Rise of the Angry Earth New World Tank Gear Guide
With Season 3 and the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion, New World has witnessed a significant overhaul of the gear system. As a result, your old gear is now essentially obsolete. The removal of gear expertise and an increase in gear score to 700 has made it easier to acquire better gear more quickly. Additionally, new gear pieces, named items, and perks have been introduced, along with artifact gear that allows you to customize your tank build like never before.
In this guide, we will explore the best gear sets for tanks in New World’s Season 3, how to obtain and upgrade them, and what perks to prioritize. We’ll focus on an average heavy armor tank and delve into the details of crafting and upgrading 700 gearscore gear.
Table of Contents
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Crafting & Upgrading
You can now upgrade named items to 700 gear score, provided they are NEW named items with the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion. You might see other guides claiming you need items to be 650 gearscore or higher to upgrade them, this is not true. The Taiyi Longsword for example can drop as low as 550 gearscore, maybe lower, but it can still be upgraded to a 700 gearscore weapon.
To do this, you’ll need a named gear piece and the required upgrade materials. Head to the Gypsum Kiln, select the gear at the very bottom of the menu, and upgrade it to 700. Keep in mind that you must remove this gear from your any saved sets to upgrade it. When upgrading gear you also get to choose the final perk meaning you can virtually create a Best in Slot piece of gear.
Gear often drops in the 650-700 range and can come in purple or gold quality. Before upgrading, consider the perks and whether they align with your build. Another method to obtain gear is by collecting materia from mutated expeditions or the season pass. It’s a much faster way to quickly gain stronger gear especially if you progress far in the Season 3 pass but aside from that it takes some time to gather enough materia, roughly 25 M1 expeditions for one gear piece.
Armor
When it comes to armor, you’ll want to focus on perks like Refreshing, Health, and those that enhance your weapon abilities, such as Empowering Whirling Blade or Refreshing Might Gavel. Other valuable perks include Grit Ward, Enchanted Ward, and Conditioning. Note that Refreshing can only be used on four gear pieces now, so don’t overstack it.
If you’re not keen on farming, the 675 Alliance/Faction Gear is a good starting point with decent perks.
The Woodgrain Set is an easy to farm potential 700 gearscore set which drops in Edengrove from all enemies in the Malevolence Elite Area, but an easy boss to get it from is Baines.
To get closer to Best in Slot, consider the Keratin set, which includes Magnify, Grit Ward, Refreshing, and one other perk. This set works well for active tanks who invest heavily in Constitution for Grit. You can obtain it by defeating bosses in Brimstone Sands in the Heli Elite area or Kepri.
Another strong set is the Azoth Crystal set, offering Refreshing and Enchanted Ward. It’s obtained from all expedition bosses, but it only drops on Mutation 2 or 3 or can be crafted at the Gypsum Kiln.
You can also explore conditioning sets for damage reduction against specific damage types. If you opt for this route, consider:
- Chardis (slash conditioning and refreshing) from Lazarus M3.
- Expedition Captain (strike conditioning and Grit Ward) from Depths M3 or can be crafted at the Gypsum Kiln.
- Various Fire Conditioning sets from Empyrean Forge.
Artifact options for tanks are limited, with the Void Darkplate being one of the better choices. It provides 20% increased armor, enchanted ward, and physical aversion. Pair it with generic perks like Health or Elemental Aversion to complement your build. Attuned Leather Pants can also be an option as they add a lot of extra attributes to your build, and Nimble Coat may also have some uses.
Jewellery
Amulet
The Health perk is no longer essential on Amulets although it’s still a good option.
Refreshing is still an option if you’re not already using four pieces on other gear.
Protection perks are the most essential for survival in Mutation Expeditions. These are particularly useful to have and you can match them against specific Mutation types and Boss Damage types to reduce incoming damage. Check out the Wards and Protection Article to see which of the perks you need for every boss and mutation in New World. The most useful are Slash Protection, Strike Protection, Flame Protection and Void Protection.
If you have enough gold to do so, the Lifering Amulet would be the easiest one to farm. Collect this multiple times, each time you upgrade it, add a different Protection Perk.
Protection Amulets:
- Grovelight (Nature Protection & Health) from Taxodius in Genesis. Not great due to having Dex on it.
- Soul Shroud Amulet (Slash Protection & Health) found in the Myrkguard Elite Area in the Shattered Mountains. Decent option for Slash bosses.
- Tanglevine Amulet (Thrust Protection & Health) from named enemies in Elysian Wilds. Not a super useful protection perk compared to others.
- Sporelight Amulet (Strike Protection & Health) from named enemies in Tribunal Elite area in Elysian Wilds. Great against Strike bosses.
Other Amulets:
- Daemon Soul (Stamina Recovery & Fortified) Major Breach Cache. Decent option for a Fortified Amulet but will be missing Health
- Syncretic Amulet (Fortified & Alchemist Reprieve) Another decent option for a Fortified Amulet but will be missing Health.
- Lifering Amulet (Divine & Health) Found from bosses in the Malevolence Tower Elite Zone. Virtually Best in Slot if you have multiple of them upgraded.
Artifact amulets can be useful, but it’s so valuable to have protection perk amulets to match the damage type you’re facing to make Mutated content easier. Ankh can be really helpful for 50% more incoming healing and Lost Stopwatch during add pulls for 100% longer stuns.
Ring
Favorable perks for rings include Hearty, Leeching, and Enfeebling, especially if your abilities apply Weaken. Damage perks that match your weapon type can also help with threat generation. Consider rings like Soulpollen or Privateer’s Heirloom for these perks.
The Azoth Crystal Ring is a reliable source of Hearty and Leeching, making it a solid choice.
The Blooddrinker Ring artifact is a unique option, trading 25% damage for 25% lifesteal, which combined with Leeching and Hearty, can enhance your survivability. It’s super strong and helps you to stay alive much easier but may cause issues with maintaining enough threat on enemies when doing 25% less damage.
Other potentially useful Rings:
Earring
Earrings with Refreshing Toast and Nimble are typically the most useful.
Despised is an optional perk for anyone struggling with maintaining aggro of enemies. Purifying Toast is another solid choice as is Regenerating as this heals you every seconds and counts as a “heal” so helps you also generate threat. Healthy Toast could add additional healing from Mana Potions if you need it although at 20k Health that will only be a 2.2k heal each time.
- Soul Shroud Earring obtained from any M2 expedition boss or crafted at the Gypsum Kiln offers Refreshing Toast and Nimble.
- Sporelight Earring found in Elysian Wilds, provides the Despised perk and Nimble, making it an excellent choice for maintaining aggro.
- Lieutenant’s Earring obtained from War Spoils gives you Regenerating and Refreshing Toast and just needs Nimble to be added.
- Corrupt Progenitor Earring obtained from enemies in the Myrkguard Elite area in Shattered Mountains
Weapons
Shield
Shields play a crucial role in your tanking strategy and are categorized as armor in the artifact system. The choice of shield type depends on whether you use a Flail or a Sword alongside it, which affects the optimal perks.
- For Sword and Shield Users: Fortifying Shield Rush should be your primary shield perk. This complements the effectiveness of the shield when used with a Sword.
- For Flail and Shield Users: Fortifying Shield Rush is less effective when using a Flail so make sure there are no perks that buff the Sword.
- All Shield Perks: focus on perks like
- Sturdy
- Shield Defense
- Sturdy Energy
- Shield Ward perks such as Flame Shield Ward, for adapting to different damage types.
While there aren’t any remarkable named shields to farm, be cautious of Refreshing perks if you already have Refreshing gear and you don’t want to overstack it.
Two notable shields are the Mossborne Tower Shield and The Pharaoh’s Tower Shield, both with the Fortifying Shield Rush perk. However, they are unupgradable and drop with random gear scores and perks.
- Mossborne provides Nature Ward and Shield Defense, obtainable from M3 Genesis
- Pharaoh’s offers Thrust Ward and Shield Defense, obtainable from M3 Enned.
The Wall artifact can also be considered, which reduces base damage by 5% and all elemental damage by 25%. However, it removes the dodge ability, requiring you to facetank and time your blocks accurately. This approach suits experienced players looking to maximize damage output while reducing damage taken but may not be beginner-friendly.
When using a sword, prioritize the Refreshing Move perk as the main priority. Taiyi Longsword is a suitable option with the Refreshing Move perk, which can be acquired easily from named enemies in Ebonscale Reach.
Other Swords:
For these options you would need to add the Refreshing Move perk when you upgrade these swords.
- Stalagmite – Obtained from enemies in Lazarus Instrumentality.
- Azoth Crystal Longsword – Obtained from any M2+ Expedition Boss.
- Reputation – Obtained from Luciferin in Elysian Wilds.
The Odo artifact Flail is an excellent choice for tanking, offering Refreshing Move, Lifestealing, and Odo Defense, which heals you when you block. Make sure to attach a gem slot when upgrading it at the Gypsum Kiln otherwise you will not be able to taunt with it.
Flail typically has quite low damage output so with that in mind you want to try and increase damage output if you decide to use a none artifact Flail.
Other good Flails:
- Azoth Crystal Flail – From any M2 Expedition
- Rending Flail – Might not seem that great but it provides some Rend which is missing on the Flail and Keenly Jagged which applies a bleed which helps with threat generation. Obtained from Named enemies in Great Cleave.
- Commandant’s Flail – Keen and Thwarting Strikes offer some damage buffs and you could add Refreshing Move onto this Flail also. Obtained from Outpost Rush Cache.
- Corrupt Progenitor Flail – Obtained from Myrkgard Elite Area
- Deepriver Flail – Obtained from named enemies in Siren Elite Area