It has only been over a week since Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War released, but players are already seeing plenty of balance adjustments. Nerfs to some weapons and buffs to others are making players reevaluate their loadouts already. Snipers are an interesting point, as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players have simultaneously asked for them to be buffed and nerfed. It seems the developers plan on doing just that, only not with all of the snipers.
It is strange for a Call of Duty weapon to be both overpowered and underpowered at the same time. The biggest issues on both sides of the fence seem to be that the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War developers balanced the snipers’ slow ADS speeds by increasing the aim assist. This has led to players asking for the aim assist to be nerfed while others are asking for the ADS speeds to be increased. these changes would make the snipers faster to aim but require players to be more precise with their shots.
In the first major Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War update, players saw the movement speeds and ADS times nerfed slightly. This solved one side of the issues, but not the players asking for nerfs. In a recent tweet by Tony Flame, Treyarch’s plans of buffing the M82 sniper seem to have been teased out. The tweet shows a picture of the sniper beside an image of a car being gassed, seemingly implying that the gun will get an improvement.
The M82 sniper rifle—this game’s answer to the Barrett .50 cal from previous games—has been one of the weakest options since Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War launched. With the nerfs to all sniper rifles but the buff that this one looks to be getting, this could set the M82 to be the new go-to weapon for long-range. There were no official details about this buff or even a possible date, so players will just have to wait for further information from Treyarch.
While players wait for sniper updates, there are still plenty of weapons to try out in the game. The MP5 is dominating Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at the moment, but other guns are also becoming quick favorites among players. The M16 was gaining some traction but was also nerfed alongside the AUG and FFAR 1.
The next couple of weeks are sure to include more Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War patches and updates as players try out different guns while Treyarch buffs and nerfs them appropriately. Players shouldn’t get too attached to any specific loadout just yet. It is still far too early to tell which weapon will end up reigning supreme for players during this first phase of the game.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.