Flail & Shield Tank

Can be paired with any of the weapons in the tank section but hammer is usually best for trash mobs

The Flail tanking build in New World emphasizes utility and team support while maintaining aggro. Start by using Bludgeon to taunt enemies when engaging packs, providing a defensive buff for yourself and your team. After establishing aggro, switch to your offhand weapon for crowd control, managing enemies effectively. When you return to the Flail, use Bludgeon again to taunt stragglers and fortify your team, ensuring they remain protected. Follow up with Vortex, which not only cleanses debuffs but also empowers your allies while dealing AoE damage. Barrage offers mobility, allowing you to reposition when needed. While the Flail provides strong buffs and utility, its low damage output can make holding aggro challenging, so managing cooldowns, especially Bludgeon, is critical to maintaining threat on enemies.
If you want to run Greatsword or SnS instead of hammer then look at its respective build for information / skill trees , essentially all take weapons are interchangeable.


Attributes

Due to grit being attached to heavy attacks on 300 con this is the best breakpoint for you to be hitting , when you reach 725 gear score you will have more points to allocate , Ideally we would look at going for 350 strength and keeping 300 con for that damage boost. With almost all 725 gear being magnify though , youll need to go 300 str 350 con with str hammer and gnufish to reach these break points.


Heavy Armor

As always with armor you are looking at as much enchanted ward as possible while having your refreshing stacks , slash conditioning is very strong on tanks as most trash mobs wlll do slash damage, giving you essentially 5 moonstones worth of protection. The standard for tanking is heavy armor but when you are more comfortable at tanking you can look at goin glight or medium for more damage and mobility.

For lower gear scores run frigid dawn pieces from Glacial Tarn or craft with Dense mutator materia

Light Armor

Light armor offers significantly less protection but give 20% more base damage and a high level of mobility , usually only recommended for experienced tanks & not for all situations.



Weapons

Match tower shield protection to the content you are doing weather melee or elemental protection is needed


Skill Tree

If you want to go Sns or Gs as an offhand just use the builds skill trees from their main build pages.