New World – Greatsword Builds & Guide

The Greatsword was added into New World ahead of the Brimstone Sands expansion, offering a whole new playstyle. Interestingly enough, it allowed players to take on both the tank and DPS roles. Here's a look at some of the viable builds for the Greatsword.

Best Tank build for Greatsword in New World

Although the Greatsword is a 2-handed weapon in New World, it can easily be used in tank builds. While it might feel weird not to be using a shield, this can be very viable across all forms of content. Players will want to prioritize using the following abilities for skills, but it can vary by play style.

Related: New World – All 26 Ancient Glyph Locations

• Steadfast Strike: A single-target taunt that can also be used for healing in a pinch.
• Calamity Counter: This will help mitigate damage by blocking, and it gives the party time to burst down enemies.
• Roaring Rupture: This will be the main taunting ability as it dishes out an AoE that will draw aggro.

Since there's not a lot of damage dealing with this build, using something like a Hatchet as a secondary weapon will be practically essential. Skill points will want to be dumped into upgrading each of these three abilities, and the rest can go toward passives. The Defiance tree will be more suited to tank builds.

Best DPS build for Greatsword in New World

For players looking to dish out more damage instead of absorbing, they will want to focus on the DPS side of things. The Greatsword can do some good damage, and here's a look at the skills players should focus on for doing that.

• Crosscut: A strong single-target and AoE ability.
• Skyward Slash: Staggers and applies Rend.
• Relentless Rush: Good AoE damage dealer.

Unlike the tank build, skill points will favor the Onslaught tree heavily. Upgrading the three skills will again be necessary, and then the remaining points can be put into passives that boost damage.

This could also be a viable build in PvP because it applies Rend and Roots, but some tweaks could make it perform better. One such way would be rotating Steadfast Strike into the build, as it's a substantial gap closer that is very important in PvP.

For more New World guides, check out How to complete the Great Architect quest in New World on Pro Game Guides.