Amazon Game Studios' launch of New World has been a bit of a controversial topic this year due to the game's incredibly successful first week or two, and also due to all the glitches and issues that players discovered over time. The November Into the Void update was supposed to fix several of those and make New World better overall, which wasn't the case once players realized that the core mechanics for endgame encounters and farming for gear had been dramatically changed. In an attempt to make New World's Gear Score rush more linear and provide a sense of progression, Amazon changed the difficulty of endgame fights and nerfed drops from chests.
These changes were just a tiny part of Amazon's plan to adjust New World's various systems, and it shows in the recent patch notes for the December update. New World players will get an Expertise value associated with their different items that determines their Gear Score, like the previous Watermark level, and the idea was to make it also decrease a player's GS if it was below the Expertise value with another patch next year.
In an unexpected turn of events, Amazon decided to abandon the idea of lowering New World players' Gear Scores, something that would have defeated the purpose of purchasing better items from the trading posts. A Reddit user by the name of Um_Hello_Guy shared Amazon's take on the matter, praising the developer for admitting the decision was flawed. What this actually means for players is that they can safely purchase better items now, even if those items' Gear Score is higher than their current gear, and still benefit from it.
This has always been used in such a way by New World players that many got to level 60 only to buy GS 580 items from the trading posts and immediately skyrocket their progression. While the system is not great right now, it wasn't fair to players who had already increased their Watermark and Gear Score to suddenly lower everything. However, the idea is still that of lowering the GS of items acquired after the patch down to the player's Expertise value.
It's worth noting that New World's December patch is adding new perks, and obtaining new pieces of armor or weapons with them on also means altering one's Gear Score for better or worse. Ideally, players should try to get items with the highest GS they can find now, and eventually go for the best ones overall once the patch drops, so as to mitigate the effects of the Expertise system.
New World is available now on PC.