Players are hyped for New World’s Heart of Madness update as it starts with a bang by adding a new Expedition and weapon.
New World has gone through a rocky period. With tons of issues, bugs, and New World gold exploits affecting the economy, the pirate-themed MMORPG from Amazon Game Studios has hit rock bottom as the player base count dwindles. However, they’ve yet to give up on their ambitions – the development team has been hard at work providing players with consistent updates and content to check out at least every month. The folks over at Amazon have posted a new dev update video on YouTube and went through the features we can expect in the much-awaited Heart of Madness update. There will be quality-of-life improvements in the works as well.
The Tempest’s Heart Expedition
At launch, New World’s story has loosely revolved around Isabella, the MMO’s most well-developed character. The lore has yet to wrap up Isabella’s tale; this is possibly due to the game’s tendency to leave the storytelling aspect open for future updates. However, the Heart of Madness update throws that concern aside. According to Amazon, the central facet of the update will conclude the said story. The quest to end this segment will have players pursue her into the Shattered Mountain. The Shattered Mountain can be argued as the perfect endgame area for New World gold farmers. It boasts a bleak, apocalyptic vibe that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of the more challenging monsters in the said region.
To befit such a massive event in New World’s lore, the encounter with Isabella will come in the form of a new Expedition: The Tempest’s Heart. This Myrkgard Expedition will be some of New World’s highest level content – the idyllic place where endgame players can farm New World gold. This five-person Expedition will require players to have a Gearscore of 550 or higher and is only available for those who have reached level 60. The Tempest’s Heart Expedition is located at the Northern tip of Myrkgard in Northern Shattered Mountain.
Once you’re at the location, you’ll encounter corrupted enemies. As veterans know, the most effective damage types against these corrupted creatures are nature, thrust, and arcane damage. We recommend slotting a nature or arcane gem into your weapon or using a weapon that deals thrust damage to maximize DPS.
The Blunderbuss
One of the significant additions in the Heart of Madness update is a new weapon called the Blunderbuss. Designed with unique elements, the Blunderbuss is a ranged gun whose damage output scales on the player’s intelligence and strength. Two weapon mastery trees will be available for the said weapon: the Chaos tree and the Containment tree. The Blunderbuss will also have its legendary weapon quest series. If you’ve reached level 60 and the maximum skill level for the Blunderbussonce after the Heart of Madness update is live, you can go to Ebonscale Reach to talk to Wang Tang Zhi to start the quest series.
Bug Fixes and Balance Changes
Apart from a new weapon and Expedition, Amazon plans to drop a diverse range of other changes with the Heart of Madness update. This includes the plans they briefly talked about last year in November. They posted an in-depth blog that details how they want to make New World feel as fluid as possible and other content, including new encounters to discover across Aeternum. We can expect to hear more information about what seems to be positive changes once the patch arrives.
In A Nutshell
The release date for the Heart of Madness update has yet to be confirmed, but Amazon does say that it’ll be arriving on New World’s Public Test Realm (PTR) along with March’s update. Depending on how the testing goes, we can expect Heart of Madness and the highly anticipated New World items, the Blunderbuss, to drop soon. Amazon also confirmed their 2022 roadmap for New World, which explains their plans for Spring, Summer, and Autumn. The Heart of Madness update is set for this Spring, accompanying the new PvP rewards track and 3v3 PvP arenas.