New World Battlemage Build: Sword And Shield & Fire Staff

The Heavy Armor, Frontline Fighter that specializes in AOE Slash and Burn Damage, Defense and Self-Healing.

Build Introduction

The Battlemage is an insanely powerful Solo Build for New World, focused on combining Slashing Melee attacks with deadly Fire Magic. This Build also features a Shield for extra damage absorbtion and survivability as well as two great self-healing skills.

Best Attributes

Attributes for a Battlemage style build in New World are quite interesting because of our choice of weapons on this particular set up. Basically we are combining Fire Magic which scales with Intelligence and Melee weapons which scale with Strength.

The best way to accomplish this in New World is not spread out your Attributes. Instead we will be dumping all of our points primarily into Intelligence and then using a Gem Socket on our Melee weapon to scale a percentage of that Melee damage with Intelligence as well. We’ll look at this more in detail when we examine weapons and armor.

As a secondary Attribute, we’ll also want to advance Constitution as this increases our base health on the build substantially, letting us stand our ground for longer. The passive bonus to health potion healing that players get from reaching 50 Constitution will also be invaluable on this build.

Armor Choices

New World has a detailed Armor Weight and Equip Load system. For increased survivability and defense in the game your best choice by far will be Heavy Armor for every piece on your character. Heavy Armor pieces in New World have the best overall Physical and Elemental Resistance ratings, letting us stand our ground for longer and against larger groups of enemies.

Heavy Armor builds have the following passive bonuses in New World.

Heavy Equip Load

15% Bonus Block Stability
20% Bonus Crowd Control Duration
Shortest Dodge Distance: the Dodge Slide
Highest Physical and Elemental Resistance

As you can see, Heavy Armor passives are perfect for absorbing damage due to the increased Block Stability. You will also benefit greatly from the maxed out Resistances. The only downside to using Heavy Armor in New World is that your Dodge Range is greatly reduced to a sidestep rather than a Hop or Roll.

Armor Attributes

Remember, when looking for gear pieces for this build try to find those with a bonus to the Intelligence Attribute. Some additional armor pieces with Strength will be fine as well.

A great Armor Set to be on the look out for as you level up this build will be the Armor Of The Battlemage, which is focused around both Intelligence and Strength.

Primary Weapon

The Primary Weapon for the Battlemage Build is the Sword And Shield. In New World, the Sword And Shield combo offers some fantastic options for mixing defense and damage along with self-healing.

As a build that combines both Melee and Magical attacks, we will also want a Sword that comes with a Gem Slot. This is because we can Slot an Elemental Gem in our Sword which will scale a percentage of our damage with Intelligence, allowing us to deal the maximum amount of damage possible on this build by investing into one primary attribute rather than splitting our points between two.

Make sure to use a Cut Gem and not the Raw Gem itself, as only Cut Gems can be slotted into Weapons and Armor.

Some Cut Gems you will want to look for include:

Topaz – Deals Lightning Damage
Ruby – Deals Fire Damage
Sapphire – Deals Arcane Damage
Aquamarine – Deals Ice Damage

An easy option for a Gem Slot weapon early on in the game is to purchase a Long Sword from the Faction Vendor. All weapons purchased from Faction Vendors generally come with an open Gem Slot.

Secondary Weapon

The Secondary Weapon for the Battlemage Build is going to be the Fire Staff. This weapon excels at both Area Of Effect damage and damage over time (DOT) effects.

Sword And Shield Skills

The Sword And Shield Skills we’ve selected for this build are centered around AOE Damage, Defense and Healing.

Click each skill name below to learn more about that skill and its upgrades.

Skill #1

Whirling Blade

Deal 145% weapon damage to all foes within 2 meters.

Cooldown: 15.0

Weapon Tree: Swordmaster

Tier I

Skill #2

Shield Bash

Deals 50% weapon damage and stuns foes in front of you for 2s.

Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your sword, this ability applies a 6s taunt to all enemies hit. Taunt causes monsters to only focus on you.

Cooldown: 25.0

Weapon Tree: Defender

Tier II

Skill #3

Defiant Stance

For 8s, reduce the incoming base damage of attackers by 30%.

Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your sword, this ability applies a 6s taunt to all enemies within 8m. Taunt causes monsters to focus only on you.

Cooldown: 45.0

Weapon Tree: Defender

Tier III

Fire Staff Skills

The Fire Staff skills we’ve selected for this build center around Area Of Effect Damage and Damage Over Time.

Click each skill name below to learn more about that skill and its upgrades.

Skill #1

Flame Thrower

Create a jet of flame from the tip of your staff dealing 34% weapon damage each second. Each hit catches enemies on fire dealing 3% weapon damage each second for 6s.

Costs 4 Mana per second.

Cooldown: 8.0

Weapon Tree: Pyromancer

Tier I

Skill #2

Incinerate

Cause a fiery explosion dealing 130% weapon damage and pushes back all enemies 3.0m. Catches enemies on fire dealing 3% weapon damage each second for 6s.

Costs: 22.0 Mana.

Cooldown: 12.0

Weapon Tree: Pyromancer

Tier II

Skill #3

Burn Out

Dash through targets dealing 129% weapon damage on hit. Passing through a target will catch the target on fire applying a Burn that deals 10% weapon damage each second for 8s.

Costs 30 Mana.

Cooldown: 20.0

Weapon Tree: Pyromancer

Tier III

Important Passives

Passive Skills in New World are extremely important, especially for Tanking. Here are the best passives recommended for the Meta Tank Build.

Sword And Shield

Fire Staff

Pyromania
Kindle
Let It Burn
Combat Speed
Trial By Fire
Reheat

Consumables

Food

You’ll want to start this build off with a basic food option such as Light Rations or Travel Rations. This food is helpful at all times, whether you are in a group or playing Solo as it slowly restores your Health over time. Keep in mind you can also consume this food for a faster heal over time for a few seconds if you are not getting hit.

Potions

For Potions, Weak Health Potions will be fine at first, but you will eventually want to upgrade these to Common Health Potions or Strong Health Potions for better effectiveness in emergencies.

Build Leveling Options

For leveling up the Battlemage Build early on in your New World journey, you may have better success with a few different weapon skills. For example, as a Sword And Shield user, the Swordmaster Skill Tree features the Reverse Stab skill which can be great for reducing your skill cooldowns. You may want to use this in place of Shield Bash.

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Sword And Shield / Great Axe Build: Brawler

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