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The Bow might be one of the most reliable and versatile weapons in New World. Suited to single-target damage, the Bow excels in PVP, although it can also excel at clearing Expeditions with the right masteries.

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Our preferred build is to pair the Bow with the Hatchet, something we covered in brief in our best build to level up fast guide. For this guide, we'll cover some different weapon pairings and build ideas for the Bow, ranging from glass-cannon PvP builds to excellent leveling builds for PvE.

Updated February 15, 2024, by Sean Murray: It's always better to shoot things before they can swing their axe at you, which is why we've refreshed this bow build guide with our latest formatting changes to be a little easier to read. We've also given it more links to other helpful New World topics for players who are just getting started.

Best Bow Build In New World

New World Sheep hunter (2)

The Bow is incredibly strong, arguably one of the best ranged weapons in the game. It serves as a harder-hitting alternative to the Musket, although you'll have to get used to the Bow's travel time and various abilities. In its current state, the Bow is the perfect weapon for PVP.

To get the most out of your Bow in PvP, we recommend pairing it with the Spear. This is currently one of the most meta builds.

Bow And Spear Build

new world spear

This build essentially relies on the high mobility of the Bow paired with the CC and versatility of the Spear. It's a great PVP build and currently one of the most powerful weapon combinations in the game. We have covered this same build over in our Spear build guide for extra details/clarity around the specific weapons.

Best Skills For The Bow

All the skills for the Bow are pretty viable at the moment, and you should experiment with these as you see fit. Here's a sample skill choice for PvP.

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Evade Shot

  • Description: Leap back 5 m and shoot an arrow, dealing 125% weapon damage.

  • Evasive Knockback: Evade Shot causes 2m of knockback.
  • Go the Distance: Evade Shot grants 15% movement speed for 5 seconds.

Explosive Arrow

  • Description: Fires an arrow that explodes on impact and deals AoE damage

  • Flame Arrow
  • Contained Detonation

Penetrating Shot

  • Description: Shoot an arrow that deals 150% weapon damage and passes through targets.
    • Continues up to 100m.

  • Blood Soaked Arrows: Increases damage by 10% after each hit (caps at 50%).
  • Deep Strike: Penetrating Shot deals 20% more damage to targets 20m or more away.

You also want to pick up these other masteries to fill out your bow build.

  • Evasive Tactics (Skirmisher Tree)
  • Impale (Skirmisher Tree)
  • Mark (Skirmisher Tree)
  • Archer's Speed (Skirmisher Tree)
  • Long Range (Hunter Tree)
  • Finishing Shot (Hunter Tree)
  • Aim True (Hunter Tree)
  • Bullseye (Hunter Tree)
  • Arrow Range (Hunter Tree)

As we already mentioned, it's completely valid to play into the bow's other strengths (Rain of Arrows and Poison Shot are great for OPR and Wars, for example) and experiment with these builds. There is no completely correct answer about what's the best build in the game - that's really up to you and how you play.

Best Masteries For The Spear

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Perforate

  • Description: Stab the target three times, dealing 70% weapon damage with each hit.
    • Enemies have 5% reduced damage absorption when hit by Perforate.

  • Rupturing Strikes: Enemies have 10% reduced damage absorption if they're above 50% HP and hit by Perforate.
  • Impactful Strikes: Landing all three blows will stagger the target.

Vault Kick

  • Description: Use your Spear to vault forward and kick your target, dealing 75% weapon damage.
    • Inflicts a 1.5-second stun.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Taunts the enemy for 2 seconds on hit.

  • Relentless Blows: Deal 20% increased damage for 5 seconds upon hitting a target under 50% HP.
  • Continuous Motion: Reduces other spear cooldowns by 30% on a successful hit.

Sweep

  • Description: Sweep the target's legs, dealing 75% weapon damage and knocking them down.

  • Tenacious Sweep: Sweep cannot be interrupted.
  • Coup de Grace: Light attack during Sweep to follow up with a downward stab that deals 125% weapon damage.

Similarly to the Bow, the Spear is a very versatile weapon, and we do recommend you trying out different abilities to see what fits. We've seen some great builds that go straight into the

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attribute: Dexterity (300+), Constitution (150)
  • Armor: Light

Since both weapons in this build scale with Dexterity, that's the attribute you'll want to invest in. You can put a few points into Constitution once you've hit 300 Dex. Dodging and weaving with the Bow and Spear is crucial. That's why we recommend Light armor for PvP. You can play around with Medium armor builds for PvE if you feel like it's letting you down.

Best Perks

There are a few different perks you can try out, but for PvP a perk like Freedom (reduces stuns, debuffs, etc.) is pretty crucial, especially when things get hectic in Wars or open-world PvP. Make sure to get your weapon perks covered by splitting them between your Bow/Spear/Armor. These are up to you - but you should be able to get perks for each ability. For our build that utilizes Explosive Arrow Shot, you should pick up Empowering Explosive Arrow for its huge Empower boost (33% more outgoing damage for 10 seconds.)

Tips For Playing With The Bow

Here are some general gameplay tips for a Bow build, as well as the attributes and gear you'll want to focus on:

  • A Bow Build is all about taking as little damage as possible. You need to make good use of your Evade and Dodges to reduce incoming damage.
  • Light armor is preferred. That extra mobility with dodge can come in clutch.
  • You want to stack your attributes into Dexterity mostly. You can play around with different attribute builds depending on your secondary weapon, but Dex is what the Bow scales off of.
  • Heavy attacks are actually quite reliable with the Bow, at least if you open up with a heavy attack thanks to a few of the Bow's passives.

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Bow And Hatchet Build

New World hatchet

Our favorite during the early leveling phase has been the Hatchet and Bow, thanks to the movement boost each weapon provides. It cuts down that quest-travel time significantly. The Hatchet might just be one of the best weapons in New World. The Berserk tree just seems so strong.

Best Masteries For The Bow

New World Bow Hatchet Tree

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Evade Shot

  • Description: Leap back 5m and shoot an arrow, dealing 125% weapon damage.

  • Evasive Knockback: Evade Shot causes 2m of knockback.
  • Go the Distance: Evade Shot grants 15% movement speed for 5 seconds.

Poison Shot

  • Description: Fire an arrow that releases a 3m poison cloud that persists for 6 seconds.
    • Poisoned enemies take 10% weapon damage per second for 20 seconds.

  • Infected Arrows: Poison from Poison Shot now deals 12% weapon damage per second.
  • Direct Hit: Poison Shot's arrow now deals 200% more damage.

Penetrating Shot

  • Description: Shoot an arrow that deals 150% weapon damage and passes through targets.
    • Continues up to 100m.

  • Blood Soaked Arrows: Increases damage by 10% after each hit (caps at 50%).
  • Deep Strike: Penetrating Shot deals 20% more damage to targets 20m or more away.

We'll be using a similar setup to our PvP setup, except this configuration trades out Rapid Shot for Penetrating Shot. This ability deals a ton of damage in one hit, and it can pierce through hordes of enemies. Use this when enemies are clumped up, or you need to deal some good initial damage to a tougher opponent.

Best Masteries For The Hatchet

New World Hatchet Tank Build

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Berserk

  • Description: For 12 seconds, deal 20% increased damage.
    • Taunt Gem Compatible: Taunt enemies within 8m for 8 seconds.
    • Swapping weapons ends this ability early.

  • On The Hunt: Move 20% faster while Berserking.
  • Uninterruptible Berserk: While in Berserk, you cannot be staggered or interrupted.

Feral Rush

  • Description: Leap to the target and attack twice.
    • The first hit deals 115% weapon damage.
    • The second hit deals 130% weapon damage.

  • Dispatch: Deal 20% more damage with Feral Rush to targets under 30% HP.
  • Crippling Strikes: If Feral Rush hits a target's back, they'll be immobilized for 2 seconds.

Raging Torrent

  • Description: Attack four times in quick succession, each hit dealing 90% weapon damage.

  • Aggressive Approach: Gain 20% movement speed for 6 seconds when you hit someone with Raging Torrent.
  • Final Blow: Press light attack at the end of the combo to attack a fifth time, dealing 120% weapon damage.

This setup focuses entirely on the Berserker tree. It provides excellent damage, health sustain, and it provides immunity to stuns through Berserk—one of the few ways to gain stagger immunity in New World. Here's why we use each ability:

  • Berserk: This ability does everything you'd ever want. It grants bonus damage, movement speed, periodic healing, and it makes you immune to staggers and interrupts.
  • Feral Rush: Deals some solid damage, roots retreating targets, and helps you close the gap during combat.
  • Raging Torrent: This allows you to alpha-strike certain PvE enemies. Use Feral Rush, then immediately follow up with Raging Torrent. Most targets will drop dead right then and there.

If you'd like to learn more about each Hatchet ability and why this weapon archetype is so powerful, check out our Hatchet guide.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attribute: Strength
  • Armor: Medium

The Hatchet is going to be your main source of damage for this build, so you'll want to spec mostly for Strength. If you do have endgame gear or a ton of points to spare, put your excess attribute points into Dexterity to scale your Bow's damage output.

For armor, medium will provide a great mix of damage and defense. Gear that enhances your skills, critical stats, or provides healing effects is highly recommended.

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Bow And Rapier Build

New World rapier

The Bow and Rapier build is similar to the Hatchet build, but provides even more mobility and burst damage. A fully glass-cannon build, you won't have the sustain of the Berserker tree to keep you alive. There's a fairly high skill ceiling to this build, but its potential damage output is hard to ignore.

Best Masteries For The Bow

New World Bow Build

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Evade Shot

  • Description: Leap back 5m and shoot an arrow, dealing 125% weapon damage.

  • Evasive Knockback: Evade Shot causes 2m of knockback.
  • Go the Distance: Evade Shot grants 15% movement speed for 5 seconds.

Poison Shot

  • Description: Fire an arrow that releases a 3m poison cloud that persists for 6 seconds.
    • Poisoned enemies take 10% weapon damage per second for 20 seconds.

  • Infected Arrows: Poison from Poison Shot now deals 12% weapon damage per second.
  • Direct Hit: Poison Shot's arrow now deals 200% more damage.

Rapid Shot

  • Description: Fire 3 consecutive arrows, the first two dealing 100% weapon damage.
    • The final arrow deals 125% weapon damage and knocks targets back.

  • Rapid Accuracy: If all 3 arrows consecutively hit the same target, Rapid Shot's cooldown is reduced by 50%.
  • Final Blow: The third shot of Rapid Shot deals 25% extra damage.

We'll be using the PvP Bow setup for this build, as the Bow and Rapier are well-suited for 1v1 duels. If you're using this for PvE or hate Rapid Shot, you can replace that skill with Penetrating Shot instead for more burst damage.

Best Masteries For The Rapier

new world rapier tree

Skill

Effect

Recommended Masteries

Tondo

  • Description: Slash targets in a 5m arc, dealing 50% weapon damage while inflicting bleed.
    • Bleed deals 85% weapon damage over 12 seconds. Stacks x3.
    • Stack increments refresh bleed's timer.

  • And Again: Reduces cooldown by 25% upon hitting a target.
  • Heavy Puncture: Heavy attacks extend bleed's duration by 2 seconds, applying to present and future stacks.

Riposte

  • Description: For 1 second, parry an incoming attack, stunning the target for 1.5 seconds.
    • Successful Riposte gives you temporary invulnerability.

  • Insult to Injury: Successful Ripostes cause your attacks to be uninterruptible for 3 seconds.
  • Priority: Successful Riposte stuns reduce all Rapier cooldowns by 20%.

Evade

  • Description: Perform a sidestep, granting invulnerability mid-animation.
    • Light attacks during Evade are exceptionally quick.

  • Allegro: Gain 20% movement speed for 3 seconds on use.
  • Adagio: Evading forward grants 15% increased damage on your next light attack. Ends on hit or after 1 second.

Some active skills to consider for the Rapier include Tondo, for Bleed damage, and Riposte, for CC. The Evade skill with the Rapier pairs nicely with the Bow's Evade Shot. You'll basically be jumping and zipping all over the place, but if you get caught, you're probably dead.

Best Attributes And Gear

  • Attribute: Dexterity
  • Armor: Light

Both weapons scale with Dexterity, so you'll want to invest in Dex as much as you can. For armor, light will provide a solid damage increase and access to the best dodge in the game. Of course, if you'd prefer to take a few more hits before dying, medium also works. Gear that enhances your bleeds and reduces critical damage taken is highly recommended.

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New World: Complete Guide And Walkthrough
This guide hub for New World includes links to the best builds in the game, the best weapons, and other general news and updates.