Every weapon buff and nerf in Warzone Season 3 Reloaded
Warzone devs have continued their recent trend of making welcome weapon balance changes with each update, significantly buffing Cold War Sniper Rifles and nerfing the AK-74u in Season 3 Reloaded.
Warzone Season 3 Reloaded, the midseason update, has finally arrived. It’s brought the highly-anticipated 80s Action Hero event, welcome bug fixes, and even more weapon balance changes.
In the last major update, Raven Software outlined their goal of providing much more variety in weapon choice and increasing the skill gap, and weapon balance is arguably in the best place it’s ever been. This update continues that trend, creating more diversity in both the SMG and Sniper Rifle categories.
Here’s every weapon buff and nerf in Warzone Season 3 Reloaded.
Cold War Sniper Rifles buffed in Warzone
Although Treyarch hit Sniper Rifles hard in Black Ops Cold War, Raven Software have significantly buffed Sniper Rifles in the Season 3 Reloaded update.
Here’s every change made to Sniper Rifles following Season 3 Reloaded.
M82 buffed
Raven Software felt that the semi-automatic M82 Sniper Rifle was “much more satisfying to use as a heavier duty semi-auto Sniper.” To push the M82 in this direction, the devs increased its bullet velocity and extremity multipliers but decreased its rate of fire.
LW3 – Tundra buffed
Warzone’s devs noted that the only thing holding the LW3 Tundra back was its ADS (aim down sight) speed and aiming stability. To counter these negatives, the devs increased its aiming stability and added more attachments to improve ADS.
Swiss K31 buffed
The Swiss K31 was built for quickscoping, being the ideal weapon for an aggressive Sniper. To make the “Swiss K31 feel a lot more like the lightweight, fast-handling, high-skill weapon it was meant to be,” Raven greatly increased its flinch resistance, ADS speed, and aiming stability.
ZRG 20mm buffed and nerfed
The heavy-duty ZRG 20mm has received the most significant weapon balance changes of all Cold War’s Sniper Rifles. With this update, Warzone devs were “doubling down on its identity as the highest caliber Sniper in Verdansk,” making you “really feel like you are firing anti-materiel rounds.”
To do this, they’ve made the weapon more powerful, increasing its bullet penetration and body shot multipliers, but also made it heavier by decreasing its ADS speed, bullet velocity, and movement speed.
SMG changes in Warzone Season 3 Reloaded
Alongside these Sniper Rifle changes, Raven Software also made some adjustments to Cold War’s SMGs in Warzone.
AK-74u buffed and nerfed
Similar to how they changed the ZRG 20mm, Warzone devs gave the AK-74u both buffs and nerfs to change its playstyle.
They felt it was acting too much like an Assault Rifle so made changes to bring it more in line with the other weapons in its class. To do this, they gave it “less bullet velocity, less damage range, and more sprint to fire speed.”
With these changes, they described the AK-74u as “the epitome of high-risk, high-reward SMGs.”
PPSH-41 buffed
Raven described how the PPSH was “on the brink of being able to contest some of the strongest Submachine Guns,” so they increased both its maximum damage and damage range.
They believe that “This damage bump will undoubtedly have the PPSh-41 joining other high tier SMGs as a contender for that top spot.”
All Warzone Season 3 Reloaded weapon changes
Not only did Raven Software make significant changes to specific weapons, but they also delivered on the teased changes to Sniper Rifle attachments, bringing them more in-line with the most popular Modern Warfare attachments.
For all of these attachment changes and exact values on the weapon changes, here’s the full patch notes directly from Raven Software.
Submachine Guns
- AK-74u
- Neck multiplier increased from 1 to 1.4
- Sprint to Fire Speed increased by 20%
- Bullet Velocity decreased by 15%
- Maximum damage range decreased by 25%
- PPSh-41
- Maximum damage increased from 27 to 28
- Maximum damage range increased by 3.8%
Snipers
- All Black Ops Cold War Sniper base optics have been adjusted.
- Sniper Rifle Charlie (M82)
- Bullet Velocity increased by 14%
- Extremity multipliers increased from .9 to 1
- Rate of Fire decreased from .33 to .83
- LW3 – Tundra
- Aiming Stability increased
- Swiss K31
- Flinch Resistance greatly increased
- ADS Speed increased slightly
- Aiming Stability increased
- ZRG 20mm
- Bullet Penetration increased
- Upper Torso multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.7
- Lower Torso multiplier increased from 1.15 to 1.25
- Extremity multipliers increased from .9 to 1
- ADS Speed decreased by 4%
- Bullet Velocity decreased by 2%
- Move Speed decreased by 2%
- ADS Move Speed decreased by 1%
Attachments
- Muzzles
- Flash Guard
- Vertical Recoil Control increased slightly
- Suppressor
- No longer reduces Bullet Velocity
- Now increases Bullet Velocity
- Now increases ADS Speed
- Now increases Sprint to Fire Speed
- We expect this relatively unassuming change to have widespread effects. The Suppressor now offers you another viable attachment choice in the muzzle category with a focus on different stats. For example, where Bullet Velocity and Effective Damage Range are not a priority (e.g., Submachine Guns) you would almost certainly take the Suppressor. Or perhaps you have more than enough Bullet Velocity (e.g., ZRG 20mm) and you want to shore up a weakness in handling. These are the types of compelling decisions we want to continue to develop.
- Flash Guard
- Lasers
- SOF Target Designator (Snipers)
- No longer increases Effective Damage Range
- Now increases Aiming Stability
- ADS Move Speed multiplier increased
- Ember Sighting Point (Snipers)
- No longer increases Effective Damage Range
- Now greatly increases Aiming Stability
- ADS Move Speed multiplier increased
- Steady Aim Laser (Snipers)
- No longer decreases Hip Spread
- Now increases ADS Speed
- Swat 5mW Laser Sight (Snipers)
- No longer decreases Hip Spread
- No longer decreases ADS Speed
- Now increases Aiming Stability
- Now greatly increases ADS Speed
- Black Ops Cold War Snipers desperately needed more ‘value’ Attachments—namely, more Attachments that provide stats that are relevant to Snipers. We feel the changes to these Attachments and base Sniper optics will make Black Ops Cold War Snipers far more competitive and enjoyable to use.
- SOF Target Designator (Snipers)
- Rear Grips
- Airborne/GRU Elastic Wrap
- Aiming Stability increased
- Airborne/GRU Elastic Wrap
Raven Software are still to deliver on teased buffs for “struggling” Modern Warfare weapons, so we’re likely to see that in a future update, or perhaps in Season 4.
Image Credit: Activision
