New World Lost Stopwatch

In New World, the Lost Stopwatch artifact has been a hot topic of discussion recently, with players wondering whether it’s a viable choice for tanks.

Today, we’re diving into this artifact to answer one of the most common questions I’ve seen over the past few weeks. Is it a good fit for tanking in New World?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please let us know in The Tank Club Discord if you’ve been using the Lost Stopwatch as a tank and why.

One of the key reasons why players are interested in the Lost Stopwatch is its “Stunny Gaze” perk. This perk allows you to activate taunt abilities without the need for a Carnelian Gem slotted into your weapon. Essentially, any ability marked as “Taunt Gem Compatible,” such as Shockwave or Defenders Resolve, can be activated by the Lost Stopwatch.

You might be thinking, “Great, I can taunt without needing a gem,” but you might wonder which gem is so indispensable that you’d give up an entire artifact slot to accommodate it. The answer is that there isn’t one.

If you’re a tank in New World, you need to understand how threat and taunt mechanics work. Every enemy has a threat table, and your goal as a tank is to be at the top of that table to ensure enemies are focused on you. Threat is primarily generated by damaging the enemy. Carnelian Gems play a significant role in increasing your threat, boosting it by 300%, giving you a higher base level threat compared to others in your group.

When you taunt an enemy, it temporarily elevates you to the top of the threat table. However, if you don’t continue generating enough threat after the taunt expires, the enemy may switch targets. This is why it’s crucial to initiate combat with light and heavy attacks and non-taunt abilities before using a taunt. This way, you have a solid base threat to fall back on once the taunt expires.

Now, let’s consider the Lost Stopwatch. If you decide to use it and forgo your Carnelian gems, you’ll need to be the highest DPS player in your group, which is highly unlikely, especially when facing multiple enemies. This strategy might work if you’re a damage dealer trying to fill the tank role temporarily, but it’s not a feasible option for most players, especially in more challenging content.

Another approach is to reduce ability cooldowns and have multiple abilities that enable you to maintain 100% AoE taunt on all enemies. However, this is easier said than done, as AoE taunt abilities often have long cooldowns, such as the 45-second base cooldown on Defenders Resolve. It’s worth noting that Carnelian gems allow you to gain aggro from light and heavy attacks and non-taunt abilities, which the Lost Stopwatch doesn’t do.

You could also consider using gear perks like “Despised” or “Hated” to replace the threat multiplier you’d get from a Carnelian gem. This can help your non-taunt attacks generate more threat, but it would require making several sacrifices just to avoid slotting a weapon gem.

The Lost Stopwatch does offer a 100% stun duration, which can be useful for controlling adds during fights. However, there are other jewellery artifacts like Blooddrinker and Ankh that, in my opinion, are superior choices for tanks.

So, is the Lost Stopwatch worth using for a New World tank? In my opinion, it’s not worth it. Without Carnelian gems, your basic attacks and non-taunt abilities won’t generate enough threat. Sacrificing your build and relying on Despised and Hated perks to compensate for the loss of Carnelian gems isn’t a practical trade-off, considering that there aren’t any other gems that are so exceptional as to warrant this sacrifice.