Season 3 of Call of Duty: Warzone brought extensive balance changes, particularly the sniper weapons have significantly changed. The formerly strongest sniper rifles can no longer take out enemies with a headshot from a distance. MeinMMO explains the changes and provides an initial assessment of what the new meta could be.
What has changed? As announced by the developers in advance, sniper weapons in Call of Duty: Warzone have radically changed with Season 3. Here are the highlights of the patch notes.
Smaller, mobile sniper rifles like the popular Kar 98k from CoD MW can no longer eliminate enemies with a headshot at all distances. This remains the privilege of the larger sniper weapons.
MeinMMO takes a look at the changes with you and gives an initial glimpse into the future meta regarding sniper weapons.
CoD Warzone: The meta of sniper weapons changes in Season 3
At what distances do the weapons achieve headshots? For an overview, we first show you the weapons in the individual headshot categories:
- One-Shot Headshot in the first damage range
- Kar 98k (MW)
- SP-R 208 (MW)
- Pelington (CW)
- Tundra (CW)
- Swiss K31 (CW)
- Type 99 (VG)
- Kar 98k (VG)
- One-Shot Headshot at any distance
- HDR (MW)
- AX-50 (MW)
- ZRG 20mm (CW)
- Three-Line Rifle (VG)
- Gorenko (VG)
- No One-Shot Headshots
- Rytec (MW)
- Dragunov (MW)
- M82 (CW)
Weapons in category 1 will now provide you with one-shot headshots only if you hit in the first damage range. As a result, the range values of the individual sniper rifles are much more important now.
Warzone expert “JGOD” has created a graphic that shows you at which distances the individual weapons can still land one-shot headshots:
It’s good to see how the more mobile, faster weapons now lose power around 50 meters. Only the Pelington stands out with nearly 70 meters range.
Which sniper weapons are now meta? A fully reliable statement cannot be made this soon after the season start. However, especially in Battle Royale on Caldera, sniper weapons with limited range are likely to lose popularity.
“JGOD” sees the HDR (MW) ahead on Caldera but wouldn’t be surprised if the ZRG (CW) or the Three-Line Rifle (VG) also played a significant role. This creates a strong option for 3 CoDs that Warzone shares the weapons with.
Aggressive and mobile players will likely continue to rely on the faster variants on Caldera. 50 meters is still a strong range for headshots. The Pelington may find its way into loadouts more often due to its 20 meters more.
On Rebirth Island, it remains to be seen how players react to the adjustments. On the small island, combat distances are often not that high, and the old meta favorites Kar 98k and Swiss K31 could continue to dominate.
But even here, the chances are good that the Pelington will make a mark.
We will keep an eye on the developments around the sniper meta and update you promptly our list of the best weapons in Warzone.
Season 3 has brought some exciting changes to the game and highlights a mega-event featuring Godzilla and King Kong later on.
And even though the balancing adjustments already have a strong impact on gameplay, a lead developer of Warzone sees the game changer in a different place: CoD Warzone: Developer calls loot adjustment a game changer – “Changes gameplay experience in seconds”
