New World PvE Shields & Perks

In This Section of the website we will help you know what Shield to run but also show you the logic behind it so you can adjust things to work for your playstyle.

When it comes to shields you need to look at your desired goals and armor weight to choose which shield is going to suit your playstyle. Round shields focus more on damage, kite shields are better for cooldown reduction & life steal where Tower shields are aimed at straight up defense , It is important to lean fully into your shields play style and go fully into damage for round shields or defense for tower shields , trying to balance both will not be efficient. When it comes to shields gear score isn’t as important as the perks so if you can get a bis shield perks at 600 gs vs just something with a higher gear score you are better prioritizing the perks

Round Shields

Round shields premier perk is Shield Aggression which adds extra BASE DAMAGE % based on the shields gear score, when it comes to round shield you are looking for damage boosting perks like keen , vicious , enchanted , enchanted ward & refreshing move are also great if you have space for them.

Kite Shields

Kite shields premier perk is Refreshing Defence which is a base cooldown that stacks on top of your 4 stacks of refreshing and the 25 focus refreshing. The best use for kite shields is a medium cooldown based tanking build, for this you want to run refreshing defense , enchanted ward , refreshing move and leeching on the shield, this is a very strong but niche playstyle.

Tower Shields

Kite shields premier perk is Shield Defence which is a base damage reduction , for tower shields you want to always have shield defence , enchanted ward and a shield ward protection, this works similar to amulet protections and counts towards your 50% protection cap but both shields and amulets can push you past that 50% point. You want to match your protection type to the content you are doing. In the early days you should run slash protection as this will protect you against the widest range of attacks until you can build up a shield stash for all situations. For your last perk you can look at running fortifying shield rush if you are running it , another weapon perk to match your build or sturdy can be a good option.