Best New World Bow Builds for PvP and PvE

In this guide, we will be discussing New World Best Bow Builds. The Bow is a very powerful weapon, able to deal quite some damage from afar. It also relies on taking as little damage as possible, because you won’t have a lot of protection and will be using light armor.

For ranged encounters (Both PvP & PvE), the bow is a formidable weapon. And if you pick the bow and skills that we tell you to, you’ll have possibly one of the best builds to take into PvP and PvE.

Bow Attribute Scaling

The main attribute we will be focusing on for our Bow builds will be Dexterity as it directly affects bows, rapiers, spears, and hatchets, all of which will be talked about in different builds within this guide.

Best Bow Perks

Just like other weapons, Bow skills also have their corresponding perks that you can find on weapons and armor. Having the following desired perks on your gear can drastically improve the performance of your Bow builds

Energizing Evade Shot: you gain Stamina after hitting an enemy with Evade Shot

Fortifying Rain of Arrows: adds survivability by granting you Fortify when hitting enemies with Rain of Arrows

Penetrating Rapid Shot: increases the armor penetration of the final arrow from the Rapid Shot volley

Best Bow Weapon Combinations

The Bow is a weapon best suited for ranged encounters and for damaging opponents before they have a chance to close in on your position. But once they get closer to you then it becomes less feasible and a secondary reliable weapon is needed.

For that purpose, we suggest the following weapons as they complement the Bow well and share the same attribute as well.

Spear
Rapier
Musket
Hatchet

Strengths and Weaknesses

As we’ve mentioned above, the bow excels at ranged encounters and is one of the best weapons for keeping enemies at bay and dealing both weapon damage and stagger them as well.

But once the enemy gets closer to you, then the bow becomes difficult to maneuver and the need for a good melee weapon arises. This is the bow’s only weakness.

Bow Spear PvP Build

This build focuses entirely on PvP and will allow you to have excellent ranged and melee stats. We will be using a spear alongside the bow to help you deal decent damage at close range.

Best Bow Masteries

Evade Shot

Leap back 5 meters after shooting an arrow that deals 125% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Evasive Knockback: Evade Shot Causes Knockback of 2 meters.
Go the Distance: Evade Shot lets you move 15% faster with Haste for 5 seconds.

Penetrating Shot

Shoot an arrow that deals 150% weapon damage as it passes through targets and travels 100m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Blood Soaked Arrow: Your maximum damage increases by 10% after every hit.
Deep Strike: Penetrating shot will deal 20% more damage to targets that are at a distance of 20m or above.
Concussion: You will inflict 20% more damage on headshots.

Poison Shot

Shoot an area that creates a 3m wide poison cloud for 6 seconds which deals 10% weapon damage per second to enemies for 20 seconds.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Infected Arrows: Poison Shot arrows now do 12% weapon damage per second for 20 seconds.
Direct Hit: Directly hitting enemies with Poison Shot now deals 150% more weapon damage.

General Passives to Unlock

Evasive Tactics: Deal 20% more damage for the next 5 seconds.
Dodge and Weave: Gain 10% Haste for 2 seconds after dodging.
Long Range: Deal 20% more damage to foes that are 10 meters away or more.
Aim True: Heavy attack arrows fly faster and inflict 30% more damage.
Archer’s Speed: Gain 10% Haste for 5 seconds whenever you switch to your bow.
Mark: Deal 10% more damage to foes that have an active debuff.
Surprise Attack: Deal 20% extra damage if you haven’t damaged the foe in the last 10 seconds.
Opening Strike: Heavy Attacks deal 20% more damage to foes that have 100% health.
Finishing Shot: Deal 20% more damage to targets with 50% or lower health.
Arrow Range: Increased range at which the arrow starts to get affected by gravity by 100%.
Bullseye: Increase the Crit chance for bows by 10%.

Best Spear Masteries

Sweep

The enemies will be knocked down and swept from their feet with this active skill. They’ll receive 75% weapon damage.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Tenacious Sweep: GRIT will be active during the attacks.

Vault Kick

This skill will allow you to jump using your spear and kick a target. The target will receive 75% weapon damage and they’ll be stunned for 1.5 seconds.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Relentless Blows: targets having less than 50% health will receive 20% more damage for 5 seconds.
Continuous Motion: cooldown for your spear will be reduced by 30% after a successful hit.

Perforate

This active skill allows you to pierce the enemies three times in a row, with each strike dealing 70% weapon damage to the enemy. The enemy’s damage absorption will be reduced by 5% for ten seconds.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Rupturing Strikes: Rend will be increased by 10% for each strike. This is only for enemies that have more than 50% health remaining.
Impactful Strikes: you’ll stagger an enemy once all three strikes have been landed successfully.

General Passives to Unlock

Deadly Reach: Critical Chance is increased by 10% when attacking an enemy that is at least 3m away.
Refreshing Reach: Successful heavy attacks reduce all spear cooldowns by 15%.
Evasive Maneuvers: if you dodge an attack backward your stamina consumption would be 20% less. This skill stacks for 2 seconds after successful hits.
Defensive Stance: Gain Fortify after successful heavy attacks.
Merciless Strength: knocked down targets will receive 25% more damage.
Invigorating Crits: Restore 20 stamina on each critical strike.
Aggressive Maneuvers: spear cooldown time will be reduced by 20% after a successful hit. However, this only lasts for 2 seconds.
Finishing Blows: Deal 50% more damage against enemies that are below 30% health.
Exposed Wounds: Crit chance increases by 15% when hitting a bleeding target.
Exploited Weakness: Deal 10% extra damage for each debuff active on your enemy.

Attributes

You are going to dump almost all of your point into Dexterity for this build. A few points can be thrown into Constitution to increase your overall health aswell.

Dexterity: 115
Constitution: 85
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 5
Focus: 5

Recommended Armor

Unholy Silence of the Ranger Mask
Harbinger of Dusk
Harbinger of Destruction
Voidbent Leggings
Voidbent Boots
Amulet of Seven Seasons
Featherweight Ring
Reflected Mayhem

Bow Spear PvE Build

With this Spear/Bow build, you can easily partake in any kind of solo or group-based PvE activity. Be in an expedition, solo venturing, or just completing side quests in general.

The bow allows you to deal with weaker enemies from a distance before starting the battle and the Spear provides excellent balance when you need to engage enemies at a close range.

Best Bow Masteries

Poison Shot

You can shoot a poison arrow which will deal 50% weapon damage It will also create a 3m poison cloud radius for 6 seconds that will deal 10% additional damage.

Passive Skills to unlock in Order

Infected Arrows: With this poison, shots will do 12% weapon damage for 20 seconds.
Direct Hit: Direct hit will now do 150% weapon damage.

Rapid Shot

If you shoot three consecutive arrows the first two will deal 100% damage and the last one will deal 125% damage.

Passive Skill to unlock in Order

Rapid Accuracy: If all arrows hit the target then cooldown is reduced by 50%
Final Blow: The third arrow will deal 25% extra damage with this skill.

Penetrating Shot

This arrow has a range of 100% and deals 150% weapon damage to the target.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Blood Soaked Arrow: The damage is increased by 10% with each shot.
Deep Strike: In this 20% more damage is done to the target.

General Passives

Impale: This will inflict a sow of 10% to an enemy with full health for 2 seconds.
Dodge and Weave: After dodging you will get 10% haste for 2 seconds.
Mark: Enemies suffering from debuff get 10% more damage.
Archer Speed: After swapping to your bow you will get 10% haste for 5 seconds.
Long Range: Enemies 20m or move away gets 20% more damage.
Finishing Shot: Targets below 50% health get 20% more damage.
Surprise Attack: If you haven’t damaged a foe in the last 10 seconds it will deal 20 % more damage.
Aim True: Your arrows will fly faster and do 30% more damage.
Arrow Range: This will increase the distance that arrow travel by 100% before getting affected by gravity.
Opening Strike: The enemies with 100% health get 20% more damage.

Best Spear Masteries

Vault Kick

This skill will allow you to jump using your spear and kick a target. The target will receive 75% weapon damage and they’ll be stunned for 1.5 seconds.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Relentless Blows: targets having less than 50% health will receive 20% more damage for 5 seconds.
Continuous Motion: cooldown for your spear will be reduced by 30% after a successful hit.

Perforate

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Rupturing Strikes: Rend will be increased by 10% for each strike. This is only for enemies that have more than 50% health remaining.
Impactful Strikes: you’ll stagger an enemy once all three strikes have been landed successfully.

Sweep

The enemies will be knocked down and swept from their feet with this active skill. They’ll receive 75% weapon damage.

Passive Skills to Unlock in Order

Tenacious Sweep: GRIT will be active during the attacks.
Coup de Grace: your basic attacks will be followed by a downward stab that will deal the enemies 125% weapon damage.

General Passives

Evasive Maneuvers: if you dodge an attack backward your stamina consumption would be 20% less. This skill stacks for 2 seconds after successful hits.
Merciless Strength: knocked down targets will receive 25% more damage.
Strong Conditioning: if your stamina drops below 50%, it will be replenished by 50%
Strength: if your stamina is fully replenished your attacks will be 25% Reserved more damaging
Finishing Blows: enemies having less than 30% health will receive 15% more damage
Unerring Precision: enemies with active GRIT will receive 20% more damage
Exacerbating Crits: spear debuff duration will be extended with each critical hit
Aggressive Maneuvers: spear cooldown time will be reduced by 20% after a successful hit. However, this only lasts for 2 seconds.
Refreshing Jabs: spear cooldown is reduced by 10%

Attribute Distribution

You need to balance your attribute points between Dexterity and Constitution. Make sure that majority of the points are spent towards Dexterity and some are thrown into Constitution as well.

Dexterity: 130
Constitution: 70
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 5
Focus: 5

Recommended Armor

Primeval Omega Light Helm of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Medium Chest of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Light Gloves of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Light Leggings of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Medium Boots of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Amulet of the Ranger
Primeval Omega Earring of the Ranger
The Dragonfly.

Bow Rapier Duelist PvP Build

This Bow build lets you inflict around 2500 or more damage from afar with a bow and the Grace-focused Rapier to annihilate enemies up-close. The Rapier will also help you gain a lot of agility with movement buffing passives.

Best Bow Masteries

Evade Shot

Leap back 5 meters after shooting an arrow that deals 125% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Evasive Knockback: Evade Shot Causes Knockback of 2 meters.
Go the Distance: Evade Shot lets you move 15% faster with Haste for 5 seconds.

Poison Shot

Shoot an area that creates a 3m wide poison cloud for 6 seconds which deals 10% weapon damage per second to enemies for 20 seconds.

Penetrating Shot

Shoot an arrow that deals 150% weapon damage as it passes through targets and travels 100m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Blood Soaked Arrow: Your maximum damage increases by 10% after every hit.
Deep Strike: Penetrating shot will deal 20% more damage to targets that are at a distance of 20m or above.
Concussion: You will inflict 20% more damage on headshots.

General Passives to Unlock

Evasive Tactics: Deal 20% more damage for the next 5 seconds.
Dodge and Weave: Gain 10% Haste for 2 seconds after dodging.
Long Range: Deal 20% more damage to foes that are 10 meters away or more.
Aim True: Heavy attack arrows fly faster and inflict 30% more damage.
Hunters Insight: Regain 5% stamina after hitting a foe with a debuff.
Archer’s Speed: Gain 10% Haste for 5 seconds whenever you switch to your bow.
Finishing Shot: Deal 20% more damage to targets with 50% or lower health.
Unbreakable Focus: While aiming, receive 10% less damage.
Arrow Range: Increased range at which the arrow starts to get affected by gravity by 100%.
Bullseye: Increase the Crit chance for bows by 10%.
Hawkeye: Heal yourself by 10% every time you land a headshot.

Best Rapier Masteries

Evade

Perform a sidestep in the direction you are moving which cancels any animation and lets you inflict light attacks very quickly.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Breath In: Gain 20% Stamina.
Allegro: Gain 20% movement speed for 3 seconds.
Adagio: Evade forward with 15% weapon damage which lasts for 1 second or until your attack hits the enemy.
Crescendo: Successful light attacks reduce ability cooldown by 30%.

Riposte

Enter a defensive stance that lasts for 1 second and lets you counter-attack and stun the enemy for 1.5 seconds if you are struck in that duration.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Insult to Injury: Your attracts become uninterruptable for 3 seconds on every successful Riposte.
Priority: Cooldown for Rapier abilities is reduced by 20% when landing a Riposte Stun.
Lasting Consequence: Riposte’s stun is increased to 2 seconds.

Fleche

Lunge forward to a distance of 5 meters and stab enemies to deal 145% weapon damage.

General Passives to Unlock

Momentum: Gain 25% increased damage on your next attack after you perform an ability.
Engarde: Deal 10% more damage if the enemy has more than 50 health.
Light Edge: Increase the damage for middle swipe light attacks by 8%.
Unerring: Deal 5% more damage to targets with a Rapier bleed.
Desperation: Deal 10% more damage when your stamina is below 40%.
Controlled Breathing: +3 stamina on any hit.
Perfectionist: Deal 10% more damage when your health is full.
Red Curtain: Reduce all cooldowns by 5% after critical strikes.
Swiftness: Gain 3% Haste for 4 seconds after any hit which can be stacked up to 5 times.

Recommended Armor

We suggest using the following gear pieces with the Bow and Rapier Build:

Reinforced Syndicate Scrivener Headwear of the priest
Reinforced Syndicate Scrivener of the Brigand
Reinforced Syndicate Scrivener Hand covers of the priest
Reinforced Syndicate Scrivener Leggings of the Priest
Reinforced Syndicate Scrivener Footwear of the Priest

If you can’t get EXACTLY this, just make sure you’ve got something that helps increase your dexterity. Having a full set of armor with the right bonuses can amp up your damage considerably.

Bow Hatchet PvE Build

This build allows you to become a deadly hit & run solo player with a lot of DPS potential. Your secondary weapon for this build will be the Hatchet as it allows you to output an insane amount of damage while keeping your mobility high.

Best Bow Masteries

Penetrating Shot

Shoot an arrow that deals 150% weapon damage as it passes through targets and travels 100m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Blood-Soaked Arrow: Your maximum damage increases by 10% after every hit.
Deep Strike: Penetrating shot will deal 20% more damage to targets that are at a distance of 20m or above.
Concussion: You will inflict 20% more damage on headshots.

Rain of Arrows

Shoot a barrage of arrows that is 7 meters wide and deals 150% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Barbed Arrows: Rain of Arrows causes bleeding and 85% weapon damage for 12 seconds.

Rapid Shot

Shoot 3 consecutive arrows where the first 2 deal 100% weapon damage and the last arrow deals 125% weapon damage as well as causes knockback.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Rapid Accuracy: Rapid Shot’s cooldown will reduce by 50% if all 3 arrows hit the same target.
Final Blow: Deal 25% extra damage with the 3^rd arrow of Rapid Shot.

General Passives

Evasive Tactics: Deal 20% more damage for the next 5 seconds after a successful dodge.
Closing In: Reduce bow ability recharge by 5% when hitting an enemy with 50% or lesser health.
Dodge and Weave: Gain 10% Haste for 2 seconds after dodging
Archer’s Speed: Gain 10% Haste for 5 seconds whenever you switch to your bow.
Mark: Deal 10% more damage to foes suffering from a debuff.
Long Range: Deal 20% more damage to foes that are 10 meters away or more.
Finishing Shot: Deal 20% more damage to targets with 50% or lower health.
Aim True: Heavy Attacks deal 30% more damage and fly faster.
Opening Strike: Heavy attacks deal 20% more damage to foes with 100% health.
Bullseye: Increase the Crit chance for bows by 10%.
Concussion: Nailing headshots allows you to deal 20% more damage.

Best Hatchet Masteries

Berserk

Triggers a Berserk Mode that increases all attack damage by 20% while active. Berserk Mode will be active for 12 seconds.

Passives to Unlock in Order

On the Hunt: Increase movement speed by 20% while using Berserk mode.
Berserking Refresh: Gain a portion of your health back after every 4 seconds to a maximum of 30%.
Berserking Purge: Triggering Berserk removes all crowd control debuffs from the player.
Uninterruptable Berserk: In Berserk Mode, your attacks will be uninterruptible.

Raging Torrent

It will perform four fast attacks each dealing 90% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Aggressive Approach: Increase movement speed by 20% for 6 seconds.
Final Blow: Hitting the enemy with a light attack after Raging Torrent inflicts 120% weapon damage.

Rending Throw

Hurl an ax towards the enemy that deals 110% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Targeted Impact: Rend damage increased by 8% if the enemy is more than 8 meters away.
Opportunistic: Deal 20% additional damage if the target has any active debuffs.
Second Wind: Reduce cooldown by 20% if the target has any active debuffs.

General Passives

Defy Death: After receiving lethal damage, you gain immortality for 3 seconds and avoid death reduced to 50 HP.
Enraged Strikes: Light & Heavy attacks deal 20% more damage if the target is below 30% health.
Accumulated Power: Gain Empower for 3 seconds after 3 successful light attacks against the same target.
Against All Odds: Increase damage to all enemies by 10% for every enemy within 5 meters of the player’s position.
Fortifying Strikes: Gain Fortify for 3 seconds after 3 successful light attacks against the same target.
Critical Throw: Thrown axes can trigger crit shots or headshots.
Exploitation: All attacks deal 15% more damage to enemies with an active debuff.

Recommended Armor

We suggest using any Light Armor set with mobility buffs for this build. If you are good at dodging and rolling then, surviving with light armor should not be a problem for you.

Since you’ll be investing most of your points into dexterity, it’ll be wise to have a few gear pieces on that can grant you some extra strength to add to your hatchet’s overall damage.