this is more poking and prodding at the games combat system rather than trying to figure out what is the best gear to beat everyone whilst pointing out the futility of a beat everything build.
from my findings throughout the life of New World there is a clear dominant choice of heavy armor and making use of the [insert personal gripe over powered weapon combo here, because apparently you guys will argue about this small detail until the cows come home]
if you dont see this as an issue you may have missed the point. the system is supposed to be a rock paper scissors mechanic where one weapon is good at beating another player using a particular weapon while its not good beating another player using a different weapon. if everyone is gravitating towards a particular build and armor, you arent achieving that balance of multiple player builds because there is only one that reigns supreme. this is amplified by the gear being used. whether you love or hate the void bent materials there really is only one armor weight class that your going to make regardless of cosmetics.
the problematic solution is yes somewhat experimental. there was a beginning to a beautiful mechanic that has been merely touched and unfortunatly only by a select few weapons and therefore regarded as EXPLOITS and quickly thrown away in a trash can. what people didn’t see was the beginnings of a complex combat system that would have undermined the known combat systems of all competing mmos and shaken the known mmo foundation to the ground and ushered in a new form of action based mmo. Im talking about the animation cancels and combining combat abilities to achieve unique results by enabling the players to move more erratic and unexpectedly. why is it that the player has to be a static body on the ground when casting a spell or about to start a heavy attack? the game could embrace the flow of combat. with the mindset that there are no rigid martial artists yet when I see players fight in the game its alwaysmove, pause attack, pause, dodge, pause, attack, pause, move, dodge, pause, attack, pause. and all the while im thinking, who imported the static stances in the game? because this encourages the problem of players choosing highest tier weapons that make large swings and high damage to make the most of these combat animations rather than making movements feel more fluid.
to bring this all back to the post topic as skill in this game isn’t nearly as important as the value of your gear because the combat is so simplistic that all of the movements are static in between transitions of other movements and thereby telegraphed windows of opportunity rather than trying to find an opponents blind side or dodging medial or lateral attacks with acute precision. meanwhile this game is inherently a race to get the best weapons to win and that is it. personally I like the idea that a weapons stats affect pve combat but when it comes to pvp, those features should be muted to enable fair combat amongst all players. using your level can be an understandable feature as your personal stats are parallel to a players capabilities but I cant help but feel jaded for that player that spends their time to dial in their skills and honing them to a sharp edge only to get smashed but some player that has been given a max tier weapon with the best augmentations by their clan.
