Amazon Games' new MMORPG New World takes adventurers to the supernatural island of Aeternum where there will be plenty of opportunities to fight, forage, and forge. New World does away with the traditional MMO race and class system. In order to tailor a character build in a particular direction, adventurers will instead need to participate in specific activities. For example, players can choose to build a more defensive character that functionally works as a tanking build by selecting appropriate weapons, like swords and shields or greatswords and greataxes. Similarly, players could set up a ranged DPS character by committing to using and leveling up their ranged weapons. Ranged damage is advantageous in New World and will help teams overcome difficult challenges in both dungeons and PvP content.
By using specific weapon types in combat, character prowess with these weapons will increase, and more options will become available in terms of passives and actionable abilities. New World does not have clearly delineated classes, but the game's skill trees do tend to follow along familiar lines: melee, ranged, and magic. This distinction between builds and archetypes exists in a wide range of MMOs and ARPGs. Ranged builds, in the worlds of high fantasy, tend to focus on bow or crossbow builds. New World's best ranged builds make use of traditional bows as well as hatchets.
Constructing a Powerful Ranged DPS Build in New World
While New World allows players to wield throwing hatchets and long-barreled muskets as ranged damage dealing characters, the best ranged builds still center on traditional bows. In terms of stat allocation, it is best to invest heavily into Strength and Dexterity. Archer builds often stack Dexterity, as it is commonly associated with smooth action speed and martial prowess.
Passive skills like Concussion in the Hunter skill tree provide a substantial damage bonus for headshots, for players skilled enough to consistently land such shots. The talent Go the Distance in the Skirmisher skill tree provides a good amount of Haste, and this will allow skilled marksmen to deal rapid volleys of ranged destruction. Bow builds that make use of direct hit passives, increased headshot damage, and intensified poison damage will take down some of the toughest enemies New World has to offer.
If a ranged DPS player did want to attempt to build into the Hatchet trees, the near death prevention passive in the Berserker tree should be effective and strong. Of course, the Berserker mode that the skill tree is named after should also perform well because of the increased attack damage and because of the ability to remove crowd control effects. The talent Social Distancing in the Throwing skill tree will also be strong in PvP modes like Outpost Rush, where the ability to slow enemy players always works well for ranged DPS.
New World releases on PC Tuesday, September 28, 2021.