Call Of Duty Dev Hints At Possible Warzone Grau Nerf

With complaints about the overused Grau raging in Call of Duty: Warzone, an Infinity Ward developer hinted at a possible nerf.

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In Call of Duty: Warzone, the Grau has long been the king assault rifle in Verdansk, having usurped the M4A1 after it was nerfed. Because of its minimal recoil, high rate of fire, and incredible accuracy even with iron sights, many prominent community voices have consistently called for its nerfing. While previously some have cautioned against this approach, many have been beating the nerf drum for a significant amount of time. This past weekend, Modern Warfare dev Joe Cecot reignited rumors of a Grau nerf with his comments on Twitter.

The Problem With Grau

Why are people asking for the Grau to be nerfed? Specifically, the Grau is incredibly effective at long range even with iron sights, and even with automatic fire enabled. Player Scottish Rebel captures the entire argument for nerfing the Grau in his video below, first highlighted by Dexerto. Here you can see Scottish Rebel mowing down enemies with a Grau, equipped only with iron sights, from some fairly impressive ranges, and while apparently holding down the fire button with little to no recoil whatsoever. This is not in isolation, and a common complaint online is that nearly all highlight videos showing season four gameplay have showcased the Grau.

Potential Infinity Ward Perspective

From Infinity Ward’s perspective, the issue cannot be so clear cut. While they may not want a rifle that is so ubiquitous that nearly every player feels pressured to have it in their loadout, it also serves a different purpose. To have a weapon that is incredibly easy to use, and requires very little skill or mastery of recoil control makes Warzone incredibly interesting. Now the game can actually go many directions, even if professional or hardcore players are in the same lobby. Currently, a free to play only player with some good or even lucky tactics can take down a more experienced player on their way to 30 kills in one round. Why would they want this? Because, with 60 million players, and 150 to kill, only 1 to 4 players max can get that elusive victory each round. By adding a joker, or even an Ace to the deck via the Grau, and making it accessible to all, Infinity Ward can help influence all players getting a shot at the coveted Warzone Victory screen.

Lessons Learned From Other First Person Shooters

Battlefield V and how DICE handled similar concerns for gameplay balancing offers some cautionary tales to Infinity Ward. Shortly after launch, DICE addressed player concerns that weapons killed too quickly with a massive TTK (Time-To-Kill) change across all weapons. The community was outraged and made relevant claims that the changes turned players into bullet sponges. DICE reverted these changes after overwhelmingly negative community response.

After finally making positive progress towards gameplay and balance with the Pacific Update, DICE nerfed TTK across all weapons again a year later. According to DICE, a weapon fine-tuning was in order, that would address weapon lethality ranges, recoil, accuracy, and rounds needed to kill, across all weapons. Here, the community felt that all weapons were now shooting sponges. When weapon tuning happens, like Joe Cecot mentions above, there is clear evidence that there are significant opportunities to get it wrong. This leaves the game either in a state of abandonment, or, a race to mediocrity, which then leads to abandonment. Just as players in Battlefield V rushed to use the non nerfed weapons, which lead to widespread TTK adjustment, Infinity Ward faces a serious fine-tuning challenge here.

Next Steps For Weapon Tuning

The Grau is definitely overused, and likely needs some sort of alteration. Infinity Ward is right to be cautious about this change, and not take it lightly, as even the slightest change can ruin a delicate gameplay ecosystem. A game with 60 million players needs weapons that are easy to use to keep players coming back. Part-time hobbyists need a chance to be able to take out dedicated professional gamers and hardcore players, and at the same time, those players deserve consistency and a reward for their dedication.

The game has a great variety of weapons, and perhaps buffing similar lethality to all assault rifles a more worthwhile first step, followed by an overall assault rifle nerf that encourages marksman rifle play? It seems the recent realism playlist change, while much complained about, is allowing Infinity Ward to explore just such a route, a super lethal, incredibly short TTK mode where all guns are buffed. Here’s looking forward to continued vision and wisdom from Infinity Ward as they navigate this delicate change.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/call-of-duty-dev-hint-leak-warzone-grau-nerf/