Flail Tank Information

The Flail is a weapon that arrived in New World with the Season 3 Expansion Rise of the Angry Earth.

This is designed to be a Tank and Healer weapon, it can be paired with a Shield and appears to be a decent replacement for the Sword & Shield as a Main Hand weapon.

One of the big strengths of using a Flail is it’s ability to maintain a large amount of weaken on enemies with the Impairment stacking debuff. Not only that but you have access to a range of damage reductions, group buffs and passive healing.

When using a Flail you could combine this with a Sword and Shield or Hatchet if you’re a Beginner. Or for a more optimised setup, use it with a War Hammer on add pulls and a Spear on Bosses.

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Flail Abilities

Arcane Smite

Leap forward and strike the ground with arcane force dealing 130% weapon damage to all targets within 2.7m of the impact.

Leave behind a hazardous area at the impact point that inflicts a stack of Impairment for 6s to all targets that enter.

Impairment deals 10%weapon damage per second and inflicts weaken, reducing their base damage by 10%. (Max 3 stacks)

This ability has grit. (Grit prevents you from being staggered by incoming attacks.)

Cooldown: 18 seconds

Arcane Vortex

Swirl the flail above the player’s head dealing 4 rapid hits of 75% weapon damage in a 3m radius around the player.

After the first spin is completed, trigger a 3m blast of energy granting 10% empower for 5s to all allies inside the radius.

This ability has grit. (Grit prevents you from being staggered by incoming attacks.)

Cooldown: 20 seconds

Arcane Eruption

Drag the head of the flail against the ground causing an eruption of arcane energy in front of the player, dealing 120% weapon damage and inflicting two stacks of Impairment for 6s to all targets hit.

Automatically follow up with an additional melee attack that deals 150% weapon damage.

Impairment deals 10% weapon damage per second and inflicts weaken, reducing their base damage by 10%. (Max 3 stacks)

Cooldown: 16 seconds

Barrage

Sprint forward up to 10m. Upon reactivating the ability, pressing basic attack, or reaching the end of the sprint, leap forward up to an additional 6m and slam to the ground, dealing 30% weapon damage to targets in range of the flail during the leap and 80% weapon damage upon landing, staggering targets on impact

(Character collision is disabled while sprinting forward)

Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your Flail, this ability inflicts taunt for 6s when it hits. (Taunt causes monsters to focus only on you.)

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Trip

Swing the Flail forward latching onto a target dealing 50% weapon damage and knocking them to the ground.

Cooldown: 18 seconds

Warding Bludgeon

Perform a spinning leap then swing the flail down to strike targets, dealing 100% weapon damage.

While leaping, trigger a burst of energy, granting a reinforced fortify to self and all allies within 3m of player, increasing armor by 50% for 8s or until 3 hits are taken.

This ability has grit. (Grit prevents you from being staggered by incoming attacks.)

Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your Flail, this ability inflicts taunt for 8s to all enemies within 8m. (Taunt causes monsters to focus only on you.)

Cooldown: 22 seconds

When Tanking using a Flail one of the most important aspects of the Flail is the ability to apply a lot of weaken to enemies and the easy access to the fortify buff. A high weaken uptime is done by making use of the Impairment stacks which apply weaken, and this reduces the damage enemies do to you and your group and it can be maintain relatively easily with a Flail.

Strangely it’s the Cleric skills that appear more useful for a Tank.

  • With Arcane Smite giving Impairment stacks but also 30% fortify for 6 seconds when using a Tower Shield and lifesteal, it’s a great ability to use.
  • The other vital ability is Warding Bludgeon with an AoE Taunt while also giving yourself reinforced fortify, buffing a nearby ally and applying more Impairment stacks.

Then you have to choose one of three options for the final ability.

  • Barrage is a gap closer and taunt which also gives a bit of fortify to both you and your group. It can be nice to use since its an additional taunt and group buff, but it’s often quite awkward to use on boss fights and can sometimes miss the target.
  • Arcane Vortex gives you some crowd control potential with the Flail by applying and root and immobilise, this is an extremely short duration however. The main strength is the big group empower buff which is only useful if your group members are compact and stay close to you.
  • Arcane Eruption applies 2 Impairment stacks which is really nice and a follow up attack will extend the duration of debuffs on the enemy by 30% so it’s a really strong option if you don’t need Barrage and can’t make strong use of Vortex.

Flail Tank Builds

Abilities

Perks

Gem

Flail Tank Build

New World Flail Tank S3

Best Flail Weapons

There are not a lot of good, easy to farm Flails other than the new artifact Flail Odo.

This is looted from the boss Vanash and you upgrade the artifact by completing tasks to upgrade it and unlock additional perks.

When doing the last upgrade at the Gypsum Kiln, make sure you do not choose a perk for the upgrade, you must attach a Gem Setting Pin so you can slot a Gem on this weapon. If you don’t do this you cannot attach a Carnelian Gem and then you can’t use any Taunt skills nor generate enough threat on enemies to keep them aggroed to you.

Crafting a Flail is another option and the main focus on Perks would be Refreshing Move, Lifestealing, and Crowded Bludgeon. Enchanted is another good perk for the Flail but is more damage focussed than the others.

When using a Flail you should aim to use a piece of gear with the weapon buffing perks to improve the abilities you are using:

Odo Artifact

How To Play The Flail Tank

The way you play will depend on which abilities or build you have decided to use.

Ability priority would be: Barrage, Arcane Smite, Arcane Eruption, Arcane Vortex, Warding Bludgeon

Example Rotation:

  • Use Barrage to gap close to an enemy, taunt and providing a group fortify buff.
  • Heavy attack with 3s to gain an Impairment stack (weaken).
  • Place down Arcane Smite to apply another Impairment stack, apply Deflecting Frailty and 10% lifesteal to your group and give you another source of fortify.
  • Heavy attack again with 3s to gain an Impairment stack (weaken).
  • Use Warding Bludgeon to apply an AoE Taunt while also giving yourself reinforced fortify, buffing a nearby ally and applying more Impairment stacks.
  • Heavy attack again with 3s to gain an Impairment stack (weaken).
  • Ensure not to block permanently, each time you block an attack remember “Heavy After A Heavy” – when you block a hit, do a heavy attack back to the boss which helps you regain stamina.

Outside of this rotation of abilities and heavy attacks you don’t really have much incentive to stay on this weapon – you gain benefits by blocking or being hit so your best bet is to run through abilities on both weapons, focus on being active with your other weapon and when you need to turtle up and take damage or you are on low health, make sure you are on your Flail.

Attributes

For newer Tanks you can use:

  • 350 Constitution
  • 25-50 Focus
  • Remaining into Strength

General Tanks:

  • 300 Constitution
  • 25-50 Focus
  • Remaining into Strength