Treyarch takes on the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 "PC meta" with a killer nerf
Dual build.
Treyarch has responded to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 "PC meta" with a significant nerf to its most powerful and popular weapon.
Ever since Black Ops 4 was released in October, it's become clear the console version and the PC version have separate metas - that is to say, some weapons and tactics that have emerged as powerful and thus popular on PC aren't necessarily powerful and thus popular on console, and vice versa.
A case in point is the Saug 9mm Operator Mod, which sacrifices aim down sights (ADS) for dual wielding. This SMG combo has proved extremely powerful on PC, where mouse and keyboard lets players dart around the map and shoot with precision even without ADS. Here's a clip showing how powerful the Saug 9mm Operator Mod can be on PC:
Earlier this week, Treyarch released Black Ops 4's first major weapon balance update (the one that nerfed armour), but it didn't include any PC-specific changes. As you'd expect, PC players expressed concern.
Now, Treyarch has finally pushed live PC-specific changes to weapons - and its taken aim at the Saug 9mm Operator Mod.
"For our PC players, we'd like to clear up any confusion around the state of weapon balancing on PC vs. console," Treyarch said in a post on r/Blackops4.
"The first phase of weapon balancing changes exclusive to the PC build has rolled out in today's PC game update, including changes to the Saug 9mm Operator Mod, the Koshka sniper rifle, and the MOG-12 shotgun, and more weapon tuning changes to the PC meta are coming in a future update."
The Dual Wield Saug 9mm, which Treyarch had already nerfed in this week's balance update, was "extremely popular on PC" and needed further tweaks specific to that platform.
Now, the Dual Wield Operator Mod has further increased the hip-fire spread and lowered the maximum damage falloff distance. That's a pretty big nerf, and should go some way to levelling the playing field in the PC meta.
Elsewhere, Treyarch has buffed the Koshka sniper, which was pretty much useless on PC. The bolt-action rifle's one-shot kill zone has been moved from head only to head and upper chest, which should help it compete better with the Paladin and Outlaw.
And Treyarch has nerfed the Barrel Choke attachment for the MOG-12, a weapon that was already balanced differently for PC.
All in all, it's good to see Treyarch treat the PC and console versions of Black Ops 4 differently, acknowledging each has its own weapon meta and each needs different weapon tuning.