Spear is a deadly melee weapon that offers very high reach and a deadly mix of sustained damage, vicious damage over time effects, and annoying debuffs. For a melee weapon, Spear is rather difficult to master and will require some practice, but the effects are definitely worth it. For this build, we focus on the Impaler skill tree to maximize sustained damage by reducing cooldowns, maximizing debuffs' uptime, increasing critical strike chance, and boosting damage against wounded enemies.

Active Skills:

1. Perforate (Impaler): This ability allows you to perform a sequence of three rapid piercing attacks, for 70% weapon damage each. It applies Rend, which is a debuff that reduces the target's damage absorption by 5% for 10s. This is your Spear opener (if you're already in melee), as using it first will make the other two spear skills deal more damage. You should take both of the corresponding passives for doubled Rend effectiveness against wounded enemies and stagger effect after landing 3 hits on the same target. 
2. Skewer (Impaler): This powerful ability makes you rush forward and Impale your Target on the spear for 125% weapon damage. It also applies a 10-second Bleed effect for 10% weapon damage per second. This offers great sustained damage, especially when combined with all three of its corresponding passives. Skewer is useful for closing the gap and engaging targets in melee after opening up on them with the Musket. 
3. Vault Kick (Impaler): An ability that makes you vault on your spear forward and kick the target for 75% weapon damage, stunning them for 1.5 seconds. You might think that this skill is sub-par until you realize that its Continuous Motion passive reduces cooldowns of all other Spear skills by 30% (!), and its Relentless Blows passive gives you a 20% Damage buff against enemies below 50% health. You should use this after you use Skewer as it will cut its cooldown by 30%. 

Core Passives:

1. Refreshing Reach (Zoner): This passive makes your successful Heavy Attacks with a Spear reduce all Spear Cooldowns by 15%. With this, if you make a single Heavy Attack after you use the Vault Kick, you'll get a 45% Cooldown Reduction which is simply ridiculous. 
2. Strong Conditioning (Zoner): While your Stamina is below 50%, your Stamina Regeneration is increased by 30%. With this, running out of Stamina should not be an issue. 
3. Finishing Blows (Impaler): You deal 15% more Damage against targets with less than 30% Health. This should let you finish off Targets with extreme efficiency. 
4. Exploited Weakness (Impaler): This one provides +10% damage per debuff on the target, for a maximum of +30% Damage. You can easily apply multiple debuffs without breaking your rotation, so this is just free damage. 

As far as ranged weapons go, Musket is the polar opposite of Bow. It is slow-to-reload, but heavy-hitting - Bow fires much faster, but deals less damage per hit. The Bow is about mobility - Musket encourages you to stay still. Because of this, the Musket is less reliable than the Bow as the main weapon. However, thanks to its burst damage, it's great as the secondary. It works exceptionally well in the combination with a Spear, as both of them use Dexterity as their primary stat, and Musket's burst damage supplements Spear's kit quite exceptionally. 

Active Skills: 

1. Powder Burn (Sharpshooter): A Skill that makes you Overload your Musket, causing the next shot to deal 110% Weapon Damage and apply a burn status effect to the Target. Burn deals 20% Weapon Damage per second for 9 seconds. Effects of Powder Burn do not stack with other overload shots' effects. This is a very solid opening skill - it deals good damage and applies a nasty DoT effect. You should also take both of the corresponding passives for extra DoT duration and damage buff. 
2. Stopping Power (Trapper): Another Overload Skill. This one deals 120% Weapon Damage and staggers the target. Moreover, It knocks the target back 3 meters. If you take both Passives related to this skill, it will turn into a nasty high-damage Crowd Control skill that will: knock targets back, stagger them, slow them, and reduce their Stamina regeneration (imagine being hit by this in PvP...). You should use it after you use the Powder Burn. 
3. Traps (Trapper): This Skill allows you to throw a Trap that lasts for 20 seconds. When the trap is triggered, it causes its target to be Rooted in place for 3 seconds. You should boost this skill with all three of its corresponding passives - Trapped Damage - Trap also applies 20% (!) Rend, Scent of Blood - You Regen 100% Weapon Damage as Health when you deal damage to Trapped Targets, and Double Trap - You can have two active Traps at once. Traps will let you transition from Spear to Musket in a very efficient manner - after you're done with your Spear attacks, switch to Musket, throw in Traps and follow up with Powder Burn + Stopping Power combo. Moreover, Traps provide great crowd control, a high damage boost, and potent self-healing. 

Core Passives: 

1. Greater Accuracy (Sharpshooter): A simple passive that removes Accuracy Penalty why hip firing. A great passive for those who like to snapshot their Muskets (or make 360 no-scopes). 
2. Empowering Weakness (Trapper): With this passive, you'll get an Empower (5% extra Damage for 5 seconds) buff each time you hit a target that has an active debuff on them. This passive is just 5% extra damage at all times, as this build has multiple ways of applying debuffs. 
3. Tactical Reload (Trapper): With this, you will reload your Musket instantly when you perform a Dodge (this effect has a 6-second cooldown). To benefit from this passive the most, you should weave Dodge into your musket rotation. 
4. Lethal Combo (Trapper): Increases your Damage done to Targets affected by Trapper Tree status effects by 20%. This is a very high Damage boost and you don't have to do anything specific to benefit from it as both Traps and Stopping Power apply status effects (debuffs). 

First and foremost, you should try to get 250 total Dexterity points. Boosting Constitution by a bit is not a bad idea either - remember that you are primarily a melee fighter, after all. Also, this is a general-purpose build, so we don't recommend going full Dexterity on Items; doing so would make the build deal more damage but also make it too squishy for PvP. As for Armor Weight, you should use Light/Medium Armor to benefit from the increased damage they provide. 

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. 

END NOTE

This is the initial version of our New World Spear/Musket DPS build. We tried to include all the important information on how to set up a character to run it, while also trying to keep the guide as compact as possible. If we've missed something of importance, please let us know! 

If you have any Build requests, please post them in the Comments section below. We will be happy to cover your most requested builds in the future! Also, we hope that you have found this guide useful and informative. Also, we will be happy to receive constructive criticism that will help us improve our future work, so don't hesitate to give us your feedback.