New World allows players to equip two types of weapon, each with its own Mastery tree and skills.
The Spear is a weapon that relies on both Strength and Dexterity to inflict damage, and is a great tool for both hurting enemies and zoning them.
Our guide suggests a build that suits both PvP and PvE play.
How to get a Spear
In New World, there are various ways to obtain a Spear.
- Dropped by mobs or found in crates
- Purchased through the it in the Trading Post
- Crafted by Weaponsmiths
Which weapon to pair with the Spear
Since the Spear is a weapon that takes advantage of two stats rather than just the one, you have a much greater choice when it comes to secondary weapon.
However, we think that two in particular stand out most -- one for inflicting heavy bleed damage, and the other a niusance from range.
Rapier
Thanks to the Dexterity requirement, the Rapier turns out to be an excellent choice. It's especially potent at stacking up the bleed effect, blending perfectly with the control a Spear provides.
Here's what skills we recommend for the Rapier as a secondary weapon.
Bow
Another Dexterity-based weapon, the Bow is ideal to kick off combat at long distances.
This pairing allows for brutal combos -- slow your opponents with the Bow's passives and abilities, before following up with even more slows and damage with the Spear.
We'd suggest the following abilities for the Bow as a secondary weapon.
The best build for the Spear
Our guide focuses on builds that offer ideal balance between the PvE and PvP sides of the game.
It is intended for players who don't wish to waste resources when it comes to allocating skill points.
Upgrade this skill twice.
Sweep the target's legs, dealing 75% weapon damage and knocking them down.
Upgrade
○ 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.
Upgrade this skill twice.
Three quick piercing strikes that each deal 70% weapon damage and apply Rend, reducing the target's damage absorption by 5% for 10 seconds.
Upgrade
○ Rupturing Strikes: Rend increased to 10% per strike against targets above 50% health.
○ Impactful Strikes: Target is staggered if you successfully land all three hits.
Upgrade this skill three times.
Rush forward and skewer your target, dealing 125% weapon damage. Applies Bleed (10% weapon damage) every 1 second for 10 seconds.
Upgrade
○ Deadly Ambush: +20% damage against targets that have full health.
○ Follow Through: Gain Empower on critical hits, increasing damage by 20% for 10 seconds.
○ Deep Wound: Bleed duration increased to 15 seconds.
Passive Tree Build
+10% damage on consecutive heavy attacks against a single target.
+25% damage against knocked down targets.
+5% critical chance on light attacks.
All spear cooldowns are reduced by 10% on the second hit of the light attack chain.
The last hit of the light attack chain applies 30% Slow for 3 seconds to targets below 30% health.
+15% damage against targets with less than 30% health.
Critical hits extend the duration of your Spear debuffs and damage over time effects by 20%.
+15% critical chance against targets with Bleed.
+10% damage per debuff on target (30% Max).
Why did we choose this build?
The Spear is a weapon that when used correctly can cause your enemies to first stagger, then fall.
The weapon's Skewer skill is ideal when paired with the Rapier, in particular the skills in the Blood skill tree. Use these to your advantage to take enemies down in a more cautious, zoning playstyle.
Ultimately, you'll need to patient when playing the Spear, as it's not an all-in glory type of build.
Stat point allocation
Both Strength and Dexterity are important when using the Spear as a main weapon, with a 60/40 split in favour of Dexterity. This should give you enough damage to be viable.
On the other hand, your gear is going to need to focus on Constitution, with Dexterity as a secondary stat. Given you're not putting any points into CON, you need to get your HP and survivability from equipment.
How to level up the Soear
Levelling up equipment is pretty easy in New World -- the more you use the weapon, the more experience it will gain.
Be mindful that the weapon doesn't gain experience if you don't use it, so even if you bring it out for a single hit, you'll benefit from the XP.
