The Best Tank Heartrunes for PvE

There are a number of good Tank Heartrunes for PvE Tanks in New World.

The things you need to consider when choosing a Heartrune include how experienced you are at Tanking, how good is the group you are doing the content with, and do you have an experienced healer? These things can all effect which Heartrune will be the most useful.

To unlock the Heartrune Gem slot you will need to progress through the Brimstone Sands main quest until you can do ‘The Antiquarian’s Dream’ side quest which allows you access to the ‘Secrets of the Heartgem’ quest.

To obtain Heartrunes you’ll need to complete Expeditions.
You are rewarded with a Minor Heartrune of Cannon Blast for completing the introductory quest and additional can be obtain from Barnacles & Black Powder. Minor Heartrune of Grasping Vines drop from the last boss in the Garden of Genesis, Minor Heartrune of Stoneform drops from the last boss of Lazarus, Minor Heartrune of Detonate drops from the last boss of Ennead and Minor Heartrune of Dark Ascent is dropped by the last boss of Tempest’s Heart.

Once you obtain a basic Heartrune you can upgrade them and select specific upgraded Heartrunes with the perks you want by making sure you have them in your inventory and then visit a Stonecutting station.

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Stoneform Heartrune

Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform

Harden yourself with layers of stone, cleansing all crowd control debuffs and granting immunity to both stagger and crowd control debuffs for 5s.

150 Base Damage
10.0% Critical Hit Chance
1.30 Critical Damage Multiplier
50.0 Block Stamina Damage
5.0 Stagger Damage

Fortifying Form: Damage absorption is increased by 10% while active.
Mending Form: Heal for 75% heartrune damage per second while active but outgoing damage is reduced by 20%.

This is a great Heartrune for PvE Tanks.

You gain some damage absorption that will lower your incoming damage.

You also get healed. This Heartrune causes damage which in return heals you for 75% of the damage done. This is enough to heal you up to full health pretty quickly.

This Heartrune is most effective when it’s saved for crucial moments, if you are dealing with a high damage moment of a fight or if your healer dies, this is extremely strong. It’s a very good Heartrune for progressive or inexperienced Tanks as you can quickly pop it at those vital moments which might be the difference between staying alive and dying.

When using the lobby to get into Expeditions this is also a great safety option.

This Heartrune would be most useful on Boss fights generally.

Stoneform Heartrune

Greater Heartrune of Stoneform

Harden yourself with layers of stone, cleansing all crowd control debuffs and granting immunity to both stagger and crowd control debuffs for 5s.

150 Base Damage
10.0% Critical Hit Chance
1.30 Critical Damage Multiplier
50.0 Block Stamina Damage
5.0 Stagger Damage

Fortifying Form: Damage absorption is increased by 10% while active.
Hardened Form: Gain an additional 10% damage absorption for 5s per hit taken (+30% max).

This is another good Heartrune for PvE Tanks.

You get a lot of damage absorption which is really nice to reduce the amount of damage you receive.

If you have a competent healer, then this is a really good Heartrune to use during boss fights mainly.

This option doesn’t offer any real group support, but it does make things easier for difficult scenarios.

Compared to the Stalwart version you will receive less damage, but you won’t get the heal. This is no problem when with a competent healer and will most likely be more beneficial.

Grasping Vines Heartrune

Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines

Summon vines around you that deal 100% heartrune damage and root enemies within a 4m radius for 3s.

250 Base Damage
10.0% Critical Hit Chance
1.30 Critical Damage Multiplier
30.0 Block Stamina Damage
5.0 Stagger Damage

Enfeebling Vines: Inflicts Weaken on successful hits, reducing the target’s damage by 20% for 8s.
Rending Vines: Inflicts Rend on successful hits, reducing the target’s damage absorption by 20% for 5s but also reducing your stamina regeneration by 50% for 5s.

This is a Best in Slot Heartrune due to its group support.

8 seconds of weaken and 5 seconds of rend means the enemy will do less damage and receive more damage while also being rooted so that your group can perform more AoE damage to a stacked group of enemies.

When it comes to add pulls, that’s when this option will perform at its best. Ideally you would have a few people in your group using this and then coordinate using it on each add pull to maximise the benefits of the debuffs so that they are always available.

It is possible to use this on bosses but there are usually other sources of rend and weaken that are more easily obtainable, when using Heartrunes it’s not entirely reliable because it can take a while to build up to use it which means you’ll get a downtime on those debuffs if this is the only source of rend and weaken.

Dark Ascent Heartrune

Brutal Heartrune of Dark Ascent

Fly up into the air then plummet back down to the ground, staggering and dealing 100% heartrune damage within a 3m radius. Press the Heartrune Ability or Basic Attack input while hovering to trigger the fall immediately.

300 Base Damage
10.0% Critical Hit Chance
1.30 Critical Damage Multiplier
80.0 Block Stamina Damage
5.0 Stagger Damage

Leeching Ascent: Heal for 100% of the damage done.
Empowered Ascent: Successful hits deal 150% heartrune damage but no longer stagger.

You’ll get a great heal from this Heartrune but it doesn’t offer very much more than that, especially since you lost the stagger which is the only “group” benefit that this initially offers.

If you are frequently doing content with Healers who struggle to keep you alive, then having this Heartrune available for a huge emergency heal would be really beneficial.

You get a larger amount of healing compared with other Heartrunes but you don’t really get a whole lot more other than that and damage.

This version heals for so much because you have the increased damage from the Empowered Ascent perk and then the Leeching Ascent heals 100% of the damage caused so because you are doing more damage you also heal for more.

Dark Ascent Heartrune

Stalwart Heartrune of Dark Ascent

Fly up into the air then plummet back down to the ground, staggering and dealing 100% heartrune damage within a 3m radius. Press the Heartrune Ability or Basic Attack input while hovering to trigger the fall immediately.

300 Base Damage
10.0% Critical Hit Chance
1.30 Critical Damage Multiplier
80.0 Block Stamina Damage
5.0 Stagger Damage

Leeching Ascent: Heal for 100% of the damage done.
Fortifying Ascent: Gain Fortify on successful hits (3 hits max), increasing damage absorption by 10% but reducing outgoing damage by 10% for 5s per hit.

This is a more Tanky version which gives you a smaller heal since you do less damage, but you gain the stagger to the enemy and fortify which reduces your incoming damage.

You would again use this for a similar situation as the brutal version, but you’ll just now do less damage a heal for less.

It’s best used for emergency situations where you are struggling to stay alive and want a heal along with reduced incoming damage.