In this New World: Aeternum War Hammer Build (2024), we’ll be diving into the War Hammer in both PvE and PvP. If you’re looking for information on this weapon, we’ve got you covered. The first thing to know about the War Hammer is that it’s a pure Strength-scaling weapon. This means any points you invest in Strength will directly increase its damage, with no other attributes affecting its weapon damage output.

New World Aeternum War Hammer Build Information

• Scaling Stats: Strength (100%)
• Damage Type: Strike
• Light Attack Damage: 100%
• Heavy Attack Damage: 130%
• Charged Heavy Attack Damage: 170%
• Taunt Gem Compatible: Yes
• Best Strength Weapon Pairings: Great Axe, Hatchet & Greatsword

New World Aeternum War Hammer Build (2024) – Overview and Strategy

New World: Aeternum War Hammer Builds deal Strike Damage, making them especially effective against enemies weak to this damage type, like the Undead, which you’ll encounter early on, such as the Drowned. Many dungeons in the game feature these enemies, so it’s a solid choice when fighting Corruptions, during early game, or in dungeon runs. If you’re playing a Strength build, having a War Hammer on hand is highly recommended. Additionally, Light Attacks with the Hammer deal 100% damage, Heavy Attacks do 130%, and Charged Heavy Attacks deliver an impressive 170% damage—tied with the Bow for the highest in the game.

New World Aeternum War Hammer Pros:

• Strong Crowd Control
• Great AoE selection
• High Stagger Potential

New World Aeternum War Hammer Cons:

• Slow Attack Speed
• Lack of mobility
• Limited Range

Juggernaut Skill Tree

The War Hammer has two skill trees: Juggernaut and Crowd Crusher. Juggernaut focuses more on single-target damage, while Crowd Crusher emphasizes AoE and crowd control.

Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball is a versatile skill where you strike the ground dealing damage while knocking down your target. It also grants you grit while executing the skill, making it impossible for you to be staggered. Progressing this skill line allows you to also knock down nearby enemies by expanding its radius and gives you a 20% fortify, boosting your armor. Despite its usefulness, it does come with a long animation, something common across many War Hammer abilities, so timing is key.

Mighty Gavel

Mighty Gavel acts like a pseudo-execution ability when upgraded, dealing more damage to low-health targets. While it delivers significant damage, it has a long animation, so you’ll need to time it carefully, and its range is shorter than expected, making it easy to miss. This is taunt gem compatible, taunting enemies that are hit with this ability. Progressing this skill line also allows you to deal 25% more stamina damage as well as granting you a 30% haste.

Armor Breaker

The Armor Breaker skill is a powerful attack that deals 160% weapon damage and penetrates the target’s armor by 35%. If you’re facing heavily armored enemies, this skill helps negate some of their protection, boosting your damage output. Progressing this skill line grants you grit and inflicts enemies with 30% rend for 10s.

Many of the passives in the Juggernaut tree focus on increasing damage or Stamina damage, making them great if you’re looking to deal more damage overall. However, the Capstone ability, Justice for All, only affects Mighty Gavel. It grants you grit while executing the ability, increases the critical hit rate by 20%, and reduces other War Hammer skills’ cooldown by 10% if you land it successfully, so if you’re not using that skill, it’s better to skip this Capstone.

Crowd Crusher Skill Tree

Shockwave

The Crowd Crusher tree offers some powerful abilities, starting with Shockwave. This AoE skill staggers and stuns enemies, which is a huge advantage in both PvE and PvP. You can upgrade it to increase damage, and enemies caught in the AoE will be weakened, dealing 10% less damage for 10 seconds, making it perfect for setting up combos or softening up enemies before more AoEs. The stun is also handy because it prevents enemies from interrupting you, so if you’re following up with abilities like Great Axe‘s spin-to-win or other War Hammer skills, you won’t be disrupted.

Clear Out

Next is Clear Out, which is great for controlling the battlefield. While it doesn’t deal much damage, it knocks enemies back, creating space when things get overwhelming. It’s especially effective after you’ve used other abilities and want to scatter grouped-up enemies. This knockback is helpful in both PvE and PvP, letting you catch your breath or break up a group of attackers. Progressing this skill line grants you and your allies fortify, increasing your armor by 20% for 4s, as well as granting you 30% haste for 4s.

Path of Destiny

Path of Destiny adds a bit of range to the War Hammer by sending out a shockwave in a line that damages and staggers enemies when upgraded. It’s useful for softening targets from a distance, especially in PvP if you’re holding off on charging in or need to catch fleeing enemies. It also works well for interrupting enemies at range, which adds flexibility to the hammer’s typically close-quarters playstyle. Completely progressing this ability reduces this skill’s cooldown by 5% for every enemy that is hit.

Some standout passives in this tree include Prevailing Spirit, which heals you when you hit enemies affected by a Crowd Crusher ability, and Acceleration, which reduces cooldowns when hitting debuffed targets with light attacks. These are great for staying in the fight longer and cycling through your abilities faster.

For PvP, Aftershock is fantastic as it slows enemies hit by your CC abilities, making it easier to control the battlefield and lock down opponents. CC is crucial in PvP, so this skill can be a game-changer.

What makes the War Hammer special is its exceptional crowd control, more than most other weapons. The trade-off is that you have to be up close, which can be challenging, particularly in PvP, but when you can pull it off, the War Hammer is one of the best for locking down multiple enemies at once.

New World War Hammer Builds

Solo PvE War Hammer Build – New World Aeternum

Solo PvP War Hammer Build – New World Aeternum

Group PvE War Hammer Tank Build – New World Aeternum

Group PvP War Hammer Build – New World Aeternum

New World Aeternum War Hammer Build – Weapons & Armor

The Great Axe and Hatchet pair well with the War Hammer since they both scale with strength. The Great Axe lets you charge in with its Charge ability, then follow up with the hammer’s CCs and stuns. Once enemies are CCed, you can unleash AoE damage with the Great Axe abilities without worrying about interruptions, which works well in both PvE and PvP. In PvP, this combo is effective—you can charge in, use Spin to Win, CC the group, and then go in for another Spin to Win.

The Hatchet offers some nice utility through its Berserk ability, which buffs your damage and increases your run speed, helping to make up for the War Hammer‘s lack of gap closers. While Berserk doesn’t directly close gaps, the speed boost helps you catch up to enemies more easily. It’s not as effective as the Great Axe in that respect, but still quite strong. The Hatchet also has an ability that prevents death every 60 seconds, which gives you a 3-second window of survival. This is great for PvE and PvP—it can buy you time to CC or finish off your opponent.

The Greatsword, like the Great Axe has phenomenal AoE capabilities, making it a solid choice for after enemies are Stunned. Additionally, it deals both Thrust and Slash damage allowing you to cover all 3 damage types between these two weapons, which is great for PvE.

A key downside of the War Hammer is its short range, which becomes especially noticeable in PvP. In PvE, enemies often come to you, so the hammer’s AoE abilities shine. But in PvP, where mobility is crucial, it can be harder to land hits without something like the Great Axe to close the distance.

You’ll likely want to run medium or heavy armor when using the War Hammer since you’ll be up close, taking damage. If you don’t stay alive, you won’t be able to land your abilities. The War Hammer offers some passive buffs to defense or armor, so make use of those to improve your survivability.

When looking for stats on your weapons, focus on strength, critical chance, or effects that boost damage on crits. Since back attacks are automatically crits, positioning yourself to land those will increase your damage output significantly. You can also look for weapon effects that enhance specific abilities you use, but strength and crit chance are generally the best to focus on.

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Keep an eye out for more weapon guides like Sword & Shield, Greatsword, Flail and Shield and Great Axe, Don’t forget to check out the New World Wiki for more details. If you have any other questions about the game, let me know. What weapons are you planning to use at launch? What builds are you thinking about? Feel free to share in the comments!