What Are The Best New World Tank Weapons?

With the latest update Season 1: Fellowship and Fire there has been some changes to weapons and abilities so we’ve decided to take a look at New World Tank Weapons and give you a breakdown of the positives and negatives of each weapon from a Tank perspective.

Sword and Shield

The Sword and Shield is a really good weapon choice for New World Tanks as you might have already guessed. It offers safety and defence to the user but you also have the option to provide a group DPS buff with one of the passives.

Best Off Hands: Warhammer for Crowd Controlling, Spear for Boss Debuffing or Hatchet for the Defy Death to help beginners.

Best Sword Perks: Bane, Refreshing Move, Enchanted, Lifestealing.

Best Shield Perks: Ward, Fortifying Shield Rush, Protection, Sturdy, Sturdy Energy

Strengths

  • High Survivability
  • Applies Weaken & Slow
  • Leadership group DPS buff

Weaknesses

  • Long Cooldowns
  • Reliant on Refreshing Ward & Tactician
  • Not sustainable to “Perma-block”
  • Most effective with 300 CON

Items of Interest

Warhammer

The Warhammer is the best AoE Tank weapon in New World. It offers so much regarding Crowd Control and AoE Debuffing so it’s vital for AoE fights. When it comes to single target bosses it’s not quite as good however.

Best Off Hands: Sword and Shield, Greatsword.

Best Perks: Bane, Sundering Shockwave, Thwarting Strikes, Enchanted.

Strengths

  • Best AoE Tank Weapon
  • Applies AoE Crowd Control, Rend & Weaken
  • Very sustainable
  • Decent Tank damage output even in Heavy Armor

Weaknesses

  • Not as strong as Spear against bosses

Items of Interest

Greatsword

The Greatsword when mastered can be a great Tank weapon but it’s not advised for inexperienced players. It’s a more advanced Tank weapon which offers some useful debuffs and damage when you learn how to use it correctly.

Best Off Hands: Warhammer for Crowd Controlling, Spear for Boss Debuffing or Hatchet for the Defy Death to help beginners.

Best Perks: Bane, Trenchant Strikes

Strengths

  • Good for Stacking up enemies
  • Applies Rend & Weaken
  • Decent Tank damage output even in Heavy Armor

Weaknesses

  • Not as easy to Tank using Greatsword
  • Difficult sustain
  • Increased damage received
  • Animation locks abilities

Items of Interest

Great Axe

The Great Axe is a great weapon for clumping and stacking enemies, it’s just better used by a Damage Dealer than a Tank

Best Off Hands: Sword and Shield, Greatsword.

Best Perks: Bane, Enfeebling Maelstrom

Strengths

  • Great for Stacking up enemies
  • Applies Weaken
  • Very sustainable

Weaknesses

  • Ability range isn’t very good, can “miss” enemies if they are not already fairly close to each other.
  • Better used by a Damage Dealer

Items of Interest

  • None

Hatchet

Hatchets are a good starter weapon for a Tank. They are easy to use, have access to AoE taunting, debuffing and a passive that prevents you dying. Later down the line there are weapons that offer more but the Hatchet can help play a part in the development of new Tanks.

Best Off Hands: Sword and Shield, Greatsword.

Best Perks: Bane, Refreshing Torrent.

Strengths

  • Allows you to do some range combat/aggro
  • Applies Rend
  • Applies Disease/Weaken
  • Beginner friendly with Defy Death

Weaknesses

  • Doesn’t provide the Crowd Control + debuff combination of other weapons
  • Not as strong as other weapons
  • More of a safety net for beginners

Items of Interest

Spear

When using a Spear as a Tank you are switching basically to a DPS and you’re still able to offer some great enemy debuffs to benefit your group. It’s most useful for boss fights and it’s only really useful to have one Spear user per group.

Best Off Hands: Sword and Shield, Greatsword.

Best Perks: Bane, Enfeebling Skewer, Vicious.

Strengths

  • Applies Rend & Weaken
  • Strong against bosses
  • Very mobile weapon

Weaknesses

  • Only 1 needed per group and only good for bosses
  • Stamina sustain can be difficult
  • Requires a lot of dodging
  • You’ll get locked into skill animations

Items of Interest

Rapier

The Rapier is a good Tank weapon if you are trying to push DPS for score runs, you’ll get huge single target DPS and be able to virtually spam Taunt skills but you’ll have to dodge a lot and it’s a hard weapon to use.

Best Off Hands: Sword and Shield, Greatsword.

Best Perks: Bane, Vicious, Refreshing Move, Keen, Keenly Empowered.

Strengths

  • Huge single target damage
  • Possible to frequently use taunt skills
  • Good mobility and sustain

Weaknesses

  • Heavily reliant on dodging and lifestealing
  • No defensive benefits
  • Hard to use and master as a Tank

Items of Interest