Call of Duty Releases New Update for MW3 and Warzone

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone have received new updates that mostly rebalance weapons and fix bugs. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Ranked Play saw a major change as well.

Treyarch, the studio behind MW3's Ranked mode, announced earlier this week that Ranked Play would soon begin a test phase to see if additional weapons could be viable in the meta. Before, Ranked Play users almost exclusively equipped weapons like the MCW, Rival-9, and WSP Swarm due to other options being banned or simply not good enough. While a limited selection of weapons isn't anything new to the competitive Call of Duty scene, it seems that Treyarch is trying to improve on this aspect.

Modern Warfare 3's newest update allows previously banned weapons like the BP50, Holger 556, HRM-9, and others to be equipped in Ranked Play until April 23. Feedback and data will determine whether the weapons remain unbanned. As for balance changes, both MW3 and Warzone saw the same adjustments to six weapons. Slight buffs were applied to the MTZ-556, Holger 556, Striker, and MW2's M16. A slight nerf was applied to the RAM-9 and a more significant nerf was applied to the WSP Swarm, which had its flinch resistance decreased by 81%. Also, the Haymaker's JAK Maglift Kit was nerfed in MW3 only and a common bug causing the MORS sniper rifle's optics to become misaligned was fixed.

The update also significantly changed Modern Warfare 3's frag grenades by increasing their intermediate explosive damage by 15% but decreasing their intermediate explosive damage radius by 22%, making the equipment a stronger tool that requires more throwing accuracy. Warzone received the frag's intermediate damage radius nerf but not the damage buff. The new update also implemented a variety of bug fixes and minor UI improvements, like editing a loadout during a match no longer applying an incorrect class and the MORS now displaying the correct icon in the killfeed.

Call of Duty's next major update is expected to arrive with