New World: Best War Hammer Build

The War Hammer is a powerful two-handed weapon in New World, Amazon’s take on the MMO genre. This heavy weapon is a valuable asset for tanky players, as well as well-balanced for PVP and PVE content. It deals immense damage, can stun enemies with ease, and works as a great taunt weapon for tanks.

If you love getting into the thick of combat, you’ll want to give the War Hammer a try for your next build. This guide covers the best attribute points to use for the War Hammer, which weapon to pair it with for a successful build, and the masteries that suit each build the best.

Updated December 13, 2021: We’ve added our video breakdown of the best War Hammer builds in New World for a more in-depth look at putting together the best one possible.

Patch 1.1 Changes To The War Hammer

In an attempt to make the War Hammer more versatile, the 1.1 patch brings some buffs to the weapon’s lesser-used, less-CC heavy tree, Juggernaut. Here’s a look at some of the tweaks and whether or not this will impact our best builds.

• Armor Breaker is buffed – its perk, Lasting Traumer, has its Rend effect buffed from 15 to 20 percent. Opening Act is tweaked with extra damage from 15 to 25 percent. Armor Breaker is now more likely to hit thanks to a tweak to hitboxes on inclines/knocked down players.
• Mighty Gavel has its damage scaling increased from 160 to 170 percent. Its cooldown is reduced from 22s to 20s. Its Justice For All Perk is also buffed, with extra damage scaling from 200 to 220 percent. This is a pretty significant change for one of the most satisfying abilities in the game.
• Wrecking Ball, not one of the abilities we focused on much in our builds, also gets a buff. Its flat damage is increased from 120 to 130 percent, and its perk Safety Measures gives you 7s of Fortify rather than 4.
• Shockwave is slightly nerfed, with the Rend effectiveness down to 10 from 20 percent.

How do these changes impact the War Hammer? Well, there is a bit more variety when it comes to picking abilities, although these buffed/nerfed areas don’t impact the below builds excessively. You could swap out Shockwave for Wrecking Ball, for example, but the CC of Shockwave is still valuable even if its damage/rend is weaker. Experiment with some of these different abilities and see how they feel – we really like the Mighty Gavel buff, for example.

Best War Hammer Build – The Tank

We’ve covered a Tank build in-depth here, but there’s no doubt that the War Hammer does favor a more tanky, Strength build. Here are the best masteries for the different styles of play.

In terms of armor, you can opt for a balanced heavy/medium armor comp. For PVP duels, it pays to have that extra mobility, although for the endgame PVE and large PVP battles, you might want to lean heavily into heavy armor to keep you alive in tricky situations.

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PvE And Leveling Tank Build

The War Hammer excels at PvE thanks to its powerful AoE attacks. Both the Crowd Crusher and Juggernaut tree provide plenty in terms of scaling damage, and you’ll make short work of large groups of enemies, even though the weapon attacks slowly. This makes a great choice for Expeditions and for solo leveling.

Best Masteries For The War Hammer In PvE

There is a lot of freedom when it comes to picking masteries for the War Hammer. This suggested build makes use of the Crowd Crusher tree predominantly, but the Juggernaut tree – especially the Armor Breaker and its subsequent debuff passives – has its own strengths.

Clear Out is the first active skill you pick up and is an essential skill. When used, you swing the War Hammer in front of you, knocking enemies back by four meters while dealing 115% weapon damage. It’s great for making space and for getting out of a swarm of enemies.

Shockwave is another essential skill for a tank War Hammer build, especially because it is compatible with taunt gems to draw enemies toward you and away from your allies. It will stun enemies and with the second passive, Frailty, it will also inflict a Weakness debuff.

Path of Destiny is a brilliant PvE ability. It has no limit on how many enemies it can hit, and with the final mastery passive, Stimulated Reduction, you can get a serious cooldown buff if you land a hit against multiple enemies. Though this suggested build is dominated by the Crowd Crusher tree, you can experiment with the Juggernaut side of things, as well.

Other recommended abilities for the War Hammer include:

• Mighty Gavel: this ability scales massively with its damage passives and is a key part of the Juggernaut tree.
• Armor Breaker: debuffs galore, ideal if you’re playing a more support tank role.

While leveling, consider pairing the War Hammer with the following weapons:

• Bow: Gives a ton of movement speed and ranged DPS capabilities.
• Hatchet: Allows you to dish out more damage and utilize Berserk during intense skirmishes.
• Great Axe: Provides a good mix of crowd control and sustain that pairs nicely with the War Hammer.
• Life Staff: Most Life Staff buffs persist when you swap weapons, making you virtually unkillable while leveling.

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Balanced War Hammer Build For PvP Tanking

The War Hammer is not an easy weapon to use in PVP. Used correctly, you have a lot of CC and potential damage, but the slowness of the weapon and the lack of abilities that can close space between you and the enemy makes it difficult to use, especially for single-target PVP. Here’s a suggested build to make it a little easier.

Armor Breaker is ideal for slicing through defensive enemies, and is the tank’s method of taking down another tank. It penetrates armor and the second perk, Indomitable, adds Grit to the attack, which means it is unstoppable by block.

Wrecking Ball’s CC is better for PVP than PvE, as it “flattens” the enemy in place for a short time. If you manage to land a successful Wrecking Ball the opponent will be held in place, which means you can hopefully land some extra heavy attacks or an Armor Breaker.

Clear Out is a valuable ability for PvE and PvP. The CC from the knockback can pin your enemy in place.

You have the option to play a more support-orientated role in large-scale PVP battles. Armor Breaker is the key ability for this kind of role. Both the Great Axe and War Hammer synergize well together, making this a powerful PvP loadout if you can close the gap.

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War Hammer And Sword And Shield

This is the build we discussed in our tank build guide, and it makes sense to pair the heavy CC of the War Hammer with the defensive abilities of the Sword, particularly under the shield’s Defender tree.

Best Masteries For The War Hammer

We’ll be focusing heavily on the War Hammer abilities that debuff and stun targets, making this a fantastic back bar weapon for tanks.

Best Masteries For The Sword And Shield

The entire purpose of a tank build is to draw enemies away from your main damage dealers and healers. The taunt-compatible Shield Bash and Shield Rush are essential for this. Shield Rush also provides that extra bit of mobility that the War Hammer seriously lacks on its own. If you’re interested in learning more about each Sword and Shield ability, consult our best tank builds guide.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Constitution
• Armor: Heavy

You can’t be an effective tank without speccing heavily into Constitution, increasing your character’s HP and other defensive capabilities through point thresholds. If you have enough points through high-level armor, consider investing points into Strength. As for armor, heavy is the way to go for tank builds, granting an immense amount of damage reduction. For gear, you’re looking for anything that increases your character’s threat or reduces your cooldowns.

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War Hammer And The Bow

This is a PVP build that some players have been experimenting with during the closed beta. It’s tricky to use, mostly because it blends the roles of a tank with a more evasive or duelist type of play.

Best Masteries For The War Hammer

We’ll be using the PvP War Hammer setup we mentioned earlier for this build. It provides excellent crowd control and outputs an immense amount of damage.

Best Masteries For The Bow

Evade Shot is the key mobility skill, and it’s one of the best to use during single-target PVP. Being able to disengage works wonders for the War Hammer, especially as you can back off and wait for your CC cooldowns to recover.

Rain of Arrows is useful because of its bleed and slow when you max out its mastery tree. Throw this ability down whenever you need to deal some solid AoE damage.

Penetrating Shot is a great opener in PVP. If you manage to land the shot, it’ll deal massive damage—especially if it’s traveled a long distance before hitting the target.

We also want to include Poison Shot as a valuable option for any Bow build. It’s an incredibly powerful ability in PVP, especially with the number of Great Axe warriors we saw charging around. Create a Poison cloud in front of you, and you’ll be able to zone aggressive players.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Strength
• Gear: Medium

Since this build focuses on using your War Hammer, you’ll want to focus on increasing your Strength. This does mean that your Bow is going to be weak, but you’re using it as mostly a mobility tool at this point. For armor, we recommend medium since it strikes a great balance between defense and mobility. You can also run light if you love fast-rolling, or you can run heavy if you want longer stuns. For perks, you want anything that enhances any of the abilities tied to this build and grants cooldown reduction.

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War Hammer And Great Axe

This is an incredibly popular build during the open beta that still sees frequent use today. The crowd control provided by both weapons is something to marvel at, making this an excellent build for PvE and PvP content.

Best Masteries For The War Hammer

This setup focuses heavily on dealing as much damage as possible, allowing you to reduce enemy armor with Armor Breaker while dealing some absurd finisher damage with Mighty Gavel. Use Wrecking Ball to create space between you and your opponents.

Best Masteries For The Great Axe

As for specific skills, you can replace Gravity Well with Maelstorm if you prefer its CC capabilities. Ultimately, most of your points should be going into the Reaper tree to enhance your damage.

This build is the ideal combination for PVP. The War Hammer and Great Axe collectively provide some of the best one-v-one CC in the game. As long as you can close the gap with a ranged or duelist character—the Axe helps with this—then you will be able to chunk down the opponent’s HP.

You have options for solo leveling, PVP tanking during sieges, or specializing in a build that works well in Duels. The Mighty Gavel ability for the War Hammer pairs well with the CC of the Great Axe. This is an all-around build that is super fun to use.

Best Attribute And Gear

• Attribute: Strength and Constitution
• Armor: Heavy

Strength is your main attribute for this build, which is fitting since you’re wielding two massive weapons. Both weapons will deal more damage as you invest in Strength, so get your Strength attribute as high as possible. If you can, also try to put a few points into Constitution to stay alive during 1vX situations. For armor, heavy is the way to go. It provides excellent damage mitigation and extends the duration of your CC effects. Any perks that enhance your abilities, cooldowns, and critical effects are recommended.

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In Closing

If you want to experiment with your own builds, you can use NewWorldFans—the same platform we used to show these builds off to you. You can also check out some of our other build guides here:

• New World: Best Rapier Build
• New World: Best Tank Build
• New World: Best Bow Build
• New World: Best Ice Gauntlet Build
• New World: Best Spear Build
• New World: Best Great Axe Build