New World War Hammer Tank

The War Hammer is a great Tank Weapon in New World thanks to its combination of Crowd Control and Area of Effect Debuffs which reduce enemies damage and increase the damage they receive. This weapon is used in our New World Tank Build.

You also get a reasonably good damage output even while using Heavy Armor. The War Hammer also has some great passives that really help anyone playing as a Tank.

It’s best to use the Warhammer on your Off Hand with a Sword & Shield,  Greatsword or Flail & Shield in the Main Hand.

War Hammers perform best when used during add pulls. For boss fights you’d potentially benefit more from using Spear if no one else is using one and for more advanced Tanking you could also consider Rapier for bosses also.

Below you’ll find the best abilities, passives and perks when using the War Hammer for Tanking in New World.

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War Hammer is an absolute monster for add pulls due to the crowd control benefits and the ability to apply Area of Effect Rend and Weaken debuffs to the enemy. It’s also generally a good Tank weapon due to the survival and sustain on offer via the War Hammer passives.

When using a War Hammer you can use it in two ways.

• Firstly is the ultimate crowd control juggernaut, this setup focuses on keeping enemies crowd controlled almost permanently but will not be as efficient against bosses.
• The other setup is a general way to use the hammer where it provides more benefits on bosses and deals more damage but has slightly less crowd control capabilities.

If you have someone in your group using a Spear with Perforate this applies the same Rend as Armor Breaker so if this is the case, don’t use that skill.

War Hammer rotation:

1. Run into an add pull and use Clear Out to crowd control enemies and apply Sundering Clear Out, this also provides your group with Fortify.
2. Light Attack to reduce ability cooldowns.
3. Next use Shockwave this will combine an AoE taunt, stagger, stun, Weaken and Rend all into one fantastic skill. Ideally have the Sundering Shockwave perk on one armor piece.
4. Light Attack to reduce ability cooldowns.
5. To keep control of the enemies use Wrecking Ball which smashes them all into the ground to keep them in place longer and buffs you up with Fortify.
6. Use Armor Breaker once enemies are stacked and CC’ed if you’re using this skill to apply another Rend debuff source.
7. Light Attack between every skill cast to proc the Acceleration passive, this is vital so you can use Crowd Control abilities to keep enemies endlessly stuck on the spot.
8. On boss fights use Heavy Attacks to benefit from passives that increase your damage.

When looking for a good War Hammer the best perks include Sundering Clear Out or Sundering Shockwave, use one of them on your weapon and one of them on your gear. Next would be Thwarting Strikes or Enchanted but there are no good farmable hammers with those perks alongside another good perk, but Trenchant Strikes appears a lot on Hammers and its decent if you use your Hammer on bosses. Finally Lifestealing or any damage buffing perks such as Keen, Keenly Empowered or Vicious would be good.

When using a Hammer you’ll want to make sure you have armor with the following perks:

• Sundering Shockwave (if its not on your hammer)
• Empowering Armor Breaker
• Penetrating Wrecking Ball

These are obtainable Warhammers that you can farm:

• Hippopotamidaen Strength – Dropped by Heru in The Ennead.
• Deepriver War Hammer – Dropped by named enemies in Siren’s Stand Elite Zone.
• Corrupt Progenitor War Hammer – Dropped by named enemies in the Shattered Mountains.
• Tanglevine War Hammer – Dropped by named enemies in Elysian Wilds.
• Azoth Crystal War Hammer – Dropped by enemies in any M2+ Expedition
• Commandant’s War Hammer Obtained from OPR Cache

As a Tank using a War Hammer the best way to setup Attributes for general purposes would be with:

• 300 CON
• 300 STR