Cold War players call for major nerfs to Marshals “ruining” multiplayer

Liam Mackay
Marshal in Black Ops Cold War Season 5

Black Ops Cold War players feel like the Akimbo Marshals are “ruining” the game because they’re too strong at close-range, so are calling for major nerfs.

The Marshal is a unique Cold War weapon because although technically a Pistol, it’s also a mini Shotgun. Equipped with the akimbo attachment and Dragon’s Breath Rounds, it becomes absolutely devastating in close-range encounters.

The Cold War player base has become fed up with the Marshals dominating multiplayer, and are calling for Treyarch to apply some major nerfs.

Marshal Shotgun in Black Ops Cold War

The Marshals arrived in Cold War Season 5 and immediately made an impact on the game. Because they’re secondaries, players can run them without sacrificing some of the best Assault Rifles or SMGs. But, players feel these secondary weapons are too powerful.

Reddit user u/gogeta1901 brought up the issue in a thread discussing the Marshals. Although admitting they exaggerated the range, they said that “any hostile engagement within 30 meters is ended instantly by an akimbo incendiary 725.” Another user clarified that it’s closer to 10-15 meters.

One user said that the Marshals are “really ruining the game.” They explained that a secondary weapon shouldn’t be able to beat every other weapon and “when that weapon takes no skill, it’s game destroying.”

Another Reddit user ran a poll on the Cold War subreddit, with 70% of the 682 votes agreeing they should be heavily nerfed. Almost every player in the comments agreed with the poll results, as one user described the weapons as “literally just an instant ‘I win’ button.”

Players were calling for all sorts of fixes to the Marshals, including nerfing its range, hip-fire, and Dragon’s Breath ammo attachment. Some are convinced that Cold War Season 6 will arrive with a weapon tuning pass that will eventually take down the Marshals.


For more Cold War, you can check out the classic Zombies Perk that’s been teased for Season 6.

Image Credit: Activision / Treyarch

About The Author

Liam is CharlieIntel's Editor who focuses on Call of Duty but also plays lots of fantasy RPGs or anything else in his massive gaming backlog. After graduating in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University, Liam freelanced in games journalism before joining CharlieIntel in November 2020. You can contact Liam at [email protected].