The New World beta is underway and with it, Amazon Game Studios (AGS) has removed the NDA so I can finally give you my thoughts and lessons learned, as of the latest patch. Of course, features may change, but AGS has shown fewer wild whimsical mood swings in the past few patches, which leads me to believe they are narrowing focus on the game they want to deliver. With that, allow me to save you a ton of time, money, sweat, and tears.
- Decide whether you want to play melee or ranged DPS. The game rewards melee more than ranged. Also decide on armor: heavy offers the best mitigation but no dodge. Medium is middling on both. Light has low mitigation but the best dodge. I use heavy armor to level in PvE and light armor for PvP.
- I feel for healers in New World, but they are required for dungeons and territory wars. If you have a leveling buddy, one of you should spec healing (life staff, focus). Healers struggle to solo efficiently.
- The rest of this guide focuses on melee DPS, specifically a hatchet with heavy armor.
- Level up the hatchet berserker tree as soon as you can. The game starts you with sword and board, which is great for tanking, so keep those early skills if you want to tank later. You can respec those shield skills for dungeon tanking.
- Crafting and gathering are excellent in New World, but you will not be able to craft gear for your level while you are leveling. Save crafting for later, or use guild crafters. If you insist, hit level 60 (current max) first, then level crafting. It will save time, gold, and angst.
- Cooking is the one crafting skill you should use early for food buffs. Save cooking materials so you can use a station or your camp to cook.
- Gathering skills are worth their weight in gold. Raise logging, mining, harvesting, and tracking and skinning while you quest. Fishing is fine, just not as rewarding. By level 60 you should have over 100 in each gathering skill so you can gather higher-tier materials that sell for more. Sell materials early and often, and do not waste storage. Ideally you will have enough gold by level 20 to buy a house.
- Buy a house as soon as you can. Join the faction and guild where you plan to buy it to reduce the price. A house gives you an extra bind spot for instant travel at no cost.
- Level by completing faction missions, town projects, and corruption portals. They have the best time to reward ratio. The main story grants an Azoth staff for portals, so expect to be level 20 to 25 before you can run them. A strong portal group is worth its weight in experience.
- Buy corruption tinctures from the auction house or faction vendor. They are lifesavers for portals. You can craft the entry-level common corruption tincture at Arcana level 0. The materials come from water nodes and mushrooms (fronded petalcaps in Windsward), and every settlement starts with an arcane repository.
- Travel to other territories for their quests too. A common trio is Everfall, Windsward, and Monarch's Bluffs.
- If a town project quest gives you trouble, skip it and grab another. No harm in abandoning town or faction quests, just pick up a new one when you are back in town. The first few weeks are rough for animal or hostile kill tasks, so do not waste time. Town and faction quests reset every five minutes.
- Some area kill quests require specific targets, so read the quest before you go. Recent updates add area indicators and clearer quest text to help.
- PUGs can be rough, as in every game. Join a guild to increase your chances of a good group.
- Use a musket or bow for pulling. I prefer the musket because it has a flatter projectile arc.
- Loot everything, and do not sell refining reagents. The only way to get them is by looting chests.
- For expeditions and raids, bring extra food and healing potions in case things get dicey or someone forgets to stock up.
- Keep an eye on your Azoth capacity. Around level 20 you will get several missions that dump a lot of Azoth, so spend it on travel between towns to avoid capping out and wasting it.
- Respec with respect. You can respec attribute points and weapon skills at any time, but attribute points have diminishing returns after 200. Mix and match without sacrificing too much. There is no paladin class, but you can run heavy armor, a life staff, and sword and board, then invest in Constitution, Strength, and Focus to tank and heal. You will not be the best at either, but you can do both. At higher levels, gear bonuses add a lot of attribute points, so the curve changes.
- Weapon skills earn points only for the weapon used to kill a mob. Use a hatchet to kill a wolf and you earn hatchet points, so you cannot move points between weapon trees. Choose a weapon early and stick with it. Changing at level 30 means grinding those points all over again.