Sledgehammer Games dropped a new update today right before Thanksgiving. In it, we see the first significant weapon balance update. ‘Meta’ guns like the Holger 556, DG-58, and FR 5.56 all saw nerfs as the devs try to tackle some of the most potent weapons in the game. On the flip side, several Submachine Guns saw buffs to help make them more viable and hopefully expand weapon selection for players.
For the burst rifles (the DG-58 and FR 5.56), it will now require two headshots to kill an enemy with a single 3-round burst. You’ll still see one-burst kills, especially at close range – but it’ll be much less consistent than before today’s update.
Before, you could aim at the chest/neck area, let the recoil do the rest, and often get one-burst kills. Now, you’ll need much better recoil control, and even then, you won’t often land that second headshot outside of close-range fights.
Here’s what the devs had to say about the changes:
“The highlight of this balance pass is a reduction to the lethality of the FR 5.56 and DG-58. Both Weapons will now require two headshots to kill an enemy with a single 3-round burst fire. Additionally, these changes aim to improve the consistency and viability of Submachine Guns to the intended target for the class.”
And here are the specific changes from today’s patch notes.
- Holger 556 (Assault Rifle)
- Decreased headshot damage multiplier from 1.4x to 1.3x.
- Decreased neck, upper-torso, arm, and hand damage multipliers from 1.1x to 1x.
- Increased sprint to fire time from 210ms to 231ms (+10%).
- DG-58 (Assault Rifle)
- Decreased maximum damage from 44 to 40 (-9%).
- Decreased medium damage from 35 to 33 (-6%).
- Decreased neck damage multiplier from 1.4x to 1.1x.
- Increased burst delay from 100ms to 120ms (+20%).
- FR 5.56 (Assault Rifle)
- Decreased maximum damage from 44 to 43 (-2%).
- Decreased near-medium damage from 40 to 36 (-10%).
- Decreased minimum damage from 36 to 33 (-8%).
- Decreased headshot damage multiplier from 1.5x to 1.4x.
- Decreased leg and foot damage multipliers from 1x to 0.9x.
- Increased aim down sights time from 240ms to 260ms (+8%).
- Increased sprint to fire time from 210ms to 231ms (+10%).
- Striker (Submachine Gun)
- Increased maximum damage range from 9m to 19m (+114%).
- Increased near-medium damage from 33 to 36 (+9%).
- Increased far-medium damage from 27 to 33 (+22%).
- Decreased aim down sights time from 240ms to 230ms (-4%).
- AMR9 (Submachine Gun)
- Increased lower-torso, lower-arm, and hand damage multipliers from 1x to 1.1x.
- Decreased sprint to fire time from 294ms to 206ms (-30%).
- Striker 9 (Submachine Gun)
- Decreased maximum damage from 32 to 27 (-16%).
- Decreased aim down sights time from 275ms to 225ms (-18%).
This is only the start of the ongoing tweaks to Modern Warfare 3’s weapon pool. The devs confirmed the start of Season 1 on December 6. Besides the usual content drops, we usually see the biggest patches hit during this time. Look for even more weapon balance changes then.
And while Sledgehammer Games plans to pull the “Groot” skin, today’s update didn’t do it.