New World: Best Tank builds in the Game

best tank builds in new world

Do you want to play a Tank in New World? Though it is a classless system even then you can play as a tank! Want to know more then please keep reading. In this post we are going to address the topic on how to play a tank in New World.

In this game the builds for the tank are typically centred around Constitution and Strength in terms of priority. As we advance in the post, we are going to show you the ways to best Tank builds in New World. If you like then you can go for the tank builds.

Best New World Tank Builds

You probably already know that the tanks play an important role in teams or groups. They can be highly useful in expeditions, wars, and group/elite farming. If you are a tank then the flow of battle can be easily controlled by you. You can save your allies from hazards.

Check out the following tank builds:

  • Shield Axe Tank Build
  • Shield Hatchet Build

Sword and Shield builds is where becoming a frontline tank fighter is centred around in the New World. These two are the weapons of choice for the tanks as these provide a flexible combination of defence and damage.

There a total of six weapons that have taunting capabilities. It starts with the Spear and the Vault Kick and you can tell by simply looking at the ‘Taunt Gem Compatible’ compatibility in the skill’s description. For vault Kick you get a 2 second taunt on enemies.

Shield Axe Tank Build

This is our first build and it pairs the Sword and the Shield builds with the great Axe. This build can easily get your targets stuck in place using Taunt. Most of the skills and passives that you choose for this build hang around Taunt.

You will be using three Taunts with this build namely, Shield Bash, reap and Defiant Stand. You can also pair them with skills like Shield Rush, Gravity Well, and Maelstrom and the skills will fit perfectly well with the builds.

Sword and Shield Mastery

This build can be achieved by unlocking the following masteries from the Sword and Shield skills.

Shield Bash

It can inflict 50% weapon damage and the target swill be stunned for two seconds

Passive skills

  • Intimidating bash. It provides 100% more damage to the Shield Bash

Shield Rush

It can push 5 meters forward and knock your enemies in the way and deals 125.4% weapon damage.

Passive skills

  • Improved Rush. When you strike successfully, all targets within 5 meters gain 10% and Weaken for 4 seconds.
  • Intimidating Rush. When you strike successfully, all targets within 5 meters are Slowed by 30% for 4 seconds.

Defiant Stance

This skill decreases damage by 30% from any incoming from the enemies for 8 seconds.

Passive skills

  • Final Countdown. In this the reduction in damage is increased by 20% when your health is above 50%.

General Passives

There are some general passives that you can unlock from the Sword and Shield skill trees, and they are:

  • Freeing Justice. You can land a successful heavy attack that causes you to lose one debuff.
  • Achilles Heel. It is the last attack in your light attack chain and it inflicts a 20% Slow on the target for 2 seconds.
  • Sturdy Shield. It grants +15% physical armor.
  • Elemental Resistance. This decreases incoming damage from all magical types by 10%.
  • One with the Shield. It gets all Shield skills recharge by 1% every time you block using a shield.
  • Final Blow. It is the third attack in your light attack and deals a 15% extra damage.
  • Defensive Formation. When you are blocking, damage to all allies within 2 meters is decreased by 30%.
  • Sturdy Grip. When you are blocking a melee attack using a shield, damage to the stamina is decreased by 15%.
  • Defensive Training. You can gain 10% Fortify for 5 seconds each time you block an attack.
  • High Grip. When you are blocking a ranged attack with a shield, damage to stamina is reduced by 15%.
  • Recuperation. It increases all incoming healing and regeneration by 10%.

Great Axe masteries

For the Great Axe masteries, you can unlock the following masteries from the Great Axe skill set:

Reap

It pulls your enemies towards you by extending your Axe by 5 meters and deals a damage of 110% weapon damage.

Passive Skills

  • The Collector. It increases Reap range to 8 meters.
  • Hunger. A full 30% of the damage done using Reap is converted to health for your character

Maelstrom

This as well pulls target towards you to deal 110% weapon damage

Passive Skills

  • Storm’s Reach. It increases range of Maelstrom by 50%.
  • Absorb. When the Maelstrom is active, all projectiles are consumed

Gravity Well

It creates a vortex using your axe that pulls enemies within 10 meters towards its center for 3 seconds, and then deals a damage of 125% weapon damage.

Passive skills

  • Crowded Well. It deals burst damage and it is increased by 10% for each enemy pulled by the vortex.
  • Unyielding. All the allies standing in the vortex gain 10% Fortify

General Passives

You can try and unlock the general passives from the Great Axe skill trees and these are in the following:

  • Critical Gains. Whenever you land a Critical Hit using the Great Axe, you get healed for 10% of the damage done.
  • Frustration. You can gain 15% damage for 10 seconds when your attack on the enemy is blocked. It doesn’t stack.
  • Keen Edge. It increases critical damage by 10%.
  • Feed. If you are attacking enemies below 30% health using the Great Axe, you’re healed for every 10% damage done.
  • Greed. All the light attacks from the Great Axe grant +5% damage for 5 seconds (that can go up to 15%).
  • Death’s Embrace. If you are attacking enemies below 50% health using the Great Axe, you can penetrate their armor by an additional 10%.
  • Critical Condition. If you are attacking enemies below 30% health using the Great Axe, you can land 15% more Critical Hits.
  • Mauler’s Resolve. Whenever you are struck while wielding the Great Axe and are below 50% health, gain +40 Stamina.
  • Gravity. This passive enables more Vortex duration and it gets increased by 30%.
  • Crowded Protection. When you are wielding a Great Axe, you can gain 10% damage absorption if 3 or more enemies are present within 4 meters.

Attribute Distribution

If you are looking for putting your all in the Constitution then you can do so with this build. You can avoid redundancy by not putting any points into any other stat.

The looks of your attribute should be like the following:

  • Strength: 5
  • Dexterity: 5
  • Intelligence: 5
  • Focus: 5
  • Constitution: 195

Armor recommendation

The gear items recommended to increase your Constitution even further are listed below:

  • Barbarian Armor Set
  • Diamond Heart
  • Rudiger’s Sail Hook
  • Smooth Bone Ring
  • The Messenger
  • Scarred Great Axe of the 4th Legion
  • Lightstorm’s Protector

These will synergize perfectly with each other. The skills that we have chosen for this build will also be suitable perfectly with these armors.

Shield Hatchet Tank Build

The next build for tank ahs a combination of the Sword, Shield and Hatchet. This build works fine in both offense and defensive and is suitable for both PvP and PvE scenarios.

Sword and Shield Masteries

If you are interested in this build then you got to unlock the following masteries from the Sword and the Shield skill trees:

Leaping Strike

You can Leap 6 meters and can cause 135% weapon damage.

Passive skills

  • Final Strike. When you hit an enemy that has less than 30% health, you can deal 50% more damage
  • Cowardly Punishment. When you hit an enemy in the back using Leaping Strike, it causes them to be Slowed by 8 seconds.

Shield Rush

Using this you can Push your enemies 5 meters forward thus knocking them back causing 125.4% damage by weapon damage.

Passive skills

  • Improved Rush. When you strike successfully, all targets within 5 meters gain 10% damage and Weaken for 4 seconds.
  • Intimidating Rush. When you strike successfully, all targets within 5 meters are Slowed down by 30% for 4 seconds.

Defiant Stance

The base damage is decreased by 30% for 8 seconds from incoming attacks of enemies.

Passive skills

  • Final Count Down. Your damage reduction is increased by 20% when the health is above 50%.
  • Restoration. After the time of Defiant Stance ends, 15% of your max health is regenerated.

General Passives

You need to unlock some general passives from the Sword and Shield skill trees. You will need it to unlock it for this build and they are:

  • Mobility. When blocking, the movement speed is increased by 33%.
  • Opportunist. All those slowed enemies take 10% more damage.
  • Freeing Justice. For successful heavy attacks it will cause you to lose one debuff.
  • Counter Attack. For blocking an attack grants you a stack of Empower, it increases your damage by 3% for 5 seconds (that can go up to 15%).
  • Achilles Heel. Last attack in your light attack chain will inflict a 20% Slow on the target for 2 seconds.
  • Sturdy Shield. It increases the physical armor by 15%.
  • Defensive Training. If you block an attack then it makes you gain 10% Fortify for 5 seconds.
  • High Grip. When you are blocking a ranged attack using a shield, Stamina damage is decreased by 15%.

Hatchet Masteries

You can unlock the following masteries from the Hatchet skill trees:

Feral Rush

You can leap forward and strike twice, and this will deal a 115% and 130% weapon damage respectively with the two consecutive hits.

Passive skills

  • Dispatch. Those targets below 30% health will take 20% more damage.
  • Crippling Strikes. When Feral Rush hits an enemy in the back, it will inflict Root, and will immobilize them for 2 seconds.

Berserk

Going into a Berserk mode will get all attack damage increased by 20% for 12 seconds.

Passive skills

  • On the Hunt. Your movement speed will get increased by 20% during Berserk Mode.
  • Berserking Refresh. During Berserk, a little bit of health is regenerated every 4 seconds until 30% of your max health is regenerated.
  • Berserking Purge. When you trigger Berserk, all Crowd Control effects are removed from on top of you.
  • Uninterruptible Berserk. Your attacks become uninterruptible during Berserk and you cannot be staggered.

Infected Throw

You can throw your hatchet, and deal 150% weapon damage and also inflict Disease and Weaken on the target for 5 seconds.

Passive skills

  • Mortal Power. When the targets are below 30% health, the Disease and Weaken durations are increased to 8 seconds.
  • Aerial Transmission. It spawns an Area of Effect or AoE Disease of 3 meters that can stay in place for 3 seconds.

General Passives

You need to unlock general passives from the Hatchet skill trees. They are listed in the following:

  • Accumulated Power. If you land 3 light attacks on the same target, it grants Empower, granting 30% extra damage for 3 seconds, or until the next attack.
  • Fortifying Strikes. If you land 3 light attacks on the same target, it grants Fortify, increasing the damage absorption by 15% for 3 seconds.
  • Refreshing Throws. If you throw your hatchet towards a target having an active debuff, it reduces all cooldowns by 5%.
  • Boot and Rally. The Aimed Throws and Light Attacks at an enemy will get an active debuff regenerate 10 Stamina
  • Critical Throw. If you throw hatchets then it can now land critical hits and headshots. All critical hit chances of all attacks is also increased by 5%.
  • On Fire. In this every third successful axe throw is a guaranteed critical hit.
  • Rejuvenating Crits. All the successful critical hits from Light Attack or Aimed Throws

Attribute Distribution

Just like the above build here too if you are looking for putting your all in the Constitution then you can do so with this build. You can avoid redundancy by not putting any points into any other stat.

The looks of your attribute should be like the following:

  • Strength: 5
  • Dexterity: 5
  • Intelligence: 5
  • Focus: 5
  • Constitution: 195

Armor Recommendation

You can use the following gears for this build:

  • Rook’s Defense
  • Scorpian Stone
  • Doom’s Chance Earring
  • Demon’s Oracle Signet Ring
  • Voidbent Armor Set
  • Pit Lord Dominator
  • The Confidant

These will synergize perfectly with each other. The skills that we have chosen for this build will also be suitable perfectly with these armors.

Conclusion

So, friends, this is how you can go for strong tank builds and be a dependable player of your team and win for your team. Hope you like our post and find it informative and if so, then do come back for more of such interesting content. Till then Happy Gaming😊

Tyler Adams
Tyler Wilson is the Editor-in Chief on CultofGamer. He spends most of his time playing Destiny 2 along with his homies. His powerful rig doesn't let him left his Gamestation.