Call of Duty: Warzone players have been frustrated for weeks over the game's meta being dominated by the AUG and FFAR weapons. The guns were recently nerfed in Call of Duty: Warzone's latest patch and players have been working to determine by just how much.
The FFAR and AUG have been absolutely dominating Call of Duty: Warzone, and players have been demanding the problem to be addressed. The issues arise in how the guns are so versatile and are extremely effective at long and close ranges alike. The weapons have boasted very controllable recoil and extremely high damage, making them able to kill enemies quickly from far away.
In the newest patch, however, the AUG has had its recoil drastically increased. As pointed out on Twitter by user Xclusive Ace, the AUG's updated recoil pattern is a harsh nerf for the weapon's long-range potential. With players being able to build their own loadouts for the weapons they collect during a Call of Duty: Warfare match, the gun balances have to work both for the gun by itself as well as with the multiple combinations possible with the various attachments available for every gun, with the AUG's case being a change to the gun's behavior itself.
There is no doubt that the AUG will still be a very viable choice for close-range encounters, but the harsh recoil should help make it less dominating at a range. This will force players to carry a different weapon for long-range encounters, hopefully opening up the meta for more options than just these two guns. As for the FFAR, it has also received a nerf in Call of Duty: Warzone that increases the time it takes for players to ADS, making the weapon far less dominant in close-range encounters where players need a faster reaction time.
The changes to the AUG and FFAR seem promising, but there is no telling whether or not they will be enough to shift the meta away from the guns until the community has more time to analyze the changes and adjust accordingly. Regardless, hopefully the developers can get it all straightened out so that players are not as frustrated with the current state of the game and can continue enjoying some of the cool-looking new features that were added as part of Call of Duty: Warzone's Season 2 Reloaded event and the heavily anticipated upcoming nuke event.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.