Sword & Shield Tank

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

The Sword and Shield tanking build in New World prioritizes defense and sustained crowd control while maximizing uptime on abilities. Heavy armor offers the highest level of protection, making it ideal for tanking. Start by using Defender's Resolve for a powerful defensive buff that increases damage absorption. It's crucial not to switch weapons after using it, as that would remove the buff. Upheaval is used to reduce cooldowns, helping you keep Defender's Resolve active as often as possible. For DPS, Whirling Blade serves as a reliable option, with an added bonus: if you're in light armor, it applies Rend, reducing enemy defenses, or Weaken if you're in heavy armor, decreasing their damage output. This build focuses on sustaining defense and maintaining aggro while delivering consistent damage and crowd control. Heavy attacks will empower you and strip debuff so heavy attack every 6 light attacks

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 1 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