You cannot roleplay as Thranduil the Elvenking while wielding an AK-47, thankfully, New World features the mainstay of MMORPG ranged weapons, the bow and arrow. Strictly speaking, given the choice between the two in a fight, I’m probably going to take the assault rifle. However, bows are a mainstay in fantasy games for a reason: they’re cool and they’re satisfying as hell to use. Something about accounting for the drop in an arrow’s flight to hit a far-away enemy’s skull is incredibly rewarding. Skyrim achieves this really well, but that game isn’t based in a setting that’s as technologically advanced as the New World, so how does the weapon fit? We’ll get into that.
The intention of these guides is to allow the planners among us to have access to all the information you might need to, well, plan out your character. MGN was lucky enough to be invited to the closed beta for New World, and consequently, we’ve had the opportunity to get some hands-on experience with the weapon mastery system and the weapons themselves.
The weapon mastery system rewards players for repeatedly using the same weapon, allowing them to pick perks from the two skills assigned to that particular weapon. Now whilst you can pick a lot of these skills, augments, and passives, you cannot pick them all. Therein lies the difference between your bow-wielding character and the next person’s. Using these guides, you can plan out and get a feel for what you can expect when leveling up when New World launches.
Over the course of the series, we’ll be looking at every weapon type that is available and how to accentuate them with your statistical decisions. So, if we haven’t covered your preferred weapon type or character archetype yet, fear not! I’m going to do them all!
Especially with bows, your character will benefit solely from their Dexterity stat when it comes to bow performance. You will gain no bonus from having any points in Strength or Intelligence. So, if you’re looking to have the bow as your secondary or pulling weapon, perhaps look into a weapon that also benefits from Dexterity like the Spear or swords. Pairing the Bow with a Spear makes a lot of sense, both focus on Dexterity and you can use your bow to pull mobs toward yourself before swapping to the Spear for close combat. This applies to swords as well, but the combination is less min-maxed, with the latter needing points in Strength.
Much like every other weapon in the game, the two Bow skill trees offer quite varied methods of play, and which you prefer and invest in entirely depends on the role you assign your bow to. If you want to focus on dealing ranged damage, and the bow is your main method, then the rightmost “Hunter” tree is for you. This focuses on making the bow as potent in DPS as possible. The leftmost tree will suit as a secondary or pulling weapon more, as this tree focuses on utility in mobility, debuffs, and DOTS, and is referred to as “Skirmisher”.
We’re going to take a look at the active abilities of the Skirmisher skill tree first, and then the augmentations that you can select along with those actives, before swapping over to the Hunter tree and doing the same, and then going over the passives for both of those trees:
Skirmisher
Active Skill 1: Evade Shot
Leap back 5.0 meters and shoot an arrow that deals 125.0% weapon damage.
Cooldown: 15 Seconds
Evade Shot Augments:
Evasive Knockback
Evade Shot now knocks the target hit back by 2.0 meters.
Go the Distance
Evade Shot now grants haste for 5.0 seconds, improving movement speed by 15.0%.
Active Skill 2: Rain of Arrows
Shoot a wide array of 7 arrows that deal 150.0% weapon damage.
Cooldown: 25 Seconds
Rain of Arrows Augments:
Barbed Arrows
Rain of Arrows now causes bleed, dealing 85.0% weapon damage over 12.0 seconds. Can stack up to three arrows.
Hooked Arrows
Rain of Arrows now causes a 15.0% slow to targets hit for 4.0 seconds.
Active Skill 3: Poison Shot
Shoot a poisoned arrow at a target enemy or area that creates a 3.0 meter AoE of poison that lasts for 6 seconds. Foes inside or entering are dealt 10.0% weapon damage per second for 20.0 seconds.
Cooldown: 35 Seconds
Poison Shot Augments:
Infected Arrows
Poison Shot damage increased to 12.0% weapon damage per tick.
Direct Hit
Directly hitting an enemy, rather than an area, causes the foe hit to take 200.0% more poison damage.
Hunter
Active Skill 1: Penetrating Shot
Shoot an arrow that deals 150.0% weapon damage that can collateral targets for 100 meters.
Cooldown: 18 Seconds
Penetrating Shot Augments:
Blood Soaked Arrow
Damage increased by 10.0% for each target hit up to 50.0%.
Deep Strike
Damage increased by 20.0% against targets more than 20.0 meters away.
Active Skill 2: Splinter Shot
Shoot an arrow 10.0 meters, before splitting into three shafts covering an area and dealing 50.0% weapon damage each.
Cooldown: 22 Seconds
Splinter Shot Augments:
Scatter Shot
Splinter into 5 arrows instead of 3.
Calculated
Reduce cooldown per shaft landed against a foe by 10.0%.
Active Skill 3: Rapid Shot
Shoot three arrows quickly. The first two deal 100.0% weapon damage per shot. The last deals 125.0% weapon damage and knocks the foe back.
Cooldown: 20 Seconds
Rapid Shot Augments:
Rapid Accuracy
If all three arrows hit the same target, reduce Rapid Shot’s cooldown by half.
Final Blow
The last arrow deals an extra 25.0% damage.
Passives
Catch Me If You Can
If surrounded by three or more enemies within a 3.0-meter radius, gain 20.0% movement spend.
Evasive Tactics
Deal 20.0% more damage after successfully dodging an attack for 5.0 seconds.
Closing In
Hitting an enemy below 50.0% health reduces bow ability cooldowns by 5.0%.
Hunter’s Insight
Hitting a foe with any active debuff grants 5.0 stamina. (Doesn’t need to be your debuff.)
Archer’s Speed
Gain 10.0% movement speed for 5.0 seconds after swapping to your bow weapon slot.
Cooldown: 10 Seconds
Battle Precision
Your debuffs and DoTs last 20.0% longer.
Impale
Hitting a foe that is at 100.0% health, with any attack, causes them to be slowed by 10.0% for 2.0 seconds.
Dodge and Weave
After you successfully dodge an attack, gain 10.0% movement speed for 2.0 seconds.
Mark
Deal 10.0% more damage to foes suffer from any debuff, not including your own inflicted debuffs.
Knee Shot
Leg shots cause the target to be slowed by 10.0% for 2.0 seconds.
Long Range
Deal 20.0% more damage against foes further than 10.0 meters away.
Finishing Shot
Deal 20.0% more damage against enemies below 50.0% health.
Surprise Attack
Deal 20.0% more damage against foes that you haven’t damaged for 10.0 seconds or longer.
Hawkeye
Headshot are granted lifesteal. Heal for 10.0% of the damage done via headshots.
Aim True
Heavy attack arrows fly faster and deal 30.0% more damage.
Unbreakable Focus
Take 20.0% less damage whilst aiming.
Opening Strike
Heavy attacks do 20.0% more damage against enemies with full health.
Arrow Range
Increased range of arrow before gravity falloff by 100.0%.
Bullseye
Bow shots critical chance increased by 10.0%.
Concussion
When you land a headshot, deal 20.0% more damage with a chance of not consuming an arrow.
Closing
That just about wraps things up for our overview of the Bow mastery for Amazon’s new MMO, New World. We hope that you’ve found the information useful in planning out your character, and we hope to see you online! If you have any suggestions or comments, we’d love to hear from you on the MGN.gg blog, our YouTube channel, of course, the new MGN Twitter @MGN_TV, and our Discord – links for all of which can be found within the description of the video overview.
Read Next:
New World Weapon Mastery Guide Part 7 – War Hammer
Credits
| Program | Founding Writers |
| Author | Luke Cowling |
| Publisher | MGN |
| Game | New World |
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