Introduction
When you’re engaging in PvE in New World, primarily expeditions, there are several different factors of gameplay you need to consider. Each mob in New World belongs to a family of mobs. Each family of mob has specific weakness to specific damage types. There are also consumables you can utilize to help enhance your damage output and resistance to various types of mobs.
When you reach end game, you will also want to consider the type of perks you are running on your gear for optimal resistances and damage output for expeditions. There are also trophies that you can place in your house that will enhance your damage output against certain enemy types as well.
This guide will cover all of the New World PvE build guidelines that you need to know in order to effectively and efficiently complete expeditions and expedition mutations in New World.
Mob Resistances
Every mob type is weak against certain damage types in the game. When choosing your New World PvE build you want to be cognizant of the mob type your fighting and the weapon you are utilizing.
When damaging a mob, an icon will show next to the damage value. If there are small arrows above the icon, it means the mob is vulnerable to that damage type and your damage output will be increased. In this case the damage text is yellow in game. If the damage text is white it means you are dealing neutral damage to the enemy, and if the damage type is orange it means you landed a critical hit on your target.
The chart below also indicates the best damage types vs each enemy category.
Gem Choice
Choosing the correct gem to slot into your weapon can also greatly enhance the damage you do against certain types of enemies. This should be taken into consideration when building out your New World PvE build. As the above chart outlines certain mob families are resistant to and weak to different types of magic damage.
DPS
As a DPS you will want to utilize either Diamond or Opal in your weapon. These are the best to slot in all weapons, in all expeditions. However, there is an exception to this rule. The benefits of either the opal or diamond need to have an uptime of 50% in order for them to be best in slot. If you can not maintain that uptime then switching to an elemental gem that matches the weakness of that mob type would be the better option.
Slotting a diamond will give you +% damage and damage based healing while at full Health. An opal will give you +% damage while your Stamina is not full.
You can check our New World Gem Effects guide for a complete list of gems and their functionality.
Tank
Tanks should be utilizing cut pristine carnelian gems in both weapons.
Healer
Healers should be utilizing a cut pristine diamond in their life staff, and utilize the DPS guidelines above for their back bar weapon.
Runeglass Gems
Runeglass gems are only recommended if you are on a coordinated team. They will slightly increase your DPS, however there are some stipulations.
The damage over time effect is based on the runeglass casting element. This means you need to be the only person in your party utilizing that particular type of runeglass.
The damage over time effect is based on the runeglass casting element as follows:
- Ignited – Fire
- Frozen – Ice
- Abyssal – Void
- Electrified – Lightning
- Arboreal – Nature
- Empowered – Arcane
Each of these can only be applied once per mob so stacking them would be a loss in DPS. Therefore, if you’re in a coordinated group you will need to coordinate the types of runeglass everyone is running.
Mutations
If you are running mutated versions of the expedition you will need to be aware of the mutation type. This can change the gem you slot. Your armor gems when running mutated versions should be cut pristine elemental gems such as the following:
- Amethyst for Void
- Ruby for Fire
- Amber for Nature
- Aquamarine for Ice
The below chart is an overview of each weapon and damage type for each expedition:
Weapons Types, Gem Types, and Damage Numbers
| Angry Earth (Genesis) | Ancients (Starstone, Lazarus) | Corrupted (Depths, Dynasty, Tempest) | Lost (Amrine, Barnacles) | Varangian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +30% Fire & Fire Staff | +30% Lightning | +30% Arcane | +30% Nature & Life Staff | +30% Hatchet, Great Axe, Sword |
| +20% Hatchet, Great Axe, Sword | +20% War Hammer | +20% Spear, Musket, Bow, Rapier, Blunderbuss | +15% Ice & Ice Gauntlet | 0% Fire & Fire Staff |
| 0% Nature & Life Staff | +15% Void & Void Gauntlet | +15% Nature & Life Staff | +10% War Hammer | 0% Arcane & Lightning |
| 0% Void & Void Gauntlet | 0% Ice & Ice Gauntlet | 0% Void & Void Gauntlet | 0% Fire & Fire Staff | 0% Spear, Musket, Bow, Rapier, Blunderbuss |
| 0% Ice & Ice Gauntlet | 0% Nature & Life Staff | 0% Fire & Fire Staff | 0% Hatchet, Great Axe, Sword | 0% Void & Void Gauntlet |
| 0% War Hammer | 0% Spear, Musket, Bow, Rapier, Blunderbuss | 0% Hatchet, Great Axe, Sword | 0% Arcane & Lightning | 0% Ice & Ice Gauntlet |
| 0% Spear, Musket, Bow, Rapier, Blunderbuss | 0% Hatchet, Great Axe, Sword | 0% War Hammer | 0% Spear, Musket, Bow, Rapier, Blunderbuss | 0% War Hammer |
| 0% Lightning | 0% Fire & Fire Staff | 0% Ice & Ice Gauntlet | 0% Void & Void Gauntlet | 0% Nature & Life Staff |
Status Effects
When putting together your New World PvE build you want to consider all the different status effects and their purposes.
In PvE, the most important debuff you can apply to your target is Rend. Rend will reduce the amount of damage absorption your target has. Therefore, by maxing stacks of rend on your target you can kill them much quicker.
However, it’s important to note that bosses in Mutator Level 2 and Level 3 expeditions have Debuff Resilience. The efficacy of individual Rend and Weaken status effects are reduced by 50% and 75% respectively. Debuff caps are not affected.
You can check out our New World Status Effects guide for a full list of all the status effects and their caps.
Important Consumables
In order to maximize your efficiency and damage output in expedition there are several consumables you should be utilizing. These consumables consist of food, coatings, honing stones, balms, dust, and potions. The most important consumables to utilize are attribute food, coatings, honing stones, and ward potions. The remaining consumables are useful to have on hand, but not required.
There are different tiers of each item. The below chart outlines the most powerful of each item. You can view all the consumables, including the necessary attribute food you would need by checking out full consumables guide.
| Item | Effect | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Infused Coatings (One for each mob type) | +15% damage to specific mob type | 40 minutes |
| Powerful Honing Stone | Increases weapon damage by 7% | 40 minutes |
| Attribute Food | Increases attribute or attribute combination by 40 | 40 minutes |
| Powerful Incense | Increases resistance to all afflictions by 50 | 30 minutes |
| Powerful Gemstone Dust | Increases absorption of elemental damage by 35% | 20 seconds or until damage received 15 times |
| Powerful Oakflesh Balm | Increases absorption of physical damage by 35% | 20 seconds or until damage received 15 times |
| Infused Ward Potions (One for each type of mob) | +10% damage absorption from specific mob type | 40 minutes |
Trophies
In addition to all the consumables listed above you can also obtain trophies for your houses. You can obtain trophies for each different type of mob. The trophies can be minor, basic, or major. You can have a combination of any of the three. For example, you could have a minor in one home, a basic in one, and a major in one. Each type of trophy increases your damage to that specific mob type by a percentage.
- Minor – 3%
- Basic – 4%
- Major – 5%
It should be noted that obtaining major trophies can be incredibly expensive and difficult to farm the required materials. You can check our Combat Trophy Guide for more information.
Ideal Gear Perks
Ideally, when setting up your New World PvE build you will want to shoot for specific perks on your gear. Bear in mind that best-in-slot items are often times subjective and situational. However, there are some undisputed perks that you will want to have in order to maximize your efficiency in expeditions.
Perks on your armor are pretty straightforward and should consist of the following:
- Health
- Enchanted Ward
- Skill perk when necessary (depending on build, ex: sundering shockwave) / Refreshing
Other runner-up perks would consist of vigor, invigorated, elemental aversion, and physical aversion.
For you weapon, some great options include the following:
- Rogue
- Viscous
- Keenly empowered
- Thwarting strikes
- Keenly Jagged
- Mortal Power
- Attunement
- Lifestealing
These would of course change based on your role in the expedition. You can check our specific PvE build for information on specific perks for each build.
Farmable PvE Gear
In many cases, you can farm solid gear for PvE. There are several great options for both weapons and armor that are farmable. You can find this information listed within each equipment section of each specific PvE build guide.