Bow Guide and Builds (2024)

The Bow is a powerful ranged weapon that excels at mid-range. While itcan be used at far distances, it can be difficult to hit targets. As such, itis most effective while playing close to clumps and taking out priority targets.

• Rapid Shot — High damage cooldown that launches three quick shots and staggerstargets which opens up a vulernability window to secure kills or interrupt casts.
• Penetrating Shot — High damage ability that can be weaved into anotherheavy shot. This will go through multiple targets. Try to finish off kills with this ability.
• Rain of Arrows — Great damage option that can provide single target or AOE burst.

This is the standard Bow build that should be used in almost all PvP and PvE environments. It maximizesdamage output and does not require any defensive abilities.

If you need a defensive option for arenas or other PvP content...You can substitute Explosive Arrow for Evade Shot and take all the same passives.

Use this if you prefer to have a burst damage option. At times, this can be significantly betterfor players using Dexterity builds. It acts similarly to Riposte by staggering the target, andit has a follow up ability that can deal damage or be quick mobility. This can be a great way to pick upquick kills on low health targets.

Use this if you prefer to have a survivability option with Riposte. This ability can beeasily at times if used incorrectly. Nonetheless, it will give you a moment of invulnerability andwill certainly save your life at times.

For a thorough breakdown on the Hatchet and how it can be used, please refer to ourHatchet guide.

This is the standard build option in PvP when using a Bow. It provides survivability and CC escape with Berserk and Social Distancing. It used Infected Throw as a way to exhaust targets andanti-heal clumps of enemies. Other Hatchet PvP builds take Feral Rush instead.

At times in PvP some players who are on the defensive side of a War will use both aMusket and a Bow. This will allow the player to useall of their high damage abilities, and secure kills at any distance. While it lacks mobility, it is notneeded when you are playing on the walls of a fort.

For more detailed information on Musket usage and other aspects of its gameplay, please refer to ourMusket guide.

Using Stopping Power allows you to have an almost instant second shot at times when it is usedright after firing your Musket. This will also stagger the target which opens up the window for a quickthird shot to secure a kill.

Some players prefer using Sticky Bomb for its high damage and AoE potential.

For more detailed information on Spear usage and other aspects of its gameplay, please refer to ourSpear guide

The Spear can complement the Bow with its close-ranged crowd-control and ability toeasily take down anyone pushing you.

This can be a great PvP pairing that allows you to scale full Dexterity and kill close targetsand ranged targets. It also has mobility and ways to break out of crowd-control effects.

Use this as an AoE weapon when clumps are stacked.

This is the most optimal damage split for a bow in PvP combat. In Wars it may be best togo with 150 Constitution, or if you are just wanting to be a bit more defensive.

In PvE, feel free to go as low as 50 Constitution.

• Refreshing Penetrating Shot — This will reset this ability when securing a kill.
• Penetrating Rapid Shot — Large damage increase on this ability and should be used inPvP and PvE.
• Empowering Explosive Arrow — This does not necessarily need to be used because ofempower cap, but if you would like to use this you certainly can when you are at early stacks of Mortal Empowerment.

• Enchanted — This will add significant damage to every basic Bow shot.
• Attunement Perks — This adds a great burst of damage to every attack.
• Keenly Jagged — This will not only add a dot, but a potential spike of burst damage.When this procs, it will instantly deal damage along with the DoT on your Runeglass, and Attunement. All ofthis comes together for one quick burst of damage, and then leaves its DoT effect to secure kills.

• Health — This provides free damage reduction against all sources and is one of the most beneficial PvP options.
• Shirking Heals — Incredible source of self-healing and allows for great survivability regardless of build.
• Shirking Fortification — Can be a great complement to Shirking Heals. Will add increased armor toimprove overall defensiveness.
• Freedom — This will allow you to play more aggressively by reducing the duration of crowd-control. You shouldplay with either 3 or 5 stacks.
• Elemental Aversion — Use this perk for elemental damage reduction from weapons like the Fire Staff.
• Refreshing — This can be an optional third perk when you want a source of cooldown reduction in your build.
• Harnessing Perks — Stack these for increased damage if you chose to forgo defensive options.
• Mortal Empowerment — This will be the preferred option for maximum damage output in PvP.

• Elemental Aversion — This perk is a viable alternative in PvP as well, but is overshadowed by other PvP options.It provides great defensein mutated expeditions to help mitigate magical effects.
• Physical Aversion — Only projectiles that do physical damage will be mitigated by this perk. As such, it canbe useful in PvE as another potential option. It alsoprovides a small amount of PvP value, but Elemental Aversion andenemy Ward perks are certainly more defensive options.

• Health — This is the standard pick for all builds, it is free health that will add to the defensiveness ofyour kit.
• Stamina Recovery — This is a backpocket save when being focused and taking heavy damage.You will receive a burst of stamina that will allow you to potentially get a quick dodge that can save your iife and continuethe fight.
• Thrust Protection — This acts as a third perk slot that provides more defensiveness against other Dex andranged weapons.
• Elemental Protection — This can be a PvE replacement for Thrust Protection. Use whatever elemental typeyou need for the mutator being ran.

• Thrust Damage
• Keen Awareness
• Mortal Empowerment
• Invigorated Punishment
• Hearty
• Refreshing Evasion

• Refreshing Toast
• Healing Heart
• Nimble
• Refreshing

• Finisher

• Tumbler Feetwraps
• Featherweight

• Ankh

For Bow players in PvP you have plenty of burst damage, so your best Heartrunes focus on survivability.Using Minor Heartrune of Stoneform allows you to break out of crowd-control effects, remove debuffs,and provide defensive buffs.

Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform provides one defensive buff and a significant healingover time effect.

In PvE content, you can use either Brutal Heartrune of Detonate for extra DPS, or Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines to clump enemies together.

When using Cunning Heartrune of Stoneform, or other variants, you should save this for times where you are stunnedor affected by other forms of CC. Alternatively, you can use this right before pushing through a doorway or chokepoint tonegate the potential of being affected by CC.

As a Musket or Bow player, you should be using your Cunning Heartrune of Stoneform, or other variants, if you have beenhit by another Musket or Bow and have taken significant damage or have a Crippling Powder Burn on you. Otherwise, use thiswhenever you are being pushed or are affected by crowd-control.

Use Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines when 3+ targets are stacked together. You want to use this on asmany as possible. It can also be used on single-target fights for free damage or to apply Rend.

Try to avoid using Brutal Heartrune of Detonate while you have low health or are being focused on.The goal is to start the ability and wait a short duration and attempt to dive in right asthe ability detonates so you can catch enemies off guard and not be bursted down.

Save your Detonate for when there are multiple targets stacked on top of one another. Preferably the targets willalready be under some kind of CC effect, or exhausted and unable to dodge out of them. It is best paired with somethinglike Gravity Well or Shockwave.

Take advantage of down time to charge your heartrune. For instance if you are far away you might as well continue to tryhitting targets or structures to build charge.

Your heartrune will charge fast. While it is obviously beneficial to hold for times where there are large clusters of enemies.Do not wait too long and continue to waste your cooldown when you would have had the time to get another one recharged. Get familiarwith how quickly you can get it back online and do not hesitate to use it to secure high priority kills.

A Heartrune in PvE is significantly different than PvP. This will charge incredibly fast due to the sustained damage output onsingle targets. When using something like Brutal Heartrune of Detonate this is best used on large numbers of enemies instead ofsingle target. With that being said, use this as many times as possible in a boss fight since it will be available and otherwisewasted.

For more information on how to manage your cooldown hotbar, whatconsumables to use, what foods should be eaten, or tips on how to be moreeffective with your consumables in PvP and PvE, please refer toBow Consumables guide.

Dexterity players will often use an elemental damage gem that matches the Attunement perk on their weapon. This will stilldeal significant damage because of the primary scaling with base weapon damage. The gem will then split that value by 40% andscale with Intelligence or Focus (Nature). Since you then use an elemental damage Runeglass and perk on your Ring, this willincrease the elemental damage dealt by the weapon, its Attunement, and its DoT effect. This also avoids some players increasedresistances to Thrust and Physical damage sources.

In PvP combat, it is highly recommended to use a specific elemental Runeglass, such as Runeglass of Arboreal Amber.You could also use something like Runeglass of Arboreal Opal.

In PvE, you will see the most damage from using Cut Pristine Diamond.

In PvP combat your optimal resistances will focus on a mix of Slash and Thrust damage. Since youare playing farther back your only real threats are Musket, Bow, ora melee who has Slash damage. While you will also be pressured by elemental damage, you will have Elemental Aversion to compensate. This makes your optimal gem setups use Runeglass variants of Cut Pristine Moonstone or Cut Pristine Emerald.

When determining if you should use Runeglass of Arboreal Moonstone (Or other elemental damage) or Runeglass of Sighted Moonstone, it depends on empowerment cap and your skill level. Technically,if you have a maximum 15 stacks of Mortal Empowerment, then you reach empower cap due to passives.The elemental damage bonuses on Runeglass count toward this cap. As such, only when you are at 15 stacks,it is a damage increase to use Sighted Runeglass, such as Runeglass of Sighted Emerald, since this is aflat damage increase. This is a very marginal top end damage increase that applies when you are at veryhigh stacks. For all purpose content, it is better to pursue elemental variants.

Additionally, you should always have either Thrust Protection or Slash Protection on yourAmulet.

In PvE combat, more specifically mutators, elemental resistance is the main concern.

You can use the following gems in your gear:

• Cut Pristine Diamond (Weapon) + Elemental Resistance Gem x8 + Amulet Protection Perk (Based on mutator elemental effect)

If you would like, you can change your gem setup to counter specific mutator elemental damage,such as a Cut Pristine Ruby. But, if you use only Cut Pristine Opal it will counter mixedelemental damage across a mutated expedition.

For more information on how to manage your cooldown hotbar, whatconsumables to use, what foods should be eaten, or tips on how to be moreeffective with your consumables in PvP and PvE, please refer toBow Consumables guide.

In PvP, a Bow will be focused on trying to kill squishy targets, or healers.In PvE, it will either be used for its high single-target damage, andit will be paired with a second weapon for AoE.

• Open on a target with a heavy shot into a Explosive Arrow immediately after.
• Use Rapid Shot to do damage quickly or potentially stagger a target.
• Weave a heavy shot into a Penetrating Shot when trying to finish a target.
• Shoot heavy or light Bow shots at low health targets to secure kills, or to apply damage pressure.

To learn how to use your second weapon properly, and complete rotation,please refer to our PvE and PvP build pages:

Many abilities, such as Explosive Arrow or Penetrating Shot, can be weaved together with aheavy attack to deal two separate large bursts of damage almost simultaneously. You should try to Arrow Weaveas much as possible. To do so, charge a heavy shot, and as soon as it leaves your bow use your ability and fireit.

Be careful, if you use your ability too early it will cancel your heavy shot even if it looks like it is fired.

It is important to consistently dodge roll before firing basic shots or abilities. This will apply an empower effect, andprovide you with a guaranteed critical hit every 10 seconds.

This makes Refreshing Evasion a BIS perk for Bows because of the frequent dodges. It will result in significantcooldown reduction.

Bow builds innately have many sources of passive haste. You can use this to your advantage to have incredible mobility.The Bow has Evasive Tactics to give 15% haste after every roll. You can pair this with Dodge and Weave toreceive 10% haste after swapping to your Bow. This can be an effective 25% haste boost to prevent the need for any rolls.

Evasive Tactics can be maintained 100% of the time for improved mobility.

Additionally, when using a Rapier, you will have abilities like Fleche, Evade, and Flourish and Finish, that can be quick mobility options.

Aiming for headshots is the best way to increase DPS in both PvP and PvE. At times this can be difficult, if you arenot confident in your aim you can focus on hitting targets in the chest and you will still deal high damage. Do not aim forthe head if you are not confident, you will miss significantly more shots and not secure kills.

Practice shooting arrows across Aeternum to get a feel for how an arrow drops and arcs. At times you will have to arcshots at targets who are a far distance away to properly hit them.

You can take passives like Arrow Range to help with this, but it is a damage loss to do so.

As a Bow player it is important to focus on squish backline targets, like healers. While these targets can be more difficultto hit at times, you should always be looking to kill them unless another target is low health and it is a free stack of Mortal Empowerment that you can obtain. As such, do not be a "Clump Pumper" and waste abilities on packs of mediumbruisers simply to deal damage and pad your stats. This is not effective Bow play and you will be shunned by the Bow communityif you do so.

One of the major contributors to the strength of a Bow or Musket is Mortal Empowerment. These weapons will allow youto easily pick up kills and then snowball your stacks to have up to 30% increased damage. These stacks are your lifeline. Youshould be playing your life at all costs once you hit 15 stacks because it will be difficult to re-stack.

To easily secure stacks watch for healers or other squishy players. Once they exhaust themselves you will want todo your best to hit them with all possible burst because they are unable to dodge or jump.

One of the most difficult things to learn can be how to hit a target with a Bow or a Musket because of how invulnerabilityframes work. I-frames come when you dodge and a short duration right after you complete the dodge and it prevents the targetfrom taking damage. When trying to hit an enemy, wait for them to dodge, and wait until they have taken one step after dodgingto guarantee they will not I-frame your shots.

Effective movement is incredibly important in a build like this, especially when playing in medium.Do not panic and use your entire stamina bar and exhaust yourself, as it may result in death. You cantake advantage of jumping, diving (going prone while moving), and changing direction byquickly moving your mouse or taking advantage of quick inputs on your movement keys.

There are many movements in New World that will stagger you in place for a moment when quicklychanging direction. If you move left and right or if you jump left and right you will notice thereis a momentwhere you will be standing still. To prevent this you will need to use a key input whileyour character is in the animation. For example, if you hold your left directional key and jump thenright before you land you hit your right directional key and jump, you will quickly jump left and right.If you simply run left and right using your directional keys your character will respond similarly.To avoid this you can move left and then right before you pivot to go right, hit the backward directionalkey and instantly follow up with your right directional key. If you continue doing this back and forth youwill avoid the sliding animation.

This weapon pairing makes for incredibly mobile PvP builds that are difficult to catch. The Rapier hasunmatched mobility with quick damage options and supplemental crowd-control.

To learn more about ability usage and the intracies of the Rapier, please refer to ourRapier guide.

The Hatchet is commonly used for Berserk to break out of crowd-control, and for Defy Death to provide incredible survivability.

To learn more about ability usage and how to use the Hatchet, please refer to ourHatchet guide.

The Bow can be an option to pair with the Spear. While this combination lacks mobility, it does havegreat crowd-control and damage potential for anyone who is trying to pressure you.

Please refer to our Spear tips for how to use it properly.

This weapon combination is generally only used in defensive Wars where you can play on the walls ofthe fort.

Please refer to our Musket tips for how to use it properly.

The Bow has many passives tied to dodging. When you dodge, you will receive a guaranteed critical hitevery 10 seconds, an damage empowerment, and haste. It is advantageous to dodge often. As such, it makes Refreshing Evasion very valuable for cooldown reduction.

In almost all cases it is best to play a Bow in light armor to maximize damage and have bettermobility.

Medium armor can be an option to help with being more defensive to counter other Dexterity playersand still have great damage output.

Generally, in all Bow builds you will be dodging frequently. This makes Refreshing Evasiona valuable source of cooldown reduction.

In PvP combat your optimal resistances will focus on a mix of Slash and Thrust damage. Since youare playing farther back your only real threats are Musket, Bow, ora melee who has Slash damage. While you will also be pressured by elemental damage, you will have Elemental Aversion to compensate. This makes your optimal gem setups use Runeglass variants of Cut Pristine Moonstone or Cut Pristine Emerald.

When determining if you should use Runeglass of Arboreal Moonstone (Or other elemental damage) or Runeglass of Sighted Moonstone, it depends on empowerment cap and your skill level. Technically,if you have a maximum 15 stacks of Mortal Empowerment, then you reach empower cap due to passives.The elemental damage bonuses on Runeglass count toward this cap. As such, only when you are at 15 stacks,it is a damage increase to use Sighted Runeglass, such as Runeglass of Sighted Emerald, since this is aflat damage increase. This is a very marginal top end damage increase that applies when you are at veryhigh stacks. For all purpose content, it is better to pursue elemental variants.

It is suggested that you should be around 30% Thrust resistance. You can decide what is best for youand what other resistances you prefer.

In your weapon you will often want to use an elemental damage gem that matches the Attunement perk on their weapon.This will still deal significant damage because of the primary scaling with base weapon damage. The gem will thensplit that value by 40% and scale with Intelligence or Focus (Nature). Since you then use an elemental damage Runeglassand perk on your Ring, this will increase the elemental damage dealt by the weapon, its Attunement, and its DoT effect.This also avoids some players increased resistances to Thrust and Physical damage sources.

It is best practice to use a magic damage type that is the least likely to be countered. While mostplayers tend not to focus on a specific magic damage type like they do for physical damage, it is stillpossible. In most cases, players may use extra Ice damage protection due to theIce Gauntlet, or Fire due to theFire Staff orBlunderbuss. As such, Nature, Arcane, or Lightningdamage can be beneficial options. Nature specifically is beneficial because it will always work inPvE environments because it is never weak to any enemy types.