New World Improves Combat And Adds A New Weapon And Shield In The Latest Alpha Update

The latest New World Alpha update, called Forge and Fury, which features the addition of the Legion-style Tower Shield and Great Axes. The Great Axe is a two-handed melee weapons that allow for large, sweeping attacks. The new weapon comes with two new Mastery trees: Maruader, which focuses on high-damage and multi-hit abilities; and Reaper, which focuses on escape prevention and crowd control.

The update also introduces significant changes to combat based on Amazon’s three design pillars for the combat system: skill-based and action-oriented, visceral and high-impact, and depth of system and builds. “We want to encourage creativity within the system to find the build that is right for you and your particular playstyle,” explains the devs. “Our goal is to design and tune the system to reward a wide range of builds and strategies.”

To that end, the developers have removed the stunlock effect of both heavy and light basic attacks and have added the ability to chain 2-3 light attacks together depending on the weapon used. The chain will be followed by a short pause before it repeats. According to the devs, this should add a more natural rhythm to combat as opposed to an endless barrage of attacks. The global cooldown for skills has also been removed and weapon switching has been sped up to allow for faster and more fluid combat.

Amazon says that they’re also constantly working to improve other aspects of combat including weapon balance, hit box detection, healing, and will be making it easier for ranged players to hit targets even when their target is engaged in melee combat with an ally.

PvP Duels, one of the most requested features, has also been added. Duels can be initiated by players level 10 and above when outside Settlements and when there’s now War or Invasion going on. Duels can be fought solo or with up to 5 players per side.

You can browse through the full patch notes on the New World official site.