In this comprehensive guide, we will provide you with all the necessary information to become a successful tank in the New World. Tanking in New World offers a unique experience compared to other MMORPGs. As a tank, you'll be expected to play a hybrid role, combining tankiness with damage dealing. The game's skill-based action combat system means that you'll rely more on dodging and evading damage rather than simply blocking it.

 

• Attributes
• Weapon
• Gear
• Heart Runes
• Consumables
• Damage Absorption Strategies
• Threat Management and Aggro
• How To Tank Adds?
• How To Tank Bosses?
• Stamina Sustain
• Dodge vs. Block

 

 

↖ Attributes

• Primary Focus: As a tank, prioritize attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. These attributes enhance your damage output, survivability, and aggro generation.
• Gear Score: Aim to raise your gear score to 625. This will grant you access to gear with desired attributes.
• Gear Selection: Look for gear that offers bonuses to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. Prioritize items that enhance your tanking capabilities.
• Food Buffs: Utilize food that boosts the specific stats you need. Constitution-boosting food is usually cost-effective, but you can also consider food with Strength or Dexterity bonuses.
• Attribute Allocation: Distribute attribute points to increase the stats necessary for tanking effectiveness. Consider adjusting your attributes as you progress and gain experience.

 

Strengths of Attributes:

• Strength: Increasing your damage output is essential for generating threats and maintaining aggro. Strength benefits various tank-related weapons, including the longsword, greataxe, warhammer, greatsword, Hatchet, and Spear.
• Dexterity: While less commonly used than Strength, Dexterity can still enhance your damage output and aggro generation. At 300 points into Dexterity, you unlock cheaper dodging, conserving stamina.
• Constitution: Each point in Constitution boosts your maximum health, providing a buffer against mistakes and increasing your survivability. Constitution milestones offer various benefits, including improved consumables, armor bonuses, and reduced critical damage taken.

 

Suggested Attribute Setups:

• Standard Setup: 300 Constitution and 211 Strength. This offers a balance between survivability and damage output.
• Advanced Setup: As you become more skilled, consider reducing Constitution to 100-150 and increasing Dexterity to 150. Put the remaining points into Strength for higher damage output.

 

 

↖ Weapon

• Choose Wisely: Your role as a tank is determined by the weapons you wield. Focus on mastering two weapons initially for increased versatility.
• Weapon Abilities: Equipping a Carnelian gem transforms your abilities into taunts, generating threats. Weapons like swords and shields, Spear, Hatchet, and Warhammer are excellent choices for tanks.
• Group Utility: Consider weapons that enhance self-survivability, crowd control, debuff enemies, and buff your group.

 

Recommended Weapon Setups:

• Beginners: Sword and shield with Hatchet. Hatchet's Defy Death passive aids survival. Switch to Warhammer for AOE pulls and Hatchet for boss fights.
• Intermediate: Sword and shield combined with Warhammer for AOE pull and Spear for boss encounters. This setup balances survival and damage output.
• Experts: Greatsword with Warhammer for AOE pulls and Spear for boss fights. Greatsword offers higher damage output at an advanced level.

 

↖ Gear

• Armor Choice: For a heavy equip load and enhanced resilience, consider using heavy armor. However, experienced players in well-coordinated groups can opt for light or medium armor to push scores and increase DPS.
• Primary Gear Perk: The primary gear perk to focus on is Ward gear. Note that Ward and Bane gear will be removed from the game in October 2023. Avoid heavy investments in crafting or purchasing this gear.
• Temporary Gear Solution: Utilize easily obtainable foam ball gear as a temporary solution until the upcoming changes take effect.
• Types of Ward Gear: There are various types of ward gear available, including Ancient Ward, Angry Earth Beast Ward, Corrupted Ward, Human Ward, and Lost Ward. Match your ward gear to the corresponding Expedition's enemy type for optimal effectiveness.
• Best in Slot vs. Obtainable Gear: Distinguish between best-in-slot gear and easily obtainable gear. Best-in-slot gear includes perks that enhance weapon abilities, combined with the ward perk and refreshing. Acquiring these items randomly through crafting or looting can be challenging.
• Easy-to-Farm Gear: Visit tankclub.com for guides on easy-to-farm named gear. These gear pieces can be used throughout your progression and work towards acquiring best-in-slot gear over time.
• Useful Gear Perks: Prioritize refreshing, alternative refreshing options, elemental aversion, physical aversion, invigorated, freedom, vigor, and sturdy energy perks for shields and amulets.
• Tower Shield Perk: A fortifying field rush perk on your tower shield significantly increases your defense when using Shield Rush.
• Amulets Protection Perks: Obtain multiple amulets, each with a different protection perk (e.g., slash protection, strike protection, flame protection, and void protection), to tailor your defense to the boss you're facing.
• Earrings and Rings: Earrings should have the refreshing toast perk to reduce potion cooldowns. Rings with the hearty perk are recommended to increase maximum stamina for more blocking and dodging.
• Comprehensive Resources: For more detailed information on New World tank gear, refer to the tank build section on loltank.com.

 

 

↖ Heart Runes

• Stillwater Heart Rune (Stone Form): This rune is excellent for new players and challenging boss fights. It reduces damage taken and provides emergency healing, effectively restoring you to full health.
• Brutal Hot Rune (Grasping Vines): More group-oriented, this rune applies weaken and rend in an area of effect to enemies, reducing the damage they deal and increasing the damage they receive.

 

↖ Consumables

• Food: Always have food active to reach necessary attribute milestones, enhancing your tanking performance.
• Potions: Utilize various potions simultaneously, including health potions for immediate restoration, health restoration potions for gradual healing, and ward potions to reduce incoming damage from specific enemy types.
• Weapon Coatings: Apply weapon coatings that match the enemy type you're facing. These coatings enhance your damage output and threat generation.
• Holding Stones: Use holding stones for a convenient and extended DPS boost at the start of expeditions, increasing your threat against enemies.
• Trophies: Collect and place trophies in your houses to boost your damage against specific enemy types. Minor, basic, and major trophies offer increasing damage bonuses.
• Mitigation Consumables: Utilize old flesh bombs, gemstone dust, and incense to reduce incoming damage from specific damage types.

 

 

↖ Damage Absorption Strategies

 

Utilizing Fortify Skills and Perks

In New World, fortifying skills and perks are invaluable tools for bolstering your armor and reducing incoming damage. However, it's important to note that fortify effects are capped at 50. To maximize this benefit:

• Sword and Shield Combo: Equip a sword and shield to synergize with the "Field Rush" ability.
• Fortifying Shield Rush: Use a shield with the "Fortifying Shield Rush" perk to gain a 33 armor boost for 8 seconds upon using Shield Rush.
• Fortified Amulet: Wear an amulet with the "Fortified" perk to further enhance your armor.

 

Maintaining uptime on the armor boost is crucial. Reduce the cooldown of Shield Rush by equipping gear with the "Refreshing" perk or by using light attacks or reverse stabs. This near-constant armor buff will significantly reduce incoming damage.

 

Gem and Buff Synergy

Combine the fortify effects with absorption or armor buffs to reach the 50% fortify cap. Additionally, consider utilizing gems for further damage reduction:

• Opal Gems: A full set of opal gems combined with fortify can achieve the resistance cap of 50 for all magic damage types.
• Customize Gem Choices: Adjust your gem selections based on specific needs, such as countering certain enemy types.

 

Note: Resistance stacking is capped at 50 for individual damage types. Exceeding this cap via perks and gems is possible, but additional resistance only applies from specific sources.

 

Boss Encounter Preparation

For encounters with bosses dealing significant damage of specific types:

• Equip an amulet with a protection perk matching the boss's damage type.
• Optimize your gear's gem setup to counter the boss's damage type.

 

 

↖ Threat Management and Aggro

 

Understanding Threat and Aggro

Threat and aggro mechanics are pivotal for maintaining control over enemies:

• Highest Threat Level: Aggro is obtained by the player with the highest threat level.
• Taunt Abilities: Using taunt skills immediately places you at the top of the threat list.

 

Effective Threat Generation

Ensure effective threat generation to retain aggro:

• Coordinate Group Actions: Group members should work together, avoid pre-healing, and position themselves before using AOE healing.
• Group Positioning: Keep enemies stacked together for better control.
• AOE Crowd Control: Utilize AOE crowd control abilities when enemies are clustered.
• Complementary Skills: Group members can use abilities that complement their taunt skills.

 

Enhancing Threat Generation

Boost your threat generation for consistent aggro:

• Despised Earring: Equip an earring with the "Despised" perk for a 146% increase in threat generation.
• Pristine Carnelian Gems: Insert these gems into your weapons for reduced threat percentage, aiding in aggro control.

 

Skillful Ability Rotation

Master the art of ability rotation and group coordination:

• Optimal Timing: Time your taunt skills strategically and avoid using them too closely together.
• Balanced Attacks: Balance light and heavy attacks within your rotation.

 

By perfecting these techniques, you can establish your dominance as a tank and ensure enemies remain fixated on you during encounters.

 

↖ How To Tank Adds?

 

Lead and Position	As the tank, take charge and lead your group into combat. Ensure you're positioned in front to engage enemies first.
AD Pulls	Approach packs of adds and use light attacks to hit each enemy as you pass by. This establishes the initial threat.
Focus on Ranged Enemies	Target ranged enemies first, as they are challenging to manage. Stack enemies around a ranged foe to control them effectively.
Taunting and Crowd Control	Utilize taunting skills and crowd control abilities to maintain threat. Use skills like Shockwave (Warhammer) to taunt and debuff enemies.
Healer Cooperation	Coordinate with healers to avoid premature AOE healing. AOE healing on the ground before stacking can pull aggro away from you.
Effective Skills	Warhammer skills like Shockwave, Clear Out, and Wrecking Ball are valuable for crowd control and taunting.
Sword and Shield Skills	Shield Rush (staggers enemies) and Defender's Resolve (8-second taunt) are essential. Reverse Stab and light attacks can reduce cooldowns.
Adapting Strategies	If stacking isn't feasible, position your group where enemies can't see you, forcing them to stack within your sight for AOE abilities.
Mini-Bosses	Communicate positioning for mini-bosses and ranged enemies. Sometimes, allies can gain aggro and move enemies to your taunt range.

 

↖ How To Tank Bosses?

Aggro Management	Establish aggro by dealing substantial damage while using taunt abilities. Turn bosses away from the group to reduce cleave damage.
Evasive Tanking	New World emphasizes dodging over blocking. Dodge powerful attacks to avoid damage instead of relying solely on blocking.
Damage Dealing	Deal significant damage between taunts to maintain threat against healers and DPS players.
Learn Boss Mechanics	Gain expertise by repeatedly engaging in boss fights. Recognize sound and animation cues to anticipate and dodge specific attacks.
Animation Anticipation	Boss animations often signal incoming attacks. Learn these cues to time your dodges precisely.
Positioning Awareness	Maintain awareness of your position in relation to the boss and your group. Positioning affects aggro and cleave damage.

 

↖ Stamina Sustain

• Basic Block Rotation: For beginners, use short bursts of blocking in between ability casts and light attacks. This prevents you from being overwhelmed by big hits.
• Block and Heavy Attack Combo: After blocking an attack, follow up with a heavy attack. This helps regenerate lost stamina over the course of boss fights.
• Heavy After Heavy Principle: When bosses execute a heavy attack or mechanic, follow it up with your own heavy attack. Bosses generally don't chain attacks rapidly, giving you a window to regenerate stamina.
• Field Rush and Fortifying Shield Rush: Combine the Field Rush ability with the Fortifying Shield Rush perk on your Tower Shield. This boosts your resistance and reduces damage taken, making it essential for boss fights.
• Sword and Shield: Using the sword and shield combination makes the learning experience smoother. It provides a good balance of offense and defense.
• Debuff Maintenance: Apply debuffs like weaken to reduce enemies' damage output and Rend to increase the damage they receive.
• Skill Casts: Spread out your skill casts during boss fights to avoid overusing taunt skills in quick succession. Initiate combat with basic attacks to establish a threat, then use taunt skills strategically.
• Rotate Sword Skills with Light Attacks: Utilize light attacks between sword skill rotations. This not only benefits from the refreshing move perks on your sword but also reduces cooldowns.
• Secondary Weapon Usage: If using a Warhammer as a secondary weapon, take advantage of active taunt and weaken skills. Start with Armor Breaker, followed by heavy attacks like Wrecking Ball and Shockwave.

 

↖ Dodge vs. Block

• Block Break: Blocking disables stamina regeneration. Running out of stamina leads to a block break, rendering you unable to block or dodge until your stamina reaches 100%. Regularly drop the block and focus on regenerating stamina.
• Prefer Dodging: Dodging is often superior to blocking due to the game's collision issues. Holding blocks can result in being pushed around by bosses with large hitboxes.
• Boss Behavior: Bosses tend to spin around and clip through your character while attacking. This can pose a threat to melee damage dealers. Dodging helps you maintain your position effectively and prevents these issues.

 

Boss Fight Strategies:

• Learn Combat Cues: Pay attention to visual and audio cues during boss fights. Experience helps you identify attack patterns, which attacks to dodge, block, or take head-on.
• Progression and Preparation: Start with standard-level expeditions to gain experience and familiarize yourself with boss mechanics. As you progress to mutated versions, you'll be better prepared for more challenging encounters.

 

Conclusion:

Remember, tanking in New World is a skill that develops over time. With practice and dedication, you'll become a formidable tank capable of leading your team through even the toughest challenges. Good luck!