New World: Sword and Shield Guide (Tank) - Assembly, Builds, Perks.
At the heart of every successful New World team is a dedicated tank player, and this guide will give you everything you need to know about sword and shield in New World, including the best tank build.
Whether you like PvP or expeditions - or both - one thing is certain: New World is best played in a group. Collaboration is invaluable when solving problems in Aeternum, be it perverted monsters or other players. In any case, you can't do without a tank.
Overview of the sword and shield
The Sword and Shield are a pair of flexible weapons that offer a good mix of attack and defense. Sword and Shield is very easy to make almost any combination of skills work. He has the tools for any fight, it's hard to make this weapon unsustainable.
Sword and Shield is primarily played in a more defensive "Tank" style of play. With a lot of cleave damage, crowd control, and defensive buffs, the Sword and Shield end up being a very well-designed weapon overall.
If you choose to focus on sword skills, a sword and shield can also be an effective DPS. You end up sacrificing the utility of at least one Shield skill and usually gaining a second damage skill.
New World Tank Basics
The task of a tank in New World is the same as in any other game with the role of a tank: attract enemy aggression, protect your team, and apply crowd control effects to enemies to help your damage-oriented teammates take them out. In PvP, tanks can massively slow down and stun opponents, creating devastating combo attacks.
As a tank, your priority stats are Constitution and Strength, in that order. Constitution increases your overall health, and Strength increases sword damage, which is the best (and only) weapon type to build New World tanks.
No matter how minimal you make your tank in the New World, even the best defense can eventually fail if not maintained. Managing your health is extremely important since, as a tank, you are constantly causing aggro and gaining very few precious moments to heal yourself. This is why you should never be too far away from your healers.
Best New World Tank Build
There is currently only one viable tank build in New World, as the Sword and Shield Defender skill tree contains the best selection of defensive perks in the game. The three active skills in this skill tree give the tank the ability to taunt enemies and absorb a lot of damage, as well as the ability to move quickly with Shield Rush. This allows tanks to rescue teammates in danger or give themselves a breather when their health is low.
The priority abilities and passives for this build are as follows:
- Defiant Stance > Final Countdown > Recovery
- Shield Dash > Improved Dash
- Shield Bash > Intimidating Strike
- Strong Shield > One with a Shield > Elemental Resistance
You can afford to deviate slightly from this build, especially in PvE where your duties as a tank are a bit more relaxed. For example, you can invest a few points in the Swordmaster skill tree to make the most of Whirling Blade's ability. The Tactical Strike perk unlocked for this ability plays nicely with the tank's tendency to be surrounded by enemies, maximizing your damage and helping you take down hordes faster.