina per hit, and generates 50% additional threat.
Undying Defiance (Defiance) – the ultimate for this skill tree. A passive that grants you passive life leeches on all attacks. It increases for a short period after a block, giving you a lot of extra sustain.
War Hammer
This melee weapon shares some common ground with the Great Axe. That being said, it can be used in PvE, but it is more beneficial in PvP. It is a slow weapon; however, it provides impressive crowd-control options. This weapon is best utilized in organized faction attacks and wars. Again, this is due to its crowd control; aside from that, it can be disappointing in combat due to slow attacks and long wind-ups.
War Hammer Attacks
Armor Breaker (Juggernaut) – a hard-hitting attack paired with Armor Penetration. A good option for larger PvE and PvP enemies.
Mighty Gavel (Juggernaut) – an overhead attack with a hard hit. When upgraded, a second blow is dealt, which is more damaging than the first.
Wrecking Ball (Juggernaut) – crowd control that uses flatten, a similar move to knock down. This can be focused on one target or a small area.
Justice For All (Juggernaut) – is the ultimate from the Juggernaut tree, linked to the Mighty Gavel. It gives the second stronger hit that can make for a powerful PvE attack. The setup the weapon has can also make for very high bursts in PvP, should you land both blows, of course.
Clear Out (Crowd Crusher) – a situational skill that only offers a slight increase in damage ratio and a minor knockback. However, pair it with the Crowd Crusher ultimate, and you can give yourself some breathing room.
Path of Destiny (Crowd Crusher) has a high AiE and stagger, making it an excellent option for both PvP and PvE players when fully upgraded.
Shockwave (Crowd Crusher) – has a smaller AoE than the attack above but can stun and weaken crowds nonetheless, making it rather impactful.
Aftershock (Crowd Crusher) – the ultimate for Crowd Crusher, applying an additional 20% slow for four seconds on top of any crowd control effect in play.
Rapier
The final weapon in our melee weapon beginners’ guide is the Rapier. Despite its appearance, this weapon has a relatively high range for a one-handed melee weapon. Many of its attacks are narrow thrusts that reward precision and require practice. The two trees of the Rapier (Blood and Grace) have their focus, the first being damage over time or quick bursts. At the same time, the latter focuses on defense.
Rapier Attacks
Tondo (Blood) – medium-range damage with a stackable bleed.
Flourish and Finish (Blood) – plays off the bleed stacks, allowing the player to detonate them in return for high burst damage.
Flurry (Blood) – quick attacks that can trigger Cooldown reduction effects from weapons and other passives.
Bloody End (Blood) – linked to Flourish and Finish. You can execute bleed for 150% damage instead of the usual 110%.
Evade (Grace) – a positioning tool and extra dodge merged.
Flèche (Grace) allows you to reposition easily and provide a decent burst with upgrades.
Riposte (Grace) – although this is a counter, you’ll have to ensure your timing is perfect, especially when enemies know it’s coming.
Momentum (Grace) – this frees ultimate and grants a 25% increase to damage on your next attack (whether light or heavy) after using an ability. Combined with the right skill, this can be a solid source of damage increase.
Go forth and be Victorious!
This concludes our New World: Melee Weapons for Beginners guide. We sincerely hope you found all you need from our informative guide and that your New World adventures are easier since your visit to our platform! We hope to see you next time when we bring you the latest in the gaming world. We’ll be back to provide you with more next week!
