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Due to New World's class-less system, there are actually several ways to play as a tank. Different weapons provide you with different advantages and different styles of play. The classic tank build favors the Sword and Shield and Warhammer, but the SnS also works with weapons like the Great Axe and the Hatchet nicely.

Related: New World: Best Weapons, Ranked

This guide covers some core fundamentals of all tank builds and five of the best tank builds in New World. We'll be looking at good weapon combinations, Masteries, attributes, and tips on how to take these builds to their limit.

Updated September 13, by Harry Alston: We have updated this guide to include more up-to-date information ahead of the Brimstone Sands update! This includes a look at the reworked gems, the best gear, attributes, weapons, and more.

Best Tank Build In New World

General tips:

  • Everyone needs a tank. Builds like this always have a space in Expeditions. There is currently a tank shortage across the board.
  • Heavy armor is recommended for endgame expeditions. Less mobility, but you can tank damage and block the rest with your shield.
  • Strength/Constitution is the most popular attribute distribution for a classic tank (our favorite build, the SnS/Hammer build), but this can change depending on which weapons you're taking into an expedition.
  • Play what you think is fun - our tank guides here are designed to give you LOTS of options for the different endgame expeditions.
  • Tanking is all about positioning - it's important to manage the boss' movement so the DPS players are getting backstab bonuses, learning various mob mechanics to understand when they're about to smack you, and when to use potions or wait for your healer.

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Sword, Shield, And War Hammer Tank Build

The Sword and Shield are the very first weapons you'll get in New World, which means you can start stacking mastery points and attributes pretty much right away. We've paired the Sword and Shield successfully with the War Hammer for a good balance between sheer defense and CC. This is probably the classic tank build in New World.

Best Active Skills and Masteries For The Sword

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Shield Bash
  • Description: Deal 50% weapon damage and stun targets in front of you for 2 seconds.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Hit targets are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Intimidating Bash: Shield Bash generates more threat and deals 100% more damage.
  • Concussive Bash: Shield Bash's stun now lasts for 3 seconds.
Defiant Stance
  • Description: For 8 seconds, reducing incoming base damage by 30%.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Enemies within 8m are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Final Count Down: If your health is above 50%: damage reduction increased by 20%.
  • Restoration: Gain 15% of your max health when Defiant Stance ends.
Reverse Stab
  • This ability will reduce the cooldown of Shield Bash and Defiant Stance by 25% per enemy hit, allowing you to maintain aggro on enemy packs for much longer.
  • Tactician

The Defender Tree is a good place to start for the Sword. You should pick up Shield Bash and Defiant Stance in this mastery tree, then opt for the Whirling Blade mastery from the Swordmaster tree.

Shield Bash is an excellent taunt skill to use against bosses and a solid stun against fodder enemies. Keep in mind that the stun from Shield Bash is removed when that target takes damage. Use this window to swap weapons or recover your resources.

Defiant Stance is your bread and butter. You gain massive damage resistance, taunt every enemy within proximity, and it even heals you once the ability ends. Use this to aggro fodder packs in Expeditions or to gain DR during a boss fight.

Related: New World: Jewelcrafting Leveling Guide

Pick up the majority of the passives from the Defender tree, including valuable assets like Recuperation, which increases incoming healing by 10%—ideal if you're running with a dedicated healer—and One With The Shield, reducing shield cooldowns by a small amount each time you block an attack.

Best Active Skills and Masteries For The War Hammer

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Shockwave
  • Description: Slam your Hammer into the ground, creating a 3m AoE that deals 80% weapon damage and stuns for 2 seconds.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Hit targets are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Frailty: Hit targets deal 10% reduces damage for 10 seconds.
  • Meteoric Crater: Shockwave's AoE is now 4m.
Clear Out
  • Description: A wide swing that knocks enemies back 4m, dealing 115% weapon damage.
  • Power Cleaner: Clear Out reduces the damage your allies take by 10% for 4 seconds.
  • Swing Away: Gain Haste on hit, granting 30% movement speed for 3 seconds.
Armor Breaker
  • Description: Deals 140% weapon damage and penetrates 35% of the target's armor.
  • Indomitable: Armor Breaker cannot be interrupted.
  • Lasting Trauma: Armor Breaker reduces the target's damage absorption by 15% for 10 seconds.

The War Hammer is the CC weapon of choice in New World. It can deal massive damage and control huge areas, especially if you spec into the Crowd Crusher tree. Yes. Literally the CC tree.

Shockwave is a powerful AoE skill that can also taunt enemies. It covers a sizable radius, deals great damage, and reduces the damage enemies deal if Frailty is allocated.

Clear Out, a knockback AOE attack, are your best bets for causing pure chaos in PVE or PVP. Its wide swing makes it rather forgiving to use, and the movement speed buff from Swing Away is incredible for repositioning in PvP.

Armor Breaker, an ability from the Juggernaut Tree, deals immense damage that penetrates some of the target's defenses. You'll be using this to inflict Rend from Lasting Trauma, reducing the target's damage absorption by 15%.

Essential passives for the Crowd Crusher tree include Facilitated Expedition, to increase movement speed, and Prevailing Spirit, which grants you 35 percent of your health back after you've activated a Crowd Crusher ability.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attribute: Strength (300), Constitution (200) - this is done to maximize your damage while still maintaining that heavy tank feel. You can even have lower a constitution if you're in a comfortable group with full Warded gear
  • Armor: Heavy
  • Gems: This will depend on which Expedition you are currently running, for Genesis you'll need Angry Earth Ward, Tempest you'll need Corruption, etc
  • Best Perks: Refreshing Ward (reduces cooldowns after you get hit), a Ward to reduce incoming damage, and Invigorated, which causes status debuffs to run down 10% faster (three perks only available on Legendary gear)

This build works particularly well in Lazarus and Starstone Barrows.

For more specific builds and tips with the weapons listed above, check out our weapon-specific build guides listed below:

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Sword, Shield, And Life Staff Tank Build

It turns out being nearly invincible works brilliantly for a tank. Pair the Life Staff with your standard Sword and Shield set up to create one hell of a tank build. This works great for solo leveling, PvP (you're pretty hard to kill), and is useful during Expeditions and other PvE events.

This build does not work as well as it used to, as there are healing debuffs for wearing heavy armor now, but it is still a powerful build in certain situations.

Best Active Skills and Masteries For The Sword

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Shield Bash
  • Description: Deal 50% weapon damage and stun targets in front of you for 2 seconds.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Hit targets are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Intimidating Bash: Shield Bash generates more threat and deals 100% more damage.
  • Concussive Bash: Shield Bash's stun now lasts for 3 seconds.
Defiant Stance
  • Description: For 8 seconds, reducing incoming base damage by 30%.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Enemies within 8m are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Final Count Down: If your health is above 50%: damage reduction increased by 20%.
  • Restoration: Gain 15% of your max health when Defiant Stance ends.
Shield Rush
  • Description: Rush forward 5m, knocking back foes and dealing 125.4% weapon damage.
  • Improved Rush: Hit enemies deal 10% reduced damage for 4 seconds.
  • Intimidating Rush: On hit, all enemies within 5m are slowed by 30% for 4 seconds.

Shield Bash allows you to inflict a lengthy stun and taunt onto an enemy target, giving you time to swap weapons or inflict some damage.

Defiant Stance grants a large amount of damage resistance and serves as your main taunt ability. Use this when approaching a group of enemies to taunt all of them.

Shield Rush will briefly interrupt a target and deals a solid chunk of damage. Thanks to our Mastery passives, this ability also slows targets and reduces their damage.

Best Masteries For The Life Staff

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Sacred Ground
  • Description: Create an area on the ground that heals for 20% weapon damage per second for 15 seconds.
  • Holy Ground: Regenerate stamina and mana 100% faster while in Sacred Ground.
  • Blessed: While allies are in Sacred Ground, they are healed for 50% more from all healing.
Splash of Light
  • Description: You and allies within 100m are healed for 50% weapon damage.
  • Shared Recovery: If you heal a target under 50% HP, recover 3% of your max mana.
  • Purify: Splash of Light removes one debuff.
Orb of Protection
  • Description: Deals 147% weapon damage when it hits an enemy, grants 10% Fortify for 20 seconds, and heals for 10% weapon damage.
  • Protector's Blessing: Orb of Projection also grants Recovery for 10 seconds.
  • Aegis: When this projectile hits, it affects all allies within a 3m radius.

Everything comes secondary to Sacred Ground. This provides excellent healing that synergizes well with your high Constitution stat. It also persists when you swap weapons, so place this down when you're getting ready to anchor somewhere.

Splash of Light provides an easy heal to you and your allies while also removing debuffs. It's fairly cheap and has a large radius. This is your panic heal button.

Orb of Protection offers a wide range of buffs and deals solid damage to enemy targets. Certain masteries allow it to benefit allies over a small area and give the Recovery effect, granting HP regen each second equal to 7.5% weapon damage.

Related: New World: Best Sword Build

One thing worth noting about the Life Staff is some abilities persist when you switch weapons. Sacred Ground, Orb of Protection, and Beacon persist when you swap weapons. Because of this, if you're playing solo or already have a good healer, consider replacing Splash of Light with Beacon to give yourself another buff when you swap back to Sword and Shield.

Life Staff passives are disabled when you swap weapons.

Check out our full Support healer build guide here for more information about the Life Staff.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attributes: Focus (300), Constitution (200)
  • Armor: Heavy
  • Gems: This will depend on which Expedition you are currently running, for Genesis you'll need Angry Earth Ward, Tempest you'll need Corruption, etc

For this build, we recommend you spec for both Constitution and Focus. Focus is your primary stat, so you'll want to get that to 300 as soon as you can. You'll want to put any extra points into Constitution, preferably aiming for 200. This will make the potency of your heals pretty close to a dedicated healer. Heavy armor is required.

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Sword, Shield, And Great Axe Tank Build

This is a build that has already seen a lot of use. It excels at PvP. The Great Axe deals massive damage in a short space of time - ideal for finishing someone off while in PvP - and the Sword and Shield provide the classic defensive stats expected of a tank. You can even turn this build into a PvE variant by investing in the Maelstorm tree for the Great Axe.

Best Active Skills and Masteries For The Sword

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Shield Bash
  • Description: Deal 50% weapon damage and stun targets in front of you for 2 seconds.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Hit targets are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Intimidating Bash: Shield Bash generates more threat and deals 100% more damage.
  • Concussive Bash: Shield Bash's stun now lasts for 3 seconds.
Defiant Stance
  • Description: For 8 seconds, reducing incoming base damage by 30%.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Enemies within 8m are taunted for 6 seconds.
  • Final Count Down: If your health is above 50%: damage reduction increased by 20%.
  • Restoration: Gain 15% of your max health when Defiant Stance ends.
Shield Rush
  • Description: Rush forward 5m, knocking back foes and dealing 125.4% weapon damage.
  • Improved Rush: Hit enemies deal 10% reduced damage for 4 seconds.
  • Intimidating Rush: On hit, all enemies within 5m are slowed by 30% for 4 seconds.

This build requires you to stack heavily into the defensive capabilities of the Shield. Stack the Defender tree completely, aiming to pick up three abilities in that tree.

Shield Bash is great for taunting tougher foes and inflicting stun, giving you ample time to switch to your Great Axe.

Defiant Stance gives you a major damage reduction boost while active, allowing you to effectively tank when combat gets dicey. It's also great for taunting a group of enemies.

Shield Rush is useful for inflicting a quick stagger and for debuffing targets.

Best Active Skills and Masteries For The Great Axe

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Charge
  • Description: Charge 10m, dealing 120% weapon damage when you reach a target or press LMB.
    • You cannot be interrupted while charging.
  • Frenzied Momentum: Charge now deals 120-140% weapon damage based on how far you travel.
  • Unpredictable Strike: You can now cancel Charge by pressing LMB, dealing 140-165% weapon damage based on how far you traveled.
Reap
  • Description: Extend your axe 5m to pull a target towards you, dealing 110% weapon damage.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: The target is taunted for 4 seconds.
  • Hunger: Heal for 30% of damage done by Reap.
  • Fatal Attraction: After you pull a target, hit the enemy with a spin attack that deals 115% weapon damage.
Execute
  • Description: A powerful overhead attack that deals 200% weapon damage.
    • Enemies under 50% HP take 300% weapon damage instead.
  • Unstoppable Greed: Execute can no longer be interrupted.
  • Executioner: Enemies below 30% HP have a 100% chance to be critically hit by Execute.

Charge is a versatile skill that can be used as an opener, gap closer, or disengage tool. You can interrupt it mid-animation as well to throw your opponents off.

Reap is an AoE attack that also deals massive damage. Its secondary perks also increase your sustainability in fights, particularly the Hunger passive.

Execute is meant to finish off weak opponents, dealing massive damage if they're at 50% or 30% HP. It has a rather long windup, so only use this when you're sure it'll hit.

Best Gear And Attributes

  • Attributes: Constitution and Strength
  • Armor: Heavy
  • Gems: This will depend on which Expedition you are currently running, for Genesis you'll need Angry Earth Ward, Tempest you'll need Corruption, etc

Constitution and Strength are your most important stats. Focus on increasing your Constitution first to enhance your character's health pool and defensive properties. Try to get 300 points into Strength as well, enhancing the damage of your Great Axe by a significant amount. Heavy armor is recommended, though Medium or even Light can be good for PvP. For perks, look for anything that enhances the abilities used by this build, your maximum health pool, or your ability cooldowns.

For more builds and tips on using the Great Axe in PvE and PvP, check out our best Great Axe build.

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Sword, And Shield With The Spear Tank Build

Another popular build has been the Sword, Shield, and Spear Tank build. You follow a very similar path to the Sword/Shield build above, but then spec into the CC of the Spear. Here's an example build for the tanky Spear player.

Best Active Skills And Masteries For The Sword

We'll be using the same tree from our last build entry. If you skipped it, click this link to learn how each ability and important mastery works.

Best Active Skills And Masteries For The Spear

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Cyclone
  • Description: Spin attack that deals 110% weapon damage, pushes targets back 3m, and applies 50% slow for 3 seconds.
  • Invigorating Combo: Restore 25 stamina per hit.
  • Strong Momentum: Cyclone cannot be interrupted.
Vault Kick
  • Description: Use your Spear to vault forward and kick your target, dealing 75% weapon damage.
    • Inflicts a 1.5-second stun.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Taunts the enemy for 2 seconds on hit.
  • Relentless Blows: Deal 20% increased damage for 5 seconds upon hitting a target under 50% HP.
  • Continuous Motion: Reduces other spear cooldowns by 30% on a successful hit.
Sweep
  • Description: Sweep the target's legs, dealing 75% weapon damage and knocking them down.
  • Tenacious Sweep: Sweep cannot be interrupted.
  • Coup de Grâce: Light attack during Sweep to perform a downward stab, dealing 125% weapon damage.

Cyclone is a useful AOE ability that knocks opponents back, giving you a moment to swap weapons or dish out some damage.

Sweep with knock your opponents to the ground. Use this as a CC tool when you're surrounded or get pushed by another player.

Vault Kick provides you with a little bit of mobility to disengage from an opponent. It can also taunt enemies if you have a taunt gem socketed in your Spear.

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For passive skills, spec heavily into the Zoner tree, picking up Passives like Defensive Stance, which enters you into Fortify if you pull off a successful heavy attack, and Merciless Strength, which adds 25% damage to your attacks if the enemy is knocked down.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attribute: Constitution
  • Armor: Heavy

Like other tank builds, you'll want to focus on Constitution as your main attribute. For your second attribute, you can go with either Strength for its threshold bonuses or Dexterity for bonus damage. We're mainly using the Spear for its utility, so there isn't a major focus on increasing your Dexterity for this build. Heavy armor is needed to enhance your blocking capabilities. For perks, keep an eye out for reduced cooldowns and increased HP.

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Sword, Shield, And Hatchet Tank Build

Even with its nerfs, we reckon that the Hatchet has been one of the stand-out stars during the closed beta. The Berserk tree is probably one of the best mastery trees in the game, thanks to its movement-speed boosts, sustainability, and the fact that you can finally have a chance of chasing down fleeing PVP enemies. It turns out the Hatchet works just fine with a Tank build, too.

Best Active Skills And Masteries For The Sword

Spec fully into the Defense tree for Sword. For a breakdown of this tree's skills and passives, click here. More in-depth Sword information can also be found in our Best Sword builds guide.

Best Active Skills And Masteries For The Hatchet

Skill Effect Recommended Masteries
Berserk
  • Description: Gain a 12-second buff that grants 20% increased attack damage.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Taunts all enemies within 8m for 8 seconds.
    • Berserk automatically ends if you switch weapons.
  • On The Hunt: Gain 20% movement speed while Berserk is active.
  • Uninterruptible Berserk: While in Berserk, your attacks can't be interrupted.
Raging Torment
  • Description: Perform four fast attacks, each dealing 90% weapon damage.
  • Aggressive Approach: Gain 20% movement speed for 6 seconds when Raging Torment hits someone.
  • Final Blow: Light attack at the end of Raging Torment to deal a fifth attack, inflicting 120% weapon damage.
Feral Rush
  • Description: Lunge forward, hitting the target twice.
    • First hit deals 115% weapon damage.
    • Second hit deals 130% weapon damage.
  • Dispatch: Feral Rush deals 20% more damage to targets under 30% HP.
  • Crippling Strikes: Hitting targets in the back with Feral Rush will immobilize them for 2 seconds.

Berserk is the key active ability and should be popped pretty much whenever you get a chance. It increases all outgoing damage by 20% and is compatible with a Taunt gem. You gain movement speed with On The Hunt and sustainability with Berserking Refresh. Raging Torrent deals some fast damage and increases movement speed, and Feral Rush is a good mobility active skill.

Raging Torment outputs a solid amount of damage in a short timeframe and also increases your movement speed. Use this whenever you need to quickly inflict damage on a target.

Feral Rush is a great mobility skill for getting around the map, closing the gap in combat, or disengaging from enemies. This ability truly shines against retreating enemies, rooting them in place temporarily if you hit their back.

Essentially, max out the Berserker tree for passives, either taking the Crippling Strikes capstone or one of the other passives of your choice.

If you're looking for a build more focused on using your Hatchet, give our Hatchet build guide a look.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attributes: Strength and Constitution
  • Armor: Heavy or medium
  • Gems: This will depend on which Expedition you are currently running, for Genesis you'll need Angry Earth Ward, Tempest you'll need Corruption, etc

Your two main attributes are Strength and Constitution. If you care more about being tanky than dealing damage, focus on Constitution first. If you care more about damage, go for more Strength. Your primary attribute should have around 300 points, and your secondary attribute should have around 200 at the endgame. Heavy armor is great if you're tanking. Otherwise, go with Medium.

For perks, you want anything that enhances your Hatchet abilities. Tank-focused setups should look for armor that increases your threat. Perks that increase your HP are also fantastic for this build.

This build works particularly well in the Genesis expedition.

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