The shotgun 725 has become a symbol of poor balancing in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare over the past few weeks. How does the poor shotgun stand after the 3rd nerf – killer or puff pipe?
What’s going on with CoD? The latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been on the market for almost a month and is still struggling with certain launch issues.
Although several updates have been released, most recently yesterday’s build 1.09, not much has been done regarding weapon balancing so far – except for the overpowered shotgun 725, which has been dominating the community.
725 now in the victim role: The unpopular firearm has been completely overhauled with the last 3 patches and plays a bit differently now. However, it can still hold its own.
Shotgun 725 after 3 nerfs in test
Is the shotgun still usable? This is also a question that the YouTuber “Nemsk” has asked and uploaded a video about the damage characteristics of the weapon before and after the service update of November 19.
This is what the video shows: There is a small damage test at different distances. “Nemsk” uses a bare 725 without attachments from the gunsmith.
These are the results:
- 1-shot range hipfire
- Before the patch: 16 meters
- After the patch: 8 meters
- 1-shot range aimed fire (ADS)
- Before the patch: 19 – 20 meters
- After the patch: 12 meters
- Hit range
- Before the patch: about 40 meters
- After the patch: 20 – 30 meters
The numbers clearly show that the weapon has lost a lot of power. After the 2nd patch, the 725 without attachments was still extremely strong.
OP weapon finds its place
725 remains a good choice: The range of the weapon has suffered, but the 725 still performs well in the game and is still possibly one of the best weapons in the game.
The one-shot range feels good and logical. At distances around 10 meters or less, the weapon usually performs better than any SMG, depending on playstyle and preferences.
Enemies with low health can also be taken out well at medium ranges, and the overall range can be improved a bit with attachments.
Is it still OP? The gun is losing its status as an all-in-one weapon, but you can still have fun with it and reliably shoot annoying enemies to mush.
Developers wanted to preserve the soul of the weapon
Here’s what the devs say: Ideally, each weapon in a shooter serves a specific niche or situations where certain firearms perform better than all others.
However, weapon balancing is a difficult undertaking, as the victims of nerfs should not become completely useless. “Hutch” recognized this on Twitter and received a response from one of the developers, Joe Cecot, who is responsible for multiplayer at Infinity Ward.
Developers chose a cautious approach: Cecot stated that they want to preserve the soul of the 725 shotgun. The weapon should still have a place in the game and occupy its niche.
So far, it looks like the developers have succeeded in finding the balance between useless and usable in this case.
Do you also think that the 725 is still usable after the nerfs? Or will it first disappear into the weapon cabinet?
