Introduction

New World has recently released the latest PTR patch. This patch comes with a slew of combat changes, probably the most we’ve seen to date, including a New World fortification nerf.

Along with these changes comes some huge changes to the way the fortification buff is going to work. According to the patch notes it now scales off of the player’s armor rating. The excerpt from the patch notes reads: “Changed Fortify and Rend to directly scale the player’s Armor Rating. Increased Fortify and Rend caps to account for these changes.”

This will have a huge impact on the meta of New World moving forward. This could also mean that shirking fortification will no longer reign supreme as one of the best perks to have on your gear.

Fortification Testing

Recently, some testing has taken place on the PTR. The findings enforced the thought that fortification was getting heavily nerfed.

This test was performed by having one player remove all gear and abilities. Then, hit another player for a baseline of damage. The player receiving the hits then procced a fortify buff, and was hit again and the differences were recorded. This test was performed both on the New World PTR and on the live server in order to see the differences.

After testing, it was very clear that the New World fortification nerf was going to affect the meta in a very big way. Shirking fortification builds are going to be hit very hard with this change.

New World Fortification Nerf Testing Results

Below are the results of the testing performed. As you can see, the amount of actual damage mitigated on the PTR with a fortification buff is much lower than what’s currently on the live servers.

Video

Below is a video explanation of the testing performed: