Spear PvP Guide

New World MMO’s spear is one of the most unique 2-handed weapons, excelling in both short-range combat and gap-closing capability. With its high CC potential and burst-damage output, this spear build proves viable in all forms of PvP combat but specializes in 1v1 duels and open world scenarios.

Javelin

Javelin allows for incredibly versatile combat as a spear user. Not only does it deal 125% weapon damage on hit, but it staggers enemies as well. The 3 passives that come along with it add to the strength of this ability, especially Forceful Impact:

Passives

• Forceful Impact
  • Target are knocked down on hit.
• Refreshing Precision
  • Headshots reduce cooldown by 50%.
• Deadly Distance
  • +2.5% damage per meter traveled (+100% max).

As the only ranged ability in both spear trees, Javelin allows damage output (specifically 125% weapon damage) while stuck in tight situations. Paired with the Forceful Impact passive, ranged enemies will have nowhere to go when hit with this ability. Paired with the ability cooldown passives the spear provides, Javelin will become one of your most clutch abilities in New World.

Sweep

Sweep is 1 of the 2 main CC abilities that you should take advantage of for PvP combat. As an ability with a frontal cone hitbox, Sweep knocks down the target(s) in front of you. In most situations, using Sweep after a successful Vault Kick maximizes the spears CC possibility.

Passives

• Tenacious Sweep
  • GRIT is now active during the attack.
• Coup De Grace
  • Press Basic Attack during the sweep to follow-up with a powerful downward stab that deals 125% weapon damage.

Both Sweep passives are a must-take, with Tenacious Sweep making the ability uninterruptable and Coup De Grace for the raw damage output. Be aware, though, that the Sweep hitbox is different than the Coup De Grace hitbox; in order for Coup De Grace to hit, your target must be directly in front of you.

Vault Kick

Not only is Vault Kick one of the most satisfying abilities in the game, but it serves as the first step in the notorious spear combination. As the other main CC ability and an important gap-closer, successful hits with this ability will stun your target for 1.5s and open up the window of opportunity for the spear-user.

Passives

• Relentless Blows
  • Gain Empower after successful his on targets below 50% health, increasing damage by 20% for 5 seconds.
• Continuous Motion
  • Cooldowns for other spear abilities are reduced by 30% on successful hit.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the first Vault Kick passive, you will inevitably need to take it for the second passive, Continuous Motion. A 30% reduced cooldown for all spear abilities will increase the uptime of CC against your enemy in every PvP situation.

This spear build focuses mainly on chain CC, light attacks, dodging, and stamina consumption. When playing with this build, it is very important to note that heavy attacks will NEVER be more effective than a light attack chain. The reason being these three passives: Refreshing Jabs, Precise Jabs, and Crippling Jabs.

Refreshing Jabs plays very well with the second Vault Kick passive, Continuous Motion, and Aggressive Maneuvers, an important passive in the Impaler tree. After a successful Vault Kick, hit your target with the light attack chain to proc the ability cooldown from Refreshing Jabs (and if your target is below 30% health, you will also proc the 30% slow from Crippling Jabs). As soon as the 2^nd jab of your light attack chain hits your target, take advantage of animation cancel and Sweep your target, followed up with Coup De Grace. After your downward stab is complete, expect your target to dodge away from you – this is what you want. Follow up your enemy’s dodge with a dodge of your own and get ready to use Javelin. If you hit your target with Javelin, Aggressive Maneuvers will proc, reducing all spear cooldowns once again. Successfully hitting your target with this entire will grant you a total of 60% reduced spear ability cooldown. Including the downtime between these abilities, all of your spear abilities should be ready, or almost ready, to use again once this combination is complete. One more key thing to keep track of: with Refreshing Precision, headshots with Javelin will reduce its cooldown by another 50%.

Vault Kick → Light Attack Chain → Sweep + Coup De Grace → Javelin

Although Reserved Strength can’t always be taken advantage of in PvP combat, it will come into play when you expunge your energy and Strong Conditioning procs. When your energy hits 0, it will rapidly replenish back up to 100 (sometimes even within the spear combo outlined above). When your energy reaches 100 again, try to take advantage of the +25% damage buff from Reserved Strength by using abilities without dodging and repetitive light attack chains.

With this build, think of yourself as an assassin. Once you start experiencing higher-level combat, you will notice that completion of this deadly spear combo will bring your enemy near to death. Because of this, I recommend a ranged weapon for your secondary, like a Musket or Bow, to eliminate your enemy while they try to kite and heal. There is no doubt that when this build and its abilities are used efficiently, you will control your enemies and the battlefield.

The spear primarily scales off of the Dexterity attribute at 0.9X and secondarily off of the Strength attribute at 0.65X. This means that for every point in dexterity, the spear will gain 0.9 weapon damage, and for every point in strength, the spear will gain 0.65 weapon damage. For this build, we recommend taking advantage of the dexterity attribute for a few of its attribute bonuses. The standout attribute bonus is the one received at 150 dexterity: dodging costs 10 less stamina. At full stamina, this bonus will allow you to dodge 3 times, giving you the upper hand against all enemies in PvP who aren’t focused on Dexterity. In a 500 attribute total build, the recommended attribute distribution is:

• 50 Strength
• 150 Constitution
• 300 Dexterity

This attribute distribution will give you these attribute bonuses:

Strength

1. 50: +5% damage to melee weapon light attacks

Dexterity

1. 50: +5% chance to critical hit
2. 100: +5% piercing damage
3. 150: Dodging costs 10 less stamina
4. 200: +10% bonus backstab and headshot damage
5. 250: +10% bonus critical hit damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies
6. 300: Guaranteed critical hit after a dodge roll (can only trigger once every 10s)

Constitution

1. 50: All health consumables +20% stronger
2. 100: Increase max health by 10% of physical armor
3. 150: 10% reduction to crit damage taken

Weapon Ability Perks are generated perks that can be found or applied to:

• Weapons
• Chests
• Helmets
• Gloves
• Pants
• Shoes

These weapon ability perks augment the power level of a weapon ability in a positive way. Currently, each weapon has 6 ability perks available to players, one for each active ability. Below are all of the weapon ability perks currently available to the spear and pertain to this build.

 

Bleeding Sweep

Sweep’s Coup De Grace applies a X% weapon damage Bleed for 4s

Sundering Javelin

Javelin applies a X% Rend for 10s

Keen Vault Kick

Vault Kick increase random Crit Chance by X% for 5s

 

Out of all three ability perks, Bleeding Sweep and Sundering Javelin are the only two viable perks when compared to the other general weapon perks. Although the tooltip doesn’t specify this, the Bleed in Bleeding Sweep deals X% weapon damage every second of its 4s duration, which is an extra 40% weapon damage every 4s. Combined with all the ability cooldowns in this build, this Bleed could very likely be up every second while in combat, greatly increasing your damage output.

If you find yourself hitting Javelin a lot, then I would recommend Sundering Javelin. The X% Rend for 10s paired with this builds burst damage will be incredible when taken advantage of.

If you don’t feel like you hit Javelin enough for Sundering Javelin to be worth it, we recommend Keen (+11% critical chance with no active requirements) as an increased critical chance with any dexterity build is well worth it.

Apart from weapon ability perks, there are an abundance of other general perks that players can find or place onto their equipment that will effect their weapons in PvP. For recommendations on which general perks you should use to accompany your weapon ability perks, check out the PvP Perks and Gems Guide.