In Call of Duty: Warzone, there are currently as many weapons considered strong and usable as ever. Nevertheless, there are still certain meta weapons that dominate the battlefields. Warzone pro Nicholas “Nickmercs” Kolcheff does not care about this – he plays with a loadout of two weapons that currently hardly anyone has on their radar.
For many months, Call of Duty: Warzone was limited to a few strong weapons. Sure – no one forced players to only use the meta weapons. But often, you were at a disadvantage without the strong firearms.
In Season 3, everything is different, and many weapons are considered strong. But Warzone streamer and shooter pro “Nickmercs” disregards the recommendations. He is currently using an aggressive loadout featuring the “AS VAL” and the light machine gun “PKM” and can only recommend that everyone try these weapons for themselves. MeinMMO shows you his setups and why the combination actually looks very powerful.
Nickmercs shows off-meta loadout with PKM and AS VAL
Nickmercs’s aggressive loadout:
- Primary: PKM
- Secondary: AS VAL
- Blue perk: Fast Hands
- Red perk: Overkill
- Yellow perk: Eager
What makes his loadout so strong? With his weapon selection, he makes few compromises, completely specializing in close combat and long-range combat. You should avoid engagements at medium range with this loadout or only play from a good position.
That is also the strength of the loadout – if your positioning is right, you can disregard medium range in Warzone. You should approach enemies in this area differently:
- Only attack enemies between 30 – 70 meters if they have not spotted you
- Increase the distance to your opponent and take a well-covered position
- Get closer and eliminate enemies in close combat
Depending on the situation, preferences, and instructions from your team leader, you should decide: Should I push the opponent with the VAL or eliminate the enemy from long range with the PKM?
Nickmercs swaps the Overkill perk for the Ghost perk during a match.
If you want to see gameplay with the loadout, we are embedding an English video from Nickmercs here. In the end, he ends up with 19 kills:
CoD Warzone: AS VAL with setup, advantages and disadvantages
Warzone: AS VAL setup
- Barrel: VLK 200mm Osa
- Stock: Stovl 6P30 Base
- Underbarrel: Merc Foregrip
- Ammo: 30-round magazine
- Grip: Rubberized Grip Tape
What makes the AS VAL strong? The assault rifle from Modern Warfare is the winner in the DPS ranking of automatic weapons in Warzone and has the lowest time-to-kill (TTK) for chest hits. With this weapon, you can clear your opponents out of the way in no time – if the enemies are close enough.
The AS VAL remains pleasantly stable and is a real powerhouse in close combat.
What can the AS VAL not do so well? A drawback of the AS VAL is its increasing recoil at greater distances and its tiny magazine. Especially due to the small magazines, it is not seen as a meta weapon in team matches in Warzone.
You can load a maximum of 30 rounds into the magazine – too few when multiple opponents show up. Therefore, the AS VAL is considered a weapon more suited for solo mode. In solo rounds, you encounter multiple opponents at the same time less frequently.
Nickmercs still recommends the weapon for team matches and believes that the disadvantages are more than compensated for by the high damage. He says that you can easily get 2 kills with the small magazine before you need to reload if you surprise a team from behind.
What’s important are the 1vs1 engagements, where your opponent knows that you are coming around the corner. And in these situations, you have the advantage with the AS VAL – as an aggressive player, you even have a visual advantage.
CoD Warzone: PKM with setup, advantages and disadvantages
Warzone: PKM setup
- Muzzle: Monolithic Suppressor
- Barrel: Extended 26.9″ Barrel
- Sight: VLK 3.0x Scope
- Stock: FORGE TAC Stalker
- Underbarrel: Grip
What makes the PKM strong? The light machine gun offers you good damage, controllable recoil, and lots of ammunition. With this setup, the damage drops at around 50 meters but still remains at the level of the popular Krig 6.
PKM vs. Krig 6 – TTK comparison chest hits
- PKM: TTK up to about 50 meters – 560 milliseconds, then 640 milliseconds
- Krig 6: TTK up to about 42 meters – 644 milliseconds, then 736 milliseconds
You can deal the high damage effectively due to the good stability. The PKM is among the 10 most stable weapons in Modern Warfare and is very easy to use with a bit of practice. Plus, you get 100 rounds in the standard magazine for your attack.
What can the PKM not do so well? The PKM shares the fate of most light machine guns in Warzone – it is terribly slow. The important mobility is lost with the weapon in Warzone:
- Low aim down sights speed
- Poor movement speed
- Long reloading time
For Nickmercs, this is not a problem – he is a fan of light machine guns. While you take the disadvantages of such a weapon into account, if you adapt your playstyle and only use the PKM for your long-range and surprise kills, the negative aspects rarely disturb you.
Warzone has become more exciting since the start of Season 3. The action hero event makes you want more, the communication in the patch notes is now better, and the weapon meta includes as many weapons as ever.
This is also proven by Nickmercs – instead of rushing to the “overpowered” meta weapons, he chooses two rather unpopular weapons as his favorites in Season 3. A few months ago, this was virtually unthinkable; in the current Warzone, it’s the order of the day.
