New World: Best Ice Gauntlet Builds

The Ice Gauntlet provides some of the best crowd-control in Amazon’s new MMO, New World. It can be paired with a variety of weapons for a dozen different styles of play, with uses for PVE, Expeditions, and PvP. If you need a weapon that can synergize nicely with AoE weapons like the Great Axe and War Hammer, this is the weapon for you.

This guide takes a closer look at what the Ice Gauntlet is capable of, as well as some suggestions of which weapons pair well with it. We’ll cover the masteries, active skills, passives, and weapon combinations that turn the Ice Gauntlet into the ultimate CC machine.

Updated November 19 by Harry Alston: With New World’s 1.1 patch come some heavy Ice Gauntlet nerfs. If you were worried about a mage in the Heavy Armor meta, then these changes are not exactly positive ones. We cover some of the changes below.

Patch 1.1 Changes To The Ice Gauntlet

The Ice Gauntlet has been nerfed substantially in this update. In the official blog post about the changes, it reads “Our goal was to tone down the effectiveness of some of the maxed-out combinations of abilities while still maintaining their individual usefulness.” That essentially means a lot of the Ice Gauntlet’s AoE abilities have been hit hard, like Ice Shower, Ice Storm, and the damage passives. Here’s a rundown.

• Changes to the Ice Gauntlet’s Heavy Attacks. The Heavy Attack charge up time and recovery time have both been increased. This is to bring it more in line with the Void Gauntlet and Fire Staff. You will also move slower while attacking.
• Ice Storm receives a nerf – the time between damage ticks has been increased from 0.25s to 0.33s. This means you will do less damage with the ability before it stops. In a more positive light, a few bugs have been fixed: Unending Thaw perk will no longer stop damage; the Ice Storm will do damage to enemies that are slowed, and your Ice Storm will now continue when you swap out your weapon.
• A small buff to Wind Chill – a damage increase from 16 percent to 20 percent – may make it a more reliable skill. We will have to see if this impacts the popular Ice Gauntlet builds.
• Ice Shower has its cooldown increased to 30 seconds from 20 seconds. This will make wars more bearable, but it’s a hard hit for Ice Gauntlet users.
• Entombed is nerfed. You can no longer be healed, you get less health when Entombed, and the damage is reduced massively from 168 percent to 70 percent when you burst out. This is a pretty hard nerf, especially for squishy mages that used Entombed to get out of trouble.
• The Ice Pylon has a max timer now of 45s, but it gets 20 percent more health. It’s an okay change, but this means you won’t have a static Pylon dealing consistent damage for you.
• Big nerfs to some of the passives: Ultimate Chill bonus damage is down from 35 percent to 25 percent; Critical Frost gets a crit reduction down from 20 percent to 15 and Energized Critical damage bonus is reduced from 15 percent to 10 percent.

Overall, the Ice Gauntlet is significantly weaker than the pre-patch version of the weapon.

Best Ice Gauntlet Build

The Ice Gauntlet provides some of the very best CC abilities in the entire game. We’ve already written about why you might want to take this weapon as a way to level up fast in New World, but this guide will focus more broadly on the different uses for the Ice Gauntlet.

Ice Gauntlet And Fire Staff – High DPS and PvP

One of the most popular builds during the first couple weeks of New World has been the Ice Gauntlet and Fire Staff combination. The high damage output and mana usage of the Fire Staff is well-balanced with the mana regen and CC of the Ice Gauntlet. You can check out NewWorldFans for a tool to experiment with your own builds, which is where the screenshots below are from.

Overview of the build:

This build is suitable for both Open World PvP and staged PvP. Check out our best PvP builds for more insight into the best ways to play these builds.

Best Active Skills For The Ice Gauntlet

Since the Ice Gauntlet’s main strength is crowd control, we’ll be exclusively using abilities that provide strong crowd control effects:

• Ice Shower – Ice Shower is a powerful CC active ability for the Ice Gauntlet. It slows the enemy, roots them for a second, and prevents them from either blocking or dodging while affected by the shower. An extremely powerful PVP ability, it also has its uses for PVE and fighting large groups of enemies.
• Entombed – An essential active skill for the Ice Gauntlet and Fire Staff combination, Entombed encases you in a block of ice and greatly increases mana regen. Because you’ll be burning through mana fast with the Staff, this is a great way to step out of the fight for a moment and get your mana back.
• Ice Storm – More CC. The Ice Storm ability creates an area of slowness and also deals damage. This is trickier to pull off in single-target PVP because it requires the enemy to stay within its radius, but it’s very useful for multiple enemies or for during Expeditions, for example.

Best Active Skills And Masteries For The Fire Staff

• Fireball – Fireball is a straightforward, powerful ability that creates an AOE of burn damage over a short period. This is a great pick-up for the Fire Staff. If you prefer targeted damage, take the Pillar of Fire ability instead.
• Burn Out – This serves as an excellent movement skill. Use this to create distance when enemies are getting too close, or dash through a bunched-up group of enemies to inflict burn on all of them.
• Incinerate – Incinerate is a powerful ability that will knock back opponents, help you to regen health if you spec all the way down its skill tree, and also stacks the burning debuff on your enemies.

You’ll also want to grab the Reheat capstone from the Pyromancer tree. It will massively regenerate your mana (by 400 percent) if you don’t use a Fire spell for a short period. As you will likely be switching out to the Ice Gauntlet regularly, this works very well for this build. If you want to double down on some of the passives in the Pyromancer tree, you can spec out of Burn Out to get a few more mastery points.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Intelligence
• Armor: Light or medium

Since both weapons in this build scale with Intelligence, that’s the main attribute you’ll want to increase. As for your armor, light gives a fantastic dodge roll to help you avoid attacks. If you find yourself dying repeatedly, consider using medium armor instead. Any gear with critical-enhancing perks, reduced threat, or enhancements to your abilities is worth using.

How To Use This Build In Open World And Staged PvP

Your role is along the backline. It’s up to you to deal consistent CC and AoE damage while staying away from pesky backline clearers with Great Axes. Thanks to the Entombed ability, you’re able to pretty much consistently spam out abilities. In Wars, for example, you should be laying down constant damage on objective points.

As for solo PvP in the Open World, this build can deal a lot of damage, but you’re also susceptible to gap closers and CC opponents, literally anyone with a Great Axe, War Hammer, or Spear. This is why light armor is recommended. You will need to be able to dodge and weave around opponents.

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Ice Gauntlet and Rapier Build

Another build that has been popular during the start of New World is the Ice Gauntlet and Rapier combination. This build is more about dealing big damage while evading your enemy’s attacks. Be wary: this is more of a duelist-type build, which means you will take more damage if you’re not careful.

Best Active Skills For The Ice Gauntlet

We’ll be using the same CC-heavy build that was discussed in the last build section. Ice Storm, Ice Shower, and Entombed will give you the tools to dish out a ton of crowd control effects.

Best Active Skills For The Rapier

This is your standard Rapier setup, although it favors the Grace tree heavily. Evade, Riposte, and Fleche should give you the mobility you need to tackle large groups of PvE enemies.

• Fill out the Grace tree – You want to take all three skills from the Grace tree, Riposte, Evade, and Fleche. The entire purpose of this build is to be a tricky, mobile opponent that controls your enemy’s movement while also dealing damage and applying debuffs.
• Riposte – Enters you into a defensive stance for a short period of time. If you’re hit during this period, you’ll stun the enemy. Pair this with an Ice Shower, and you’ve got a nasty combination.
• Evade – This provides a lot of mobility and helps you stay out of trouble, either while you’re waiting for cooldowns to refresh on your Ice Gauntlet or to activate another Riposte.
• Fleche – Another mobility active skill, Fleche will have you lunging in and out around your enemies, helping you reduce incoming damage.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attributes: Intelligence and Dexterity
• Armor: Light or medium

Your core Attribute is going to depend on how you play this build. If you focus on the Ice Gauntlet’s abilities, focus on Intelligence first. If you prefer the Rapier’s abilities, use Dexterity instead. With endgame gear, your goal is to have a good mix of the two stats to maximize your damage output. For armor, light is solid for enhancing your damage and giving you a powerful dodge roll. If you don’t like how weak your defenses are, feel free to use medium instead. As for perks, look for anything that enhances your Ice Gauntlet cooldowns and mobility.

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Ice Gauntlet And Life Staff Build

This is one of the more popular support healer builds in New World. You can check out our in-depth guide to support builds in the game here, but we’ll also cover the basics of the Ice Gauntlet and Life Staff pairing below.

Best Active Skills For The Ice Gauntlet

Once again, the CC-heavy Ice Gauntlet setup is what we’ll be using for this build. Use Ice Shower and Ice Storm to slow your targets as much as possible. When you need more mana, use Entombed.

Best Active Skills For The Life Staff

Our ideal loadout for the Life Staff alongside the Ice Gauntlet looks like this:

• Sacred Ground – This is one of the strongest healing effects in New World, and it persists when you swap weapons. Throw one down whenever you can.
• Orb of Protection – Provides a plethora of buffs with a short cooldown.
• Light’s Embrace / Beacon – Light’s Embrace is fantastic for single-target healing and for mana sustain. If your mana sustain is fine, Beacon is a great alternative that provides more group healing.
  • Beacon also persists when you swap weapons.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Focus
• Armor: Light

Heavily invest in Focus. The Ice Gauntlet is a secondary weapon in this combo, and you will primarily be using the Life Staff to provide healing to your pals during Expeditions and PvP. Light armor is great for this build, as it provides a powerful dodge and increases your healing capabilities. For perks, look for anything that enhances your healing, cooldowns, and reduces your threat.

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General Tips For Ice Gauntlet Gameplay

• The Ice Gauntlet relies heavily on crowd control. Depending on which weapon you pair it with, it doesn’t deal the most massive damage.
• You can pair the Ice Gauntlet with the Life Staff for a very competent Support Healer build.
• The Ice Gauntlet’s Ice Pylon active skill should not be overlooked. It’s incredibly powerful when paired with the right secondary weapon. Placing down Pylons that deal consistent damage means you can switch your attention to other matters, and rely on the Pylons to deal frost damage.
• We saw some interesting PVP Ice Gauntlet builds during the first couple of wars.

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