Introduction

The Great Sword is a massive 2 handed sword that you can utilizing from New World’s arsenal. We’ll break down the Great Sword’s Mastery Tree, Recommended Weapon Pairings, Weapon Perks, and more in our New World Great Sword Guide.

General Information

The Great Sword is a two-handed weapon that scales equally from Dexterity (0.8) and Strength (0.8). It deals slash damage and has a 3 light attack chain that can be canceled with a charged heavy attack. Depending on when you cancel it, the heavy attack deals varying amounts of damage. Here are the Attack combos of the Great Sword:

• Light Attack 1 & 2 deal 90% Slashing Weapon Damage
• Light Attack 3 Deals 130% Slashing Weapon Damage
• Heavy Attack 1 & 2 Deal 150% Slashing Damage
• Heavy Attack 3 Deals 170% Slashing Damage

All of the Great Swords attacks are large AOE slashes except for Heavy Attack 1.

One thing that makes the Great Sword stand out from other New World weapons is its Stance mechanic. Each Mastery Tree has its own stance that activates once you activate an Ability in its Mastery Tree. Below is the breakdown of each Mastery Tree and Stance of the Great Sword.

Onslaught

The Onslaught Tree is focused on dealing damage and attack speed.

STANCE – Path of Onslaught – After using an ability in the onslaught Tree, enter the Onslaught stance for 10 seconds. You will gain the following perks while in the Onslaught stance

• Damage Dealt increases by 15%
• Damage Taken increased by 15%
• Quick Charge: Heavy Attacks charge 50% faster but consume 10 Stamina each

NOTE – using an ability from the Onslaught Tree places you in the Onslaught stance.

Cross Cut

Cross Cut is a combo-like ability that is a series of 3 slash attacks. The Attacks progressively deal more and more damage. The Upgrades to Cross Cut give the ability grit and deal more damage with the last attack to enemies that have less than 50% health.

Relentless Rush

Relentless Rush is a whirlwind-like ability that passes through enemies dealing damage twice in a forward, spinning motion. The First Hit Deals 110% and the Second Hit deals 120%. The upgrades to Relentless Rush give you empowerment and reduces its cooldown by 50% if you land a killing blow. The Final Upgrade changes depending on which stance you’re in, and will either root your enemies (onslaught) or heal you for 15% damage done (Defiance).

Skyward Slash

Skyward Slash is an ability that slashes your great sword upwards, carrying you up in the air. The Skyward Slash also allows the user to apply rend and stagger their target. The upgrades allows you to crash back down to earth, dealing more damage and add 20% disease to the attack.

Passives

Unrelenting Onslaught is the Key Passive in the Onslaught Mastery Tree. This passive reduces your Great Sword cooldowns by Hitting foes. Light attacks decrease your cooldowns by 2% and Charged Heavy attacks by 10%. It is a built-in refreshing move perk, which can be very strong.

Defiance

The Defiance Tree is focused on Damage mitigation and blocking incoming damage.

STANCE – Path of Defiance – After using any ability in the Defiance tree, enter defiant stance for 10.0s. You will gain the following perks while in the Defiance stance:

• Damage Taken Reduced: -15.0%
• Outgoing Damage Reduced: -15.0%
• Guard Point: Block incoming attacks while charging heavy attacks

NOTE – using an ability from the Onslaught Tree places you in the Onslaught stance.

Calamity Counter

Calamity Counter is a parry attack that blocks incoming damage for a certain amount of time, then deals damage back to its attacks. The attack gains a more potent CC with each attack it blocks. If you block 1 or 2 attacks, the Counter will stagger enemies in the AOE. If you block 3 or more attacks, the Counter will knock enemies back.

Roaring Rupture

Roaring Rupture is an AOE attack in which you stab your Great Sword into the ground. This attack is taunt gem compatible. The upgrades to Roaring Rupture add a cleanse when the ability is activated and apply weaken to enemies. The final upgrade changes depending on what stance you are in and will either push back enemies (Defiance) or Pull enemies to you (Onslaught)

Steadfast Strike

Steadfast Strike Thrusts your Great Sword forward to impale your enemies and then pull them to you. This ability gains threat. The upgrades to Steadfast Strike heals you for 50% damage done and applies a bleed if you are in Defiance Stance. The Second upgrade allows Steadfast Strike to decrease the cooldown of all your other Great Sword abilities by 20%.

Passives

Undying Defiance is the Key Passive of the Defiance Mastery Tree. It allows you to Heal for 5% of all damage dealt by your Great Sword. This is the lesser of the two Mastery Perks and is very close to the Leeching Perk available on rings.

The rest of the passives are built around blocking, mitigation, and buffs.

Great Sword Recommended Roles

The Great Sword excels at dealing AOE damage and can be used on your back bar weapon while tanking.

Recommended Weapon Pairings with the Great Sword

Hatchet

Hatchet pairs very well with the Greatsword, allowing for high survivability, but also high hunting potential. Both weapons scale from the same two attributes, and as a result should be split in stats.

Spear

The Spear is in a very similar position to the Hatchet. Using the Spear much like the Hatchet is helpful due to the hunting potential and also the same scaling attributes.

How to Level the Great Sword in New World

When leveling the Great Sword, you will utilize the Elite AOE damage that it can provide. To level the great Sword it is recommended to use an attribute split of 300 STR/200 DEX if possible to deal the maximum amount of damage while also gaining access to the 300 STR perk (Grit on light and heavy attacks). Finding a Great Sword with Refreshing Move will also help you level the experience go faster.

Below are how you should spend your mastery points as you level up the Great Sword

• Crosscut (Level 2)
• Relentless Rush (3)
• Perfect Vigilance (4)
• Roaring Rupture (5)
• Keen Posture (6)
• Critical Comeback (7)

Set-up

At level 7, you have all 3 of your AOE abilities and a way to guarantee a critical Strike on Rupture which procs Critical Comeback and stacks fortification on yourself. First, Group up a large group of mobs and use Relentless Rush to pass through to deal some AOE damage. This will set up Keen Posture for you’re Roaring Rupture. Rupture will crit dealing massive damage while providing stacks of fortification. Cast Crosscut to put you back into the Path of Onslaught. Finally, Light attack into a Charged Heavy Attack to reset the combo. Here is the Attack Pattern in sequence:

Group Mobs > Relentless Rush >Roaring Rupture >Crosscut > Lifght attack > Heavy Attack

This will create a combo that not only deals massive amounts of damage but improves your sustain and survivability. The guaranteed Crit

The rest of your mastery points will be spent to enhance this combo by providing increased damage and grit on your attacks.

• Unstoppable Cuts (8)
• Unflinching Blade (9)
• Aggressive Shift (10)
• Relentless Power (11)
• Step and Strike (12)
• Cross Execution (13)
• Heavy Blade (14)
• Unrelenting Onslaught (15)
• Purifying Roar (16)
• Intimidating Roar (17)
• Adaptive Rupture (18)
• Relentless Refresh (19)
• Giant Slayer (20)

Great Sword Perks

The Ability perks for the Great Sword in New World are as follows:

Weapon Ability Perk	Description	Armor	Weapon	Crafting Mods
Relentless Freedom	Activating Relentless Rush removes Root and Slow. Increase Relentless Rush’s critical hit chance by X%.	14%	20%	Starmetal Greatsword Charm
Leeching Crosscut	Heal for X% of the damage dealt by the final strike of Crosscut (Max 1 trigger per ability use).	35%	72%	Steel Greatsword Charm
Skyward Nullification	Hitting an enemy with Skyward Slash removes one of their buffs. Reduce remaining buffs by X% (Only affects non-consumable buffs).	23%	50%	Orichalcum Greatsword Charm
Energizing Counter	When Calamity Counter is activated, immediately gain X Stamina.	23	51	Reinforced Steel Greatsword Charm
Steadfast Purification	Each attack of Steadfast Strike reduces your debuff durations by X% (Max 1 reduction per attack).	26%	68%	Reinforced Orichalcum Greatsword Charm
Slowing Rupture	Slow enemies struck with Roaring Rupture by X% for 5s.	26%	41%	Reinforced Starmetal Greatsword Charm

Recommended Great Sword Gems

The type of gem you will want to slot into your Great Sword is heavily dependent upon your build and what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s also going to vary based on PvP vs PvE activities. You can check our quick reference guide for gems for a full list of gems and their effects.  

Enemy types the Great Sword is strong/weak against

The Great Sword deals Slashing Damage. The only Mob Type with0

a weakness to Slashing Damage is Angry Earth (20% increased damage). With the Brimstone Sands update, Mob types no longer have resistances.