Life Staff Guide and Builds for New World

The Life Staff acts as the primary healing weapon in New World: Aeternum. It offers flexible builds to support high burst group healing, as well as builds that allow for massively spread area of effect healing. It provides an array of buffs that benefit a player's defensiveness in PvP and PvE.

There are two main variations to the Life Staff. One build focuses on targeted burst healing to keep your group members alive. The second build focuses on non-targeted healing through the use of area of effect (AoE) abilities and heals over time.

For more builds, beyond the two builds we present below, please refer to our PvE and PvP build pages:

This is the preferred group healing build for Season One. It can be used to provide a mix of AoE and targetted healing.

• Divine Embrace — Targets party members and acts as a traditionally-cast burst heal. It also has AoE opportunity through Shared Struggle and Rebound
• Sacred Ground — Targets a player and casts a zone at their feet. This creates a healing circle for a quick burst heal and residual healing over time. It also amplifies the healing received of any player in the zone through Anointed.
• Beacon — Projectile that is aimed and will stick to the first player or surface it touches. This can be used on the ground when large damage is occurring, but it is best placed on front-line melee players so that the healing area continues to move to the action.

This build can be used, but be mindful that in Season One Fortify is significantly weaker, and the buffs applied from Orb of Protection result in increased damage from Invigorated Punishment.

This build can be used to heal groups near point, but it is better for more niche groups such as a kill squad or a Dex group.

• Light's Embrace — Casted heal that will have lower baseline healing than Divine Embrace, but has great utility through Accelerating Light's Embrace and its stamina return. This should be used to top off the health bars of allies, when the target is not below 50% health, or Divine is on cooldown.

This build relies on healing over time abilities to heal large groups. It is best paired with Refreshing due to high cooldown abilities. It is best for AoE war healing (PvP) or large group open world content.

• Sacred Ground — Can be freely placed on the ground to heal large "clumps" of players where the highest concentration of players are located. It is best to preemptively place it to counter enemy AoE damage and crowd control. It also amplifies the healing received of any player in the zone through Anointed.
• Orb of Protection — Projectile that is aimed at friendly players and provides a small burst of healing with long healing over time effects and a 10% fortify to reduce damage taken. Aim this on the most concentrated "clumps" of players to provide a long-duration heal over time to large groups. The more players with the heal will increase the amount of times you will receive Mending Protection.
• Beacon — Projectile that is aimed and will stick to the first player or surface it touches. This can be used on the ground when large damage is occurring, but it is best placed on front-line melee players so that the healing area continues to move to the action.

Splash of Light is a very interesting ability. It has 100m range, but it also does not require line of sight. The problem is that you are locked into an animation that makes you very vulnerable. It can be an effective option when you have a group that will be very spread out, or it can be used when playing inside of a Fort and it is easy to lose track of group members.

This build can be an effective option for groups that are playing in light armor and who are highly mobile. It can also be an option if you want to dedicate all of your healing to your dedicated group.

This build can be great for when you are tasked with healing a group, such as a Dex group, that is not playing near you. This allows you to then still contribute fantastic AoE healing to point groups.

In PvE you will be using healing over time so that you can swap to your Void Gauntlet more often and deal damage in order to push content faster. Also, note that you should not take Sacred Protection because it increases threat generation and you do not need the healing increase. You can also take Mending Touch instead of Enchanted Justice.

The Life Staff secondary weapons provide more options for healing and group utility, or options for survival through defensiveness and mobility.

Rapier is the premier PvP secondary as it offers defensiveness and mobility with all of its abilities to help escape enemies and reposition. Riposte will stun targets and completely block and incoming attack. Evade allows for dodging abilities, a quick invulnerability frame, and a way to get haste and stamina back. Fleche dashes a far distance to escape and quickly reposition.

Void Gauntlet offers healing over time and burst healing through Orb of Decay. It allows you to root enemies in place with Petrifying Scream for defensive utility and to set up kills for teammates. You can also use Oblivion to increase damage output, stamina and mana regeneration, and remove enemy buffs.

This is the best option for speedrun attempts in M3 expeditions. It will allow you to pair it with a healing over time build and maximize your ability to contribute damage.

This can be used if you prefer the Void Gauntlet as a PvP secondary instead of the Rapier.

100 Constitution will be your baseline for all types of healing in both PvP and PvE. It gives you enough defensiveness while still maintaining great healing output. The additional points from higher gearscore sets can go into Focus for increased healing, or Constitution for more survivability. When PvP AoE healing, you can go as low as 5 Constitution to offer more healing output by putting more points into Focus, but that's truly once you master the art of healing!

This section restricts itself to the important perks of Life Staff. For a complete rundown, please read our dedicated guide:

• Refreshing Divine Embrace (Weapon) — When using a targeted healing build be sure that this perk is on a life staff for maximum value.
• Mending Protection (Weapon/Armor) — When AoE healing, this is best placed on your life staff for more healing output. But when using a targeted build, the healing increase is not as valuable as cooldown reduction from Refreshing Divine Embrace.
• Keen Beacon (Armor) — This provides free critical chance to all players being healed by your beacon. It offers great utility if able to fit it into an AoE healing gear setup.

• Blessed — This perk is NECESSARY for healing. It is one of the only weapon perks that improves healing output.
• Refreshing Move — This is the most optimal third perk in addition to an ability perk ( Refreshing Divine Embrace or Mending Protection) and Blessed. This provides a large amount of cooldown reduction in addition to Revitalize when light attacking.

• 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 to improve overall defensiveness.
• Freedom — This will allow you to play more aggressively by reducing the duration of crowd-control. You should play with 4 stacks.
• Elemental Aversion — Use this perk for elemental damage reduction from weapons like the Fire Staff.
• Enchanted Ward — This perk reduces the damage of light and heavy attacks - very useful for both PvE and PvP situations.
• Refreshing — This can be an optional third perk when you want a source of cooldown reduction in your build.

• Elemental Aversion — This perk is a viable alternative in PvP as well, but it is overshadowed by other PvP options. It provides great defense in mutated expeditions to help mitigate magical effects.
• Enchanted Ward — This perk reduces the damage of light and heavy attacks - very useful for both PvE and PvP situations.
• Refreshing — This can be an optional third perk when you want a source of cooldown reduction in your build.

• Health — This is the standard pick for all builds, it is free health that will add to the defensiveness of your 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 life and continue the fight.
• Thrust Protection — This acts as a third perk option that provides more defensiveness against Bows, Muskets, Blunderbusses, Spears, and Rapiers.
• Slash Protection — This acts as a third perk slot that provides more defensiveness against Greatswords, Great Axes, Hatchets, and Swords.

• Sacred — This perk functions similarly to Blessed. It is one of the only ring perks that will result in a healing output increase. This should be the main perk you are searching for on a ring.
• Hearty — This provides an increase to your stamina cap, making it a high priority for all builds.
• Healing Breeze — This will act as free additional healing over time that should be added in any build.
• Purifying — This can be an alternative option that will allow you to have some self healing.
• Blessed
• Refreshing

• Refreshing Toast
• Healthy Toast
• Healing Heart
• Nimble
• Refreshing

The best Life Staff currently available is the Heceta Life Staff. When using Heceta, it is important to spam Heavy attacks on your group members as your cooldowns are up to maximize the buffs on them.

• Nimble Coat
• Featherweight

• Ankh

Minor Heartrune of Stoneform is the most defensive and useful option a healer has. It allows you to freely break out of crowd control effects, become immune to stagger, and obtain defensive buffs. There are three viable upgrade options:

• Brutal Heartrune of Stoneform
• Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform
• Cunning Heartrune of Stoneform

Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform is the best pick as it not only gives a 10% Fortify, but a healing over time effect as well. This is our best option after the changes to Fortify in Season One.

Stoneform is best used as an anti-cc button. Try your best to save this for moments where you have been stunned, rooted, or about to be knocked down, so that you can escape.

While this does provide a hefty defensive buff. The most important piece of it is being predictive. Use it proactively before abilities like Shockwave or Petrifying Scream since it prevents you from being CC'd or staggered. This is also great for pushing through doors to get into fort, or other choke points. The same logic should be applied in PvE to various mechanics that may stun or root you.

Do not waste Stoneform by holding it too long. While it is a valuable cooldown, heartrunes charge extremely fast for healers. All of the healing we do charges the heartrune, so it is great if you can spread your heals to many allies to get maximum charge. Use it when you feel it can be useful. Do not waste a life by not using it.

In PvE, you can still use Stalwart Heartrune of Stoneform, but it is more optimal to focus on damage output. As such, you could use Brutal Heartrune of Grasping Vines to keep enemies clumped and apply a rend, or use Brutal Heartrune of Detonate for free damage.

For more detailed information on how to properly use Gems in your Life Staff build, please refer to the our Life Staff Gems guide.

In any weapon that you heal with you will be using Cut Pristine Diamond. This includes Life Staffs and Void Gauntlets.

If you are wanting to increase the damage scaling of a secondary weapon, use Cut Pristine Amber if you are completely Focus scaling. If you are hybrid scaling (You have some dedicated points into a weapons primary scaling attributes and some Focus) it is better in most cases to just use Cut Flawed Amber.

In PvP it is most effective to have an even resistance split, and then dedicate additional defensiveness to Thrust through an amulet perk like Thrust Protection. To achieve an even resistance split you can use either of the following gem setups:

• Cut Pristine Onyx x4 & Cut Pristine Opal x4
• Cut Pristine Diamond x4 & Cut Pristine Malachite x4

In PvE combat, more specifically mutators, elemental resistance is the main concern. You can use the following gems in your gear:

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

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

Healing in New World is very situational and dependent on cooldown usage. It is valuable to know when to hold a cooldown to prepare for windows of high damage, or when to not hold a cooldown and use it because it will come back before it is needed again. When in doubt, shorter cooldowns, such as Orb of Protection can be used liberally due to the long buff durations it provides and small burst healing potential. Divine Embrace is similar but should be used with more caution as anyone can receive a large amount of damage in an instant. While this cooldown is still low and can be used more freely, be aware of the situation and acknowledge the fact that a fight may be coming soon. If anyone is ever below 50%, always use this ability since Refreshing Divine Embrace will reset its cooldown. For cooldowns such as Sacred Ground and Beacon, try to save these for large group fights or high damage output situations to ensure survival. These are cooldowns that are necessary to have and can be detrimental to your team's survival if they are down when a fight is starting.

Buff management is another high priority skill. As a healer, you must maintain Bend Light by dodging to refresh its duration to receive a healing effectiveness increase. If you select Intensify ensure this is maintained before using any abilities to result in the largest amount of healing possible. Keep an eye on your buffs above your health bar, and when possible, make sure these buffs do not fall off.

The theoretical healing rotation for the most healing output is as follows.

• (If chosen)Heavy attack x3 to build Intensify stacks.
• Dodge to receive Bend Light
• Cast Orb of Protection to obtain the Mending Protection buff.
• Cast Sacred Ground to increase the target's healing received through Anointed.
• (If chosen)Cast Beacon at the location of your Sacred Ground.
• (If chosen)Cast Divine Embrace to burst heal any party member who continues to lose significant health.
• Light attack as a filler ability when cooldowns are not up, or not needed, this provides healing through Blissful Touch.
• Repeat.

This rotation will change dependent on the build you are playing. For more specific rotations please refer to our PvP Builds and PvE Builds:

For more information, about Life Staff abilities, we have a dedicated guide that goes through every single ability in great detail:

Always Be Clicking: Always light attack and only stop when you absolutely have to. Light attacks result in so much free healing from Blissful Touch and cooldown reduction from Revitalize and Refreshing Move. This is also another great way to freely charge your heartrune.

You can begin casting an ability like Divine Embrace and successfully pre-cast the ability right before damage goes out onto an ally. It may not look like there health bar goes up and down, but if done properly your cast will completely negate the received damage.

You can also begin casts while waiting for an ally to take damage to try and predict incoming damage spikes. If the damage does not come, it is helpful to block right as the ability is about to be casted to completely cancel the cast. Then begin another pre-cast to make sure you are ready for the incoming damage.

When casting something like Divine Embrace you can swap the target that is being focused on using a keybind or the scroll wheel. When the cast finishes, it will cast the heal on whoever is targeted last, not who is targeted first. So, if done correctly, you can redirect healing to the target who needs it the most in an instant.

One of the best things you can do as a healer is practice with targeted keybinds right away. Determine what works best for you, but having targeted keybinds will improve your healing immensely. This offers an extremely efficient method of healing once you have practiced it. To optimize targeted casts you will want to first hit the keybind for your respective ability, then hit the keybind of the player in need of healing. This will eliminate any awkward scroll healing and does not require you to have to left click to confirm any heals.

Make sure that you set a key-bind in your settings that acts as a self-healing modifier. To properly use this first hold whatever key is bound, then hit the ability you are wanting to cast, and then it will cast on yourself. This removes any need to ever have a keybind for Party Member 1. You are always the first member of the party, therefore if you have a self heal keybind, you do not need to worry about a Party Member 1 Bind. If you do not bind a self heal modifier, then you will need to keep the Party Member bind.

Riposte is an extremely valuable cooldown. Your instincts will tell you to pop it as soon as there is trouble. Think before you use it. Just because are getting caught in a Gravity Well or a Shockwave is incoming does not mean you have to use this cooldown. You can simply Evade to get out of something like a Gravity Well. For Shockwave and other stuns you can just block or dodge. When in doubt, it is better to use evade first and see if that gets you out of danger, then resort to repositioning, then your last ditch effort should be Riposte.

Repositioning is an incredibly powerful tool in PvP healing, and making sure that you use Fleche to do so is important. When possible, use your abilities and maintain your position, keep your eyes open and ready for a future push. Use Fleche to quickly cover ground, or to confuse enemies and change direction. This is great when combined with Refreshing Fleche. When using this perk, try to just narrowly clip the back of enemies when using the ability to potentially get a huge reset on your cooldown.

Evade is much stronger than most believe. While it did receive a nerf and only provides stamina after dodging an attack, this ability is a strong defensive tool. When being attacked you can use it to receive a quick invulnerability frame and avoid damage, return stamina, and receive a haste buff. It is exceptional when trying to confuse incoming enemies, a clever evade can misdirect an attacker and offer you a route to escape.

Orb of Decay has incredible healing potential when used correctly. Whenever possible, aim this ability toward the largest clump of allies and enemies. On the way out it will deal damage, apply a DoT, and rend the targets (If enough are hit it can activate Voidcaller for additional healing). On the way back it will provide a large healing over time effect to any ally it passes through. If timed correctly, the ability can be reactivated to explode the orb and give an additional burst heal. To be the most efficient, try to "pop" your orb right as it passes through your targets so that they receive a heal over time and a quick burst heal.

Petrifying Scream is your primary defensive peel. This ability is easy to predict, so be smart with using it. Often times Void Gauntlet healers will swap to the weapon as soon as they are being swarmed by enemies and the first instinct is to use Scream. Most players can predict that. Try to add some confusion. It may be best to dodge in a direction first and place a Oblivion to provide stamina regeneration and then throw after your enemy has dodged or exhausted themselves. If you cast a different ability before Scream, they may try to predict it and preemptively avoid the ability. If you then immediately follow up with a Scream you may bait them and catch them off guard. This ability also provides a large fortify buff so use that to your defensive advantage.

Void Gauntlet has many self-healing components. Orb of Decay can give you a heal over time or a burst heal, but also keep in mind the passives in the skill tree. Whenever your Void Gauntlet critically hits you will receive some healing based on the damage. But most importantly, if you are max mana and dodge with your Void Gauntlet out you will get a significant amount of health every 30 seconds. Use this to your advantage!

In windows of down time, feel free to block while using your Void Gauntlet to restore mana and receive cooldown reduction for your Void Gauntlet abilities.

Voidcaller is a very strong ultimate when used properly. A total of 6 targets must be hit by an ability such as Petrifying Scream or Orb of Decay. When aiming at large groups of enemie, or if you pop Orb on a few targets during its damage phase, this will cause a large damage and healing circle to spin around you lasting 6 seconds. This heal will tick allies for similar amounts as a Beacon would. If combined with all other AoE heals, this can be an effective way to provide allies with significant burst. Also, if you weapon swap while this is active it will drop onto the ground and function as if it were like a Sacred Ground

When using this ability the main point of focus is Refreshing Divine Embrace and making sure it is on your weapon. When casting this on an ally you want to prioritize using it on someone who is below 50% health so you can get an almost instant reset and have it available. Do your best to not use this to top off health bars. It may be advantageous to delay a heal on a teammate when you know there is more damage incoming so that you can get a proper reset. This is one of your largest burst heal options and should be used in moments of high damage.

This can be used multiple different ways, the most common is in AoE clump fighting or when you have allies stacked together. This ability has the largest AoE output in the game. It is great to place this on points, on bosses, or on top of enemy abilities--like Gravity Well. It can also be used in single target scenarios to increase the incoming healing of that target through Anointed. Typically this ability will be one of the first ones you place down so that the rest of your follow-up healing is more effective.

The clap animation from Splash of Light makes you a vulnerable target if used at inopportune times. When used, you will take on the role of a cheerleader and clap your hands above your head. This locks you into your animation and you cannot cancel it. This makes it easy to be CC'd and killed. When choosing to use this ability make sure you are in a safe location and that your allies are within 100 meters. Try your best to not use this with enemies in your face unless it is an emergency.

When using this ability it is one that can be used rather freely. It has a low cooldown, resets fast, and applies a very long set of buffs to the target. All of the buffs it provides are longer than the cooldown of the ability, meaning it can be used on as many targets as possible to continue maintaining the long heal over time and fortify effects. Try to get this on as many targets as possible so that you can increase your up time on Mending Protection. Additionally, make sure to prioritize casting this on your allies. Whenever someone is healed by it you will also receive the healing over time effect and fortify. As such, only when you have no other option for survival should you cast it on your own feet.

This ability has incredible healing potential due to its scaling effect with Life Staff buffs and it applying even when the buffs derive from other Life Staffs. It has an incredibly low cooldown which makes it able to be casted much more than Divine Embrace without being punished. As such, use this to heal allies even when slight amounts of health are gone. As long as health is restored the target will receive the Accelerating Light's Embrace haste buff, and receive 15 stamina back. Otherwise, be sure to have this ready for large bursts of damage on your allies. If you cast Divine Embrace and miss the chance of the reset through Refreshing Divine Embrace, you are able to immediately follow it up with Light's Embrace. This rotation of alternating casted healing abilities should allow for one to be up continuously to offer repeated burst healing. Having two strong casted heals like this also allows for you to maintain multiple targets at once in an outnumbered fight in addition to keeping yourself alive in a pinch.

When used in combination with Sacred Ground this will produce the most potent AoE healing that New World has to offer. Only use this ability if you are choosing to be in an AoE healing build that maximizes Refreshing. Or if you are in PvE combat and can reliably light attack a single target. Be careful when using this ability. While it can be extremely beneficial to stick it to an ally, this can result in missed skill shots and the Beacon projectile ends up out of range and unusable. If you are not confident in your ability to hit your ally feel free to stick it to the ground on a point, a doorway, or on top of a Sacred Ground. This is a long cooldown so it is punishing when it is wasted.

In many healing builds you can stray off of the suggested skill trees and opt to take Intensify. While this does increase overall healing, it does result in a missed healing opportunity, lack of cooldown reduction, and more margin for error. In the time it takes to land three heavy attacks on enemies to properly stack the buff, you can most definitely get 4-5 light attacks off. These light attacks will trigger Revitalize for cooldown reduction if they hit an enemy, and additionally they will offer a large amount of healing as you shoot through allies with Blissful Touch. Furthermore, if you ever miss a heavy attack it simply wastes time, and if you ever swap weapons the buff completely drops. In all, it is easier and more effective in most cases to just avoid taking this and opt for a skill with more consistent value.

If you have your Beacon come off cooldown while one is still active the first beacon will disappear. This is not the case for Sacred Ground. Two of these can be out at the same time.

While weapon ultimate abilities are very strong. In some cases it is unnecessary to push for Divine Blessing due to suboptimal skills being in the way. In any Divine Embrace build you can easily pick this up. But for AoE healing builds or Light's Embrace builds you will be forced to take something like Enchanted Justice, this skill in combination with needing to take Intensify to reach the ultimate is just outweighed by other skill choices. So, no you do not always need this skill.

Most simply put, no you do not NEED it. But this is the standard PvP setup and it is great for mitigating heavy burst damage. In this build I would not go under 150 Constitution. Wanting more healing output to increase scoreboard position is not the point of this build. Save that for the AoE healers.

In PvP there are plenty of objects and structures that you can light attack, such as: Target Dummies, Doors, Turrets, and War Horns, that will still trigger skills and perks like Revitalize and Refreshing Move. Once again, you can also charge your heartrune easily with this.

If you are a healer and you are concerned about low position on the War leaderboard, or you are proud of your top healing position, go back and take a look at how your group performed. Healing in general, and especially in this build, is not leaderboard focused. Some of the best healers do the least healing in a PvP environment. Just because people pad numbers does not mean that they are the best healer. Focus on saving lives, communicating properly, and seeing how many kills you can help your teammates get.

You never have to use any weapon if you do not wish to. Void Gauntlet is the only weapon that offers another way to heal and multiple utility options to help with damage output and survivability.

Void Blade healing is great for pushing speed runs and acting like a pseudo fourth DPS in PvE. It is not recommended in PvP. Make sure you put out all your heals over time and then pump out as much damage as you can. If done correctly, you can time this with Voidcaller availability to heal while you are doing damage. You can then combine this with Essence Rupture to continue resetting its cooldown and healing the party strictly with your Void Gauntlet out!