Hatchet & Life Staff in New World: An Unkillable Build or Just Hype?

Yes, the Hatchet and Life Staff combination in New World can be a very effective build, especially for solo play and PvP. It offers a strong blend of sustain, survivability, and decent damage output. This build excels at keeping you alive while providing enough offensive pressure to take down enemies. The Hatchet’s Berserk ability provides crucial healing, damage buffs, and crowd control immunity, while the Life Staff keeps you topped up with heals. However, it’s crucial to understand its strengths, weaknesses, and how to properly optimize the build for it to truly shine.

The Allure of Immortality: Why Hatchet/Life Staff Works

The core appeal of the Hatchet/Life Staff build lies in its synergistic combination of healing and self-sustain. Here’s a breakdown of what makes this combination so potent:

• Unrivaled Survivability: The Hatchet’s Defy Death passive offers a cheat death mechanic, allowing you to survive a potentially fatal blow. Combined with the Life Staff’s healing abilities, you become incredibly difficult to kill.
• Berserk’s Versatility: Berserk is the cornerstone of the Hatchet, providing healing over time, damage buffs, and immunity to crowd control. This ability is invaluable in both PvE and PvP, allowing you to break free from stuns, roots, and other disabling effects.
• Strong Self-Healing: The Life Staff provides a constant source of healing, keeping you alive through sustained damage. Skills like Sacred Ground and Beacon offer potent AoE healing, while Divine Embrace provides powerful single-target heals.
• Aggressive Playstyle with Safety Net: The Hatchet allows for an aggressive melee playstyle, knowing you have the Life Staff to bail you out if things get dicey.
• Mobility: The Hatchet offers some decent mobility for getting around the map.

Building Your Unkillable Warrior: Key Skills and Attributes

To maximize the potential of this build, focus on the following:

• Attributes: Primarily focus on Focus to boost your healing output from the Life Staff. Allocate remaining points into Strength for Hatchet damage. A decent split would be around 300 Focus and 150 Strength, adjusting based on your playstyle and gear. Some players also put some in constitution, but the build is based on being hard to kill anyway, so I suggest focusing on Strength and Focus.
• Hatchet Skill Tree: Prioritize the Berserker tree. Essential skills include Berserk (with all upgrades), Feral Rush, and Raging Torrent. The Berserker tree provides crucial buffs and mobility.
• Life Staff Skill Tree: Focus on healing output and efficiency. Key skills include Sacred Ground, Beacon, and Divine Embrace. Investing in passives that increase healing power and reduce mana cost is crucial.
• Armor: Light armor is generally preferred for its increased healing output and mobility via dodge rolls. However, medium armor can provide a good balance of survivability and healing if you prefer. Choose armor with Focus and Strength.
• Gems: Use Diamonds in your Life Staff for increased healing and damage. Use Onyx in your armor to increase physical damage resistance. You could use Amber in your Hatchet to scale damage with Focus.

Playstyle: A Dance Between Offense and Defense

The Hatchet/Life Staff playstyle revolves around balancing aggressive melee attacks with strategic healing.

• Engage with the Hatchet: Use the Hatchet to deal damage and apply pressure. Utilize Feral Rush for mobility and gap-closing.
• Manage Berserk: Activate Berserk at the right moment for maximum impact, using its crowd control immunity and damage buffs to your advantage.
• Heal Reactively: Use the Life Staff to heal yourself and allies as needed. Position yourself strategically to maximize the effectiveness of your healing spells.
• Utilize Dodge Rolls: Light armor allows for frequent dodge rolls, which are crucial for avoiding damage and repositioning.

Potential Drawbacks and Considerations

While powerful, the Hatchet/Life Staff build isn’t without its drawbacks:

• Lower Burst Damage: Compared to dedicated DPS builds, this combination lacks burst damage potential.
• Mana Management: Managing mana can be challenging, especially in prolonged fights. Ensure you have mana potions and utilize passives that reduce mana cost.
• Vulnerable to Anti-Heal: Effects that reduce healing effectiveness can significantly weaken this build.
• Can Struggle Against Groups: While the healing is strong, the Hatchet’s AoE is limited. This build can struggle against large groups of enemies.

Is It Still Viable?

Despite potential drawbacks, the Hatchet/Life Staff remains a very viable build in New World. Its survivability and self-sustain make it a strong choice for solo players and those looking for a durable PvP build. With proper gear, skill selection, and playstyle, you can become an unkillable force on the battlefield.

Ultimately, the best build depends on your playstyle and preferences. However, the Hatchet/Life Staff is definitely worth considering if you value survivability and self-sustain above all else.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions about the Hatchet/Life Staff build in New World:

1. Is Hatchet/Life Staff good for leveling?

Yes, especially solo. Baggins wrote some nice guides for PvE and PvP. He’s a good LS player whose played the game for a long time and all game modes, so knows what he’s talking about. For solo leveling I’d go LS/VG until things get rough, then LS/Hatchet with Amber gem is really nice.

2. What are the best attributes for Hatchet/Life Staff?

Primarily focus on Focus to boost your healing output from the Life Staff. Allocate remaining points into Strength for Hatchet damage.

3. What armor should I use with Hatchet/Life Staff?

Light armor is generally preferred for its increased healing output and mobility via dodge rolls. However, medium armor can provide a good balance of survivability and healing if you prefer.

4. What gems should I use with Hatchet/Life Staff?

Use Diamonds in your Life Staff for increased healing and damage. Use Onyx in your armor to increase physical damage resistance. You could use Amber in your Hatchet to scale damage with Focus.

5. What are the best Hatchet skills for this build?

Prioritize the Berserker tree. Essential skills include Berserk (with all upgrades), Feral Rush, and Raging Torrent.

6. What are the best Life Staff skills for this build?

Key skills include Sacred Ground, Beacon, and Divine Embrace.

7. How do I manage mana with this build?

Ensure you have mana potions and utilize passives that reduce mana cost on the Life Staff. Consider using gear with mana regeneration perks.

8. Is Hatchet/Life Staff good for PvP?

Yes, the Hatchet is known for its defensiveness and survivability. Defy Death gives many weapons the freedom to play very aggressively because of its life-saving potential. The survivability makes it ideal for PvP.

9. Is Hatchet/Life Staff good for group content?

Yes, but it’s better suited for solo or small group play. For dedicated healing in large groups, a pure Life Staff build might be more effective.

10. What are the weaknesses of this build?

Lower burst damage, mana management, vulnerability to anti-heal, and struggles against large groups are some weaknesses.

11. How does Defy Death work?

Defy Death is a Hatchet passive that prevents death from a single hit, instead leaving you with a small amount of health. This allows for a chance to heal back to full health, however, some abilities do bypass Defy Death and will take you down.

12. Can you dual wield Hatchets in New World?

No. Players can equip and wield only a single one-handed weapon, and not two of the same kind at the same time.

13. What other weapons pair well with the Life Staff?

The Void Gauntlet can provide you with healing, buffs, debuffs, and AoE damage. You can use the Artifact Weapon, Lifetaker as the Void Gauntlet of choice. Lifetaker allows your Life Staff light and heavy attacks to apply Disintegrate (Rend).

14. Is the Life Staff good for solo play?

Yes. Baggins wrote some nice guides for PvE and PvP. He’s a good LS player whose played the game for a long time and all game modes, so knows what he’s talking about.

15. Which is the best starter weapon in New World?

Pairing the Hatchet with either the Sword and Shield, or the Great Axe, is a great starter weapon combo in New World for a couple of reasons. The Hatchet offers high damage, high mobility, a ranged option, and the ability for players to heal themselves through the Berserk ability.

Learning and adapting are crucial for mastering any build. To further enhance your understanding of game mechanics and design, consider exploring resources like the Games Learning Society at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/.

By carefully considering these factors, you can create a Hatchet/Life Staff build that truly shines in the world of New World, making you a force to be reckoned with.