Many players in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare do not use a sight attachment (“Optics”). This may sound paradoxical, as it means giving up more precise aiming. However, there are reasons for this.
What are sights? Sights are attachments that you can add to your weapons at the Gunsmith. They come in various types and add a targeting device to your weapon at the top.
Depending on the type, you get a crosshair, a dot, or something similar for aiming. If you don’t use a sight, you aim with the weapon using iron sights.
Why do players forgo sights? Those who often play in the multiplayer modes of Modern Warfare may have noticed that some players play entirely without sights.
Often, the reason is that sights reduce the “ADS speed,” meaning you take longer to aim. Aiming with iron sights is faster. However, this is not the only reason, and it’s not just sights that are responsible.
Attachments and faster aiming
This is how attachments help: The YouTuber TheXclusiveAce has broken down in a video how certain attachments affect the time it takes for you to aim. He came to some interesting conclusions.
Most “small” sights have little to no impact on ADS speed. Only larger sights like hybrid sights and sniper scopes significantly slow down the aiming time.
Instead, there are some attachments that have a greater impact on the aiming time. Barrels significantly impact the ADS speed (after the mentioned long-range sights), both positively and negatively.
How do I aim faster? Generally, stock and grip attachments have a purely positive or at least neutral influence on ADS speed. So you should particularly look to optimize time here.
Barrels play a role here as well. As a rule of thumb, you can choose the shortest barrel and stock possible, which works for most weapons. For the M4A1, the fastest setup would be:
- Barrel: FF 11.5W Commando
- Grip: Textured Grip Tape
- Stock: No Stock
- Laser: Tactical Laser (the only laser that influences speed).
With this, you reach about 160 milliseconds for aiming – faster than most submachine guns. Magazines, muzzles, and many sights, on the other hand, have little to no effect on ADS speed.
Aim fast or die even faster
Why is fast aiming so important? By aiming, whether through iron sights or a sight, you shoot more accurately. This gives you a higher chance of hitting and eliminating the opponent.
This is important because the Time-To-Kill (TTK) in Modern Warfare is very low. The strongest weapons require only an average of about 200 milliseconds to take you out. For comparison, here are some numbers from TheXclusiveAce:
- The fastest setup of the M4A1 achieves 160ms
- The slowest setup of the M4A1 achieves 584ms
- The AX-50, a sniper rifle, hits up to 934ms
Taking into account the average TTK, a player can kill you almost up to 5 times before you can even aim with the AX-50.
The thing with sights
This is why players do not use sights: Although most sights have little effect on ADS speed, they do tend to slightly worsen it. So you are minimally slower with them.
While this could be negligible and offset with other attachments, sights also have another disadvantage: They cost a slot. You could fill this more effectively, for example, with the perk Full Metal Jacket.
Generally, it’s best to forgo the sight, at least when playing on close maps or with an aggressive “Run&Gun” build. Here, it is more important to hit quickly and reliably eliminate opponents.
Not using a sight has the advantage that you can strengthen the weapon with more useful attachments – and therefore you lose against players with iron sights. Their weapons can just kill you faster than you can do.
When are sights worth it? If you play slower or at longer distances, a sight is not only useful but almost necessary. Hitting with iron sights at long distances is nearly impossible.
On larger maps like Ground War, and especially as a sniper, you need the right sight. Just keep in mind that you are vulnerable to crafty players and quick shooters. However, with the right settings, you might have an advantage:
