The Warzone Season 3 update squandered the sniper meta – here’s the community’s reaction

Warzone Pacific Season 3 has gone live with some major changes, both to the island of Caldera itself and to the highly competitive weapon meta. However, among all the expected tweaks and minor adjustments to certain problem weapons, the most significant changes seem to have hit the sniper rifles.

These weapons have had a near-permanent place in the best loadouts for a while, particularly two specific monsters in the form of the Kar98k and the Swiss. But with a sledgehammer-sized dent in this weapon type, it’s entirely possible that these weapons have seen the end of their reign. Let’s examine the changes and the community reaction.

Let’s start with what exactly happens. In the Warzone Pacific Season 3 official patch notes. In a dedicated section, the post explains that sniper rifles’ ability to get one-shot kills has surpassed all other weapon types as all players’ health has been buffed, and has “diluted the sniper class into a key metric, speed, to heads.” to click.”

It continues: “Snipers can now use damage ranges as a defining characteristic of their one-shot potential. Not only does this give each weapon more identity, but it also means that attachments that give the lighter and faster sniper rifles damage range increase their one-shot ability at longer ranges.”

As such, snipers are now divided into three categories: snipers who can only get one-shot kills at their effective range, snipers who can get one-shot kills at any range, and snipers who can’t get any one-shot kills at all . Notably, the aforementioned Kar98k and Swiss fall into this first category. What a scandal – they are no longer cross-map demons.

This is the first time since the Verdansk sniper rifle rework that these snipers have undergone major meta swap evolutions. Back then, it was the ADS era that received a major overhaul that arguably led to guns like the Kar98k and Swiss landing on their undisputed top spots in the first place. That was about a year ago, so you can imagine how long these guns have been must-haves!

Well, it’s worth noting that despite these changes, the Kar98k and Swiss are still great weapons in their effective range. All of the traits that make them powerful – and popular – remain largely intact. What this does, if it doesn’t take too much away from top-tier snipers, is add a tasty buff to some underused weapons. Enter the Gorenko anti-tank rifle.

The Gorenko is an example of a sniper who doesn’t get much love. Looking at WZRanked, a hugely popular resource for reviewing weapon builds and popularity in the community, it currently has a 0.13 pick rate on loadouts, compared to 4.44% for the Kar and 2.99% for the Swiss. It is colloquially rubbed off. It’s a powerful weapon with a few blemishes here and there, but now it has an overwhelming advantage that many other snipers don’t have. It’s a one-shot machine, any distance, any time, any place. With the right loadout, who knows? It could be the next big thing.

It’s not alone either – it’s accompanied by the M82, HDR, ZRG 20mm and the 30Line Rifle. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the official Reddit to see what the community thinks. Well, on the one hand there is a part of the players who are not happy at all. In a post titled “Look How They Massacred My Boy,” user RedIron42 expresses his displeasure with the change.

“Absolutely insane, snipers were the only weapon capable of even remotely rivaling the insanely accurate ARs that have dominated almost every field since Warzones released. This might be the only game in the entire world where a sniper’s headshot just hurts? It tickles? And for what?”

They continue: “My Swiss balls are gone, it’s pointless. Now the only snipers that can take a shot are far too slow to be of any use in almost all combat. Any fight within at least 250m, and ARs will still hit you easily. The slow way these snipers aim and the reluctance to get hit now, you don’t stand a chance.”

While this certainly presents the negative perspective with great relish, it’s not the whole story. Elsewhere on Reddit, some are looking at the change with an open mind — not because a Kar98k just blew their face off — but because of what it could mean for load variety. User FentoonskiFTW writes: “It makes sense to me that if everything were unchanged, everyone would still only choose Kar or Swiss. I rarely saw other snipers being used. The Kar has been too good for way too long and it feels old.”

This is supported by another user named BitterProgress, who adds, “The idea that snipers as snappy, mobile, and easy to use as the Kar and Swiss should be able to shoot at any range with a single shot.” shooting was crazy. If snipers only need to fire a single shot, they should have disadvantages to compensate, such as: B. being slow and heavy.”

So we’ve looked at the changes and the perspective of the masses, but what about the Chads? The Warzone streamers and professional gamers whose livelihoods depend on their expertise and knowledge of this frenetic battle royale?

Youtuber and numbers guy JGOD took a look at the patch notes himself and offered some interesting thoughts on the update, which you can check out below. Towards the end of the video, he displays a graph showing how many headshots it takes to kill other players with each sniper. He notes that most players on Caldera will use one of the new infinite range one-shot weapons. They also point to HDR and ZRG as good options for the future.

It looks like we’ve ventured into uncharted waters with Season 3 of Warzone Pacific. Whether this will result in gigantic changes to the meta remains to be seen, but it absolutely looks like it’s going to mess things up quite a bit! Are you excited to finally dust off some of those well-worn sniper rifles? Or are you just about to head outside with your trusty Kar98k to start the rabbit farm you’ve always dreamed of? Let us know below!

If you’re craving more Warzone content related to Season 3, check out our map change recap here, as well as our Warzone Season 3 meta loadouts (which still include Kar98k and Swiss, I’ll get to that soon I promise).