Musket Abilities and Skill Trees for New World

While this page focuses on assessing the viability of abilities and skill tree nodes, it also gives a bit of advice on how to use them. The gameplay section of our Musket guide has additional information regarding the usage of abilities and each of our Musket PvP Builds and Musket PvE Builds has a detailed gameplay section that explains how to play the build.

• Powder Burn — 15s CD: Overload your musket with gun powder, causing the next shot to deal 110% weapon damage and inflict a burn that deals 20% weapon damage per second for 9s.
• Backdraft — Standard musket shots deal 12% additional damage if they hit a burning target.
• Chronic Trauma — If Powder Burn is a headshot, the burn duration is extended by 4s.

Summary: This ability is very powerful. It is a high damage shot that applies a very potent burn for a long duration. Additionally, its perk will put a debilitating slow on the target that will make it difficult for them to evade your shots.

Crafting Material: Steel Musket Charm - Crippling Powder Burn: Targets hit with Powder Burn are slowed by 24% (42% on weapon) for 5 seconds.

• Power Shot — 15s CD: Overload your musket with gun powder, causing the next shot to deal 150% weapon damage.
• Initial Engagement — When you hit with Power Shot, gain empower, increasing damage by 10% for 5s.
• First Blood — Power Shot deals 10% additional damage to targets with full health.
• Bullseye — Power Shot headshots reduce Power Shot's cooldown by 15%.

Summary: This ability is not often used because it just provides a slight damage increase to your shot. While this will result in a powerful shot, it is overshadowed by abilities that provide more kill potential.

Crafting Material: Starmetal Musket Charm - Refreshing Power Shot: Power Shot kills reduce this ability's cooldown by 54% (98% on weapon).

• Shooter's Stance — 18s CD: Player enters a crouching aim stance to enhance shooting performance. While in this stance, shots deal 100% weapon damage, mobility is reduced to zero and reload time is reduced by 75%.
• Shoot More — Shots fired before exiting stance increased to 5.
• Marksman — If 3 consecutive shots hit the same target, reduce all other musket cooldowns by 25%.

Summary: This is an important damage cooldown. It allows you to fire up to 5 shots without having to normally reload. These will do equivalent damage to a regular shot, and by using this ability and its perk you will have another empower effect applied that will increase damage output. This is a necessary ability.

Crafting Material: Orichalcum Musket Charm - Empowering Shooter's Stance: Hitting a target while in Shooter's Stance grants a stack of Empower, increasing damage by 9.7% (15% on weapon) for 6 seconds. Effect is removed when stance is exited. (Max 4 stacks)

• Stopping Power — 20s CD: A Powerful shot that deals 120% weapon damage, staggering the target and knocking back 3m. (Can be fired from hip or while aiming down sights.)
• Lasting Impression — Targets hit with Stopping Power are exhausted, reducing their stamina regeneration speed by 10% for 8s.
• Supplementary Repulsion — Targets hit with Stopping Power are slowed by 10% for 8s.

Summary: This ability is commonly used because it can be chained with another shot. If used immediately after firing it will instantly fire another shot and it has a stagger component that will let you easily hit the target a third time.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Steel Musket Charm - Refreshing Stopping Power: Stopping Power knockback distance is increased by 97% (151% on weapon).

• Traps — 20s CD: Deploy a trap that lasts for 20s. When triggered, it causes its target to be rooted, immobilizing them for 3s.
• Trapped Damage — Traps apply rend to targets that trigger them, increasing damage taken by 20% for 3s.
• Scent of Blood — Dealing damage to a trapped target heals you for 100% of weapon damage dealt.
• Double Trap — Gain an extra trap per cooldown, allowing 2 active traps to be placed in the world.

Summary: This is an option for PvP, but it does not have great viability. If you do happen to get a target within a trap, they can still dodge, and it can be difficult to secure a kill. It can also be difficult to properly place these traps and get a target stuck in one. As such, this ability is commonly avoided.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Starmetal Musket Charm - Accelerating Traps: Increase movement speed by 19% (33% on weapon) for 5 seconds after deploying a trap.

• Sticky Bomb — 12s CD: Throw a short range bomb that sticks to anything it makes contact with. Detonation will occur 3s after impact dealing 210% weapon damage to all targets within a 3m radius.
• Unflinching Walk — Sticky Bomb grants the player 40 stamina when it deals damage with an explosion.
• Sticky Slow — Direct hits with the Sticky Bomb cause the target to be slowed by 15% for 3s.

Summary: This is a commonly taken ability instead of Stopping Power. It can be thrown and it has a very forgiving hitbox in which it will attach to a player. It will deal large spikes of damage and hit nearby targets. The only disadvantage is that this explosion can be I-frame'd by dodging, or it can be avoided by using other abilities like Riposte.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Orichalcum Musket Charm - Mending Sticky Bombs: Every hit of Sticky Bomb heals you for 21% (31% on weapon) of damage done.

• Critical Reload — This is difficult to take advantage of. Hitting 3 headshots within 5 seconds just for one reload does not equate to a significant damage gain. As such, this is not recommended.
• Called Shot — This should always be taken. It is easy to maintain this by staying aimed down sights, or by being Shooter's Stance.
• Quick Load — You will never be hipfiring your Musket, so do not take this passive.
• Empowering Headshot — This adds a large stack of empower whenever you hit a headshot. This should always be taken.
• Hunter's Insight — While stamina return is nice, only getting 5 stamina back is not worth it. This passive does not have much value.
• Ballistic Advantage — By taking this passive you will be able to deal more damage from farther away. You should always choose this passive.
• Called Shot Resupply — Great source of passive cooldown reduction, this is highly recommended.
• Optimal Range — This passive increases damage done from farther distances. This is always valuable since you will always be playing far back.
• Heightened Precision — Stacking damage increase that reinforces the importance of staying aimed down sight. This synergizes well with Shooter's Stance.
• Sniper — This is the only ultimate passive you should be taken. It allows you to zoom in on targets and increases headshot damage. This helps with long-range gameplay.

• Salt On The Wounds — Increases damage dealt on low health targets, this should always be taken.
• Back It Up — Walking movement speed is not needed, and you will not often be within 8 meters of an enemy player.
• Weakened Defense — You do not need increased stamina damage. The additional armor penetration does not have enough value to justify using this passive.
• Empowering Weakness — You will commonly hit players with an active debuff because of passives and perks like Crippling Powder Burn. This can be a strong empower that is usually active.
• Hustle — This passive adds some additional mobility to a Musket build, but it is mainly necessary to take because the other options in this row are not great and you need to progress to the next row.
• Energy Burst — The stamina given for hitting a target with an active debuff is marginal and not necessary. You will never need stamina while you are actively shooting.
• Tactical Reload — Incredible passive to secure more kills. This results in higher damage output because of your ability to get more shots off.
• Kick 'em When They're Down — Great passive that synergizes with Crippling Powder Burn. This will result in a significant damage increase.
• Lethal Combo — This ultimate passive is almost never taken because of the power that comes from Sniper. You will not often have Trapper debuffs applied to the target, and there are far better passive options that would have to be dropped in order to get this ultimate, making it not worth taking.