New World's Massive November Update Is Here

Earlier this month, Amazon launched a public test realm for New World. Alongside that PTR launch, Amazon began testing a massive patch for New World that, among other things, added a new weapon, new enemies, and new quests to the game. Fast forward a week later and now that patch is ready for prime time, with Amazon launching it on live servers today.

It's hard to understate just how big this update is in terms of content. The lengthy patch notes tell the tale better than we can, and there are more changes, fixes, and tweaks than we can hope to cover here in a single article. However, there are some highlights to this update, and perhaps the biggest one is the introduction of the Void Gauntlet.

Introduced last week when the PTR launched, the Void Gauntlet is a new weapon that blends offense and support. Since it scales using both Intelligence and Focus, it could be a good choice for Life Staff users, who previously had no other Focus-scaling weapon option. With that in mind, don't be surprised to see the Void Gauntlet become a popular weapon right off the bat.

As outlined last week, this update also introduces new enemies called the Varangian Knights, though it seems they'll mostly be encountered by lower-level players. Amazon is trying to prompt players to flag for PvP when leaving cities more often, too, as those who are flagged will receive a whopping 10% luck bonus and a 30% gathering luck bonus as they run around the world.

The update also launches new PvP missions and links all of the trading posts in the world, which could have a rather dramatic effect on the economy. Gone are the days when you'd need to run between cities in search of a good deal, as you can now purchase any listed item from any trading post in the world. We'll see how this changes prices, but we expect them to fluctuate somewhat in the wake of this massive change.

Not only does this patch bring a lot of additions, but it also contains many weapon tweaks. In fact, every weapon in the game has been changed in some way by this update, with many weapons having their less popular abilities buffed and popular ones nerfed. For instance, the Ice Gauntlet's Ice Storm has been nerfed, with the time between damage ticks increased. Several bugs associated with the ability have been quashed as well.

That's really just scratching the surface of the changes, though. Each weapon has seen a wide variety of changes, so check out the patch notes to see how your personal weapon combo has been impacted. In general, however, it seems that magic users have been nerfed a bit, so if you're an Ice Gauntlet or Fire Staff user, you'll definitely want to take a close look at the patch notes.

Today's update is quite possibly the biggest one that New World has received since its launch. New World came up from maintenance just a short time ago, which means the update is now live. So, if you're a New World player, dive in and take it for a spin.