New World: Rapier Builds Guide

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Human Made

Penned by Joel Stadler

I have loved video games before I even knew what they were. I also love writing (am working on becoming a successful fantasy author), anime, tablet... Read more

Reviewed by Ashley Johnson

Who doesn’t like feats of daring, swashbuckling do? If you’re a fan of Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood, or The Princess Bride’s Inigo Montoya, then New World has got you covered. Introducing the rapier — a weapon of fierceness and finesse. Today, we’ve put together a New World rapier guide, covering how to use this weapon and make the most of it in your build.

Let’s get started!

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New World: The Best Armor for PvE and PvP

New World Best Rapier Builds: En garde!

The rapier is a fairly straightforward weapon — often quite literally, but sometimes more figuratively (depending on the skills you’re using). It does DPS, and does it well, but not much else. As such, we’ll be recommending some pretty similar builds in this guide. It’d be more accurate to say we’re putting together one and a half builds, rather than two. You’ll see what I mean.

But, as always, the first thing to do is to get into the specifics of the skills.

Rapier Guide Skill Trees: Blood and Grace

The rapier’s two skill trees offer you a choice — do you want more technical gameplay, or do you just want to make ’em bleed? The Grace tree focuses on maneuverability and counters, making for interesting (and somewhat tricky, at first) gameplay. The Blood skill tree, however, focuses heavily on DOTs to deal damage, with several good abilities that combo well with status effects.

In essence, the two skill trees of the rapier offer the player a choice. The choice is do you want a bit more technical gameplay, or do you just want to make ‘em bleed! The Blood skill tree focuses heavily on DOTs to deal your damage, with several good abilities that combo well with status effects. The Grace tree focuses more on maneuverability and counters, making for interesting (and somewhat tricky, at first) gameplay.

Blood Skills

1. Tondo

Tondo is the first first-row active skill in the Blood skill tree. This is the skill that puts the blood in Blood, being your primary source of bleed damage.

You strike up to 5m away dealing 50% weapon damage on a hit. You also inflict a bleed status effect that does an additional 10% weapon damage ever second for 12s. This status effect can stack up to three times. All of this comes at the low low cost of a 5.9s cooldown.

Tondo is a great status effect enabler, and the low cooldown makes a good thing even better. There isn’t really anything bad to say. You don’t want to invest in Tondo if you’re not in the bleed build, but that doesn’t really count as a downside. Overall, Tondo is a super solid move that is delightfully spammable.

2. Flourish and Finish

This is the second row active skill in the Blood skill tree. This is your combo move that turns DOTS into bust damage.

First you Flourish, dealing 90% weapon damage and pushing back/staggering your opponent. If you press the light attack button at the end of Flourish, you Finish. Finish deals 120% weapon damage, then it consumes all stacks of bleed the enemy has left on them, dealing 110% of the bleed damage per stack. This comes with a deserved 19.6s cooldown.

Flourish and Finish is an amazing source of damage and combos really well with Tondo. Again, there’s not a lot of negatives about the ability. To make full use of it, you want to fully upgrade Tondo as well, so it is a major investment. The cooldown is also a bit long, but for the ability you get it is quite reasonable. Overall, definitely worth grabbing.

3. Flurry

Flurry is the second first-row active skill in the Blood skill tree. It is your rapid fire thrusting attack. Jab, jab, jab, jab, jab!

Flurry does five consecutive strikes with increasing damage. The first hit is 46% weapon damage and the last is 82%. If you dodge or use another ability during Flurry, the skill is canceled. This comes at a 15.7s cooldown.

It’s another solid source of damage. The upgrades make it great for getting around those pesky blocks, but you need to go three upgrades deep to get any bleed synergy, which is a bit of an investment early on. Also, even though you can cancel the ability, it does leave you a bit at risk of counter attacks. Overall, it’s not as integral as the other two Blood active skills.

Grace Skills

1. Evade

Evade is your first-row skill in the Grace skill tree. It does what it says on the tin (if you time it right).

You perform a sidestep in the direction you were facing that cancels any other skills in progress and grants you temporary invulnerability. While evading, the speed of your light attacks is increased. This comes at a 11.8s cooldown.

It can be a good piece of evasion (unsurprisingly), especially if you are low on stamina. Also, it still contributes to your DPS by increasing the speed of light attacks. Unfortunately, getting the timing and direction right to fully utilize this ability can be tricky. It’s a good ability for getting around your opponents while still dealing some damage, but comes at a bit of a learning curve.

2. Riposte

Riposte is the first second-row active skill in the Grace skill tree. This is your counter attack — you knew the rapier had to have one.

You enter a defensive stance for 1s. If hit during that window, you counter the attack, taking no damage and dealing 50% weapon damage to the enemy. You also inflict stagger and stun for 2s. This skill comes with the Taut Gem Compatible ability. This comes with a 17.7s cooldown.

This ability is very strong. The stun is great as it allows you to let into your enemies with light attacks, often ending the fight right there. The timing can be tricky on some enemies, though, and if you miss it, the 17.7s cooldown can be really brutal. It’s very strong once you master it, so it’s worth picking up.

3. Fleche

Fleche is the second second-row active skill in the Grace skill tree. Do you want to launch yourself at the enemy, spinning through the air like some sort of human bullet? Of course you do! Who wouldn’t? Lunge forward 10m hitting all enemies for 145% weapon damage. This comes at a 19.6s cooldown.

It’s a decent gap closer, and the damage isn’t bad. It’s mostly an average ability. It’s a fair amount of points to fully upgrade, and there are just better rapier skills to pick up. Overall fun, but not amazing. Probably not worth grabbing.

Rapier Build Guide: Bleed Build

The first variation of the rapier build I want to talk about is the Bleed build.

The Attributes

Dexterity is the primary attribute that the rapier scales with, so focus on that first and foremost. It’s largely up to you what second attribute (if any) you wish to focus on. Constitution is always a solid choice, but the rapier is a dodge-focused weapon, so Con is less vital than for other weapons.

The Equipment

You want to make sure your equipment load is light so as to maximize your dodge. This means wearing almost exclusively light armor.

The Skills

You want Tondo as well as Flourish and Finish. You should fully upgrade both to maximize your damage. For the third active skill, you might expect me to recommend Flurry, but actually I would say either Evade or Riposte. You’ll want to dodge around enemies, striking at them with your Tondo and Flourish and Finish combo, doing DOTs and burst damage. You don’t really need a third source of damage on top of that, so either of those two evasive options are solid choice to round out your active skills.

For passive skills, you want to fully upgrade Tondo and Flourish and Finish. Unerring Strike and En Garde are solid picks as well from the Blood skill tree. Desperation, Controlled Breathing, and Perfectionist are good choices from the Grace skill tree if you have the points to spare.

The Capstone

Unsurprisingly, Bloody End is the choice here. The upgrade to damage on Flourish and Finish is too good to pass up.

Rapier Build Guide: Fighting with Grace

The second variation on the rapier build I want to highlight focuses on a more technical style that emphasizes light attacks.

The Attributes and Equipment

The same basic principles apply to this build as the Bleed one, so this section is unchanged from above.

The Skills

This build primarily focuses on using Evade and Riposte to give you openings so you can let into your foes with light attacks. Fully upgrading both will be very strong. As for the third active skill, I actually recommend Flurry from the Blood skill tree. This skill helps with multiple attack synergies. Flurry does not need to be fully upgraded though, as its bleed synergy is irrelevant to this build.

For passive skills, other than the upgrades to Evade and Riposte, I would recommend Desperation, Controlled Breathing, Perfectionist, and Red Curtains from the Grace skill tree. Refreshing Strike from the Blood skill tree is also nice, since you attack a lot in this build.

The Capstone

Momentum is clearly the pick, as your primary source of damage comes from light attacks (and lots of ‘em).

Join the High Ground

There you go, explorer. Assuming you got the “thrust” of this guide you are ready to take a “stab” at the New World with these truly “epee” Rapier builds. Hopefully you “riposte” the link to this article to all your friends! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and subscribe for more content like this.

Happy fencing!

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