Several players lost faith in the MMO New World in the wake of duplication glitches that inflated the in-game economy. Players trying anything to get rich in video games is not new, but what made the issues in New World so severe is that exploiters duplicated everything they could, lowering the prices of anything crafted or gathered legitimately. Not only that, the economy was shut down several times because New World's trading posts and wealth transfers had to be disabled to stop the glitches from spreading.
Players have been vocal on platforms like Reddit and the official forums for a long time now, and it seems Amazon Game Studios has been listening. After a brief testing period on the official PTR for New World, Amazon released a full November patch alongside major changes to most of the game's mechanics and features, effectively reshaping the MMO into a better experience. The new update features interesting sets of buffs and nerfs for all of New World weapons, as well as more quality-of-life improvements for players across the board.
New World General Changes, Enemy Types, and Quests
Among the most noteworthy general changes, New World players will now enjoy a 10 percent boost to their movement speed while sprinting on roads, which will make for a much quicker journey across Aeternum for those who have to visit different settlements for quests. Furthermore, all players will now benefit from a 10 percent Luck bonus and 30 percent Gathering Luck bonus whenever they are flagged for PvP, which is a way to promote a high-risk, high-reward playstyle and incentivize duels and skirmish between Factions. Both these changes will make the experience more enjoyable for crafters and gatherers, even though there is no point in running or fast traveling between settlements now that all of New World's trading posts are linked.
Another great change is that there will now be more enemy types in New World, which has always been one of the community's biggest gripes and why some players left when they hit the endgame. The same principle applied to quests, which often felt repetitive to a certain degree, but that is changing with the November update.
A few main quests have now been reworked into something different, while quests in general take advantage of mechanics that make them more unique and interactive such as players encountering waves of enemies or some items being destructible. Finally, this patch also introduces the Void Gauntlet, which is a new weapon archetype.
New World Weapon Changes
Speaking of weapons, one of the most interesting changes is being made to the Life Staff and healing in general. The Life Staff has been considered one of the best weapons in the game for a long time because it is useful for solo play, PvE group activities, and PvP Wars or Outpost Rush alike. The healing output of New World's Life Staff is being reduced by 20 percent across the board, with several abilities undergoing more changes. However, it is partly compensated by the healing bonus on Light and Medium armor, which is further increased by 10 percent and 5 percent respectively.
A weapon that was surprising to see get a set of buffs is the War Hammer, which already hit hard due to its many crowd control abilities. Nonetheless, this weapon is now even better, and it is going to be even more meta in New World moving forward. The Sword and the Hatchet also got a few buffs that will make them feel better in all situations without necessarily making them too strong if compared to other weapons.
The Ice Gauntlet and the Fire Staff got hit hard though, making them less dominant. The Ice Gauntlet received nerfs across the board that will likely have to be reverted soon because the main things it had going for it are gone - such as the ability to be healed while Entombed or to damage enemies reliably with AoE spells. The Fire Staff changes were more about making New World builds diverse, as underused skills like Flamethrower and Pillar of Fire are now stronger than before, whereas many passives got hit by nerfs.
Weapons like the Bow, Rapier, and Musket did receive a few deserved buffs, which mainly impact their cooldowns and slightly increase the damage they deal. Dexterity weapons have all been neglected for a while because they were not on-par with Magic or Strength weapons on launch, but now they have a bit more going on. Still, the weapon that got the best changes across the board is the Spear, which has increased damage on already popular skills like Coupe de Grace and bleed applied through Skewer.
It's very likely there will be more build diversity than before, and the only weapon that should probably be tuned down is the Great Axe. A New World player even found an inconsistency with weapon weight for the Great Axe and Bow, which led to a few jokes about how Amazon has a bias toward the former given it weighs less than a Bow. Either way, changes the November patch brought to New World are enough to make for a very different experience than before, and that bodes well for the future of the MMO.
New World is available now on PC.