New World February PTR Update Improves Combat Responsiveness

New World’s latest public test realm build is being released into the wild February 3, and includes a number of combat updates, balance changes, and bug fixes for players to put through their paces before the update finds its way to the live version of Amazon’s MMO.

As previously detailed by Amazon Game Studios, February won’t see the release of any new content for New World, with the team instead focusing on bug fixes and improvements.

“Deciding when to align resources to provide new content or to focus on improving what’s already there is a delicate balancing act for a live game, and New World is no different,” the February PTR announcement reads. “For our February game update, we’ve taken a moment of pause on feature development in favor of improving the state of the live game.”

Most notable among those improvements are updates to combat responsiveness. Weapon swapping should feel more fluid, with players now able to swap during dodges, reactions, using consumables, and traversing the environment. Swapping to a weapon and then queuing an attack or ability is also now possible, allowing player to immediately perform an action after swapping. In addition, the recovery period after dodging has also been reduced.

Though the PTR notes don’t dive into specific details, a number of weapon abilities have received “significant reworks.” These include the Great Axe’s powerful Gravity Well ability, and potent Musket skills like Stopping Power, Sticky Bomb, and Shooter’s Stance.

February’s PTR update also adds a dedicated trade chat channel for players to sell their wares, as well as a number of adjustments to the game’s Outpost Rush PvP mode, including changes to how the mode’s scoring works and updates to rewards, which now include faction tokens.

You can read the full PTR notes here. New World recently introduced the Mutator system to its endgame dungeons while also providing ways to raise the maximum gear score of items, giving max-level players more content to engage with.