Corrupted DPS Build

Introduction

This New World Corrupted DPS build is suitable for: Dynasty Shipyard, Tempest, The Depths, and all open-world content containing corrupted mobs. For this guide, we will be focusing on the hatchet/spear combination. However, you can opt to use a different weapon on the back bar for different situations. For example, Hatchet + GreatAxe, Great Axe + Spear, and Rapier + Spear. The skill trees for the alternate builds are listed at the bottom of this guide.

You can check out our expedition builds info guide for the full breakdown of damage types versus mob types and consumables you should utilize within each expedition.

In this guide, you will find information about the abilities you should take, your attribute distribution, gear, consumables, and how to play the build.

Ideal Team Composition

The ideal team composition for the corrupted content is as follows:

Tank: Sword and Shield + Warhammer
DPS: 3x Hatchet or Rapier users, 1 Great Axe, 1 Spear, 1 Flex
Healer: Life Staff + Void Gauntlet

It’s ideal if your flex user uses an ice gauntlet to proc the 200-strength perk of the 10% damage on the slow/stun/rooted enemies. It’s also recommended that you have at least two great axe users. If your tank does not utilize a great axe then your flex should have one.

Mastery Points

This corrupted DPS build is going to use the hatchet and the spear. The hatchet is going to be utilized to as your main source of damage and to enhance your survivability. The spear will be utilized for rend and crowd control. You can fully cap out rend at 30% utilizing the spear. Therefore, your perforate ability should be used every cooldown.

Hatchet

You will want to have the following active abilities on your hatchet

Berserk
Rending Throw
Raging Torrent

You will want to fully upgrade your berserk in order take advantage of the self-sustain, cc break, and uninterruptible attacks. It’s important to use berserk as much as possible to take advantage of the additional 20% damage it provides.

You will want to fully upgrade raging torrent as well. Each hit of raging torrent will proc the refreshing torrent weapon ability. Fully upgrading it will allow you proc an additional hit for cooldown reduction. This will allow you to have maximum uptime on this ability.

Infected throw is going to be utilized for the utility it provides.

The remaining passives you take are all centered around increasing your damage output.

Spear

You will want to utilize the following abilities for your spear

Perforate
Sweep
Skewer

You will want to fully upgrade both your perforate and skewer abilities.

Your perforate ability should be used every time it’s off cooldown in order to take advantage of the rend it provides. You can single-handedly hit rend cap on a target with this ability.

Skewer is great to add into the rotation for the empowerment on critical hit and the long bleed duration.

The final ability, sweep, should also be fully upgraded. This ability is great for crowd control, and additional damage output when fully upgraded.

The remaining passives are centered around increasing your damage output.

Attributes

As the DPS you are going to want to put out as much damage as possible. You should ultimately be shooting for the following:

Beginner:

300 strength
200 constution

Advanced:

300 strength (310 strength at 625 gear score)
200 dexterity
5 constitution

This means that you will not be distributing any points into constitution. This can be very difficult when first starting out. You will want to acquire ward gear and have a solid group when pushing your constitution so low. Fortifying perforate and defy death helps out quite a lot when running 5 constitution. If you are having a tough time staying alive then swap out some of your dexterity for constitution.

If you do not have ward gear or are just starting out you can push your constitution all the way up to 200. This will provide you with plenty of constitution and survivability for the expedition. As you go you will want to work on reducing constitution and pushing out more damage. You will also want to shoot for obtaining 5 ward pieces of gear and pushing your armor weight into the light weight category.

Equipment

For this build you will want to be in the light armor category. This means you will need to be wearing a combination of the following:

Head	Chest	Gloves	Legs	Boots
Light	Medium	Light	Light	Light
Light	Light	Medium	Medium	Light
Light	Light	Light	Medium	Medium
Medium	Light	Light	Medium	Light

Armor

In conjunction with being in light armor you are going to want to shoot for the following perks:

Corrupted Ward
Refreshing
Skill Perk

The following skill perks are recommended:

Fortifying Perforate (desired)
Enfeebling Skewer (optional)
Keen Berserk (optional)
Bleeding Sweep (optional)
Empowering Rending Throw (optional)

Having these perks on your gear is not mandatory to complete the expedition. However, by having ward on your gear you will be able to push your constitution down to the 5 constitution mark allowing you to dish out quite a lot more DPS for your group.

Other acceptable perks on your armor consist of Elemental Conditionings, Freedom, Vigor, Invigorated, Elemental/Physical Aversion.

Weapons

The optimal setup for your hatchet is the following:

Corrupted Bane
Refreshing Torrent
Rogue > Vicious > Keenly Empowered

The optimal setup for your spear is the following:

Corrupted Bane
Rogue / Vicious
Keenly Jagged

You can replace Refreshing Move and Keenly Empowered if you desire, or if you grab a weapon that has the other 2 perks and a random 3rd perk on it. Corrupted Bane and Rogue are both optimal for this corrupted DPS build.

Shoot for having Bane and Rogue or Vicious on your weapon if you only obtain a 2 perk weapon.

Jewelry

Amulet – For your amulet, you can farm out Blessing of Forefathers. Ideally, you would want to shoot for health + elemental protection + empowered or refreshing.

Ring – Ideally, you will want to shoot for leeching, refreshing, arcane damage > slash/thrust damage > keen awareness. Alternatively for your ring you can farm out Smooth Bone Ring or the Featherweight Ring

Earring – Ideally, you will want to shoot for refreshing + refreshing toast + purifying toast / evasive regen. For your earring, you can farm out the Doom’s Chance from the Lazarus Instrumentality Expedition.

Gems

The Gems in your armor should be used to balance out the types of mitigation you have on your armor (and jewelry if possible).

For mutations, you will want to slot the appropriate gem for the mutation type.

For Weapon Gems, you will run a sapphire in your hatchet and an opal in your spear.

Runeglass Gem Upgrades

For your rune glass gems you would want to utilize the punishing variant to deal additional damage with your melee attacks.

Heartgem Rune

The heartgem rune of choice for this build is the Brutal Heartrune of Detonate. You can activate the heartrune to deal quite a lot of burst damage. However, you will take additional damage while it’s charging so be aware of when you utilize the heartrune.

How to Use the Build

This is a very high DPS build. You will want to utilize your hatchet and berserk to deal tons of damage to your targets. If you have the refreshing torrent perk you should try and hit 3 or more mobs with your raging torrent when you use it. This will give you continuous uptime on the ability. You will also want to weave your rending throws into the rotation anytime it’s off cooldown. Maintaining uptime on rend is important for your overall damage output.

You should open all engagements with perforate, skewer, and only sweep when the target can be knocked down. You then rinse and repeat this every cooldown cycle.

If you are running corrupted expeditions or other corrupted content, having corruption tinctures on hand is also useful. These can also be utilized to remove Isabella’s burn attack in Tempest. Also ensure your corrupted trophies are in your house, utilize potions, honing stones, and attribute food for maximum damage output.