New World Musket and Rapier Build

Attributes for the Musket and Rapier Build

Attributes is not actually the right word to use in this instance. I should really say attribute, as there is only one you actually want. And that attribute is dexterity. The musket and rapier combo is a pure DPS build. You’re looking to outrange your enemies and pile on the damage before they can get close. And failing that, get a few quick melee hits in before you retreat out of melee range. Because of this strategy we forgo defensive stats in pursuit of raw damage, mobility, and dodging. Since both the musket and rapier scale their damage off of dexterity, we want to put all our points into the one attribute. That being said, if we do reach the max, then we want to start getting some hit points.

Armor for the Musket and Rapier Build

As I mentioned above, with this build we are prioritizing high mobility and dodging. Ideally we will not get into melee, but if we do, we will want to get out of it as quickly as possible. For this reason we want to maximize our dodge. In order to do this we will want to wear all light armor, except for the chest piece which can be a piece of medium armor. This gives us the most defense possible while still giving us the best dodge. Some recommend going all medium armor to get more of a balance between defense and doge, which is still pretty good, but I prefer maximum mobility and dodge for a build like this. It really helps with our run and gun strategy.

The Musket – Primary Weapon

The musket is our primary weapon for this build. The rapier is a backup for those unfortunate situations where enemies manage to get in close. For the musket we want a healthy mix of the Sharpshooter and Trapper skill trees.

The first active skill on the Sharpshooter skill tree we want is Powder Burn. Powder Burn is the second row active skill in the Sharpshooter skill tree. It makes your next shot deal 110% damage and inflict a burn for 20% damage. We want to fully upgrade this skill. This will increase the damage of follow up shots as well as the duration of the burn status effect.

We also want the third-row active skill Shooter’s Stance, though we do not need to upgrade it. Shooter’s stance will reduce our mobility to zero (lock us in place) for our next three shots, but reduce our reload time to 75%. This allows us to shoot much faster and really pile on the damage.

For passive skills we want Critical Reload from the first row. It reduces our reload times if we get consecutive headshots. From the second row we want Quick Load and Empowering Headshot to reduce our reload times and increase our damage when we score headshots respectively. We take Shell Shock at row three to reduce incoming damage when we headshot. At row four we get Called Shot Resupply which reduces all our cooldowns when we hit basic attack headshots. We want Optimal Range which boosts our damage by 10% against enemies 20m or more away and by 5% against enemies within 50m. And we want the capstone Deadeye which boosts headshot damage and inflicts bleed.

From the trapper skill tree we want to fully upgrade the Traps skill. It is the active skill from row one. It lets us lay down traps that damage enemies when triggered, and more importantly makes enemies rooted for 3s. stopping enemy movement is huge in our build.

The first passive skill we want is the second-row skill Empowering Weakness which gives us damage boosts when we hit debuffed enemies. At row three we want Hustle, which gives us 10% haste for 3s after dodging. At row four we want Tactical Reload which reloads our musket once every 6s when we dodge. At row five we want Kick ‘Em While They’re Down, which gives us 10% bonus damage to enemies who are rooted, slowed, or stunned.

The Rapier – Backup Weapon

The rapier is our backup weapon, but it can still put in some work. If enemies get in close we want to get a few quick hits in for some extra damage and bleed before we retreat to musket-firing distance. For this build we’ll want a bit of the Blood skill tree but primarily Grace.

We want the first-row active skill Tondo from the Blood skill tree. It can hit up to 5m away for 50% weapon damage and inflict a nasty bleed status effect. However we only need to upgrade it twice.

The first-row passive skills we want are Refreshing Strikes and Engarde. Refreshing Strikes reduces rapier cooldowns on successful hits. Engarde gives us 10% bonus damage to enemies above 50% health. At row two we want Unerring, which gives us 5% bonus damage against targets with the bleed status effect. Finally at row three we want Light Edge. It grants us 8% bonus damage on the two middle swipe attacks in our light attack chain.

For the Grace skill tree we want to start with the first-row active skill Evade. We will want to fully upgrade it. Evade makes us perform a sidestep that grants us an invisibility window and boosts the attack speed of our light attacks during said window. Then we want the second-row active skill Fleche, though we only need to upgrade it twice. We lunge forwards 10m, piercing through all enemies for 145% weapon damage.

For passive skills, we want to start at row one with Controlled Breathing, which gives us 3 stamina back on every hit. Then we move down to row three for Red Curtains, which reduces all cooldowns by 5% on a critical strike. Then at row four we want Swiftness, which gives us 3% haste on a successful rapier hit for 4s, which can stack up to 5 times. And finally we want the Grace capstone Momentum. It gives us a whopping 30% damage boost on a light or heavy attack after we use an ability. This buff ends on a hit or after 3 seconds (whichever is first).