Warhammer PvP Guide

The warhammer in New World is a powerful 2-handed weapon that commands a lot of respect in PvP scenarios. With moderate damage and an amazing crowd control tool kit, the warhammer can lock down and demolish opponents in all types of PvP, especially in large-scale combat like territory wars, where AoE crowd control abilities reign supreme.

Clear Out

Clear Out is a wide swinging and forgiving ability that allows you to push back, damage, and knock your opponents to the ground. This ability is great to use as a counter to an opponent’s ability and following up Clear Out with an instant heavy attack is a great way to weave in some serious damage.

Passives

• Power Cleaner
  • Hitting a target with Clear Out grants Fortify, providing a 10% defense bonus for 4 seconds to all friendlies within 6 meters.
• Clean and Refreshed
  • Clear Out’s cooldown is reduced by 5% per enemy hit with the ability.
• Swing Away
  • Using Clear Out on a target grants Haste, increasing movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds.

Shockwave

Shockwave is the most notable and recognizable ability that the warhammer has to offer. With a 4 meter area of effect (with Meteoric Crater passive), shockwave is an amazingly forgiving stun ability. In order to be the most successful, warhammer players should use Shockwave as a player is engaging them in close quarters combat, or use the ability in combo with Clear Out for a fantastic CC combo.

Passives

• Frailty
  • The trauma of the attack causes Weaken, decreasing the damage dealt from the target’s attacks by 10% for 10 seconds.

Path of Destiny

Path of Destiny is one of the loudest abilities in the game in terms of audio volume, visual appeal, and strength. With the Seismic Waves passive and Aftershock ultimate passive, Path of Destiny becomes a pseudo gap-closing ability, able to hit targets at range, stagger and slow them down for a follow-up.

Passives

• Seismic Waves
  • Path of Destiny now staggers all targets in its path.

This warhammer build is framed around the Crowd Crusher ultimate Aftershock, which makes all 3 of the Crowd Crusher abilities apply a 20% slow for 4 seconds. In PvP, CC effects (slows, roots, stuns, knockdowns) are extremely valuable. Being able to constantly apply a 20% slow to opponents while also punishing those players with the abilities base effects is amazing. Because we are slowing, stunning, staggering, and knocking down our opponents with all of the abilities in this build, weaving strong heavy attacks is vitally important to improving this weapon’s damage output. Passives like Hammer Time, Hardened Steel, and Contemption heavily (no pun intended) incentivize these weaved heavy attacks. A classic warhammer combo would look something like this:

Path of Destiny → Shockwave → Heavy Attack → Clear Out → Heavy Attack

The warhammer performs very well while going toe-to-toe against other melee weapon users, however, if the warhammer player is facing a ranged opponent, it can prove difficult to engage and lock those types of players down. Aftershock proves useful in these scenarios, allowing warhammer players to use Path of Destiny to stagger and apply Aftershock from range. This Aftershock debuff will slow the target down, giving the warhammer player the opportunity to follow up with abilities like Clear Out and Shockwave, reapplying the slow and allowing the warhammer to easily stay on top of its enemies.

Similar to other melee weapons, the warhammer relies on getting up-close and personal with its opponents, chaining together stuns and smashing them with heavy attacks. Because of this, player movement and mobility is vital. Enemies that have advanced knowledge of movement mechanics in this game can be difficult to catch and eliminate. In order to have the best chance of staying up close and personal with your foe, warhammer players should become familiar with advanced mobility mechanics themselves.

Here are some quick tips to get started:

1. Try not to dodge in attempts to approach your opponent. If you do, you will be at a dodge disadvantage and will find yourself constantly trying to catch up to your opponent. Instead, use a Path of Destiny applied Aftershock slow to reduce their movement speed, allowing you to simply run up to your opponent. If they dodge away, follow that player immediately with a dodge of your own.
2. Dodges can be animation canceled with abilities. Using Shockwave immediately after a dodge and before the recovery animation will surprise your opponents, allowing you to set up an amazing combo. Pro tip: Count the number of dodges that your opponent uses. A player only has 2 to 3 dodges (depending on perks, armor class, and attribute bonuses) before they are out of stamina. Use this to your advantage and know when your opponent is unable to evade one of your abilities.

The warhammer fully scales off of the Strength attribute at 1.0X. This means that for every point that a player puts into strength, the warhammer will gain 1 full weapon damage. Since the warhammer is a melee weapon, it will be imperative that this attribute distribution has an ample amount of Constitution since you are more likely to be hit with abilities. You will also need an appropriate amount of strength and dexterity to be able to eliminate your opponents. In a 500 attribute total build, the recommended attribute distribution is:

• 200 Strength
• 300 Constitution

This attribute distribution will give you these attribute bonuses:

Strength

1. 50: +5% damage to melee weapon light attacks
2. 100: +10% damage to melee weapon heavy attacks
3. 150: +50% stamina damage from melee weapon light and heavy attacks
4. 200: +10% damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies

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
4. 200: +20% increase to armor
5. 250: 80% damage reduction when at full health
6. 300: +20% duration of stun, slow, and root spells

This attribute allocation really aligns with the play style of the build. Having 300 Constitution is going to help in tough zerg style PvP matches while more importantly giving an amazing +20% duration to all cc effects which includes all Aftershock applications and Shockwave stuns. 200 Strength is going to give us just enough attribute points to give us an extra +10% damage to stunned and slowed opponents, something that we do a lot of with the warhammer, as well as +10% heavy attack damage.

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 warhammer and pertain to this build.

Sundering Shockwave

Shockwave applies Rend, reducing the target’s damage absorption by 19% for 10 seconds.

Repulsing Clear Out

Clear Out now knocks targets back an additional 141%.

Leeching Path Of Destiny

Heal for 28% of the damage dealt from Path Of Destiny.

Sundering Shockwave is a very powerful weapon ability perk that will give your follow up warhammer heavy attack as well as any subsequent weapon abilities an additional 19% damage. This is a very hefty debuff that you can place on your opponents and is highly recommended for PvP.

Repulsing Clear Out is an amazingly fun weapon ability perk that allows the warhammer to smash their targets back a considerable distance, however, it is only applicable to builds that want to create space rather than gap close.

Apart from weapon ability perks, there are an abundance of general perks that players can find or place onto their equipment that will affect 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.