New World: Best Spear Build

The Spear is an extremely versatile weapon in Amazon’s new MMO, New World. This best build guide covers mostly what you’re looking for in PvP, although it can also be changed and tweaked to be used for leveling and PvE.

There are a few good options for weapons to pair with the Spear. We take a look at the most powerful: the Bow and Spear for a strong Thrust-damage build, and the Spear Hatchet Build. We’ll be taking an in-depth look at each ability, mastery passive, attributes, gear, and discuss some tips on how to use each ability.

Updated October 19 by Harry Alston: New World Patch 1.1 is now out. With it comes a lot of changes to the way the Spear works in New World, including a buff for some of the lesser-used skills and some overall buffs to damage. We’re updating this guide to include the changes and how this might impact the various best Spear builds in the game.

Patch 1.1 Changes To The Spear

Here’s a rundown of the changes and buffs to the Spear and how this impacts gameplay.

• Coup De Grace has its damage scaling increased from 125 percent to 150 percent, a substantial buff that seems to be the moniker of the type of balancing pushed through in this patch. Go hard, or don’t bother. It also now counts as a Heavy attack, which triggers even more of the Spear’s heavy attack passives.
• Bleed damage on Skewer is increased by 10 percent, up to 20 from 10.
• Perforate has better damage scaling from 70 percent to 80 percent. A bug with Continuous Motion has now been fixed, so the cooldown is properly reduced.
• Cyclone’s damage scaling has been increased from 110 percent to 130 percent.

These are significant buffs to some of the skills that we haven’t included in our best Spear builds before, including Cyclone and Coup De Grace. Cyclone, in particular, is a CC-heavy move that pushes back your opponent and deals slow. It could be a good switch-up for something like Javelin throw.

The Best Spear Builds In New World

Spears excel at crowd control and zoning. Since Spears have more range than any other melee weapon, you’re encouraged to manage your distance during an engagement, using CC abilities to reposition or create an opening as necessary.

Like every other weapon in New World, Spears have two Weapon Mastery trees:

1. Zoner: Focus on crowd control and stamina management.
2. Impaler: Focus on mobility and damage.
   1. Has a mild focus on debuffs.

Most of the skills we’ll be using in this guide are from the Zoner tree, as its CC effects make it excellent for PvE and PvP fights. Impaler is fantastic for focusing more on damage or for pairing with other DoT weapons like the Rapier.

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Spear And Hatchet Build

First up, the Hatchet and Spear build. The Hatchet is arguably one of the very best weapons in New World, mostly thanks to its powerful Berserk ability. It pairs nicely with the Spear, giving you backup CC effects and range for when Berserking just isn’t enough.

We’ll cover the benefits of the Hatchet below, but first up, the Spear. Here’s a look at the best attributes and masteries for the Spear, as well as which active skills you should pick up.

Best Spear Masteries

For this build, we’ve headed deep into the Zoner tree to increase critical hits and scale critical damage via the passives. Thanks to NewWorldFans for the ability to craft and tweak builds via their site; you can visit them here to try out your own builds. Here are the active skills you should pick up.

• Sweep – Sweep is a crucial skill for this PvP Spear build. When activated, Sweep will knock your enemy’s legs out from underneath them, disabling them for a short period. This is very effective in PvP.
• Vault Kick – A powerful PvP CC ability that will stun your opponents and allow you to be mobile during the fight.
• Javelin – When combined with the Hatchet, the Spear has very little range unless you pick up the Javelin. Not only does this give you a chance to get an attack off from a distance, but the Javelin will also knock your opponent into a stagger.

The entire purpose of the Spear is to control your enemy. Keep them downed for as long as possible, and then switch to the Hatchet in Berserk to either chase down an opponent or start dealing more damage.

Key things to remember about the Spear:

• The Spear scales off Dexterity, although it does have a secondary stat for Strength.
• The Spear also has the longest weapon reach of any melee weapon in the game, ideal for keeping your enemies at a distance during a PvP fight.

Best Hatchet Masteries

The Hatchet is one of our favorite weapons in New World. Not only do its various speed-boosting abilities, make it much easier to traverse the wide-open spaces of the game, but it’s also incredibly versatile and can be paired with many other weapon types. For this build, we went quite deep into the Throwing tree, mostly for range during PvP and to scale those debuffs and headshot multipliers via the passives.

• Berserk – Berserk is a fundamental skill for the Hatchet. It provides you with speed, sustainability, and damage. Activating Berserk is a great way to chase down a fleeing enemy (most players run away in PvP if their health gets low) and also to give you a boost if you’ve taken too much damage.
• Social Distancing – Social Distancing provides you with more mobility, with dodge and evades akin to using the Bow rather than the Hatchet. Either will work for this build, remember. However, the Hatchet’s throwing passives and abilities (like Infected Throw) give you the opportunity to deal more damage as you dodge and weave around your enemy.
• Infected Throw – This is a key skill during PvP. Inflicting your opponent with Disease will prevent them from healing for a short period, particularly during the start of the game when people are mostly using Rations to heal.
• If you prefer, you can opt for Rending Throw. This scales into a sort of crit-heavy build that opens with the Hatchet and then switches to the Spear for CC.

Key things to remember about the Hatchet:

• The Hatchet scales off Strength. You can make a choice between whether you are using the Spear or Hatchet more. For this build, it makes sense to scale into Strength. A lot of your damage output will come from the Hatchet.
• The Hatchet is a fantastic weapon to switch to while:
  • a) trying to run away from an opponent
  • b) trying to chase an opponent down

Best Attributes And Gear

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

Since your Spear scales with Strength and Dexterity, those are the two stats you’ll want to invest into. Focus on getting your Strength increased first. With optimal gear, you should have an even split between the two or a slight bias towards Strength. Light or medium armor will work for this build. Use light if you want to deal more damage. Equip medium if you find yourself dying too quickly. For perks, grab anything that enhances any of the abilities mentioned above or gives ability cooldown reduction.

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Spear And Bow Build

The Spear and Bow thrust build was extremely popular during the open beta and will likely be a strong build leading into the full release of the game.

This is an extremely flexible build that excels in some key areas: you have both ranged and melee damage, is effective for PvP as well as Expeditions, and has a fair amount of control and sustain. Here’s a closer look at the best masteries for each weapon.

Best Spear Masteries

Best Masteries For The Spear – Impaler Tree

• Perforate – Rapid attack that applies Rend to your opponent, which means they’ll take extra damage. Pick up both perks in this tree (Rupturing Strikes and Impactful Strikes.)
• Vault Kick – A mobility ability and it can apply a stun. Pick up both of the passives in its tree (Relentless Blows and Continuous Motion.)
• Passives in the Impaler tree – There is a bit of flexibility with the passives you pick up here, but we strongly recommend the Refreshing Jabs passive to increase cooldown speed.

Best Masteries For The Spear – Zoner Tree

• Sweep – An essential part of this build, Sweep is the CC you need to keep your enemy on the ground. Pick up the Tenacious Sweep passive, which applies Grit to your attack (cannot be dodged or blocked). Don’t bother with Coup de Grace. It looks pretty cool but doesn’t do much for your build.
• Passives from the Zone Tree – Pick up a few mobility passives, like Evasive Maneuvers and Invigorating Crits. Then you have a bit of flexibility with your other passive choices.

Bow Masteries And Passives

Best Masteries For The Bow

• Penetrating Shot – A great tool for applying pressure to a target or hitting a train of enemies in PvE. Try to keep your distance with Penetrating Shot to maximize the damage bonus from Deep Strike.
• Poison Shot – An excellent AoE ability that prevents targets from closing the gap, dealing a respectable amount of damage over time.
• Evade Shot – Use this as a disengage tool, giving you a noticeable movement speed increase after it’s used.
• Passives – Any mobility from the Skirmisher tree (Dodge and Weave, Archer’s Speed, etc.)

For this build, you’ll want to open engagements with Penetrating Shot. Follow up with Poison Shot, swap to Spear, use Sweep, then jump back with Evade Shot. Rinse and repeat as needed.

If you want a build that focuses more on your Bow’s abilities, check out our dedicated Bow build guide here.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Dexterity
• Armor: Light

You’ll be going all-in on Dexterity for this build. This will scale the damage of your Spear and Bow, allowing you to deal some absurd damage if you can get the build’s rotation down. For armor, we recommend light since it gives you a 20% damage increase. You don’t have much protection with light armor, so be sure to keep your distance. For perks, you want anything that enhances your Spear, your Bow’s Poison Shot, and anything that helps with ability cooldowns.

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Gameplay Tips For A Spear Build

Before we go, it’s important to discuss a few aspects of the Spear and how to best use it. This weapon takes some getting used to, but mastering its abilities and effective range can make you a force to be reckoned with in PvE and PvP.

• Spear builds mostly focuses on PvP. With some tweaks, it can also be useful for PvE. Those CC abilities with the Spear can be used against large numbers of enemies, especially if you switch out to the Cyclone AoE ability rather than the Javelin, for example.
• The best armor to use for a Spear build is probably Light Armor. That extra mobility is crucial for PvP. If you’re using the Spear for Expeditions or PvE, you may want to switch it out to a full medium set of armor.
• For most engagements, opening with your Spear is best. Use your CC abilities to give yourself a window to swap weapons, allowing you to dish out some respectable damage. This is especially important if you use a Hatchet.
  • If you’re running a ranged weapon, you might want to start engagements with your ranged weapon instead.

If you like the builds you’ve seen here and want to experiment with other weapon archetypes, check out our other build guides below:

• New World: Best Support Healer Build
• New World: Best Musket Build
• New World: Best Fire Staff Build
• New World: Best Great Axe Build

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