Is there a New World shield without sword option when creating a one-handed fighter? The New World sword and shield weapon combination is one of the main weapon mastery paths players can take with combat in Amazon’s MMO, but is there a way to separate them? Is there a New World dual-wield swords option? Is there a New World shield-only option or a way to mix it with other weapons, like the hatchet?
Is there a New World shield without sword option?
The only way to use a one-handed sword without the shield in New World is to use the rapier, which is the only available one-handed sword that can be used on its own.
“Sword and Shield” is a weapon mastery path in the game and they cannot be separated, so it is impossible to dual-wield swords, no matter how fun that sounds. It is also impossible to use the shield on its own or alongside other weapons, such as the hatchet or ice gauntlet.
The reason for this is that this is a design choice by developer Amazon Game Studios, presumably for ease of play and to keep things straightforward for players new to MMOs and combat. The enforced sword and shield combo has been this way since the developer first started talking about New World, before even the first initial alphas. This was stated back in June 2020 on Twitter and has remained the same ever since. It could change in the future, but only if Amazon sees the demand to do so.
Currently, the sword is the only weapon in-game that you can use with the shield. It offers great protection by blocking projectiles and also has strong block stability!
The sword is a fairly quick melee weapon which makes it great for close quarters combat!
— New World: Aeternum (@playnewworld) June 17, 2020
For more help on New World, here’s how to fix the “steam must be running to play this game” error, here’s what players getting the black screen glitch can do, and here’s how to get the popular Syndicate armor in the game. Beyond launch and into the future, here’s the roadmap detailing all the DLC and new content coming to New World in the coming months.
