'New World' Guide: Best Spear Builds And Gameplay Tips

The spear is one of the three original two-handed weapon classes that players can use in “New World.” It excels in dealing Thrust damage over a moderate distance, as well as applying crowd control and damaging debuffs on enemies.

Spears are incredibly versatile and can be used effectively in all scenarios as a crowd control or DPS weapon. Players of all encumbrance types can wield spears to great effect, with each weight load category offering a different fighting style for the weapon.

Here’s an overview on how to use the spear in combat as well as one particularly versatile build that’s great for both PvP and PvE content.

How to use the Spear

Most of the Spear’s damage scaling comes from Dexterity, though it also draws a bit of power from Strength. This means that the weapon can be paired extremely well with bows and muskets as well as weapons like the War Hammer and Sword.

Players get to enjoy increased melee range thanks to the length of spears, but their attacks will be limited to narrower hit boxes, making this weapon a little harder to use than the others.

Spears can be specialized as crowd control tools or DPS weapons thanks to the Zoner and Impaler trees. Zoner skills rely on dealing AoE damage with knockdown and knockback effects, and it also gives players the ability to throw their weapons like javelins. Meanwhile, Impaler skills focus on applying crippling effects like Slow, Bleed and Rend while dealing more upfront damage per hit.

Spear build for PvE and PvP

All of the active skills for this weapon type are well-rounded and can be used in almost every situation. This build is centered around giving players as many options to fight against NPCs and other players without having to constantly reset their skill trees.

• Active Skills
  • Javelin
  • Sweep
  • Skewer OR Perforate
• Priority Passives
  • Tenacious Sweep
  • Coup de Grace
  • Forceful Impact
  • Merciless Strength
  • Reserved Strength

Javelin and Sweep are reliable CC abilities that can easily set up big damage combos with party members. Sweep’s Coup de Grace node gives spear users a powerful damage option that pairs perfectly with Merciless Strength and Reserved Strength.

Players can take either Skewer or Perforate depending on their preferred playstyle and debuff type. Skewer is great for aggressive players, while Perforate is better for team fights where CC effects are more accessible.