Weapon Ability Perks: Beginner Guide

Perks in New World are bonuses that can be applied to all of your player’s equipment, including weapons, armor, accessories, bags, etc. Perks have varying effects such as gaining an empowered buff on a monster kill, healing yourself based on the ability’s damage, knocking your opponents back further, and more.

Different types of perks can only be found or crafted into specific item types. For example, the perk Enchanted (general weapon perk) can only be found or crafted into weapons, whereas Keen Awareness (general ring perk) can only be found or crafted into rings:

General perks like the examples shown above have no affiliation to a specific weapon and will give general bonuses that enhance the stats or effects of many different pieces of equipment. Just like general perks, a weapon ability perk is a generated perk that can be found or applied to weapons and certain armor pieces that augment the power level of a weapon ability in a positive way.

Let’s take Enfeebling Poison shot as an example:

If you have this particular perk, the Bow weapon ability Poison Shot will not only have it’s base ability effects (impact and DoT) and it’s passive effects, but it will now also apply a weaken to the target for 4 seconds due to the ability perk. The amount of weaken applied to the target is based on the gear score of the equipment that has the perk applied to it. Enfeebling Poison Shot can only be applied to the bow, as well as armor pieces including chest, helmet, gloves, pants, and shoes.

Trying to find a weapon with the perk that you want in the open-world is extremely difficult because there are so many perks available in New World. Because of this difficulty, crafting will be the key to obtaining all of the perks that you desire. While crafting equipment, players can use specific crafting reagents found around Aeternum to guarantee that the perk of their choice is placed onto the equipment that they are creating. Below are two different crafting reagents that will apply a different pork to a crafted item. When used in crafting, the Orichalcum Hatchet Charm will apply the Refreshing Torrent weapon ability perk, while the Pristine Animal Claw  will apply the Keenly Jagged general weapon perk.

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 each weapon.

Enfeebling Poison Shot

Poison Shot’s arrow also applies Weaken, reducing the target’s damage by 14% for 4 seconds.

Energizing Evade Shot

Gain 18 Stamina after hitting a target with Evade Shot.

Fortifying Rain of Arrows

Hitting a target with Rain of Arrows grants Fortify on self, increasing damage absorption by 19% for 22 seconds.

Penetrating Rapid Shot

Increase armor penetration of the final arrow of Rapid Shot attacks by 19%.

Refreshing Penetrating Shot

Penetrating Shot kills reduce this ability’s cooldown by 14%.

Empowering Splinter Shot

Splinter Shot hits grant Empower, increase damage by 19% for 10 seconds or until the next attack.

Refreshing Divine Embrace

Using Divine Embrace on a target below 50% health reduces the cooldown by 46%.

Fortifying Sacred Ground

Allies healed by Sacred Ground gain Fortify, increasing damage absorption by 14% for 5 seconds.

Energizing Splash Of Light

Allies hit with Splash of Light gain 14 stamina.

Mending Protection

Increase healing power by 37% for 5 seconds if Orb of Protection heals an ally with no active buffs.

Accelerating Light’s Embrace

Allies below full health gain Haste when hit with Light’s Embrace, increasing movement speed by 23% for 3 Seconds.

Revitalizing Beacon

Using Beacon increases healing power on self by 37% for 12 seconds.

Refreshing Pillar of Fire

Reduce this ability’s cooldown by 14% per enemy hit with Pillar of Fire. (3 hits max.)

Empowering Meteor Shower

Meteor Shower hits deal 30% additional damage to targets at full Health.

Empowering Fireball

Fireball impact deals 31% additional damage.

Siphoning Incinerate

Restore 9.3 mana per hit with Incinerate. (3 hits max.)

Accelerating Flamethrower

Applying 3 stacks of burn damage on a target with Flamethrower grants Haste, increasing movement speed by 23% for 2 seconds.

Efficient Burnout

Mana regen rate increased by 37% for 8 seconds after using Burnout.

Unbroken Winds

Gain 10% Mana after a full Wind Chill burst.

Unending Thaw

Frost effects remain on enemies for 2 seconds after exiting Ice Storm.

Iced Refresh

Reduce all Ice cooldowns on a killing blow by 75%.

Deadly Frost

Frigid Showers ability will cause damage to enemies with Frostbite.

Pylon Burst

Add a 1 meter radius damage AOE when Pylon Casts.

Healing Tomb

Gain 10% Health after exiting Entomb with full mana.

Contagious Reverse Stab

Reverse Stab transfers an active debuff from self to target hit.

Empowering Whirling Blade

Base damage is increased by 20% while performing a Whirling Blade attack if 3 or more enemies are within the radius of the attack.

Empowering Leaping Strike

Deal 17% additional damage to targets slowed by Leaping Strike’s Cowardly Punishment upgrade.

Repulsing Shield Bash

Shield Bash knocks back targets an additional 93%.

Fortifying Shield Rush

After hitting a target with Shield Rush, gain Fortify, increasing damage absorption on self by 19% for 4 seconds.

Accelerated Defiant Stance

Movement Speed Increased by 28% for 5 seconds after triggering Defiant Stance.

Empowering Armor Breaker

If Armor Breaker breaks a block, the next attack within 5 seconds deals 28% additional damage.

Refreshing Mighty Gavel

Mighty Gavel kills reduce this ability’s cooldown by 19%.

Penetrating Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball penetrates 19% of the target’s armor.

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.

Refreshing Charge

Using Charge on a target with full health reduces the cooldown by 14%.

Crippling Reap

If target hit with Reap is below 50% health, they are Slowed, reducing movement speed by 33% for 2 seconds.

Mending Execute

Gain 17% of health back on kill with Execute.

Fortifying Whirlwind

Whirlwind hits grant Fortify on self, increasing damage absorption by 14% for 2 seconds. (10 stacks max.)

Enfeebling Maelstrom

Targets hit by Maelstrom’s No Reprieve are Weakened, reducing their attack damage by 14% for 4 seconds.

Insatiable Gravity Well

Gain 50% of your damage with Gravity Well back as Health, and cast another burst around you on successful hit.

Energizing Feral Rush

Gain 18 stamina for each successful hit with Feral Rush.

Keen Berserk

Increase Crit Chance by 14% while under 50% health HP while berserking.

Refreshing Torrent

Every hit of Raging Torrent reduces all Hatchet cooldowns by 4.6%.

Energizing Rending Throw

Rending Throw kills grant 5 stamina

Vorpal Distancing Throw

Social Distancing headshots deal 28% additional damage.

Mending Infected Throw

Infected Throw kills return 28% of the player’s HP.

Keen Tondo

Increase Crit Chance by 11% against targets affected by Tondo’s Bleed.

Energizing Flourish

Gain 19 stamina on hit with Flourish.

Leeching Flurry

Each hit of Flurry restores 28% of the damage as health.

Sundering Riposte

Riposte grants Rend, reducing damage absorption of the target by 14% for 10 seconds.

Omnidirectional Evade

Evade’s Adagio upgrade is applied when evading in any direction.

Refreshing Fleche

Hitting a target via a Crit Backstab with Fleche reduces this ability’s cooldown by 19%.

Bleeding Sweep

Sweep’s Coup De Grace now applies Bleed for 9.3% of weapon damage for 4 seconds.

Sundering Javelin

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

Leeching Cyclone

Every hit of Cyclone heals you for 31% of weapon damage.

Fortifying Perforate

Gain a stack of Fortify, increasing damage absorption by 9.3% for 6 seconds per successful Perforate hit.

Enfeebling Skewer

Skewer hits apply Weaken, reducing target’s damage by 14% for 8 seconds.

Keen Vault Kick

Vault Kick increases random Crit Chance by 18% for 5 seconds.

Pairing these weapon ability perks with strong general perks like Keen, Vorpal, or Vicious can make certain weapons in New World feel much more powerful and in some situations can change the playstyle of a weapon entirely. Before choosing your weapon ability perk, make sure that it will be effective for the particular activity that you are most interested in, such as:

1. Leveling
2. Small-Scale PvP or Dueling
3. Large-scale PvP (Wars, Fort PvP)
4. Expeditions

Critically thinking about which perks would be most useful to you in different situations will be imperative for a fun experience in New World, especially in more competitive scenarios.