New World Flail: Builds & Overview

Flail Overview

Welcome to our New World’s Flail weapon guide! This article covers everything regarding this new weapon, including its active and passive skills, attributes, perks, runeglass gems, and what weapons to accompany it for the best PvE and PvP Flail builds in the game. Once you read our guide, choosing the best Flail build for your character will become much easier!

What is the Flail?

The Flail is a one-handed melee weapon with extended range that provides massive support and has great tanking potential, and can be combined with a shield.

It's the first weapon in New World to scale with Strength and Focus, so it can be paired with various weapon types (such as life staff, sword and shield, war hammer, spear, hatchet, etc.), making it the most versatile weapon for lots of PvE and PvP end-game builds. So can we aim for the best build in the game and use the Flail as a primary weapon? Absolutely!

From our testing, the Flail is one of the strongest weapons in the game, especially if you pair it with a support weapon, such as a Life Staff, Sword and Shield, and Void Gauntlet, or a dps weapon, such as a War Hammer, Great Axe, and Hatchet. If you combine it with the right weapon, your character benefits from substantial crowd control, self-healing, support and immunity – the key to success in any fight!

Table of Contents

Here is a little breakdown of our guide for the Flail weapon and the best builds for it:

• Flail Attributes, Skills, and Passives
• Best Flail Perks and Runeglass Gems
• Fastest Flail Leveling Method
• Flail Strengths and Weaknesses
• Best Flail PvE and PvP Builds
• Final thoughts

Now let's check out the weapon's particularities, and some of the best PvE and PvP builds for the Flail in New World. Let's get started!

Flail Attributes, Skills, and Passives

Weapon Attribute Scaling

As previously mentioned, the Flail is a Strength and Focus weapon, but it also blends very well with Constitution, especially if you are looking for a tankier type-of build. Remember: the Flail scales with 90% Strength and 65% Focus, so your secondary weapon will dictate where you should dump most of your points.

Note: If you pair it with a strength-based weapon, we highly recommend reaching the 350-constitution breakpoint before investing any attribute points into strength - That way, you benefit from Grit on light & heavy attacks, and also damage reduction while Grit is active!

Flail Skill Trees

The Flail comes with two mastery trees that support distinct playstyles, the Cleric Tree and the Bastion Tree. The mastery trees offer two different playstyles, which can be combined into a powerful combination of buffing and tanking.

The Cleric mastery tree utilizes arcane magic to enhance your attacks, while also buffing and healing allies and debuffing enemies:

• Arcane Smite - After using the skill, a hazardous area will be left behind, damaging the enemies that enter it and weakening them. Unlocking the Deflecting Frailty will also weaken targets that hit you by 5% with a maximum of 5 stacks
• Arcane Vortex - After the first hit of the skill, triggers an empower to you and the allies in the radius, and when an enemy is hit, the allies in the radius gain 25% haste for 5s. All allies within the Arcane Vortex radius are cleansed and gain immunity to crowd control for 2s, and are also healed
• Arcane Eruption - Attacks the target twice and inflicts 2 stacks of Impairment, weakening them for 10% per stack. Unlocking the Crippling Strike and Debilitating Extension will slow the enemy by 40% on the first hit and also extend the crowd control duration

This mastery tree is the perfect choice for close combat damage and support playstyles, placing your character in front of your enemies and buffing the allies while debuffing them.

The Bastion mastery tree utilizes crowd control and defensive skills to buff self and support allies in combat:

• Barrage - Sprints forward while passing through allies and enemies, slamming the ground and staggering all enemies in range. Unlocking the perks will also block all frontal attacks and fortify allies
• Trip - Swings the flail forward, knocking the target to the ground. Hitting a weakened enemy with Trip will inflict Rend while fortifying yourself by 15%
• Warding Bludgeon - Leap into the air and trigger a burst of energy to grant Reinforced Fortify to self and all allies within a 3m radius, granting 50% Fortify for 8 seconds or until you get hit 3 times

This mastery tree is the perfect choice for close combat support playstyle, crowd controlling and debuffing enemies, while buffing allies.

Best Flail Active & Passive Abilities

The best active and passive abilities for the Flail depend on the build you are going for, whether it is a DPS build, support build, tank build, PvE build, PvP build, etc. Later in the guide, we present the best abilities for the most popular Flail builds in the ongoing meta.

Best Flail Perks and Runeglass Gems

Like any other weapon in the game, the Flail has specific perks that enhance the weapon's abilities. Depending on the type of build the player goes for, it can also be socketed with various cut gemstones or runeglass gems. So let's dive in a bit deeper and see what perks and gems you should aim for while using your Flail.

What are the best Perks for the Flail?

In New World, there are two ways to get weapon-class perks on your items: you can obtain them randomly from drops or rewards, which involves a lot of RNG, or you can craft gear with the desired perk on it, which usually is pretty expensive.

In the table below, you can find a list of the best Flail perks to use and their corresponding mods needed for crafting:

What are the best Gems to use with the Flail?

Now that we know the best Flail perks to use for our builds, let's see what gems we should use to maximize the damage output of this weapon.

Always aim for the highest tier of gems your character affords, and once you reach level 65, use only Runeglass Gems! The type of runeglass gem you use directly depends on the kind of build you are going for, whether it is a Flail DPS build, tank build, support build, PvP build, etc.

Here are some of the best runeglass gems to use for your Flail end-game builds:

What is the fastest way to level up the Flail?

How does the weapon leveling work?

To work on a weapon's mastery, players earn weapon mastery points by defeating enemies with that particular weapon type. In this case, as you want to work on your Flail weapon mastery, you will have to use it in combat and kill the mobs with it.

The amount of experience required per weapon mastery level increases as you progress towards level 20, so you will have to kill more or higher level mobs to get to the following levels for the desired weapon type. The fastest way to level up your Flail in New World is to efficiently farm groups of enemies with a short respawn cooldown.

There are some lower-level areas with high mob density that make the Flail leveling process a lot easier. You must aim for zones that have a maximum of 90 seconds of mob respawn time.

What are the best locations for weapon leveling in New World?

The best leveling methods for the Flail in New World are:

• Farming Cleave's Malice quest (Great Cleave)
• Oceanview Post (Restless Shore)
• Channelview Post (Restless Shore)
• Defiler Excavation (Great Cleave)
• Misty Borough (Great Cleave)

When working on your Flail weapon leveling, it's highly recommended to be level 65. That way, you have all the farming areas unlocked, and your character's gear and stats should be strong enough to keep you alive and efficiently clear the mob packs. While it's best to aim for enemies level 40+, you can also go for lower-level enemies, level 25-35, but only as long they are elite enemies.

Note: If you haven't reached level 65 yet, you can check our New World Power Leveling Guide, which covers all the tips and tricks that will get you to max level in no time!

Flail leveling build. Skills order for fast weapon leveling

If you are looking for the fastest way to get your Flail weapon mastery to max level (20), this is the best leveling skills priority:

Flail Strengths and Weaknesses

In New World, monsters fall under six categories: Humans, Ancients, Corrupted, Angry Earth, Beasts, and Lost. Each monster class has damage types that they are weak against. When it comes to the Flail, it is a weapon that deals Strike damage, so it deals 10% increased damage to Lost and Drowned enemies and 20% increased damage to Ancient enemies!

As for weapon weaknesses, since the Brimstone Sands update, mob types no longer have resistances! That being said, you can now use the Flail against any type of enemy!

Best weapon pairings for the Flail

We aim to create the best Flail build for our character, which strongly revolves around getting the right gear for it: the armor, the jewels, the runeglass gems, and the weapon we accompany it with.

We already know that the Flail scales with Strength and Focus. So it's an easy guess that the best weapons to pair it with are those weapons that share at least one of these attributes.

Some of the best Flail accompanying weapons in New World are:

• Life Staff (scales with Focus)
• Sword and Shield (scales with Strength)
• Void Gauntlet (scales with Focus)
• Hatchet (scales with Strength)
• Greatsword (scales with Strength)
• Great Axe (scales with Strength)
• War Hammer (scales with Strength)
• Spear (scales with Strength)
• Blunderbuss (scales with Strength)

Best Flail PvE and PvP Builds

Now that we've gone through all the weapon's particularities, let's get into the end-game stuff and check out some of the best builds for the Flail in New World. It's worth mentioning that these builds might be subject to change as we collect the data from the PTR, and the game is constantly getting updated.

As a general rule, always aim for perks that enhance your active skills, and keep an eye on the character's armor weight as well, depending on the build and the difficulty of the content you are using it for. For example, you can use medium-heavy weight for PvP and light-medium for Mutated Expeditions on the highest levels. Totally up to you.

The best Flail builds in New World are:

• Flail Life Staff Build
• Flail Sword and Shield Build
• Flail Void Gauntlet Build
• Flail Hatchet Build
• Flail Greatsword Build
• Flail Great Axe Build
• Flail War Hammer Build
• Flail Spear Build
• Flail Blunderbuss Build

Note: Please keep in mind that the builds are very personal, and they represent what worked for us and what we had the most fun with while testing out this weapon. You can swap any skills or weapons anytime and change these builds to fit your playstyle!

Now let's talk about each of them and see what would be the best Flail build for your character.

1. Flail Life Staff Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Life Staff
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Focus, then Constitution
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Arcane Eruption, Warding Bludgeon
• Life Staff Active Skills: Divine Embrace, Sacred Ground, Beacon

Recommended skills to use for the Life Staff Flail Build:

2. Flail Sword and Shield Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Sword & Shield
• Main stat attributes: At least 350 points into Constitution, then Strength
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Trip, Warding Bludgeon
• Sword and Shield Active Skills: Reverse Stab, Shield Rush, Defender's Resolve

Recommended skills to use for the Sword & Shield and Flail Build:

This build is especially powerful when Odo and The Wall artifacts are equipped.

3. Flail Void Gauntlet Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Void Gauntlet
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Focus, then Constitution
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Arcane Eruption, Warding Bludgeon
• Void Gauntlet Active Skills: Petrifying Scream, Oblivion, Orb of Decay

Recommended skills to use for the Void Gauntlet Flail Build:

4. Flail Hatchet Build

• Build Type: PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Hatchet
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• Hatchet Active Skills: Berserk, Raging Torrent, Social Distancing

Recommended skills to use for the Hatchet Flail Build:

5. Flail Greatsword Build

• Build Type: PvP & PvE
• Weapons used: Flail and Greatsword
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Constitution, then Strength
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter

Recommended skills to use for the Greatsword Flail Build:

6. Flail Great Axe Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Great Axe
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Constitution, then Strength
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• Great Axe Active Skills: Charge, Maelstorm, Gravity Well

Recommended skills to use for the and Great Axe Flail Build:

7. Flail War Hammer Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and War Hammer
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Constitution, then Strength
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• War Hammer Active Skills: Wreking Ball, Shockwave, Path of Destiny

Recommended skills to use for the Warhammer Flail Build:

8. Flail Spear Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Spear
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• Spear Active Skills: Sweep, Perforate, Skewer

Recommended skills to use for the Spear Flail Build:

9. Flail Blunderbuss Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Flail and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 350 points into Strength, then Constitution
• Flail Active Skills: Arcane Smite, Barrage, Trip
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Net Shot, Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Splitting Grenade

Recommended skills to use for the Blunderbuss Flail Build:

These would be the best PvE and PvP Flail builds from everything we've tested. As you can see, there are many options you can choose from, depending on the secondary weapon and preferred playstyle. In our opinion, out of all, the ones that stand out are the Flail Sword & Shield Build as the best build for PvE content and the Flail Life Staff as the best PvP build that uses this weapon.

Final thoughts

This is the end of our in-depth guide for the Flail in New World. We hope you have learned everything you need to know about the weapon, its usage, skills, perks, and the best builds for it. The Flail is one of the most powerful weapons that can be used in many end-game builds. In conclusion, it's definitely worth giving it a shot!

Related Guides

If it feels like this weapon isn't the perfect match for you, we have also covered other weapons available in the game. Below you can find other updated, detailed guides for New World:

• New World Greatsword: Builds & Overview
• Blunderbuss Weapon Guide and Builds
• New World Gold Farming Guide
• New World Power Leveling Guide

We update our articles with each and every update in the game, so keep an eye out on our guides.

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