Some of Warzone’s best weapons caught Raven Software and Sledgehammer Games’ attention in today’s update. Before diving into the changes, I want to note that the devs have updated the Breacher Drone. Here is the change:
“Improved impact detection to prevent inflicting more explosive damage to players than intended.”
Before, the Breacher Drone could knock you in one blast despite not appearing close enough to do that much damage. Today’s change aims to address that issue.
Now to the weapons. There are some steep nerfs here, particularly the burst assault rifles and Akimbo pistols.
DG-56 (Assault Rifle/MWIII)
- Max Damage reduced to 32, down from 40.
FR 5.56 (Assault Rifle/MWIII)
- Max Damage reduced to 35, down from 43.
Yep, that’s a significant drop in max damage. What this does is likely get rid of the two-burst potential. Folks who like these guns will probably keep using them, but they won’t feel broken.
BAS-B (Battle Rifle/MWIII)
- Max Damage reduced to 35, down from 39.
- Min Damage reduced to 25, down from 27.
Nothing too drastic here. I don’t see this gun leaving the meta, but it’s clear these changes are meant to rein the gun in closer to other options.
COR-45 (Pistol/MWIII)
- Akimbo
- Max Damage reduced to 30, down from 45
Renetti (Pistol/MWIII)
- Akimbo
- Max Damage reduced to 22, down from 33.
- Headshot multiplier reduced to 1.2, down from 1.4.
TYR (Pistol/MWIII)
- Akimbo
- Max Damage reduced to 70, down from 120.
Now, these are big nerfs. One of the biggest complaints with the latest Warzone is the fast time to kill (TTK), and all these changes are meant to tackle the guns most responsible for that.
DM56 (Marksman Rifle/MWIII)
- Max Damage reduced to 41, down from 50.
- Min Damage reduced to 37, down from 39.
KVD Enforcer (Marksman Rifle/MWIII)
- Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.8, down from 2.2.
MTZ Interceptor (Marksman Rifle/MWIII)
- Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.5, down from 2.
The most significant change here with the MTZ Interceptor is you won’t be seeing two-shot kills anymore with that change to the Headshot Multiplier.
Haymaker (Shotgun/MWIII)
- Max Damage reduced to 36, down from 52.
Fennec 45 (Submachine Gun/MWII)
- Max Damage reduced to 22, down from 25.
- Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.25, down from 1.35.
- Lower Torso Multiplier reduced to 1, down from 1.1.
On paper, these changes look good. The fast time to kill (TTK) has opened up more meta options than we typically see in Warzone, but the weapons that floated to the top have felt broken. Here’s what Sledgehammer and Raven had to say about these weapon changes:
“Looking at the breadth of Weapons and Attachments on offer, some outliers were performing above expectation. We have taken immediate steps to mitigate them to support a healthy engagement experience through the holiday break.”
They will gather data over the holiday break, and we will see more weapon balance changes as we enter 2024 and with the release of Season 1 Reloaded.
There was also a small Warzone playlist update this week with tweaks to the Resurgence side of the playlists.