Best Shield Perks for Tanking in New World
The cornerstone of any effective tank build in New World is a solid shield, and its perks can significantly impact your survivability and utility. While armor perks contribute to your overall resilience, the specific perks on your shield are crucial for maximizing your tanking potential. So, what are the absolute best shield perks for tanking in New World? The answer is a combination of Fortifying Shield Rush, Shield Bash, Sturdy, and ideally, a specific elemental resistance perk if you’re targeting particular content. These are the core perks, but let’s break them down further.
Why These Perks Matter for Tanking
Fortifying Shield Rush: The King of Defensive Perks
Fortifying Shield Rush is arguably the most crucial perk for tanks who utilize a sword and shield build. When activated, your Shield Rush ability grants you a significant fortification buff, increasing your armor rating, thereby making you significantly more resistant to all types of damage. This is incredibly important as it directly increases your survivability in the thick of battle. For tanks constantly engaging in combat, this perk provides a consistent boost to their resilience, allowing them to withstand sustained damage while holding enemy aggro.
Shield Bash: Control and Aggro Generation
While not strictly defensive, Shield Bash is an amazing perk that can improve your tanking capabilities significantly. It allows you to inflict a stun on enemies you hit with your Shield Bash ability. This offers invaluable crowd control, disrupting enemy attacks and providing windows for your team to deal damage safely. Furthermore, in New World, stunned enemies are more likely to focus on you, thus helping to solidify aggro and maintain control of the engagement, especially against multiple targets.
Sturdy: The Backbone of Consistent Defense
Sturdy provides a straightforward but powerful benefit, enhancing your block stability. This means you can block more attacks before your block breaks, conserving stamina and mitigating damage. This is crucial for tanks, as running out of stamina while blocking means taking full damage. Sturdy allows you to reliably soak up incoming damage, making it a must-have perk for shield-focused tanks. It also helps avoid the “stagger” effect if your stamina is depleted while blocking.
Elemental Resistance Perks: Targeted Damage Mitigation
While not always needed, specific elemental resistance perks (e.g., Flame Protection, Void Protection, etc.) can be incredibly beneficial when facing specific enemies or bosses that deal consistent elemental damage. These perks can greatly reduce the elemental damage received, increasing your overall survivability when encountering fire, void, ice, or nature-based attacks. Identifying the primary element in upcoming content allows for strategic perk selection, maximizing your efficiency and resilience.
Shield Perk Considerations for Specific Tanking Situations
While Fortifying Shield Rush, Shield Bash, and Sturdy form the core of a strong tank shield, it’s important to consider your specific role and the content you’re facing. In areas with high magical damage, prioritize elemental resistance perks. When facing waves of weaker enemies, Shield Bash becomes even more important for crowd control and aggro maintenance. Ultimately, your shield perks should align with your desired playstyle and the challenges ahead. Remember that combination is also key. It’s not always about having just one perfect perk, but about how they work together to improve your tanking performance.
Related FAQs for Shield Tanking in New World
Here are 15 frequently asked questions to provide additional context and deeper understanding:
1. Do shield perks stack?
Yes, similar shield perks generally stack, meaning that multiple instances of Sturdy will further increase your block stability. However, there are diminishing returns on stacking some perks too heavily, so a balanced approach is usually the best.
2. Are shield perks affected by armor weight?
No, shield perks function independently of your armor weight. Therefore, heavy armor users gain the same benefit from shield perks as light armor users. This means you can focus entirely on optimizing the shield’s perks for your tanking needs without worrying about any armor weight-related penalty.
3. Is Shield Bash better than Refreshing Shield Bash?
Shield Bash is generally considered more valuable for its crowd control capabilities, as it provides a crucial stun. While Refreshing Shield Bash reduces the cooldown of your shield abilities, it doesn’t offer the immediate disruption and aggro pull that a stun provides. If your priority is tanking, the stun is usually the more versatile choice.
4. Does the shield’s base armor rating matter?
Yes, the shield’s base armor rating contributes to your overall defense. However, perks often have a more significant impact on tanking effectiveness. Still, it’s better to use a shield with a higher base armor value in combination with good perks.
5. How do shield perks interact with other tanking abilities?
Shield perks directly enhance the functionality of your shield-based abilities. For example, Fortifying Shield Rush complements the Shield Rush skill by providing a substantial armor buff. It’s important to consider this synergy to build a well-rounded tanking setup.
6. Can shields roll with non-combat perks?
Yes, shields can roll with non-combat perks (such as gathering luck or crafting bonuses), but these are generally less valuable for tanking. You should prioritize shields with perks that increase survivability and threat generation.
7. How does my shield perk build impact taunting?
While shield perks don’t directly taunt, controlling enemies with Shield Bash can help keep them focused on you, especially when paired with a carnelian gem in your weapon. The stun also helps to ensure your target does not run away from you which can disrupt a smooth and controlled encounter.
8. What are good alternatives if I can’t get my ideal perks?
If you can’t get the perfect perks, look for ones that offer some form of damage reduction, increased stamina recovery, or reduced cooldowns. These are all helpful for effective tanking. The Empowered Shield Bash perk can also be an okay alternative for Shield Bash.
9. Are there shield perks that work better for different weapons?
Generally, the core perks (Fortifying Shield Rush, Shield Bash, Sturdy) are beneficial regardless of your secondary weapon. However, if you’re using a Greatsword as a secondary, you will value Accelerated Resolve over Fortifying Shield Rush.
10. How can I tell which perks are the best on a shield?
Perks will be shown in the description of each item. Understanding the effect of each perk is crucial for identifying what is valuable for your particular play style and role. Consider the perk’s impact on your overall tanking performance, survivability, and ability to control engagements.
11. Can I replace perks on shields in New World?
No, you cannot change the perks on gear after it’s rolled, which makes farming for the right perks a vital step for character optimization. This is why knowing what you’re looking for is so important to cut down on wasted resources.
12. What is the best way to obtain shields with ideal perks?
The best way to obtain shields with ideal perks is by engaging in high-level activities, participating in elite chest runs, and crafting with high crafting level skills. While this method is slow, it is the most consistent way to acquire good items.
13. Do shields count toward gear sets?
No, shields don’t count towards armor set bonuses. However, they are affected by certain perks such as Agile Defender, which provides an armor bonus to light armor users.
14. How do I handle a lack of good shield perks while leveling?
During the leveling process, focus on having a decent base shield and a functional weapon. As you get to end-game, you will have more time and resources to focus on getting good shield perks. Don’t sweat it too much during the leveling process.
15. What are the top recommended tank stats for New World?
The two main attributes for a tank are Strength and Constitution. However, the distribution of points depends on whether you prioritize damage or survivability. Usually, around 300 points in your primary attribute and 200 in the secondary attribute at the end-game is a good place to be.