SEASON 8 PVE
Skewer
Perforate
Cyclone
Welcome to the Spear DPS Build Guide!
The spear is one of the most versatile melee weapons in PvE, offering a strong balance of damage, debuff utility, and mob control.This guide focuses on maximizing your damage output, applying Rend and Weaken, and using abilities like Skewer, Perforate, and Sweep efficiently in group PvE. Whether you're bursting down bosses or locking down dangerous mobs, this build will help you become a high-value team member in any expedition or raid.
Items
Items used in this build are just examples of good perk combinations you can use. There may be multiple Named Item alternatives, or you might find something similar on the Trading Post—or even get lucky with drops from mobs or chests. You can find all viable alternatives on websites like NWBuddy or NWDB.
Once you reach level 65, focus on increasing your faction level. At max faction rank, you’ll gain access to excellent starter gear. And if you didn’t spend much gold while leveling, you should be able to afford it easily. This gear is more than enough to handle M2 expeditions, Hive of the Gorgon, and Trial of the Devourer. The last one can be a bit tricky. It all depends on the raid leader and how strict the gear check is.
This guide uses Syndicate gear as an example, but similar alternatives exist for Covenant and Marauders. Base faction gear comes with Constitution as the default attribute, but you can buy seals to change it to any attribute you prefer.
Purchase a Syndicate (Covenant/Marauder) Soldier Seal from the faction store, then take it to the Outfitting Station along with the items you want to upgrade. Gear should be unlocked (Ctr+L to lock/unlock items), not be on you or in any gearsets
Focus on a few key things:
Attributes:
Ensure your gear has the right attributes for your build. For example, avoid using DEX/STR pieces for a healer or FOC pieces for damage dealers.Weight:
Stay in the correct armor weight category. In most cases, avoid medium weight as a DPS or healer. Tanks should aim for heavy armor. Damage Dealers - go light. Reason for this that you get extra bonus damage if wearing light armor.Perks:
Prioritize your main protection perk first (usually Enchanted Ward). Then add Refreshing and relevant weapon perks to complete your build.Gear Score:
Make sure your gear score meets the requirements for expeditions:650 for M1
675 for M2
695 for M3 (If your gear score is below these thresholds, the game will artificially scale down your outgoing damage.)
First Upgrades:
This variation of the gear transitional and can be skiped towards endgame variation to save some gold on upgrades. I just wanna share all available options. Always check the market, there might be cheap alternatives with similar perks.
As first step on impoving your gear you should consider running Winter Rune Forge. It can give you upgradable spear, and medium boots with fortifying perforate perk.
upgrade Frozenpoint spear with enfeebling skewer
upgrade Freezeframe Padded Shoes with enchanted ward (or keep it as it is to save some gold)
In order to upgrade those items you will need
x6 chromatics seals from faction store which is equal to 30k gold. Doing your daily random runs should give you 42k by the end of the week.
x1 armor matrix. This one various in price. On current date it is around 8k gold per one
x1 weapon matrix. This one various in price. On current date it is around 8k gold per one
x1 harden crystal (for enchanted ward). This one various in price. On current date it is around 6k gold per one
Tip: Keep doing your daily random expeditions and mutated expeditions to get gold to buy chromatic seals from the faction store. This is how your gear could look by the end of week 2 - week 3 of your endgame.
Remember. You can skip this variation and start doing Hive of Gorgon in your faction gear saving gold on upgrading Hoplite pieces to make Best in Slot 725 engame gear. But if not in a rush and happy to take game slow feel free to use those items in your gear
Armor Perks
Most of incoming damage, especially in boss fight, coded as light or heavy attacks. Enchanted ward reduces damage taken from it by a flat % on that armor piece. Essential for mutation expeditions to mitigate high mob damage.
Heals you for a portion of the damage dealt by Cyclone. Provides self-sustain for melee builds, especially helpful in high-pressure PvE situations.
Reduces cooldowns on abilities by a small percentage. Helps maintain higher skill uptime, especially useful for rotation-heavy DPS builds and support roles.
Grants Fortify for each hit of the Perforate skill, stacking up to 3 times for 6 seconds. It helps light armor DPS builds reduce incoming damage during combat, making it ideal for surviving burst damage in expeditions.
Causes Sweep to apply a Bleed, dealing damage over time. Adds extra DPS and synergizes well with debuff-triggered passives like Exploited Weakness.
Increases your max HP based on the armor piece it’s on. Offers passive survivability for all roles, especially useful for light armor players or low-CON builds.
A very interesting change introduced in Season 8 is that Mortal perks are now available on armor pieces. Having one or a combination of these perks on your armor can help increase your damage or sustain. They’re mostly useless in boss fights, but can provide good value when dealing with large packs of mobs.
I would give Mortal Power a go. Leadeship (10%) + Obliv (15%) + Honing (7%) + Skewer (20%) = 42%. And even if you have Thrust ring, your Cyclone Strike Burst damage still has room for some empower
Empowering Toast will help you with empower uptime. Start with using regen pot before entering the fight and get mortal power stack after you kill first enemy
Weapon Perks
That's our bread and butter. Applies Weaken on hit, reducing the target’s outgoing damage for a few seconds. Great for lowering boss damage and improving survivability, especially in group PvE or against dangerous elites.
Spear’s cooldown reduction allows you to spam abilities with light attacks in between, making this perk easy to proc and providing a consistent 10% base damage increase.
A PvE-exclusive perk that increases your Skewer bleed damage and adds 5% more consistent damage to light attacks and abilities. I would probably run in on bleed sweep spear variation to get maximum value. For cyclone spear alternating enchantment should be better
Very good but expensive perk. Make sens to have only one per group. So if no one runs it in your team you can go for it but I would leave utility perk like that to tank or support and focus on damage perks instead
Attunement could be a good additional single target damage
Amulet Perks
Nature, Fire, Void, and Ice are the four main elements you’ll encounter weekly in mutated expeditions. Having an amulet for each will keep you covered for endgame content. Keep in mind that the resistance cap is 50% (e.g., if you have 51% Nature resistance, only 50% will count). Slot your gems carefully to avoid exceeding the cap.
Physical damage protection can help in boss fights that aren't affected by mutators. Check the NWBuddy website to see what damage type the bosses deal in the expedition you're running, and bring an extra amulet with that type of protection.
Jewelry Perks
Great for maximizing damage boosts during fights.
Useful for boosting survivability in high-damage encounters.
Increases max stamina, allowing for more dodges. Eespecially valuable for light armor builds.
Never use regenerating as Damage Dealer. Health regen from this perk will counts towards threat and cose agro which will make your tank job much harder
Attributes Details
Attributes are an important part of your build. They provide base damage scaling for your weapon and grant additional bonuses when you reach specific checkpoints. You can read about all attribute checkpoints by simply hovering over them in-game. When building your character, consider how those checkpoints synergize with your weapon.
The more points you invest into a single attribute, the less base damage each additional point gives—due to diminishing returns.
The Spear scales primarily with Dexterity and secondarily with Strength. However, because of the Spear's low cooldowns and frequent ability usage, having 350 Strength is beneficial for this playstyle. Prioritize maxing Strength, then put the remaining points into Dexterity.
Avoid investing points into Constitution, as it will lower your damage output and often won’t make a significant difference in survivability. Instead, focus on learning enemy mechanics and attack patterns to understand which damage you can safely take and which attacks you should always dodge.
If you upgrade your Attuned Leather Pants to Gear Score 725, and the rest of your items are 650+, you’ll have enough total attributes to reach both the 350 Strength and 250 Dexterity checkpoints.
Gear Progression
Once you've got your starter gear sorted, you can start working toward long-term goals. Focus on running Hive of the Gorgon and Trial of the Devourer—these endgame activities offer some of the best items in the game, and some drops can’t be obtained any other way.
Gear
Hoplite Mask and Hoplite Handcovers drop from Hive of the Gorgon. You can also craft them at a Gypsum Kiln using 40 Hive of the Gorgon Tokens.
Silken Cocoon and Dune Euplantula are powerful but unique items that only drop in the Trial of the Devourer. Keep in mind these are rare drops—so while farming, you can use the 725 Hoplite alternatives: Hoplite Shirt and Hoplite Boots.
Weapon
The best Spear will either require an Inductor craft (which is extremely expensive). Alternative can be obtained as a named drop from the Trial of the Devourer.
Another option is the Hoplite Spear from Hive of the Gorgon. However, it comes with Keenly Jagged, which isn’t an ideal DPS perk and can conflict with Keenly Jagged on your tank’s Butcher artifact sword.
Jewelry
The only way to get a 725 amulet with Empowered is to craft it.
In most cases, you should be able to use Skewer again before your current Empower expires. However, without the Empowered perk on your amulet, you may experience occasional downtime in your Empower uptime.
Armor Perks
Hold to main principles
x3-x4 enchanted ward (depends on boots you can find/craft/buy)
x4 refreshing
Upgrade gear with weapon perks
If there still some free perk slots upgrade it with health or mortal perks
Offhand Options (Situational)
Choose based on content and group composition:
Great Axe – For mob clumping and applying Weaken with Enfeebling Maelstrom.
War Hammer / Spark of Mjolnir – For extra crowd control or increased lightning damage.
Finisher Rapier – Great for boosting single-target damage.
Inferno Fire Staff or Akonite Bow – Work similarly to the Rapier. Use Arboreal Diamond Runeglass to apply Nature DoTs and activate Akonite’s effect.
Musket (Accelerated Traps) – Useful for speeding up movement between pulls in faster runs.
Pestilence – Adds DoT damage and applies Disease if needed for your group’s strategy.
Food, potions and other
Coatings are important part of your damage. Research which mobs you fight in expeditions and prepare coatings. Sometimes you might need to use few different coatings during the expedition
7% empower for any of your weapon attack
Food is important. Without it you will not be able to reach main checkpoints in attributes. So if after you prepared your gear you missing attributes it's probably a food. Don't cheap out. Buy the highest tier
Ward potions - your protection. Research which mobs you fight in expeditions and prepare ward potions. Sometimes you might need to use few different ward potions during the expedition
Helps to medigate DoT damage in expeditions
Might be usefull in some specific scenarious. E.G fire explosive mutations
How to gem up
Elemental resistance is capped at 50%. Keep this in mind when slotting gems for mutations or raids. Your amulet and gems combined should not exceed 50% resistance in total for optimal protection.
If you don’t have an amulet with a 15% resistance perk, there’s an easy solution: slot 8 gems into your armor and jewelry sockets to almost fully cover the mutation element.
Remember, some bosses deal unique elemental damage that isn’t affected by the mutation type. Check NWBuddy before entering an expedition to ensure you’re using the best protection. It’s a good idea to bring a few extra gems, amulets, or even a secondary gear set specifically for boss fights—it’ll make your experience much smoother.
Find your own optimal protection for specific encounters. Some base examples are bellow
With amulet 15% Protection
x5
Cut Pristine Amber
x2
Cut Pristine Opal
x1
Cut Pristine Onyx
x5
Cut Pristine Amethyst
x2
Cut Pristine Opal
x1
Cut Pristine Onyx
x5
Cut Pristine Ruby
x2
Cut Pristine Opal
x1
Cut Pristine Onyx
x5
Cut Pristine Aquamarine
x2
Cut Pristine Opal
x1
Cut Pristine Onyx
x6
Cut Pristine Emerald
x2
Cut Pristine Onyx
x6
Cut Pristine Jasper
x2
Cut Pristine Onyx
x6
Cut Pristine Moonstone
x2
Cut Pristine Onyx
Without amulet 15% Protection
x8
Cut Pristine Amber
x8
Cut Pristine Amethyst
x8
Cut Pristine Aquamarine
x8
Cut Pristine Ruby
Heartrunes variations
Damage burst
Dots, Weaken, Cleanse, Empower. Use in packs of mobs to minimise their damage and empower the group
Rend and CC. Can be used against mobs with movement abilities or to secure the clump in one place after gravity well for better burst damage
Healing, DoTs, Antieheal
Spear Role & Rotation Guide
Your main goal as a Spear user is to apply Rend and Weaken to important mobs in a pack. Any named mob or enemy with high base damage should be your primary target for Enfeebling Skewer and Perforate.
Main DPS Combo:
Dodge + Light Attack (for cooldown reduction & stamina-based bonus damage)
Skewer (for Empower and weaken)
Dodge + Light Attack
Perforate (applies Rend + Weaken)
Dodge + Light Attack
Cyclone (for maximum burst on a Rended target)
If You're Using Sweep:
Dodge + Light Attack
Sweep + Coup de Grâce
(Use only once at the start of your rotation—auto attacks will extend Bleed duration. Avoid reusing Coup de Grâce on bosses due to its clunky animation, which can leave you exposed and get you killed.)
Dodge + Light Attack
Skewer (for Empower)
Dodge + Light Attack
Perforate (Rend + Weaken)
You can start with Skewer if you're targeting a named mob, or with Sweep when jumping into a clump of trash mobs—it depends on what’s more important in the situation.
Additional Tips:
Be cautious when using Skewer as a gap closer. You might accidentally dash into a heavy attack or boss animation and be unable to dodge in time.
Always play around mob mechanics and recognize dangerous attack patterns before committing to full combos.