The best New World hatchet build for PvP and PvE

The most powerful skills and weapon combinations for the hatchet in New World

Looking for the best New World hatchet builds? Amazon’s new game moves away from the traditional class system found in other MMOs – instead, you have two slots to equip any New World weapon you like, which you can swap between at any time to rack up weapon experience points for every foe you defeat.

As you level up your weapons, you assign mastery points, unlocking powerful abilities and buffs to increase your potency on the battlefield. Each weapon also scales off particular attributes like strength or intelligence, so working out a combination that synergises well is important. The hatchet scales primarily off strength, but also dexterity – this means there’s plenty of flexibility when it comes to customising a New World hatchet build.

The hatchet is a particularly formidable weapon due to the Berserk ability, which grants you a substantial attack damage boost, and can be upgraded to increase your movement speed, give you massive health regeneration, and grant immunity to crowd control. Here you’ll find the best New World hatchet builds for PvP and PvE, but we also have some for other weapons. For example, melee users can check out the best New World rapier builds, the best New World great axe builds, and the best New World tank builds. For magic users, check out the best New World fire staff builds.

The best New World hatchet PvP build

The best PvP build for the hatchet is hatchet and great axe. This is a highly mobile, close-range build that enables you to hunt down your foes. It’s also an easy build to play in combat without many skills that require precision.

We recommend wearing medium armour for this build, as this offers a good combination of damage resistance and mobility. Specifically, equip heavy head/chest, medium gloves/boots, and light pants to get the most resistance possible. However, light armour is also an option, as the 20% damage buff it grants also applies to the healing from your Berserk skill. The dodge roll granted by light armour isn’t too important as this build has plenty of mobility without it.

For attributes, you should focus on strength, as all the bonuses up to 300 are helpful. As you’re using the great axe, it’s better to put points into strength rather than dexterity. You should also put plenty of points into constitution to improve your survivability in PvP. Ensure you have your constitution above 50 before increasing strength above 50. We’ve used the New World fans build tool to put together the following build graphics

The abilities we recommend taking for the hatchet tree are:

  • Feral Rush – which enables you to close gaps easily as you leap forward and perform two hits on your foe. Fully upgrade this ability when possible.
  • Berserk – which – as mentioned above – increases your attack damage by 20% and lasts for 15 seconds. Unlock all the additional passive abilities for this skill as soon as possible, as they are particularly powerful.
  • Social Distancing – this ability throws an axe forward as you dodge backwards, dealing 120% weapon damage and slowing targets by 15% for three seconds. This is a great way to keep players where you want them. You will also take both upgrades to this skill as you level up.

For the great axe, we recommend:

  • Reap – which pulls enemies toward you from a range of five metres, increasing to eight metres when upgraded. You can use this to pull enemies into your gravity well.
  • Charge – allows you to charge uninterrupted for ten metres toward a target.
  • Gravity Well – throw your axe and create a vortex pulling enemies in and then deal damage to them – excellent in large scale combat.

The best New World hatchet PvE build

The above combination, hatchet and great axe, is also a formidable PvE loadout. However, if you’re looking for something a little different, we recommend hatchet and bow. This build mainly focuses on the bow as the main weapon for its ranged utility and uses the hatchet to heal, and deal with foes that get too close.

For this build, you should focus on building dexterity as it boosts the damage output of both your weapons. We recommend you put at least 50 points into constitution, too. A light armour loadout is beneficial here as you will be dodging and evading frequently.

The abilities we recommend taking for the hatchet tree are:

  • Berserk – it’s too good to ignore, and after adding the passive that heals you when exiting, can be activated and exited immediately to give you a chunk of health in a pinch.
  • Feral Rush – to deal with melee enemies who are closing in on you. You jump forward and hit them twice. If you’re playing with a group – specifically a tank who can pull aggro from you – this can also be substituted for Rending Throw, which reduces enemies’ damage absorption for ten seconds.
  • Raging Torrent – which deals four fast attacks at 90% weapon damage each, to burst down foes who get close.

For the bow, take the following skills:

  • Poison Shot – surrounds the enemy with a poison cloud that deals damage over time.
  • Rain of Arrows – hits foes in a seven-metre wide area, and can be upgraded to include a bleed debuff.
  • Penetrating Shot – deals increased weapon damage and passes through targets, continuing for 100 metres.

That’s everything you need to know about the best hatchet builds in New World – for more tips, check our New World PvP guide, how to get Iron in New World, and our New World leveling guide.