Rumors of the death of New World are greatly exaggerated, and the game has gone through some helpful changes since it was released in 2021. The basic premise of building a character based on Attribute scores remains the same, giving players as much freedom as possible when customizing their characters' class and professions.
There are five Attribute scores in New World, and they resemble the ability scores in other MMORPGs. Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Focus are connected to weapon use, and Constitution determines a character's hit points.
There are no magical weapons that scale with Strength, so characters that rely on this Attribute are usually limited to physical damage.
Weapons And Attributes
Strength is an Attribute connected to melee damage and defender builds. A character with a high Strength Attribute score in New World is likely going to be wielding a combination of sword and shield or a big two-handed weapon.
Make the leveling process more efficient by choosing weapons with fewer Attribute points at lower levels. As a character levels up, the more Attribute points they accumulate, so characters often equip more complex weapons at higher levels and start with simple ones.
Strength Only
- Great Axe. A weapon that requires both hands and does sweeping attacks and slicing damage. It makes up for its lack of speed with its reach and ability to hit multiple enemies in a single attack. The Mastery Tree is divided into Reaper and Mauler, the first has more options for damage and healing abilities, while the second has more crowd-control skills.
- War Hammer. This Mastery Tree is divided into either Juggernaut or Crowd Crusher, so it's clear from the start this weapon is about doing damage, and a lot of it. War hammers have the highest damage rating of any other form of arms in New World.
Strength And One Other Attribute
- Blunderbuss. A new weapon that scales with both Intelligence and Strength. It's a nice choice for a ranged weapon for those who don't want to use points in Dexterity. Its Mastery Tree is divided into Containment, which has more crowd-control abilities, and Chaos, which is focused on damage.
- Spear. A weapon with both ranged and melee capabilities, it also relies on a character's Dexterity and has the longest reach of any other choice for melee damage. The Impaler build is more about dealing melee damage and the Zoner skill tree focuses on ranged and crowd-control abilities.
- Hatchet. A one-handed weapon that can be thrown like the spear, hatchets scale with Strength and Dexterity. The Mastery Tree is organized between melee, Berserker, and Throwing, the ranged build.
- Sword. The weapon of choice for defenders, the sword can be combined with a shield or equipped on its own for maximum dps, and also uses Dexterity. The Mastery Tree is divided accordingly.
The Best Weapons That Scale With Strength
Players that are building Defenders like Warriors, or Paladins that have the power to heal as well as defend, can choose between a variety of one and two-handed weapons that rely on Strength. Some are only obtainable as drops or quest rewards but it is possible to craft a few.
- Troublemaker 9000 (Tier V). It's a crafted item, but it requires an Epic ingredient to go along with its quality along with a Tier 5 Workshop and an Engineering skill of 200. The advanced loading mechanism required to know this recipe drops from elite enemies level 59 and up.
- Cardinal Sin (Tier IV). This is an item of Epic level quality that drops from Joan the Faithless, a lvl 40 Lost located in Weaver's Fen. It doesn't have any gem sockets but instead has handy Perks like Keeny Jagged, a damage-over-time ability, and Mortal Refreshment, which instantly restores all cooldowns.
- Great Axe of the Flaming Forges (Tier III). Players can find this weapon either in chests or as a drop from animals found in level 20-39 zones. With a gem socket and a perk that restores cooldowns, it's one of the best weapons for its level to scale with Strength.
- Adventurer's Longsword of the Cavalier (Tier IV). Extreme Excorism is the last in a chain of quests that require the player to slay an Elite boss and return for a reward, which is this sword. These are level 40 quests that will take the player through most of the Weaver's Fen zone.
- Frostforged War Hammer (Tier IV). The war hammer itself does a nice amount of damage, and this weapon has extra Perks like Chain Ice for extra area-of-effect (AoE) damage. It's a random drop from the Dynasty Shipyard, a level 52-60 Expedition.
New World is available on PC.