Hatchet
Hatchets are a type of One-Handed Weapon in New World. It is a bit unique in that it can built as a close combat fast paced melee weapon or you can master the art of throwing the hatchet at your enemies. The Hatchet has two mastery trees:
- Berserker: the melee tree designed at quick paced close combat slashing attacks with built in regenerative abilities
- Throwing: the ranged tree designed for keeping your enemies far enough away not to attack you but close enough for you to stick hatchets in their legs!
Both trees offer a diverse play style, with the Berserker particularly suited to a tanking role in a group.
Dealing damage with a Hatchet will scale off a player’s Strength and Dexterity Attribute so you should focus your points in these areas to improve your damage.
Below you will find a breakdown of each skill in the mastery trees.
Best Damage Types
Each weapon has a unique way of dealing damage on top of their abilities. For Hatchets, this is primarily Slash damage. You should take care to look for perks and gems that prioritise Slash Damage as other types will provide no additional bonuses to your character.
Hatchet Mastery Trees
Active Abilities
- Feral Rush – A sprinting melee attack that causes the player to leap forward, hitting twice. The first hit deals 100% weapon damage and the second deals 115% weapon damage. Cooldown: 12 seconds.
- Berserk – Triggers a Berserk Mode that increases all attack damage by 20% while active. Berserk Mode will be active for 15 seconds. Taunt Gem Compatible: If you have a Carnelian gem equipped in your hatchet, this ability will perform an 8-second taunt to all enemies within 8m. (Taunt causes monster to focus only on you) Cooldown: 30 seconds.
- Raging Torrent – Perform four fast attacks, each dealing 80% weapon damage
Active Ability Enhancement Traits
- Dispatch – If target is below 30% health, Feral Rush deals 20% more damage.
- Crippling Strikes – If Feral Rush hits a target in the back, it causes Root, immobilizing target for 2 seconds.
- On The Hunt – Increases movement speed by 20% while in Berserk Mode.
- Berserking Refresh – When Berserk ends, you heal yourself for 30% of your max health.
- Berserking Purge – Triggering Berserk removes all Crowd Control effects (Stuns, Slows, Roots) from the player.
- Uninterruptible Berserk – While Berserk is active, your attacks are uninterruptible and you can’t be staggered.
- Aggressive Approach – Hitting a target with Raging Torrent grants Haste, increasing movement speed by 20% for 6 seconds.
- Final Blow– Press Light Attack at the end of Raging Torrent to unleash a final attack dealing 115% weapon damage.
Passive Ability Traits
- Enraged Strikes – If target is below 30% health, Light and Heavy attacks deal 20% more damage.
- Against All Odds – Increase base damage by 10% for every enemy within 5 meters of player.
- Frenzied Purge – When hitting an enemy while your health is below 30%: Remove all Bleed, Burn, and Poison DoT effects from the player. 60 second Cooldown
- Accumulated Power – After 3 successful light attacks against the same target: gain Empower, granting a 30% damage increase for 3 seconds of until the next attack.
- Relentless Fury – After a successful Heavy attack: gain Empower granting a 30% damage increase for 3 seconds of after 4 stacks.
- Fortifying Strikes – Hitting the same target with 3 light attacks grants Fortify, increasing damage absorption by 15% for 3 seconds.
- Desperate Refresh – All cooldowns are reduced by 5% when hitting an enemy with an attack while your HP is below 30%.
- Defy Death – Upon receiving lethal damage, you will avoid death and instead be reduced to 50 HP while gaining invulnerability for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Active Abilities
- Rending Throw – Throw an axe dealing 110% weapon damage and applying Rend, reducing target’s damage absorption by 10% for 4 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.
- Social Distancing – Throw an axe forward and dodge backwards, dealing 120% weapon damage and slowing targets by 15% for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.
- Infected Throw – Throw an axe that deals 130% weapon damage and triggers Disease and Weaken on the target for 5 seconds. (Disease reduces target’s healing efficiency by 30%) (Weaken reduces target’s damage by 10%). Cooldown: 15 seconds.
Active Ability Enhancement Traits
- Targeted Impact – Rend effect increased to 20% and duration extended to 6 seconds if further than 8 meters from target.
- Opportunistic – Rending Throw deals an additional 20% damage if target already has an active debuff.
- Second Wind – Using Rending Throw on a target with an active debuff reduces ability cooldown by 20%.
- Quick Power – Player Movement speed increased by 30% for 3 seconds if ability hits a target with an active debuff.
- Stay Back – Slow effects increased to 25% and duration extended to 4 seconds.
- Mortal Power – Increases the duration of Disease and Weaken effects to 8 seconds on targets below 30% Health.
- Aerial Transmission – Creates a 3-meter Disease AOE on impact that lingers in place for 3 seconds.
Passive Ability Traits
- Aimed Throw – Replaces block with an Aimed Throw that deals 90% weapon damage. Hold RMB to enter aimed stance. Each throw consumes 30 Stamina.
- Refreshing Throws – Light Attacks and Aimed Throws against targets with an active debuff reduce all cooldowns by 5%.
- Boot And Rally – Light Attacks and Aimed Throws regenerate 20 stamina when hitting targets with an active debuff.
- Rejuvenating Crits – Successful Critical Hits with Light Attacks or Aimed Throws regenerate 20 Stamina.
- Critical Throw – Thrown axes are now capable of triggering headshots or random critical hits. Also increases critical hit chance of all attacks by 5%.
- Exploitation – All attacks deal 15% additional damage to targets with an active debuff.
- On Fire – Every 3rd successfully thrown axe is a guaranteed crit.
- Adrenaline Rush – Dodging within 2 seconds of triggering an ability consumes 25% less Stamina.
- Persistent Hinderance – Successful throwing axe hits extend all hatchet debuff durations by 2 seconds.
