Rapier 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 Rapier guide has additional information regarding the usage of abilities and each of our Rapier PvP Builds and Rapier PvE Builds has a detailed gameplay section that explains how to play the build.

• Tondo — 6s CD: Slash so quickly that it extends the reach of your blade up to 5m. This strike deals 50% weapon damage and applies a bleed that will deal an additional 10% weapon damage per second for 12s.
• Thirst For Blood — When applying the first bleed stack to an opponent, Tondo's cooldown is reduced by 10%.
• And Again — If you hit only 1 target, even on a blocked hit, Tondo's cooldown is reduced by 25%.
• Proper Spacing — Increases initial hit damage from Tondo by 100% if you are at least 4m away from your target.

Summary: This is very powerful in PvE. It is easy to apply, deals high damage, and stacks three times. It can be applied to multiple enemies at once and has a very low cooldown. It will an effective method of increasing single-target or AoE DPS.

Crafting Material: Steel Rapier Charm - Keen Tondo: Increase Crit Chance by 12% (21% on weapon) against targets affected by Tondo's Bleed.

• Flourish and Finish — 15s CD: Flourish performs an attack dealing 90% weapon damage, staggering and pushing back enemies. Pressing light attack at the end of Flourish will perform the follow up attack, Finish. Finish lunges forward, staggering and dealing 120% direct weapon damage and consumes all rapier bleeds on any target hit dealing 110% of their damage immediately.
• With Flair — Gain grit on both Flourish and Finish.
• Swagger — Gain 20 stamina when successfully hitting a target with Finish.
• Fuel — Each tick of damage from Tondo's bleed reduces the cooldown of this ability by 3.5%.
• Bloody End — Finish deals 150% of the rapier's bleed damage instead of only 110%.

Summary: This ability is a multi-faceted option. Its two attacks will provide defensiveness and offensiveness. It can easily finish off enemies by staggering them and using its finishing lunge for a high damage burst. Alternatively, it can be a quick movement option.

Crafting Material: Starmetal Rapier Charm - Deadly Flourish: Flourish deals 25% more damage (39% on weapon) vs targets below 50%.

• Flurry — 16s CD: Enter a posed stance and unleash a series of 5 quick thrust attacks with each strike dealing more weapon damage starting at 47% and ending at 83%. Flurry can be canceled at any time by dodging or by using another ability.
• Overwhelm — Each hit of Flurry does 25% more block damage.
• Fleeting Strikes — Each hit of Flurry reduces its cooldown by 7%.
• To the Bone — Each hit of Flurry extends the rapier's bleed by 1s.
• Finalize — The last hit of Flurry will cause the enemy to stagger.

Summary: Great PvE DPS cooldown that will be able to hit multiple targets. It is a nice ability to have in your rotation that allows a Rapier to have some additional AoE options..

Crafting Material: Orichalcum Rapier Charm - Leeching Flurry: Each hit of Flurry restores returns 29% of the damage (47% on weapon) as health.

• Riposte — 18s CD: Enter into a defensive stance for 1s. If struck during this ability, counter the attacker dealing 50% weapon damage, staggering and stunning them for 2s.. You are briefly invulnerable upon a successful Riposte.
• Insult to Injury — If riposte successfully hits a target, gain empower, increasing damage by 10% for 3s.
• Priority — Reduce the cooldown of other rapier abilities by 20% when landing a Riposte counter attack.
• Lasting Consequence — Increase the stun from Riposte to 2.5s.

Summary: Great PvP utility ability that will block incoming abilities and attacks. Its invulnerability mixed with a potential stun and cooldown reset make it very commonly seen in PvP. This will save your life more times than any other ability.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Steel Rapier Charm - Sundering Riposte: Riposte inflicts Rend, reducing damage absorption of target by 15% (24% on weapon) for 10 seconds.

• Traps — 12s CD: Perform a small, reliable sidestep in your current movement direction that cancels any current activity and provides momentary invulnerability. Light attacks made during Evade are performed exceptionally fast.
• Crescendo — Individual successful light attacks reduce the cooldown of this ability by 30% each.
• Allegro — Gain 20% haste for 3s after successfully evading through an enemy attack.
• Adagio — Evading forward gains 15% increased damage on your next light attack. Ends on hit or after 1s.
• Breathe In — Gain 20 stamina after successfully evading through an enemy attack.

Summary: This is another one of the Rapier's multi-faceted abilities. It will give you a quick moment of immunity in which you can dodge abilities or attacks. It also provides many sources of empowerment that are beneficial for PvE. Whenever you dodge an attack you will also benefit by getting a haste buff and stamina.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Starmetal Rapier Charm - Omnidirectional Evade: Gain 10% (19% on weapon) damage for 2s after using Evade. Adagio upgrade is applied when evading in any direction.

• Fleche — 20s CD: Leave the ground lunging forward for 10m in a stabbing motion and pierce through enemies dealing 145% weapon damage.
• Quick Lunge — Killing with this ability reduces its cooldown by 80%.
• Backside — After performing Fleche, your next critical strike within 5s will deal 15% more damage.
• Interruption — Pressing light attack any time during Fleche will stop and perform a static, continuation attack dealing 115% damage.

Summary: This is one of the best movement abilities in New World. It is not affected by ally or enemy hitboxes so it will go through anything that is in your path. It makes it perfect for escaping dangerous situations. It also provides AoE damage opportunity and can be reset whenever it kills an enemy.

Crafting Material: Reinforced Orichalcum Rapier Charm - Refreshing Fleche: Hitting a target via a Crit Backstab with Fleche reduces this ability's cooldown by 19% (33% on weapon).

• Refreshing Strikes — Valuable cooldown reduction for all builds and should always be taken.
• Engarde — Free damage that can add initial burst or make abilities do more damage in support weapon builds.
• Unerring — Great damage increase for PvE builds using Tondo. This will always be active
• Light Edge — Damage increase to light attacks. This is more beneficial in PvE than PvP.
• Heavy Puncture — You will almost never heavy attack with your Rapier, and it is even less likely to be heavy attacking in a build with Tondo, this makes the passive not very valuable.
• Bloody End — This ultimate will apply a large burst of damage, but this is only a 40% increase compared to what the ability passively does. You will not needed this ability in PvE because you will see greater DPS gains while having a 3 stack Tondo and maintaining it.

• Desperation — This can be a good passive in any Rapier build, especially support builds since you will frequently use abilities while stamina is lower.
• Controlled Breathing — Great utility option that can prevent you from exhausting you.
• Perfectionist — This is great for PvE DPS, but in PvP your Rapier will not often be used while you are full health.
• Red Curtains — Great cooldown reduction passive that should always be taken, it synergizes well with Refreshing Strikes.
• Swiftness — This provides great mobility for support focused builds. When using something like Fleche it will provide some secondary escape potential if you do not swap your weapon right away.
• Breathe In — Gain 20 stamina after succesfully evading through an enemy's attack.