New World Greatsword: Builds & Overview

Greatsword Overview

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

What is the Greatsword?

The Greatsword is a two-handed melee weapon that provides massive damage and great self-sustain in close combat fights. It's the first weapon in New World to scale off equally Strength and Dexterity, so it can be paired with various weapon types (such as hatchet, war hammer, great axe, bow, musket, rapier, 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 Greatsword as a primary weapon? Absolutely!

From our testing, the Greatsword is one of the strongest weapons in the game, especially if you pair it with a strength-scaling weapon, such as a War Hammer, Great Axe, or Hatchet. If you combine it with the right weapon, your character benefits from substantial burst damage, crowd control, self-healing, and immunity – the key to success in any fight!

Table of Contents

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

• Greatsword Attributes, Skills, and Passives
• Best Greatsword Perks and Gems
• Fastest Greatsword Leveling Method
• Greatsword Strengths and Weaknesses
• Best Greatsword 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 Greatsword in New World. Let's get started!

Greatsword Attributes, Skills, and Passives

Weapon Attribute Scaling

As previously mentioned, the Greatsword is a Strength and Dexterity weapon, but it also blends very well with Constitution, especially if you are looking for a tankier type-of build. Remember: the Greatsword scales equally with Strength and Dexterity, so your secondary weapon's main attribute 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 300-strength breakpoint before investing any attribute points into dexterity - That way, you benefit from Grit on light and heavy attacks!

Greatsword Skill Trees

The Great Sword comes with two mastery trees that support distinct playstyles, the Onslaught Tree and the Defiance Tree. The mastery trees put the character into different stances, following 2 different paths: the Path of Onslaught & the Path of Defiance, each with unique properties. You enter/switch the stances using abilities corresponding to one of the 2 skill trees.

After using any ability in the Onslaught Tree, you enter the Onslaught Stance for 10 seconds and get:

• Ongoing damage increased by 15%
• Damage taken increased by 15%
• Quick Charge: Heavy attacks charge twice as fast but consume 10 stamina each

Now for the Defiance Tree, once you use a corresponding ability, you enter the Defiant Stance for 10 seconds and get:

• Damage taken reduced by 15%
• Outgoing damage reduced by 15%
• Guard Point: Block incoming attacks while charging heavy attacks

Note: You can only have one active stance at a time! Switching weapons or entering the other stance will automatically end your active stance!

The three active abilities in the Onslaught Tree are Crosscut, Relentless Rush, and Skyward Slash. This mastery tree is the perfect choice for close combat DPS playstyles, placing your character in front of your enemies and dealing massive damage.

The Defiance tree focuses on damage mitigation and blocking incoming damage. The three active abilities for this mastery tree are Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter, and Roaring Rupture.

Best Greatsword Active & Passive Abilities

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

Best Greatsword Perks and Gems

Like any other weapon in the game, the Greatsword 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. So let's dive in a bit deeper and see what perks and gems you should aim for while using your Greatsword.

What are the best Perks for the Greatsword?

In New World, there are two ways to get weapon-class perks on your items: you can obtain them randomly from drops, 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 Greatsword perks to use and their corresponding mods needed for crafting:

What are the best Gems to use with the Greatsword?

Now that we know the best Greatsword 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 60, use only Tier V Cut Pristine Gems! The type of gem you use directly depends on the kind of build you are going for, whether it is a DPS build, tank build, support build, PvP build, etc.

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

What is the fastest way to level up the Greatsword?

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 Great Sword 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 weapons 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 this 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 farming spots to level up the Greatsword are:

• Defiler Excavation (Great Cleave)
• Misty Borough (Great Cleave)
• Slumbering Echoes (Great Cleave)
• Channelview Post (Restless Shore)
• Oceanview Post (Restless Shore)
• Brightwood Isle (Brightwood)

When working on your Greatsword weapon leveling, it's highly recommended to be level 60. 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 60 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!

Greatsword leveling build. Skills order for fast weapon leveling

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

Greatsword Strengths and Weaknesses

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

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

Best weapon pairings for the Greatsword

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

We already know that the Greatsword scales equally off Strength and Dexterity. 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 Greatsword accompanying weapons are:

• Hatchet (scales with Strength and Dexterity)
• Great Axe (scales with Strength)
• War Hammer (scales with Strength)
• Bow (scales with Dexterity)
• Spear (scales with Dexterity and Strength)
• Sword and Shield (scale with Strength and Dexterity)
• Rapier (scales with Dexterity and Intelligence)
• Musket (scales with Dexterity and Intelligence)
• Blunderbuss (scales with Strength and Intelligence)

Best Greatsword 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 Greatsword 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 light-medium weight for PvP and medium-heavy for Mutated Expeditions on the highest levels. Totally up to you.

The best Greatsword builds in New World are:

• Greatsword Hatchet Build
• Greatsword Great Axe Build
• Greatsword War Hammer Build
• Greatsword Bow Build
• Greatsword Spear Build
• Greatsword Sword & Shield Build
• Greatsword Rapier Build
• Greatsword Musket Build
• Greatsword Blunderbuss Build

Note: Please keep in mind that the builds are very personal, and they represent what worked for me and what I 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 Greatsword build for your character.

1. Greatsword Hatchet Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Hatchet
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Dexterity/Constitution
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Hatchet Active Skills: Berserk, Rending Throw, Social Distancing

Recommended skills to use for the Hatchet Greatsword Build:

2. Greatsword Great Axe Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Great Axe
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution/Dexterity
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Great Axe Active Skills: Reap, Maelstrom, Gravity Well

Recommended skills to use for the Great Axe Greatsword Build:

3. Greatsword War Hammer Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and War Hammer
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution/Dexterity
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• War Hammer Active Skills: Shockwave, Path of Destiny, Wrecking Ball

Recommended skills to use for the War Hammer Greatsword Build:

4. Greatsword Bow Build

• Build Type: PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Bow
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Dexterity, then Strength/Constitution
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Bow Active Skills: Evade Shot, Rain of Arrows, Poison Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Bow Greatsword Build:

5. Greatsword Spear Build

• Build Type: PvP & PvE
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Spear
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Dexterity, then Strength/Constitution
• Great Sword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Spear Active Skills: Skewer, Perforate, Vault Kick

Recommended skills to use for the Spear Greatsword Build:

6. Greatsword Sword & Shield (Tank) Build

• Build Type: PvE
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Sword & Shield
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Dexterity/Constitution
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Sword & Shield Active Skills: Shield Rush, Shield Bash, Defender's Resolve

Recommended skills to use for the Sword & Shield Greatsword Build:

7. Greatsword Rapier Build

• Build Type: PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Rapier
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Dexterity, then Intelligence/Constitution
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Rapier Active Skills: Evade, Fleche, Riposte

Recommended skills to use for the Rapier Greatsword Build:

8. Greatsword Musket Build

• Build Type: PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Musket
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Dexterity, then Strength/Constitution
• Great Sword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Musket Active Skills: Power Shot, Powder Burn, Shooter's Stance

Recommended skills to use for the Musket Greatsword Build:

9. Greatsword Blunderbuss Build

• Build Type: PvE & PvP
• Weapons used: Greatsword and Blunderbuss
• Main stat attributes: 300 points into Strength, then Constitution/Intelligence
• Greatsword Active Skills: Relentless Rush, Steadfast Strike, Calamity Counter
• Blunderbuss Active Skills: Azoth Shrapnel Blast, Claw Shot, Blast Shot

Recommended skills to use for the Blunderbuss Greatsword Build:

These would be the best PvE and PvP Greatsword builds from everything I've tested. As you can see, there are many options you can choose from, depending on the secondary weapon and preferred playstyle. In my opinion, out of all, the ones that stand out are the Greatsword Hatchet Build as the best build for PvE content and the Greatsword Bow as the best PvP build that uses this weapon.

Final thoughts

This is the end of our in-depth guide for the Greatsword 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 Greatsword 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 Flail: 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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