Warzone Pacific Season 3 has some big changes coming, including Crater Island itself, and competitive weapon metadata. However, of all the expected tweaks and minor tweaks to some of the problematic weapons, the most notable change seems to be happening with the sniper rifle.
For some time now, these weapons have been an almost permanent place for the best gear, especially the Kar98k and Swiss specific monsters. But with this gun type’s sledgehammer-sized dent, it’s entirely possible that these guns will see their reign come to an end. Let’s explore these changes and the community’s reaction.
Let’s start with what exactly happened. In the official patch notes for Warzone Pacific Season 3. In its own dedicated section, the post explains that with the health of all players increasing, the sniper rifle’s ability to gain one-hit kills puts it ahead of any other weapon type and “dilutes the sniper category into an important metric, The speed at which the head is clicked.
It continued: “Snipers can now use damage range as a defining characteristic of their single-shot potential. Not only does this bring more identity to each weapon, but it means the attachment of lighter and faster sniper rifles, Their damage range stats will increase their ability to shoot at longer distances.”
As a result, snipers are now divided into three categories: snipers who can only get one-hit kills at effective range, snipers who get one-hit kills at any range, and snipers who can’t get one-hit kills at all. It is worth noting that the aforementioned Kar98k and Swiss belong to the first category. What a scandal – they are no longer cross map demons.
This is the first time these snipers have undergone a major meta-shift development since Verdansk’s sniper rifle rework. Back then, it was the ADS era that saw a major adjustment that arguably led to weapons like the Kar98k and Swiss taking their undisputed top spot in the first place. That was about a year ago, so you can start to imagine how long these guns have been a must-have!
Now, it’s worth noting that even with these changes, the Kar98k and Swiss are still excellent guns at their effective range. All the qualities that make them powerful and popular have remained largely unchanged. What this does, if not taking too much away from top snipers, is a tasty buff to some underused weapons. Enter the Gorenko anti-tank rifle.
Gorenko is an example of a sniper who doesn’t get a lot of love. WZRanked, a very popular resource for checking weapon builds and community popularity, currently has a loadout pick rate of 0.13, compared to 4.44% for Kar and 2.99% for Switzerland. In layman’s terms, it’s worn. It’s a heavy weapon with a few flaws everywhere, but now it has an overwhelming advantage that many other snipers don’t have. It’s a single-shot machine, anywhere, anytime, anywhere. With the right load, who knows? This could be the next big thing.
It’s not alone either – the M82, HDR, ZRG 20mm and 30Line rifles are also in the mix. 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 are some players who are not happy at all. In a post titled “Look at how they slaughtered my boy,” user RedIron42 expressed their dissatisfaction with the change.
“Absolutely insane, the sniper is the only gun that can match the extreme accuracy of AR, which has taken almost every range since Warzone was released. This is probably the only game in the entire world where a sniper gets shot in the head It’s so itchy? What is it for?”
They continued: “My Swiss balls are gone, no nuts. The only snipers that can take a shot right now are too slow to use them meaningfully in almost all fights. Any fights at least within 250m, AR still hits you easily. Those snipers were slow to aim and now back off after getting hit, you have no chance.”
While this certainly represents a negative view with widespread enthusiasm, that’s not the whole story. Elsewhere on Reddit, some are looking at the change with an open mind — not because Kar98k just blew their face — but because of what it might mean for loaded diversity. User FentoonskiFTW wrote: “This makes a lot of sense to me, if nothing changes, everyone will still only choose kar or swiss. I rarely see other snipers being used. kar has been around for too long and feels too stale ”.
Another user named BitterProgress backed this up, adding: “The idea that a sniper as nimble, mobile and easy to use as kar and Swiss should be able to shoot at any range is crazy. The hand has to be a shot – they should have some shortcomings to make up for that, such as being slow and heavy.”
So we’ve seen changes, and popular opinion, but what about Chad? Warzone streamers and pro gamers make their living from their expertise and knowledge of this busy battle royale?
Youtuber and digital guy JGOD took a look at the patch notes themselves and had some interesting thoughts on the update, which you can watch below. Towards the end of the video, he pulls up a graph showing how many headshots each sniper needs to kill the other players. He noted that on Caldera, most players will be using a new weapon with infinite range single-shot potential. They also point to HDR and ZRG as good options for the future.
For now, we’ve ventured into unmapped waters in Warzone Pacific Season 3. It remains to be seen if this will result in a drastic change in metadata, but it looks like it will definitely mess things up! Are you happy to finally clear some worn sniper rifles? Or are you currently bringing back your trusty Kar98k to start your dream rabbit farm? Let us know below!
If you want to learn more about the Warzone content for season 3, check out our recap of the map changes here, as well as our Warzone season 3 meta loadout (which still has Kar98k and Swiss, which I’ll be doing soon I promise this).
