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Warzone's big season 4 update is finally live with a new map, Caldera updates, the new Resurgence battle royale mode, and loads of weapons balancing updates.
It's only natural that a patch as wide-ranging as this one will divide the player base somewhat, but there's a particular balancing change that's raising eyebrows more than all of the others. The NZ-41, which recently overtook the STG44 as Warzone's most popular gun, according to The Loadout, is now an even more capable weapon thanks to a number of season 4 buffs.
As detailed in the complete season 4 patch notes, the NZ-41's initial firing recoil control has been increased from 20% to 30%, its Orbweaver 360mm's bullet velocity has been increased by 40%, its burst-fire cooldown decreased from 300ms to 265ms, and its burst fire now supports auto burst, so you can just hold fire and keep on firing off bursts. Granted, there are a couple of nerfs, but they aren't as numerous or significant as the buffs.
Meanwhile, the STG44, another very popular weapon, has been dealt a laundry list of nerfs. Chiefly, it's minimum damage is down from 30 to 29, its muzzle velocity has been lowered by 1.8%, and its head and neck damage multipliers have both been reduced some.
Looking at Warzone communities around the ol' interwebs, it seems the general consensus is that the NZ didn't need to be buffed, especially when the comparable STG44 has been significantly nerfed. "Dude the NZ basically is untouched and the STG got nerfed into the ground," laments Battle111.
"It was a monster before. Now it will delete even quicker," Tallandlanky predicts.
"There's no f***in' way these guys nerfed the STG but buffed the NZ41 lmao," says xiDemise.
call_of_duty_warzone_season_four_patch_notes from r/CODWarzone
Weapons balancing is always an ongoing project in big shooters like Warzone, and depending on how the new changes play out and affect the game's meta, we could see the infamous NZ-41 rebalanced yet again. For now though, you can check out all of the big changes in Warzone season 4.
Also see how we ranked the best Call of Duty games.
