New World, Amazon's successful new MMO, encourages players to try a variety of different weapons as they explore the world of Aeturnum. Each weapon is distinct and plays differently, as well as serving different roles in combat for groups. There are sword and shield tanks, hatchets that mix ranged and melee physical damage, as well as ice and fire staves for magical damage. Yet one weapon, according to New World players, isn't treated in the same way as other weapons - the life staff.
While wielding a weapon in New World, players earn experience for that weapon through its use. In other words, attacking and defeating enemies with any given weapon will lead to earning experience for it. Swapping weapons mid-fight will even split experience between those weapons. Yet a life life staff is unique, because life staff users not only deal damage but also heal. Amazon, however, decided that healing isn't deserving of being treated similarly to dealing damage, so no experience is given for healing.
To repeat, life staff users gain no experience for healing non-party members, meaning that in order to gain experience and level the weapon, it has to be used offensively or on party members. If players are passing by another player in danger and heal them, they get no experience for that. If players start doing quests with others but don't form a party, they'll receive no experience for healing them. Life staff users are not rewarded for being a supportive ally in the open world.
Life staff users also face additional challenges due to their low damage. With servers so heavily populated, New World named quest enemies spawn very slowly but are killed very quickly. In order to get credit for killing them, players have to do a certain amount of damage to them. That means healers often have to try and kill named quest enemies several times before they're able to get credit.
Obviously, healers are so highly in demand that New World players are powering through the limitations of using life staff as a weapon. The question is whether these current limitations are fair or necessary. Life staff users are necessary for all aspects of the game, so Amazon should seemingly be encouraging players to use it and not the opposite.
Some New World players believe that rewarding experience for healing in the open world could be easily exploited. A player could tank attacks from an enemy while a healer consistently healed them, leveling with relative ease, for example. Hopefully, Amazon will take this feedback and find a healthy middle ground for New World players wielding a life staff.
New World is available now on PC.