Hello everyone! It's been a Month since COD WW2 was released and as you'll know very well it wasn't smooth sailing. But Headquarters is back to being a social space, or rather a loot box showroom, if you're feeling cynical. We now have the first Ranked season that actually uses the actual CWL rules and lastly the BAR got that nerf everyone seemed to think it needed.
I've also changed my opinion on a few niggles I had with the multiplayer, most things still stand. I'm still not overly keen on the majority of the maps but I've discovered a few things that have enriched my Call of Duty experience, allow me to explain:
"The easily defensible positions are perfectly suited to setting up an LMG"
In my review of WW2 I was pretty harsh on the weapon balancing, in particular against LMGs. Most of COD's maps are medium in size and the general slow nature of these guns ends up being a hindrance and not an asset. However, a place I have found them to absolutely shine is in War mode!
War modes maps are super focused attack and defend maps. You don't get the snaking sight lines and there's room to breath. The easily defensible positions are perfectly suited to setting up an LMG with the bi-pod. I've racked up ridiculous kill chains using this strategy and you can also use to the LMG for offense. LMG's have the best damage when shooting through cover and attaching FMJ seems to nullify damage drop off completely. Using an LMG with FMJ means you can wipe out defenders behind cover and buy your teammates time to capture objectives.
A perfect example of the LMG's benefits can be found on Operation Neptune, during the second phase of map on the Allied side, you're tasked with destroying ten pieces of machinery. You normally have to breach into the Axis bunker to destroy them, which is naturally teeming with enemies. The safer strategy is to use an LMG to penetrate through the walls and destroy the targets in relative safety.
"the thing is like a cannon"
Another weapon category I changed my opinion on is the Shotguns, before I said that only the Combat Shotgun was worth using, but since then and having seen TaborHill's very informative YouTube video regarding the Luftwaffe Drilling, I have seen the benefits of the other shotguns.
The Drilling is an interesting weapon, when firing from the hip the pellet spread is completely wild. It's very difficult to get enough pellets to kill an enemy but when you aim down sights, the Drilling's pellet spread changes dramatically. All the pellets collect in a very tight spread, the thing is like a cannon. It's one shot kill potential almost matches the Combat Shotgun, the ability to fire the second round so quickly gives it an edge over the other two shotguns in finishing enemies off. It's also the only shotgun that can use the incendiary shells with no downside. It seems the damage over time effect is cumulative with how many pellets hit.
I haven't heard of a nerf to the Sniper rifles or the tolerances to quick scoping but generally speaking, you don't see Sniper rifles as often as you did a couple of weeks back. The player base is steadily returning back to assault rifles for staples with a mix up of SMGs for run and gunners.
You tend to see the most variety of weapon usage in the War mode which is still just an amazing and fun mode to play. I just wish the care packages dropped more than just the flame thrower. Even some Molotovs would be handy but it's a small bit of nit picking in a mode that I otherwise find is perfect.
Headquarters is now sorted, you access it from the main multiplayer menu (that lets you select all the various modes) it does mean you have to load the area but it's not that much of an inconvenience, even if you do only use it for turning in and selecting orders.
The only odd thing I've noticed is the "Special Assignment" order hasn't refreshed, but still runs a 24 hour timer. Not sure if it was supposed to be a one off order or is supposed to refresh but the fact it's on a never-ending 24 hour timer is a bit miffing.
Primed basic training has been nerfed, they've almost completely eliminated the reduction in flinch but it's still a worthwhile perk for the extra attachment. With the Infantry Division you can have four attachments on one weapon which is pretty ridiculous and can create some interesting weapon variants, so it's still pretty versatile. On the flip side it does mean more people are experimenting with other basic trainings."quitting is quite rampant at the moment"
Ranked modes first season has begun and to be honest, I was quite disappointed. You play ten placement matches and then get assigned to a rank, starting from bronze and ending with masters. From there, you play matches. Win and you slowly rank up, lose and you rank down, naturally.
My two big issues with this mode is one: connections are awful. Most of the matches I played post placement were awful for connectivity. Packet loss was all over the place and bullet reg was just so off. This hopefully will change, but it is to be expected when the game is now prioritising skill over connections.
Two: the placement system was way off. I have been annihilated by players way above my skill level, but are in my ranking section. (Silver) I'll probably wait a bit to see if the better players crawl up to their respective rankings. I should make clear is well that season one is generally a placement season and so as things progress you should be finding better matched lobbies.
Speaking of the Ranked playlist, quitting is quite rampant at the moment. It doesn't seem to take long before people start bailing, which surprises me because you get temporary bans if you quit even one match.
I also was not aware that the only three modes in the CWL rule set are Capture the Flag, Hardpoint and Search and Destroy. I think, personally, Search and Destroy sticks out like a sore thumb is a more of a convoluted elimination mode. I pretty much not a fan of the S&D mode, others may not find this an issue. I was hoping to see the CWL would use COD's original modes like Kill Confirmed or even Grid Iron. I think it's a shame that the Defender mode from Infinite Warfare hasn't found it's way in WW2 or it's Ranked playlist. But that's my gripe.
Well, personally I think things are moving forward very well. I guess it'll be around two months until we see the next map pack launch, I hope to see more War mode maps are released going forward. If I had to guess, I imagine we'll see one War map to three standard maps plus a zombies map.
I do wonder how Loot crates will evolve over time, so far everything is cosmetic with the only bonuses being extra experience for certain special weapon variants. I do like that these variants change the look of the gun almost entirely, it's a nice detailed touch. I wonder what sort of new weapons we'll see and how Sledgehammer introduce them to us, I know the community is not a fan of them being locked behind loot crates. But this all remains to be seen.
Enjoy the rest of your week everybody and I'll see you again this Friday!
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