RELATED: New World: A Complete Guide To Factions
Great Axes can be slow in some situations, lack the range of some projectile-based weapons, and aren’t as pressure-heavy as other “faster” melee choices, but their damage output and melee-based reach usually make up for many of their drawbacks. Those that pick up the two-handed weapon in New World can be a devastating force but only if they understand their limitations and make up for their shortcomings.
PRO: The Reaper Skill Tree Features Great Mobility
From first glance, it’s hard to imagine the Great Axe being a very mobile weapon but the Reaper skill tree makes it just that. By giving players access to Charge, Reap, and an array of great passives, they’re able to close ground much faster than some other weapons, which is especially useful in a PVP setting.
The Charge ability lets Great Axe players rush towards their opponent and Reap, although it has a shorter range, can pull opponents towards the player. Both of these abilities are flanked by a series of passive abilities that help players cover great distances quickly when they’re engaged with an opponent or mob.
CON: Some Great Axe Abilities Are Easily Dodged
Although the Great Axe does feature some solid gap-closing abilities, that doesn’t mean they automatically lock on. Players need to aim their skills, and some of the movement-based abilities for Great Axe are easily dodged if an opponent knows what to look for. For example, the Charge skill is capable of covering great distances, quickly, but players with solid mobility can easily side-step a charging axe-wielder.
Those that have a great mid-range game, like archers and spell slingers, can stay out of range of a Great Axe user’s Reap ability. They’re also capable of applying great damage and pressure to a Great Axe player while staying safely out of their attack range.
PRO: Great Axe Has Superior Mob Clear Ability
One of the best aspects of the Great Axe is that it lets players engage multiple enemies at once thanks to its impressive reach and AOE capabilities. Those that strap on heavy armor and have the ability to keep themselves healed can tank multiple mobs while simultaneously dealing massive amounts of damage to all of them. This makes the Great Axe an amazing tool for clearing out waves of enemies and can make it much easier for players that are questing or farming drops in PVE.
Conversely, it’s also useful in a group PVP setting, as axe-wielders can do heavy damage to large groups of melee players, punishing them for stacking too closely together.
CON: It Struggles Against Solo Fighters In PVP
It’s entirely possible to craft a PVP build with the Great Axe that can lay waste to opponents in a duel-type setting but the Great Axe itself wasn’t built for single-target PVP dominance. Players that know about the Great Axe’s limitations will easily dodge a player’s skills before punishing them. Some of the best skills on the Great Axe have a heavy wind-up, making it difficult to deal with faster opponents or those that can stay out of melee range.
RELATED: New World: A Complete Guide To Enemy Races
That said, players that carry an appropriate single-target weapon in addition to the Great Axe can be a serious threat thanks to the weapon’s ability to deal solid damage while simultaneously locking enemies down and keeping pursuit on slippery opponents.
PRO: Gravity Well Is An Incredibly Useful Skill
Although the Reaper skill tree can help a player output a lot of damage, one of the best skills for the Great Axe lies in the Mauler tree. Gravity Well lets players toss out a rift-like object that will suck in any enemies caught within its vortex, pinning them to the epicenter for a short period of time. The passives that revolve around this skill can help increase its duration, AOE effect, and strength.
Gravity Well is useful in both PVE and PVP, letting players pull together large groups of mobs, which they can then mow through thanks to the Great Axe’s impressive reach. In PVP it can be used to create choke points, pull together healers and ranged players, and lockdown melee players for spell slingers to douse with AOE abilities.
CON: Great Axe Users Take A Ton Of Punishment
Players that aren’t comfortable “living on the edge” and taking massive amounts of damage from mobs and other players may want to avoid the Great Axe. Although it has an impressive reach, it’s very much a “charge in and attack” type weapon, with fewer defensive or escape abilities as other melee options. Because of this, players will want to stick to Medium Armor at the least, opting for Heavy Armor if they find themselves taking too much damage to survive.
Although it’s entirely possible to be fairly mobile with the Great Axe, players will find themselves directly in the thick of things whether it’s PVE or PVP. Having a good healer can help and Great Axe users will want to familiarize themselves with healing items and recipes that increase health regeneration.
PRO: Great Axe Stacks Beautifully With War Hammer
Although the are a handful of options for players to carry as a secondary weapon when wielding a Great Axe, the War Hammer is perhaps its perfect compliment. Both weapons scale with Strength, giving players additional damage, and the War Hammer has a similar amount of reach.
The real kicker, though, is that both weapons come with stuns and lockdown skills, allowing players to effectively disarm their opponents by keeping them in place to deal heavy damage from their swings while simultaneously knocking them down and applying stuns to interrupt them. A player using the Great Axe and War Hammer together can be incredibly imposing to fight thanks to their skillset.
CON: It’s A “Slow” Weapon
We use the term “slow” pretty loosely here. At its core, the Great Axe is considered slow thanks to its lumbering animations and the heavy “weight” behind it. That said, it’s definitely still fast enough to catch most enemies off guard and many beginner PVP players will be overwhelmed with how speedy the Great Axe can be.
But bursts of speed aside, the Great Axe is still pretty “slow” compared to other melee weapons. The real issues stem from its large wind-up, specifically pertaining to the Execute ability and the heavy attack. Fast-moving mobs and smart PVP opponents will dance around a Great Axe user thanks to the lengthy animations and wind-ups on their skills. It’s not enough of a con to take away from the Great Axe’s DPS potential, lockdown strength, or pursuit ability, but it’s still something to keep in mind.
MORE: New World: How & When To Buy A House
