Best Rapier Builds In New World (2023)

The Rapier continues to be a pretty popular weapon, even with the recent changes. New World. Its potentially massive damage output cements it as a PvP'ers dream weapon, although its lack of defensive capabilities does mean you might be taking some big hits.

RELATED: New World: Best Weapons, Ranked

With extreme mobility, plenty of damage, and damage-over-time active skills, the Rapier is best suited for those who prefer not getting hit rather than trying to soak up damage. Here's our comprehensive guide to the best Rapier build, with weapon pairings, attributes, and gameplay tips.

Nerfs To The Rapier In Brimstone Sands Update

As of the Brimstone Sands update, the Rapier has received some pretty hefty nerfs. According to the official patch notes, the Rapier "was being primarily used as a pocket escape weapon which was never its intended purpose." The nerfs reflect this, and will definitely shift the meta away from this powerful weapon.

• Allegro and Breathe In no longer trigger immediately when you cast the ability, but only when you successfully evade an attack. This raises the skill ceiling for Evade and makes it so the haste from Allegro can only be activated when dodging an attack, and the extra stamina from Breathe In matches this.
• Riposte has also received some nerfs. The invulnerability window has been reduced, the counter-attack hit box is smaller, and it is now more likely to only hit one player rather than multiple.
• Tondo and Flourish now use Slash instead of Thrust damage. This changes how the Rapier works in some Expeditions.

Overall, these changes mean the Rapier is now more difficult to use, but potentially more rewarding in 1-on-1 situations.

How Does This Impact Our Best Rapier Builds?

In theory, this shouldn't impact the Rapier's best builds as such, but rather change how you play with the Rapier. In wars and OPR, the Rapier is now more suited to one-on-one combat, rather than as a secondary weapon while in big team fights.

You will need to be more careful when using Evade. You will no longer just get free haste and stamina - you need to choose the moment you activate it carefully, and you will need to be in combat to actually get the bonuses from the ability's passives.

Best Rapier Builds In New World

The Rapier is all about mobility, dealing damage, and dancing away from your opponent. Skilled Rapier players are able to parry attacks to create openings, inflict multiple bleed effects on a target, or traverse the battlefield with incredible speed. Your playstyle will be determined by your secondary weapon and which Weapon Mastery tree you focus on.

The Rapier features two Weapon Mastery trees:

1. Blood: Focuses on inflicting the bleed status effect, dealing damage over time.
   1. Bleed stacks can be consumed with Flourish and Finish, dealing immense burst damage.
2. Grace: Emphasizes speed, allowing you to whirl through targets or dodge incoming attacks.

Some of the best active skills here include Riposte, Evade, and Tondo, although Flourish and Finish and Fleche also have their uses. In truth, there are many ways to play with the Rapier. We'll go over some of the best weapon combinations for the Rapier here.

Return to Quick Links

Rapier And Bow Build

We actually had this build down as one of our favorites at the start of the closed beta, based on the Alpha build and everything that came before, and it turns out that, yes, this build is super strong.

You've got the extreme mobility of the Rapier paired with the ranged damage of the Bow. This build comes with more flexibility than the Musket, as you won't be slowing down to take shots often. It's really a fast-paced duelist PVP build. Here's a closer look.

Best Masteries For The Rapier

The Rapier is all about evasion, dodging, and dealing damage with Bleed. Here are the best active skills for this build.

RELATED: New World: The Best Build To Level Up Fast

Tondo applies bleed damage that stacks over time, up to three times. The And Again passive increases damage against a single target, which makes this even better for close-quarters one-on-one PVP. Very strong for denying your opponent heals and to stack ticking damage that can't be blocked.

Evade makes the Rapier so fun to play with. You can dance and skip all over, getting out of trouble, mostly. Allegro and Breathe In are very powerful - the extra Haste from Allegro and the extra Stamina from Breathe in while dodging attacks are a staple of the Rapier's playstyle.

Riposte is a great "Okay, let's slow down for a second" active ability. It places you into a defensive stance. If you're attacked during this short period, you'll instantly stun the enemy. You can then dance backward with your bow, apply poison, or deal bleed damage. Very strong if you can land it.

Best Masteries For The Bow

You can check out our more comprehensive Bow build right here, but we'll still cover the basics of the masteries that will complement the gameplay of the Rapier.

Rapid Shot is a great active skill to activate right after a successful Rapier riposte. Jump back, hit the stunned enemy with three rapid shots, dealing extra damage, and continuing the knockback with the third shot.

Evade Shot complements the extreme mobility of the Rapier and adds to how much you can dodge attacks.

Poison Shot allows you to inflict poison and bleed with the same build. Your enemy will be wondering what's hit them. The Skirmisher tree also comes with some useful debuff-buffing passives, like Battle Precision, which causes damage-over-time effects to last 20 percent longer.

You can also use the Musket to great effect. Check out our Musket build guide to see how we paired the Rapier with the other ranged weapon in the game.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Dexterity
• Armor: Light

For this build, you should spec almost entirely into Dexterity. Both the Rapier and Bow scale off Dex. Light armor is also preferred for extra mobility, although you can experiment with medium armor for better survivability. Keep your eyes out for gear that increases your Dexterity, grants cooldown reduction, or any perks that enhance bleed or poison.

Return to Quick Links

Rapier And Fire Staff Build

This build is designed mostly as a PVE build and uses the damage of the Fire Staff and the secondary Intelligence scaling of the Rapier to balance out your damage. You will be able to cover most enemy vulnerabilities with this build -- Fire damage from the Staff, Thrust damage from the Rapier, and then you get a bit creative with a Topaz to convert your Rapier damage to Lightning.

Best Masteries For The Rapier

This is your standard Rapier setup, although it favors the Grace tree heavily. Evade, Riposte, and Fleche should give you the mobility you need to tackle large groups of PvE enemies.

RELATED: New World: Starstone Barrows Expedition Guide

Fleche is a phenomenal movement tool. You can use Fleche as an opener, gap closer, or a disengage tool. It deals solid damage in PvE and opens up endless strategies for PvP.

Evade gives you a panic button when you mistime a dodge, giving you invulnerability frames during the animation. When paired with Allegro, you'll be incredibly hard to hit. As of the Brimstone Sands update, you will need to successfully evade attacks to get the buffs from Allegro and Breathe In. This means you will need to get up close and personal with an enemy, something that this glass-cannon build can struggle with.

Riposte punishes opponents for being predictable, giving you an opening to deal some serious damage. Pair this with Insult to Injury, a related Weapon Mastery passive, to prevent being interrupted during your counterattack.

Best Masteries For The Fire Staff

The Fire Staff is extremely strong. Your auto-attacks deal big damage even without worrying about mana usage for your abilities.

Pillar of Flame deals excellent damage over a small radius, making this a great choice for PvE add clear.

Fireball hits hard, inflicts burn, and spawns a burning field on impact. What's not to love?

Burn Out is a fantastic movement skill that pairs nicely with your Rapier's Fleche ability. Use both abilities together to cover some serious ground.

We also want to briefly mention the Flare and Spell Focus passives in the Fire Mage tree. These two passives will cause your Heavy Attacks to grant Mana, allowing you to ignore mana potions entirely. WHen your abilities are on cooldown and your mana is low, remember to heavy attack.

You can check out our Fire Staff build guide for an in-depth look at a PVP version of this build.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Intelligence
  • Put leftover points into Dexterity
• Armor: Light or medium

For this build, you'll want to scale Intelligence as much as you can. Obtain a Rapier with a gem socket and fit it with a Topaz gem. This will cause your Rapier to deal Lightning damage and scale with your Intelligence. For armor, light armor is recommended if you want to deal maximum DPS. But if you're having issues surviving, consider wearing medium armor instead.

Return to Quick Links

Rapier and Ice Gauntlet CC Duelist Build

The other popular build during the closed beta pairs the Rapier with the heavy CC of the Ice Gauntlet. Here's how it works: you dance around your enemy with the Rapier's mobility, and then dunk on your enemy with Ice Storm/Shower ability of the Ice Gauntlet. It's a pretty powerful combination. Here are the best masteries for the Ice Gauntlet when paired with the Rapier.

Best Masteries For The Ice Gauntlet

The three active skills in this build are: Ice Shower, Ice Pylon, and Ice Spikes. We've tried a few different combinations, and these seem to work very well. Ice Pylons can be placed and then pretty much forgotten about as you deal damage with the Rapier. If tiered up, the Pylon will cause your opponents to be slowed, making it easier to hit attacks.

We've taken Ice Shower over Ice Storm for one simple reason: we prefer the root of the Shower over the general slow of the Storm. Both are tricky to hit, especially if you're facing off against an opponent who is also playing a duelist (high mobility) build.

Lastly, an almost strange pick: Ice Spikes. You don't use this too often, but we think it works super well with the high-mobility Rapier, leaving a trail of damaging/slowing spikes behind your player. It's almost a passive ability, if that makes sense. Once activated, you don't need to worry about it.

For the Rapier, go all-in on the Grace tree, using Fleche, Evade, and Riposte to enhance your mobility.

If you want, you can check out our more in-depth Ice Gauntlet build guide here.

Best Attributes And Gear

• Attribute: Intelligence
• Armor: Medium

This build scales solely off Intelligence, making your Rapier deal slightly less damage than other builds. Be sure to equip your Rapier with a Topaz gem to assist its damage scaling. We recommend medium armor for this build since you're focusing more on applying crowd control effects than raw damage. Keep your eyes peeled for any armor pieces that enhance your Ice Gauntlet abilities.

If these builds piqued your interest in other playstyles or weapon archetypes, you can also check out our other New World build guides below:

• New World: Best Tank Build
• New World: Best Bow Build
• New World: Best Spear Build
• New World: Best Musket Build
• New World: Best Support Healer Build

Return to Quick Links NEXT: New World: Complete Guide And Walkthrough