New World Combat Mechanics and Recommendations

New World live. In this blog I, RAKCUS, will try to share all the information I have gathered on the actual combat in the game as well as give recommendations on how to excel when your time on Aeternum comes.

Combat Mechanics

This is all the information I have gathered as of the June Part 1 Alpha Update

• Melee weapon attacks cause a stun on every hit and to breakout you must time your dodge or block to stop the chain of crowd control(CC). Chaining CC is known as stun locking. The window to dodge or block weapon light attacks stun locking is less than a second.
• Roll and movement speed is determined by armor (light, medium, heavy) and inventory weight at overload capacity.

• Taking hits while blocking reduces stamina. Running out of stamina while blocking breaks your block (called block break or BB) causing you to not be able to roll or block for 3s after which your stamina will regenerate(regen) to full after 3s. You cannot block with zero stamina, Stamina won't regen when blocking. Stamina regens 1s after releasing block, stamina can regen when attacking. Default stamina regen rate: 20/s.

• Rolling gives space and lets you dodge opponent, uses stamina. Heavier players will roll a shorter distance.

• Can jump, prone, sheathe during combat or leap leappable objects. Can use abilities from these states.
• All weapons and abilities require aiming (abilities and weapons range must be learned).

• 4 possible consumables (some over time, some instant).

• 2 possible weapons (3 possible abilities each).

• Bows and Muskets consume ammo.

• Health, Mana (for relevant weapons), Stamina resource bars.

• Some weapons have no mana requirements.

• Abilities have different cooldowns.

• Stats affect combat.

• Weapons have different light and heavy attack timers and range.

• Debuffs and buffs exist and ways to cleanse them.

• Sprint- Can't sprint for 1.5s after the beginning of an outgoing attack or 2.0s after you are hit by an incoming melee attack.

• Third person view or First person view
• Homing makes some melee weapons attacks direct the player slightly towards the target.

These are filled in and expanded on as more details are revealed.

Skill Requirements

These are things to consider and work on to thrive in New World combat as recommended by User:RAKCUS.

1. Timing- getting out of light attack combos and avoiding being stun locked requires you to roll or block in a small window. To chain your own crowd control you will have to use abilities and attacks at the right time in the right order. If you are healing (probably with a life staff) you will have to time your heals to match the potential damage your party will take.
2. Aiming- Weapon attacks and abilities in New World have a limited hit box or range and must be used precisely to actually hit your opponent.
3. Learning- to use your own weapon and to counter others, you will need to learn weapon attack ranges and weapon attack skills. No matter the type of combat, PvP or PvE, knowing how to maximize damage, heals, or knowing how to tank properly will help to overcome any challenge. Knowing what Consumables to use or what another player is using can also be a way to gain an advantage.
4. Managing- Stamina, Health, Consumable, Mana, Ammo must all be considered. Make sure you are stacked up on ammo if you are a musket or bow user.
5. Acquiring- stats do not play an all important role in New World since the game is designed to give everyone a chance against another player but if the difference is too great it might be time to start searching for some better equipment. You will also need the practice to train your instincts.

External factors

These are things that affect the game that are not explicitly stated

• DPI- your mouse sensitivity or DPI can affect your ability to aim and rotate your camera. Configure and practice with a setting to become more adept with it.
• Settings- the game settings can make it hard to see or hear different cues that are important for combat. Make sure you are getting all the information you can. Some players might even want to configure their key bindings to suit them.
• Ping- this is a measure of your connection to the server with lower Ping being more ideal to react quicker since you will get visual and audio cues faster. Depending on your location from the server of your choice, this will most likely determine your ping unless you have other bandwidth problems.
• FPS- or frames per second means your game will be more responsive. The higher your FPS, the better. The max FPS you can run your game on depends mostly on your GPU. Turning down video settings can improve FPS. FPS somewhere near your screen's refresh rate is ideal.
• Refresh rate- your screen's refresh rate will determine how often the image you see is refreshed and can enable faster reaction. 144Hertz is the standard for most pro gamers.

Recommendations

At this time the game is still in Alpha state and there is no telling what build will come out on top when the game actually goes live, Given this I will not be recommending any builds. Head on over to the Experience page to choose what you will do to level up and acquire gear. I will however recommend hardware and things to do to practice the skills required to be a top combatant in New World.

Hardware

• Monitor- 144 or more hertz. Visit PCPartPicker.com/products/monitor to find a potential monitor.
• GPU- Geforce RTX 3060 or Visit videocardbenchmark.net to find one at your price range.
• Ram- At least 16GB especially if you will have programs running while playing.
• Cooling- You will need adequate cooling for long sessions.
• CPU- www.cpubenchmark.net and chose a CPU at the right price and performance.

Practice

• Clicking- clicking practice will help both timing and accuracy to get headshots and time your weapon combos. www.Aiming.pro
• Typing- you will need to hit the right key quickly and accurately to dodge and to use skills and consumables. www.typeracer.com
• Learn- Use the New World Fandom to learn about weapon skills. consumables, and other things that will help in combat. Ser Medieval on youtube also provides informative New World content. And watch this video for some exciting New World action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UguiNuH0r_U
• Play- New World's combat was inspired by Dark Souls so maybe try playing it and make sure to practice in New World when its released to have the edge.