Call of Duty: Warzone spoke about upcoming balance changes. Increasing the Time-to-Kill had been discussed for a while. Now it is known what the developers are planning as the first major change, and MeinMMO author Maik Schneider believes this is the wrong direction.
- In June 2021, the developers of Call of Duty: Warzone promised a general increase in the Time-to-Kill.
- After that, there was a major balance update that increased the Time-to-Kill of the best weapons. Then it went quiet on the topic.
- Now there has been a new statement regarding the Time-to-Kill. There will be further increases, and initially, the overall ADS speed will be decreased for this purpose.
In Warzone, the Time-to-Kill is often specified for chest hits and indicates how much time it takes to deal 250 damage.
To calculate it, you need the damage of a weapon and the fire rate. Since players often start firing only when they are aimed in, the “time to aim” can also be accounted for in the Time-to-Kill.
Increasing the Time-to-Kill would benefit Warzone
As a long-time Warzone player, I have experienced all the crazy OP weapons and seen what an extremely low Time-to-Kill does to the battle royale.
And generally, I would say: Warzone has been much less fun when there were OP weapons with an extremely low Time-to-Kill.
During the phases when Warzone had a higher Time-to-Kill, battles played out differently. This could be experienced in the “Iron Trials” mode, where the base health was significantly higher than in standard mode.
But also shortly after the launch of the Caldera map in the Vanguard modes – the Vanguard weapons had not yet been specifically adapted to the Warzone values.
In such phases and game modes, the battles were more fun. My skills in the game made a greater difference. Battles would also end with a team escaping because the fights were not over in just a few seconds.
Instead of losing 2 team members right away in the first hail of bullets, everyone makes it behind cover. You can regroup, use tactics, flank, and provide suppressive fire. A completely new way to play Warzone.
Currently, it often feels like you can barely reach the next cover before the balanced laser setup of the fully automatic meta weapon crushes the cover change in its infancy.
This is why I wish for a general increase in the Time-to-Kill in Warzone. It would give more dimension to the battles – more room to shine with crazy movement techniques and outsmart opponents with tactical considerations.
But not every TTK increase is helpful
The way the general increase in the Time-to-Kill in Warzone is now supposed to be achieved, however, leaves a sour taste. The developers state on Twitter:
[…] we will reduce the base speed [of the weapons] to aim for all titles [CoD MW, Cold War, Vanguard]. This increases the Time-to-Kill somewhat, as aim-down sights times should be considered in the calculation of the actual TTK values.
Moreover, it will give us space to highlight the differences between the weapon classes.
Raven Software via Twitter
So the increase in the Time-to-Kill is supposed to happen by reducing the aiming speed. We will then take longer to aim, and indeed this will slightly increase the Time-to-Kill.
But that often doesn’t feel like it, and it also affects the gameplay in other ways.
If an opponent catches you whom you didn’t see before, you won’t feel the increase in the Time-to-Kill. You only realize during gunfire that someone has you in their sights and … exactly: they are already aiming at you.
At this point, the TTK increase fails. The reaction window in such “fights” remains small, and there are still situations where you get “deleted”. Meaning you have no chance to react to the opponent before the Gulag calls.
Moreover, the decrease in aiming speed affects the gameplay in an area where I have always had a lot of fun in Warzone: the movement.
CoD weapons are already sensitive to small changes in aiming speed (ADS speed). Milliseconds make a difference in whether a weapon feels snappy, just okay, or like ketchup. A decrease in aiming speed also means that Warzone becomes less snappy.
Conclusion: TTK Increase – Yes, please. But the right way!
It is still unclear whether there will be further measures to increase the Time-to-Kill. But the approach now presented does not satisfy me:
- The noticeable TTK does not really go up because the damage stays the same
- Due to the longer aiming times, movement is lost
Because on the one hand, the change misses the mark a bit, and on the other hand, a system that feels good might be negatively affected by the adjustments.
I am in favor of an increase in the Time-to-Kill in Warzone. It doesn’t have to go up to 1 second right away. But from the current values of around 500 – 700 milliseconds (without aiming time), it could easily go up to 650 – 850 milliseconds.
However, this increase should come through damage values. And with over 100 weapons now, that could be quite a mountain of work.
We also look forward to your opinion on the topic in the comments. Do you feel the same way I do, or do you have a completely different opinion?
