Best New World Great Axe Builds for PvP and PvE

During the open beta of New World, many players were rocking the Great Axe weapon due to its heavy damage, good CC, and ability to pull enemies closer to you. Now that the game is finally out, we will be showing you the New World Best Great Axe Builds in this guide.

Great Axe Attribute Scaling

Great Axe users should primarily focus on Strength as the Great Axe scales with the Strength attribute only. It will greatly help you increase damage output.

Moreover, Constitution can be a good secondary attribute to put points in. This gives you a great health pool to compliment the self-healing abilities of the Great Axe

At 50 Strength breakpoint, the increase in your damage will be 5% whereas it will rise to a value of 10% at 100 Strength breakpoint.

Best Great Axe Weapon Combinations

Great Axe best pairs with weapons that are good at mobility and crowd control. Here are the weapons with which Great Axe combines to provide you with the best effect.

Hatchet
Warhammer
Life Staff
Spear

Best Great Axe Perks

While the builds for Great Axe we have suggested are already pretty good on their own, if you manage to get the following perks on weapons and armor then your Great Axe skills will become even more devastating

Mending Execute: killing enemies with Execute heals the player for a percentage. This is extremely useful while levelling

Insatiable Gravity Well: grants damage leech to Gravity Well and triggers a second damaging burst on a successful hit.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Here are some of the strengths and weaknesses that you should know before opting for the Great Axe in New World.

Strengths

High Mobility from Charge and Blood Lust
Self-Healing
Basic Attacks can easily target more than one enemy
Longer reach while making basic attacks
Strong Slow with Gravity
Strong against Angry Earth

Weaknesses

Melee
Offers slow attacks that can be interrupted without Grit
Cooldowns take too much time
Limited crowd control
Damage and healing are conditional
Not much strong against Ancients

Great Axe and Warhammer PvP Build

The best build for Great Axe in PvP mode involves pairing it with the Warhammer. With this, you can ram in player enemies and then cause devastating damage with the Warhammer.

Best Great Axe Masteries

Charge

Charge for 10m and deal 120% damage. Press LMB to stop charging and attack early. This ability has Grit which prevents you from getting staggered by incoming attacks.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Frenzied Momentum: Charge now deals 120-140% damage depending on how far you travelled.
Unpredictable Strike: While charging, you can press RMB to execute a swing attack dealing 140-165% damage depending on how much you travelled.

Malestrom

Perform a spinning attack that pulls targets closer to you and causes 110% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Storm’s Reach: Extends Malestrom’s pull range by 50%.
Absorb: Consumes all projectiles while Malestrom is active.
No Reprieve: Malestrom performs another spinning attack causing 110% weapon damage.

Gravity Well

Throw an axe to create a vortex that pulls enemies to its centre for 3s. Ends with a damaging Burst dealing 12% weapon damage. The range of this ability is 10m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Crowded Well: Increases burst damage by 10 for each enemy caught in the vortex.

General Passives to Unlock

Critical Gains: When you make a critical hit with a Great Axe, heal yourself for 10% of the damage done.
Frustration: After one of your attacks is blocked, gain 15% damage for 10s.
Keen Edge: Critical damage increased by 10%.
Feed: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health, heal you for 10% of damage done.
Critical Condition: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health: critical 15% more often.
Death’s Embrace: Great Axe attacks against foes below 50% health: penetrate armor by 10%.
Greed: Light attacks with your Great Axe give you 5% damage for 5s.
Crowded Protection: While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage absorption when 3 or more foes are within 4m.
Center of Attention: While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage when 3 or more foes are within 4m.

Best Warhammer Masteries

Wrecking Ball

Hit the ground with your Warhammer to deal 130% damage and flattening your target.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Safety Measures: On every successful hit, you can get fortify rewarding you with 20% damage resistance for 7 seconds.
Breathing Room: All targets within 1.5m of target hit are flattened.

Shockwave

Hit the ground with Warhammer to cause an earthquake over a 3m radius and dealing 80% weapon damage. It also stuns enemies for 2 seconds.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Frailty: The trauma of attack weakens causing damage dealt from enemy to reduce by 10% for 10 seconds.
Meteoric Crater: Expands the range of Shockwave over 4m radius.

Path of Destiny

A powerful strike on the ground causing 110% weapon damage to all targets in its path.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Seismic Waves: Path of Destiny now staggers all targets in its Path.
Stimulated Reduction: Ability to cooldown reduces by 5% for each enemy hit with Path of Destiny.

General Passives to Unlock

Epitome of Bonk: Each Warhammer attack, weapon penetration increases by 10%. There are no passives to unlock.
Hammer Time: Increases the damage by 20% for 4 seconds by empowering your heavy attacks.
Contemption: Increases the damage by 15% against targets under 30% health.
Power through Pain: Deal 35% extra damage for 1 seconds after taking damage.
Outnumbered: Increases damage absorption by 10% when surrounded by 2 or more enemies within 3m range.
Facilitated Expedition: Gain haste by hitting a target with active debuff to increase movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds.
Concussive Impact: Deal 15% more damage against taregts afeected by Warhammer debuff.
Prevailing Spirit: Regain 35% of damage taken as health when using Crowd Crusher ability.

Great Axe and Warhammer PvE Build

With this build, you can taunt enemies closer to you and then spam your AoE abilities to deal with mobs. You also have a selfheal in case things get dicey.

Best Great Axe Masteries

Reap

Extend your axe 5m pulling foes to you and dealing 110% weapon damage. Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your great axe, this ability causes a 4s taunt when it hits.

Passives to Unlock in Order

The Collector: Reap range is now 8m.
Hunger: Heal yourself for 30% of damage done by Reap.
Fatal Attraction: After you pull, do a spin attack dealing 115% weapon damage.
Blood Lust: You move 30% faster and deal 15% more damage when looking at a foe within 15m.

Gravity Well

Throw an axe to create a vortex that pulls foes to its center for 3s. Ends with a damaging Burst dealing 12% weapon damage. Range 10m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Crowded Well: Increase burst damage by 10 for each foe caught in the vortex.
Unyielding: Allies gain 10% Fortify which reduces your damage while standing in your well.

General Passives to Unlock

Critical Gains: When you make a critical hit with a Great Axe, heal yourself for 10% of the damage done.
Frustration: After one of your attacks is blocked, gain 15% damage for 10s.
Keen Edge: Critical damage increased by 10%.
Feed: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health, heal you for 10% of damage done.
Critical Condition: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health: critical 15% more often.
Death’s Embrace: Great Axe attacks against foes below 50% health: penetrate armor by 10%.
Heavy Pull: Heavy attacks with a Great Axe pull foes closer to you.
Crowded Protection: While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage absorption when 3 or more foes are within 4m.
Enduring Strike: Adds Grit to Great Axe Heavy Attacks and grants a 20% damage reduction while the Heavy attack Grit is active.
Gravity: After you cause a pull, your foe is held still 30% longer.

Best Warhammer Masteries

Wrecking Ball

Hit the ground with your Warhammer to deal 130% damage and flattening your target.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Safety Measures: On every successful hit, you can get fortify rewarding you with 20% damage resistance for 7 seconds.
Breathing Room: All targets within 1.5m of target hit are flattened.

Shockwave

Hit the ground with Warhammer to cause an earthquake over a 3m radius and dealing 80% weapon damage. It also stuns enemies for 2 seconds.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Frailty: The trauma of attack weakens causing damage dealt from enemy to reduce by 10% for 10 seconds.
Meteoric Crater: Expands the range of Shockwave over 4m radius.

Path of Destiny

A powerful strike on the ground causing 110% weapon damage to all targets in its path.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Seismic Waves: Path of Destiny now staggers all targets in its Path.
Stimulated Reduction: Ability to cooldown reduces by 5% for each enemy hit with Path of Destiny.

General Passives to Unlock

Hammer Time: Increases the damage by 20% for 4 seconds by empowering your heavy attacks.
Contemption: Increases the damage by 15% against targets under 30% health.
Power through Pain: Deal 35% extra damage for 1 seconds after taking damage.
Quick Recovery: Heavy attacks that hit reduce cooldown by 7%.
Hardened Steel: Adds grit to Warhammer and adds 20% damage reduction while the heavy attack grit is active.
I Can Do this All Way: Reduce stamina consumption by 30%.
Outnumbered: Increases damage absorption by 10% when surrounded by 2 or more enemies within 3m range.

Great Axe Hatchet PvE Build

Best Great Axe Masteries

Execute

A powerful overhead attack dealing 200% weapon damage. Deals 300% weapon damage vs foes under 50% health.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Unstoppable Greed: Execute gains Grit during the attack, making the attack unstoppable.
Executioner: Execute critical hits 100% of the time against foes below 30% health.

Whirlwind

Spin attack dealing 50% weapon damage to all nearby foes. If you hit a foe, spin again You can move while spinning. This attack cannot backstab.

Gravity Well

Throw an axe to create a vortex that pulls foes to its centre for 3s. Ends with a damaging Burst dealing 12% weapon damage. Range is 10m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Crowded Well: Increase burst damage by 10 for each foe caught in the vortex.
Unyielding: Allies gain 10% Fortify which reduces your damage while standing in your well.

General Passives to Unlock

Mauler’s Resolve: If you get hit while holding a Great Axe and below 50% health, players can gain 40 stamina as well.
Crowded Protection: While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage absorption when 3 or more foes are within 4m.
Center of Attention: While holding a Great Axe, gain 10% damage when 3 or more foes are within 4m.
Mauler’s Fury: Great Axe attacks increase damage by 3 for 3s.
Keen Edge: Critical damage increased by 10%.
Feed: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health, heal you for 10% of damage done.
Critical Condition: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health, critical 15% mostly.
Greed: Light attacks with your Great Axe give you 5% damage for 5s.

Best Hatchet Masteries

Berserk

Triggers a Berserk Mode that increases all attack damage by 20% while active. Berserk Mode will be active 12 seconds. Cooldown will trigger once Berserk ends.

Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your hatchet, this ability causes an 8s taunt to all enemies within 8m.

Passives to Unlock in Order

On the Hunt: Increases movement speed by 20% while in Berserk Mode.
Berserking Refresh: While Berserk is active, gain a portion of your health back every 4 seconds to a max of 30% max HP.
Berserking Purge: Triggering Berserk removes all Crowd Control effects (Stuns, Slows, Roots) from the player.
Uninterruptible Berserk: While in Berserk, your attacks are uninterruptible during Berserk and you can’t be staggered.
Defy Death: When you receive lethal damage: Avoid death, reduce to 50 HP and gain immortality for 3 seconds.

Feral Rush

A sprinting melee attack that causes the player to leap forward, hitting twice. The first hit deals 115% and the 2nd deals 130% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Dispatch: If the target is below 30% health, Feral Rush deals 20% more damage.

Raging Torrent

Perform four fast attacks each dealing 90% weapon damage.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Aggressive Approach: Hitting a target with Raging Torrent grants Haste, increasing movement speed by 20% for 6 seconds.
Final Blow: Press Light Attack at the end of raging torrent to deal a final attack dealing 120% weapon damage.

General Passives to Unlock

Enraged Strikes: If target is below 30% health, Light and Heavy attack deals 20% more damage.
Against All Odds: Increase base damage by 10% for every enemy within 5 meters of player.
Accumulating Power: After 3 successful light attacks against the same target: gain Empower, granting a 30% damage increase for 3 seconds or until the next attack.
Fortifying Strikes: Hitting the same target with 3 light attacks grants Fortify, increasing damage absorption by 15% for 3 seconds
Critical Throw: Thrown axes are now capable of triggering headshot or random critical hit. Also increases critical hit chance of all attacks by 5%.
Aimed Throw: Replaces block with an Aimed Throw that deals 95% weapon damage. Hold RMB to enter aimed stance. Each throw consumes 20 Stamina.
On Fire: Every 3rd successfully thrown axe is a guaranteed Crit.

Great Axe Life Staff PvP Build

With the inclusion of Life Staff, this Great Axe build can be highly useful in PvP to give you a decent amount of survivability and self-healing. Whenever things get tough, you can hang back and heal yourself with Life Staff before jumping back into the action with Great Axe.

Best Great Axe Masteries

Reap

Extend your axe 5m pulling foes to you and dealing 110% weapon damage. Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your great axe, this ability causes a 4s taunt when it hits.

Passives to Unlock in Order

The Collector: Reap range is now 8m.
Hunger: Heal yourself for 30% of damage done by Reap.
Fatal Attraction: After you pull, do a spin attack dealing 115% weapon damage.
Blood Lust: You move 30% faster and deal 15% more damage when looking at a foe within 15m.

Charge

Charge 10m dealing 120% weapon damage when you reach a target or Press LMB.

Passives to Unlock in Order

Frenzied Momentum: Charge now deals 120 – 140% weapon damage based on how far you travelled.
Unpredictable Strike: During Charge, you may press RMB to execute a swing attack dealing 140 – 165% weapon damage based on how far you travelled.

Gravity Well

Throw an axe to create a vortex that pulls foes to its centre for 3s. Ends with a damaging Burst dealing 12% weapon damage. Range is 10m.

There is no need to unlock any passive skill for this ability.

General Passives to Unlock

Gravity: After you cause a pull, your foe is held still 30% longer. Heavy Pull: Heavy attacks with a Great Axe pull foes closer to you.
Enduring Strike: Adds Grit to Great Axe Heavy Attacks, and grants a 20% damage reduction while the Heavy attack Grit is active.
Critical Gains: When you make a critical hit with a Great Axe, heal yourself for 10% of the damage done.
Frustration: After one of your attacks is blocked, gain 15% damage for 10s.
Keen Edge: Critical damage increased by 10%.
Feed: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health, heal you for 10% of damage done.
Critical Condition: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health: critical 15% more often.
Death’s Embrace: Great Axe attacks against foes below 50% health: penetrate armor by 10%.
Greed: Light attacks with your Great Axe causes 5% damage for 5 seconds.

Best Life Staff Masteries

Sacred Ground

Create an area on the ground that lasts for 15s and heals 20% weapon damage every second.

Passives to Unlock

Holy Ground: Regenerate stamina and mana 100% faster while in Sacred Ground.
Blessed: While allies are in Sacred Ground they are healed for 50% more from all healing.
Divine Blessing: When you heal an ally if their health is below 50%, heal for 30% more.

Orb of Protection

Shoot out a light projectile that grants 10% Fortify for 20s, heals an ally for 10% of weapon damage, and deals 146% weapon damage when it hits an enemy.

Passives to Unlock

Protector’s Blessing: If Orb of Protection hits an ally, they gain recovery for 10s.

Beacon

Shoot out a light projectile that deals 146% weapon damage to enemies, attaches to its target, and heals all nearby allies for 20% weapon damage each second for 10s.

Passives to Unlock

Infused Light: Beacon’s area of effect is now 50% larger.
Radiance’s Blessing: Beacon lasts 5s longer.

General Passives to Unlock

Desperate Speed: When you heal an ally with less than 50% health, life staff ability’s cooldowns are reduced by 10%.
Enchanted Justice: When hit in battle activate a healing aura for you and nearby friends in a 4m radius healing for 10% weapon damage each second for 6s.
Revitalize: When you hit with a light attack, reduce all your cooldowns by 5%.
Mending Touch: Life staff’s heavy attack now removes 1 debuff when passing through an allly
Absolved: Life staff’s light and heavy attacks no longer take mana.
Sacred Protection While holding a life staff, increase the amount of incoming healing to all friendlies in your group by 5%.
Blissful Touch: Light attacks now heal target for 20% weapon damage when passing through an ally.
Glowing Focus: Buffs you grant last 20% longer.
Protector’s Strength: If you have a buff, heal for 10% more.
Bend Light: After a dodge, your heals are 20% more effective for 5s.