If you're torn between being a big burly brawler with points tacked in strength and a deceptively dodgy dexterity-focused character, the Spear might be the perfect New World weapon for you. Fitting neatly between the two statlines as a dual-scaling weapon, the spear offers tactical advantages in combat that no other weapon can provide.
This guide will go through our Bleed DPS Spear build, including the mastery tree you should choose, the attribute and stats that make you stronger, the gear you want to have on you, and finally the gems are perks you'll want to get the most out of your long pointy stick.
Table of Contents
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Mastery Tree
When it comes to mastery trees, Impaler is the one to focus on if you want to use the spear as your primary DPS weapon. The three skills it provides (Skewer, Perforate, and Vault Kick) are great DPS abilities that allow you to deal massive damage at mid-range. Not only that, but the passives provided to Skewer that boost bleed duration, alongside the mastery tree abilities Exposed Wounds and Exacerbating Crits provide a massive boost to your damage while bleeds are applied.
The other tree, Zoner, doesn't really work with what we're trying to do with this build. It's a pretty good ranged build, allowing you to catapult your spear at long distances in order to stop fleeing attackers, but that makes it more of a great tree for the Spear as a backup weapon.
Dedicate your points entirely into the Impaler Mastery Tree, focusing passives that provide bonuses to bleed effects. When you've maxed the tree out, spend extra points on passives in the Zoner tree.
Attributes and Stat Focus
The Spear scales with both Strength and Dexterity, meaning you'll increase the usefulness of your weapon regardless of which you choose to invest your points in. However, looking at the attribute milestones for both strength and dexterity, a slight focus on dexterity would provide the most benefits to the Spear. Hitting 100 dexterity provides a bonus to piercing damage (which all spears do) and 150 dexterity reduces the stamina cost of dodging, something that Spear users will get a lot out of as they try to stay outside of enemies's optimal melee range.
After you've invested most of your points in dexterity and strength, you should be sure to place some attribute points into constitution too. While Spear users can be hard to hit at times, you don't want to die instantly as soon as someone gets their hands on you.
Your focus should be:
- Dexterity (150 minimum)
- Strength
- Constitution (filler stat)
Gear
As a melee DPS, medium gear is what you want. Not only does the 10% damage boost provide much needed additional DPS. However, much more valuable is the boost to debuffs you place on enemies. This will allow you to increase the bleeds you place on enemies, ensuring your passive damage over time is constantly high.
In terms of gear you want to look our for, anything with "Of The Cavalier" is key. It provides a primary boost to dexterity and a secondary boost to strength, both stats that increase the damage output of the Spear. However, if you're looking to focus entirely on dexterity, armour with "Of The Ranger" is what you want, as it solely provides dexterity.
Perks and Gems
For this Spear DPS build, there's a selection of choices that could prove useful depending on your personal preference. These are:
- Emerald - Deals more damage while the enemy is at less than 30% health.
- Opal - Deals more damage while your stamina bar is not full.
- Amber - A portion of your damage is converted to nature damage.
- Amethyst - A portion of your damage is converted to void damage.
- Aquamarine - A portion of your damage is converted to ice damage.
- Ruby - A portion of your damage is converted to fire damage.
- Sapphire - A portion of your damage is converted to arcane damage.
- Topaz - A portion of your damage is converted to lightning damage.
You'll be dealing lots of damage over time to enemies, in extended fights. As such, gems like emeralds and opals are useful at keeping up pressure in tense engagements. In addition, elemental modifier gems can allow you to deal additional damage around any elemental resistances an enemy might have, especially in PvE content where you look up what they are weak to ahead of time!
When it comes to perks, anything that boosts the effectiveness of your bleeds is a priority, However, perks that work around critical hits are also incredibly useful, as the Impaler mastery tree makes your critical hits and bleeds work hand in hand to significantly boost the effectiveness of both.
The main offensive perks you should keep an eye out for include:
- Bloodletting: Applied bleeds last slightly longer. Found on rings.
- Keen speed: On critical hit, gain a haste buff. Found on shields, main hand weapons and two-handed weapons.
Additional perks that could prove useful are:
- Thrust Damage: Deal a small amount of additional Thrust damage. Found on rings.
- Vicious: Deals additional damage from critical hits. Found on both main-handed and two-handed weapons.
- Keen: Gain a small amount of critical chance. Found on both main-handed and two-handed weapons.
- Keen Awareness: Gain a small amount of critical chance. Found on rings.
- Keenly Empowered: On critical hits, gain an empower buff. Found on shields, main hand weapons and two-handed weapons.
Using this guide, you'll be able to drain the life out of anything you come across in New World, and turn into a reliable PvE performer and a PvP menace. If you're looking for other builds, we've got a rapier build ready for you.