New World GreatSword + Spear Executioner Build

Greatsword + Spear Build

Hey everyone! Today we will be covering Redlaf's Greatsword and Spear Executioner Build. This is a light armor build where you will be rolling around, dealing high DPS, and killing enemy healers, bows, and mages with ease! If that sounds fun, keep reading.

Additionally, be sure to check out the build video if that helps! And if you enjoy this build check out twitch.tv/redlaf for more gameplay like this or to ask questions!

The Basics

What is this build good at?: Single target lock down into high DPS backline diving. You excel when going after squishy enemies and taking care of them. You have a lot of single target CC on the spear with Javelin and Sweep to lock down enemies, rend and bleed them, and then execute them with the greatsword.

What is this build bad at?: This is a squishy build so you are susceptible to dying if you get crowd controlled. Due to this, the build has a bit of a high skill floor to be able to excel at. In OPR and Arenas we use low constitution with this build so we do not want to be fighting in clumps or you will die very very fast.

Click to enable YT Video

Attributes

You have two main options with this build for attributes:

150 Strength, 200 Dexterity, 165 Consitution
150 Strength, 165 Dexterity, 200 Consitution

The main difference between these two is just deciding the amount of damage you wish to try and do versus how much health you are willing to sacrifice. The first option I use the most, especially in OPR and Arenas. Getting up to 200 dexterity works great for spear since it primarily scales with it so you get extra damage there. It still benefits the greatsword with the bonus damage and the 150 strength helps with the greatsword's even scaling. Additionally, 200 dexterity gives you bonus backstab damage, which you do a lot since you are often flanking.

However, if you were to ever use this in wars you would have to go 200 constitution. Running wars as a melee DPS without 200 constitution is almost troll unless you are the best player in the game. There are just too many people, too many sources of damage, etc that if you don't have the extra health and 200 con perk, you can just be deleted so fast.

Gear

Armor:

1. Resilient

You will want 5 resilient on your armor, so every single piece needs to have this. When you dive into the backline you will often have enemies focus you. These are typically high DPS players as well with mages and bow/dexterity players. Those players will critical hit you a lot, so having 5 resilient will make it so that you are not bursted so easily and you can fight them.

2. Shirking Fortification or Elemental Aversion

For secondary perks on your armor, you will want to get at least 4 stacks of shirking fortification. If you can get 5 stacks then that would be great, but otherwise you'll want to get 4 stacks. A lot of light armor players like Shirking Energy, which is fair, but with light armor changes and how squishy you are, I believe it is worth it to manage your stamina better and instead take less damage. With four stacks you get 15.6% damage absorption just by dodging through an attack.

However, you can also swap out Shirking Fortification for Elemental Aversion if you feel you are being hit by mages a lot. This is nice since you don't have to do anything to gain the defensive traits, but it isn't just a flat fortify like shirking fortification is.

3. Non Weapon Perk Options: Freedom, Refreshing, and/or Critical Retribution

For the final perks on your armor, you would be looking at getting Freedom, Refreshing or Critical Retribution on most of the gear. Freedom is the biggest one you'd want to get for this build since you are light armor you are susceptible to being bursted down quickly if you get CC'd. Having Freedom allows you to operate a lot more efficiently and less hassled. Refreshing is nice to get your cooldowns up quicker, meaning you get more damage and more capability on staying on top of a fleeing enemy or fleeing yourself. Especially with stance changes in the greatsword, having shorter cooldowns is very important. Critical Retribution is also a great option for higher damage, especially since you are going to be hit by crits a lot when fighting other DPS players.

4. Weapon Perk Options (ON ARMOR): Relentless Freedom and Bleeding Sweep

There are then the two weapon perks you want to get. Bleeding Sweep is a beneficial perk as it allows you to just add more damage into your combo since you'll often be leading with Sweep anyways. Additionally it works well with some skill tree perks you take so overall it is just a nice boost in damage. Relentless Freedom is also important as it provides a lot of damage (110% weapon damage on the first hit and 120% weapon damage on the second hit). So having increased critical chance on that ability helps with your damage. Lastly, having a way to escape soft crowd control is also nice.

Jewelry

Amulet

Health
Slashing Protection or Thrust Protection
Stamina Recovery or Divine

Ring

Champion's Ring

Earring

Weapons:

Greatsword

Trenchant Strikes or Thwarting Strikes
Abyssal Attunement (or another Attunement)
Keenly Jagged, Keen Speed, or Refreshing Move

Spear

Sundering Javelin
Keen Speed, Vicious, Keenly Jagged, etc

Heartrune

Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines - This is helpful with locking down opponents and weakening/rending them so it's easier to kill them
Brutal Heartrune of Stoneform or Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform - Stoneform is very undervalued. As a squishy light armor player this allows you to escape easily or take aggressive engages.