With the upcoming New World Season 5 swiftly approaching, we're just a few days away from diving into the game. Anticipation is building within the PvP community as players eagerly await the introduction of exciting new artifacts that promise to shake up the meta. Today, I'll be sharing with you a build featuring the Fire Staff Blunderbuss.

I specialize in playing Fire Staff Blunderbuss in this build, which I complement with an anti-heal effect. My objective with this setup is to maximize the anti-heal effects on clumps around the point and contribute significant AOE damage with the Fire Staff Blunderbuss combo. Don't forget to bring some New World Coins for the new Season 5.

Gems

When it comes to weapons, let's delve into the core war builds I utilize. For the AOE stat pad anti-heal build, selecting the right weapons is crucial. As for the artifact's last option, opting for a gem socket is viable. In this setup, I recommend using a Runeglass Ruby gem for the Fire Staff. You can obtain the Fire Staff from either the named drop in the OPR crates Commandant's Fire Staff, or by crafting it yourself.

As for Gem slots, I prefer to revert to the basics, utilizing a Runeglass Emerald. The choice of Runeglass type is subjective, but remember that stacking 2 identical Runeglass Gem Types on the weapons is not possible.

However, because of the changes in Season 5 and the shakeup meta with some of the new artifacts, I believe that there will be even more Elemental type of damage and most of the people may drop their Fire Protection. We also might see Gemstone Dust coming back in play because of the many elements which will be present on the battlefield.

Armor

The armor pieces will be the biggest change for this season. As you know, there is a new amazing artifact called Nature's Wrath. This is a medium chest piece which provides a 20% base damage increase but consumes all the conditional Empower on yourself.

With that info in mind, our goal should be to set up as much as possible passive Empower so we can gain the most out of this chest.

Perks

Since the artifact is a medium chest piece, it means that all other armor pieces have to be in light. So, let’s take a quick look over the respective perks:

• Hat Piece: Enchanted Ward, Fireball, Fire Harnessing
• Gloves: Pillar of Fire, Enchanted Ward, Fire Harnessing
• Pants: Skipping Sharing Energy, Enchanted Ward, Plagued Splitting Grenades, Fire Harnessing
• Boots: Refreshing, Enchanted Ward, Fire Harnessing

For optimal perk distribution across your armor pieces, aim for a balance of defensive and offensive enhancements. Prioritize Enchanted Ward and Fire Harnessing to bolster your defensive capabilities, while complementing them with utility perks such as Fireball and Plagued Splitting Grenades. Ensure a total of 4 Refreshing perks across your Mage gear to maximize your effectiveness in combat.

Divine and Empowered are other perks that can be combined, but they may not be valuable for this build. Empowered is redundant due to the inability to have conditional Empowered, and Divine is not useful for a Mage who isn't on the frontline. Refreshing Recovery may not be the best choice either, as it won't help if enemies have already depleted your HP to below 50%.

Skill Tree

Fire Staff: The preferred combination remains Pillar Meteor and Fireball with passives aimed at reducing cooldowns and managing Mana efficiently. Focus on acquiring passives that enhance cooldown reduction and Mana management.

Blunderbuss: Continue using the double down build, incorporating Net Shot, Shrapnel Blast, and Splitting Grenade. Prioritize passives from the right side of the tree to unlock the ultimate passive, Double Down.

Rune Choice: Opt for the Biobomb rune to achieve mass anti-heal. Choose the Cunning upgrade path for Biobomb, as the other options reduce the effectiveness of the plague.

Brutal Form: Brutal form no longer creates a cloud, resulting in single-target anti-heal. The Steward version applies only 15% disease, down from 30%. Ensure these adjustments are accounted for in your build strategy.