The Ultimate New World Mage Build and Guide for PvP

Check out the PvE Mage Guide.

Intro

This guide is brought to you by BagginsTV, in collaboration with Tricks and NWDB.

All information is based on the latest version of New World, and is accurate for the Brimstone Sands update.

If video guides are more up your street, then all the information can also be found in my YouTube video right below.

If you're more of a reader, however, or are looking for all the handy links and item info pages all in one place, then read on!‌

‌weapon Choices

There are a variety of different viable Mage builds out there which utilize Ice Gauntlet, Fire Staff, Void Gauntlet, Rapier and even Blunderbuss. In order to keep this guide concise we will be looking at two particular Mage Builds today: Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet, and Fire Staff + Ice Gauntlet.

Fire Staff &Amp; Ice Gauntlet

This is your most "classic" mage build using two weapons that scale entirely off of Intelligence. This build is for those who want to deal high amounts of damage and act as more of a "carry", and excels in small-to-mid scale PVP.

Ice Gauntlet &Amp; Void Gauntlet

This is a build that can be played in a few different ways, but for this guide we will be showcasing it as a "support" build, still capable of doing large amounts of damage but your primary focus will be slowing and de-buffing the enemy, and buffing your team.

It is mostly used in large scale PVP, such as Wars.

Attributes

You will want 310 Intelligence + 200 Constitution. This will be the attribute ratio we use for both builds in this guide.

If you wish, you may go 210 Intelligence + 300 Constitution instead to extend the duration of your CC, which is useful for the support build, but your damage will be significantly lowered.

In order to reach the 300/200 stat threshold, you will need to use Attribute Food.

The best (and cheapest) attribute food you can get is [item_foodconintt5] for an extra +24 Constitution and +16 Intelligence.

Weapon Skills

Fire Staff &Amp; Ice Gauntlet Build

This build ignores Runen von Helios, as the build centered more around small scale PVP, so you're often on the move and cannot benefit from standing in it.

Ice Gauntlet &Amp; Void Gauntlet Build

This build avoids Unheilsklinge and the Ultimative Abkühlung passive as it is more support orientated, and focuses on passives and abilities that keep us alive, or assist our teammates.

Equip Load​

For the Fire Staff + Ice Gauntlet build, we will be using Light Equip Load as it boosts our damage by 20% and gives us access to the very powerful Dodge Roll. To achieve this we will be using a Light Helm, Light Gloves, Light Legs, Light Boots and a Medium Chest. This maximizes our armor rating whilst still keeping us in a Light Equip Load overall.

For the Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet build, we will be using Medium Equip Load for the increased armor rating and increased CC duration. To achieve this we will be using a Heavy Helmet, Heavy Chest, Medium Gloves, Light Legs and Medium Boots, again to maximize armor rating and just stay in the medium equip load threshold.

Perks to Aim For

Weapon Perks

Fire Staff

Flammeneinstimmung + Eifriger Schlitzer + Eifrig or Wild

These perks are all to benefit the power of Flammenwerfer. Pestkranke kritische Treffer could also be used for more anti-healing, in place of Keen, Vicious or Keenly Jagged.

Ice Gauntlet

For Eisstacheln builds: Eifrig + Wild + Frosteinstimmung for Eisstacheln

For Support builds: Tödlicher Frost + Frosteinstimmung + Erfrischende Bewegung

Note: Ruinous can be used in War/OPR for big bonus damage to Doors/Turrets in conjunction with Kältebereich. If you like the idea of having a anti-siege swap weapon, try finding/crafting a gauntlet with Verfall + Erfrischende Bewegung + Frosteinstimmung.

Void Gauntlet

Faulender Schrei + Pestkranke kritische Treffer + Eifrig

These perks all help us achieve the "support" playstyle by reducing incoming healing on the enemy, making them easier to take down.

Gear Perks

Armor

Your armor should have Zähigkeit plus any combination of the following:

• Relevant Ability Perk
• Erfrischung
• Freiheit
• Physischer Widerwille
• Elementar-Widerwille
• Stärkender Konter
• Erfrischendes Ausweichen.
• Erfrischender Schutz can be used if you are running a Medium build.

Amulet

Your amulet should have Gesundheit and Ausdauererholung, plus your choice of:

• Entkräftungs-Läuterungskonter
• Protection Perk
• Erfrischung
• Erfrischendes Ausweichen
• Erfrischender Schutz can be used if you are running a Medium build.

Ring

For your Ring, you will want Wacker, Eisschaden / Feuerschaden, plus any one of:

• Erfrischung
• Aussaugend
• Eifrige Wahrnehmung.

​earring

Best-in-slot for your Earring is Erfrischender Trinkspaß and Gesunder Trinkspaß, alongside Erfrischung or Erfrischendes Ausweichen.

Again, if you are running a Medium build, then you can also consider using Erfrischender Schutz for the third perk. Regeneration and Flink are not terrible 3rd perks to take, but do not prioritize these over any Refreshing Perk.

Ability Perks

Other than in your Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet Support build, you don't want to look for perks on your weapons, but instead on your armor. The ability perks that I would recommend getting on your armor include:

• Ermächtigender Feuerball
• Verstärkendes Ausbrennen
• Beschleunigender Flammenwerfer
• Endloses Tauen
• Schwächende Kugel
• Annullierende Leere

Mächtiger Eisdorn doesn't do much at all for the build in PVP so avoid going for pieces with this perk.

You may wish to take Heilende Gruft for extra survivability, but note it is your base health not max/current health it heals you from.

And as mentioned above, you do want to get Ability perks on your weapons when running the Support build. Specifically, you want to have Tödlicher Frost on your Ice Gauntlet and Faulender Schrei on your Void Gauntlet, as the increased potency of these perks being on the weapon is desirable for this build.

The reason we do not run ability perks on our weapon as a Fire/Ice Mage is because the Fire Staff functions largely as a "damage" weapon, so we're looking for perks that improve its damage potential. Whilst some of the ability perks achieve this, none are strong enough when placed on the weapon vs the armor to outweigh the damage boost of Flammeneinstimmung, Wild and Eifriger Schlitzer. The same can also be said for the Ice Gauntlet when running it for maximum damage.

Best Drops to Farm​

Weapons

Fire Staves

Outside of farming for random drops in the relevant mutation, getting Attunement perks on your weapon will require you to buy or craft it.

That said, Feuerranken-Kampfstab and Wildfeuerfackel are both good Fire Staves to pick-up whilst you're working your way towards a Flammeneinstimmung staff.

Weite is a strong option if you're looking for some more utility as it provides anti-heal.

Ice Gauntlets

As with the Fire Staff we will need to buy or craft Frosteinstimmung for the Ice Gauntlet to achieve BiS.

Until then, Ewige Gabe is a strong pick-up that you can use for either build featured in this guide.

Frostwand works well for the Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet support build by giving you extra cooldown reduction on the powerful Eisregen ability.

Void Gauntlets

Geißel der Tiefe has 2 of the 3 perks you're looking for on your Void Gauntlet, and works as a great alternative whilst you're working on obtaining a Faulender Schrei + Pestkranke kritische Treffer + Eifrig Void Gauntlet.

Armor

Equipping a piece of the Wizened Set can work for your build, but not more as you need to stack as much Zähigkeit as you can. In particular, the Verschrumpelte Schuhe can be a good fit as they have Energieschub-Konter, a perk that can only be obtained on the leg slot.

Schutzkutte is a light helm you could farm for, but it may be better to spend the time searching for it on acquiring gold and buying something similar from the Trading Post.

Gewöhnliche Hose or Diabolisches Beinkleid both work for the leg slot in either build featured in this guide. The Regular Pants in particular are very strong as they have 3 Best-in-Slot perks.

For the rest of your PVP mage gear, you will likely have to craft or buy it. The PVP rewards track can provide some good filler pieces whilst you're working on better gear though.

Amulet

Befehlsgeber-Amulett can be picked up from the PVP rewards track after you reach level 5 and has a great set of perks for all builds featured in this guide.

Die letzte Prophezeiung provides cooldown reduction, and can also extend the duration of Ermächtigende Nähe and Eifrig Ermächtigung, if you're running this perk.

Ring

Band des Meeresschwurs is a great fit for the Fire Staff + Ice Gauntlet build, and will allow your Eisstacheln to hit even harder.

Chirurgenring is perfect for the Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet support build by providing additional chances to activate Pestkranke kritische Treffer and extend the duration of the Diseased healing de-buff. It doesn't have Wacker but that is fine for the build as Medium equip load gets access to three dodges by default.

Befehlsgeber-Ring is a good all-rounder that works in any of these builds.

Earrings

On most servers you should be able to pick-up a Gesunder Trinkspaß + Erfrischender Trinkspaß earring for a few hundred gold. There are no named drops that contain both perks currently, although the Befehlsgeber-Ohrring comes from the PvP Rewards track and has 2 out of the 3 perks we're looking for.

Heartrunes

For Fire Staff + Ice Gauntlet, you can go more defensive with a Unverwüstliche Herzrune der Steinform to provide some CC Immunity and extra healing to yourself, or go more offensive with the Brutale Herzrune des Explodierens.

Note: You can activate the Detonate whilst inside Eisgrab, and pairing it with Eisregen will better allow you to confirm its damage to the enemy.

For Ice Gauntlet + Void Gauntlet, the new Cunning Heartrune of Bile Bomb will be our most supportive PVP Heartrune as it reduces enemy movement speed, incoming healing and stamina regeneration in a 3.5m radius. Dropping this onto the point or clumps of enemies will give your team a huge advantage in engagements.

Gems

A Geschliffener makelloser Opal is the go to for Ice Gauntlet to maximize the damage Heftiger Sturm and Ultimative Abkühlung gives us (we want to be doing as much Ice Damage as we can).

Fire Staves benefit the most from a Cut Flawed Elemental Gem, such as Geschliffener beschädigter Rubin, due to the Intelligence scaling calculation of Tier 2 conversion gems.

Despite imparting burn, which does not benefit from the conversion gem, Feuerball, Flammenwerfer and a direct hit from Ausgebrannt will all deal more damage with a Cut Flawed Gem than with a Geschliffener makelloser Opal (though your burns will be weaker).

For the Void Gauntlet taking a Geschliffener makelloser Opal is also advised as the damage-over-time effects from Leere and Verfallssphäre do not work with elemental conversion gems, so the extra damage they provide is largely wasted.

In your armor and jewelry, the best all-round gems to socket will be Geschliffener makelloser Diamant and Geschliffener makelloser Malachit as they provide both Physical and Elemental Damage Absorption, covering you against all types of enemy weapons. However, if you do find you're facing off against largely bows and muskets, socketing a couple of Geschliffener makelloser Smaragd will help against this.

Runeglass

In your Fire Staff, Runenglas des entzündeten Opals is a powerful choice as the Burn effect can activate with hits from your Flammenwerfer, allowing you to stack large amounts of damage in a small period of time.

The only Ice Gauntlet ability that can activate Runenglas des frostigen Opals is Eisstacheln, as DoT attacks will not trigger it, and it's usually the case that you want to load the damage upfront instead of over the 2 second window, so sticking to a normal Geschliffener makelloser Opal is still the best option here.

Like with Ice Gauntlet, Void Gauntlet will only activate Runenglas des höllischen Opals on your Verfallssphäre initial hit (it does work with Unheilsklinge if you're using it, though) but unlike the Ice Gauntlet, we don't care as much for "spike" damage, so taking an extra damage-over-time effect on our Orb bursts will provide increased damage on large groups of enemies.

As runeglass gems are more expensive and require more materials to make, my best advice is to stick to Geschliffener makelloser Diamant / Geschliffener makelloser Malachit and slot in Geschliffener makelloser Mondstein / Geschliffener makelloser Smaragd or any other damage type ward you see fit.

However, if you're wanting to push your build to the strongest it can be, Runenglas des entzündeten Diamanten or Runenglas des frostigen Diamanten in every armor piece will increase the damage of your Fire Staff or Ice Gauntlet by 10% (2% per armor piece).

Tips for Mages

A good chunk of this guides' information was provided by Tricks. Check out his YouTube or Twitch channel for all the playstyle tips and tricks you need.

Further information on Intelligence conversion gems can be found on Morrolan's website.