Sword and Shield is the primary weapon of choice for nearly all the tank characters. After all, it's the weapon setup that with its' Defender tree offers the highest damage mitigation and defensive utility. If you are looking to become the primary tank in Dungeons, Expeditions, you have no other option here. You are mainly going to utilize active skills and passives from the Defender tree to reduce incoming damage and generate the highest possible threat (if you are not familiar with the tank role, the threat is what determines who is the monsters' primary target, so if you don't generate enough threat, monsters will attack your DPS and/or healers, and the party will eventually collapse). Picking up skills from the Swordmaster tree is optional, and they will be mainly used during leveling/solo play. Leadership is amazing but it would require you to sacrifice quite a bit of your defenses to get to it, but that's potentially also an option. 

Active Skills:

1. Shield Bash: an AoE stun that affects enemies in front of you. It can also Taunt all enemies hit for 6 seconds if you have a Carnelian Gem equipped in your weapon. You are also going to take both corresponding passives for it, to increase the threat generated and increase the stun duration to 3 seconds
2. Shield Rush: your rush forward knocking back enemies. It's a great initiator, and with its' passives it can also weaken and slow down affected enemies
3. Final Stand: a must-have ability that greatly reduces incoming damage for a short duration. You are going to save it for big damage spikes against Bosses, and just like Shield Bash, it offers an AoE taunt with Carnelian Gem equipped. When the effect ends, it can also heal you for 15% of your max Health

Core Passives:

1. Final Blow: makes it much easier to generate threat with light attacks (making it even more suitable for beginner players, or if you are still inexperienced with the tank's rotation)
2. Defensive Training: a mandatory passive that allows you to gain Fortify buff for a short duration when you block and attack. Fortify reduces all incoming damage 
3. Recuperation: increases incoming healing and health regeneration on your character by 10%. Makes the life of your healers much easier, and you are less likely to die during Boss fights
4. Defensive Formation: when you successfully block, it will reduce the damage to all your nearby party members by 30%. This skill offers amazing team utility

War Hammer is the secondary weapon used in this build which is primarily focused on Crowd Control. You are going to distribute points mainly in the Crowd Crusher tree, where, Juggernaut is more DPS oriented - making it a better option for leveling up your character, but less useful in Dungeons and Expeditions. 

Active Skills:

1. Armor Breaker: a powerful attack that penetrates 35% of the target. The Lasting Trauma passive also increases all damage dealt to the target
2. Shockwave: a powerful AoE stun that affects all enemies in a 3-meter radius around your character. It can also weaken affected enemies, which reduce the damage they deal by 10%
3. Path of Destiny: an AoE attack that damages enemies in front of you and staggers all the enemies on its path. With its' cooldown reduction per enemy in radius, it's a great tool for leveling up as well

Core Passives:

1. Prevailing Spirit: basically a Health leech ability that will be very useful when playing without a healer in your party
2. Resurgence: allows you to reduce the duration of debuffs on your character with light attacks
3. Epitome of Bonk!: increases the armor penetration effectiveness of all War Hammer attacks
4. Quick Recovery: it allows you to reduce the cooldowns of your War Hammer abilities with heavy attacks which allows you to use all the stuns and CC more often

In terms of Items, you are primarily going to focus on getting the highest possible physical armor rating on all pieces of equipment. Your Health scales with your physical armor thanks to the bonuses from the Constitution attribute, so it's best to simply benefit from it. You should also aim in getting 300 total points in Constitution to gain all the bonuses from it, after all, it's the attribute that increases the maximum amount of damage you can take.

We are obviously going to update this section when the full game is released, and we have more time to get familiar with all the Perks, Gems, and specific attributes of higher rarity equipment. Any changes to this guide will be described on top of the page in Build notes. 

ENDNOTE

This is our premiere New World Online build and we would be grateful if you leave your feedback about it (the form, content, and pretty much anything else you would want to see done differently). We are going to continuously add new builds and update existing content for New World, and we are expecting to have a full team of players constantly testing out new builds and Items for you. Make sure to check back for more up-to-date articles and guides for New World Online at Odealo.com