COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes: all weapon changes

Here’s everything you need to know about the MW3 Season 1 balance adjustments
COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes: all weapon changes
COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes: all weapon changes /

Season 1 has begun in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, confronting some players of the game with massive download sizes to overcome. Once that’s done and you’re on the battlefield, you should keep in mind that the patch has introduced a variety of balance changes to freshen things up.

It should be a good set of adjustments for lovers of submachine games specifically, as their hipfire spread penalty while firing and moving has been reduced across the board in addition to buffs for a few particular weapons of the category. Guns being carried forward from Modern Warfare 2 have been brought up to MW3 standard in some aspects as well, now having increased ammunition reserves.

COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes poster.
Season 1 for COD MW3 is finally here / Activision

You can find all weapon balance changes from the COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes in detail below.

COD MW3 Season 1 patch notes: balance changes

Assault Rifles

  • MTZ-556
    • Increased maximum hipfire spread while standing by 10%.
    • Increased maximum hipfire spread while crouched by 6%.
    • Increased hipfire spread penalty incurred while firing by 10%.
    • Increased hipfire spread penalty incurred while moving by 4%.
    • MTZ Natter Heavy Short (Barrel)
      • Decreased hipfire spread benefit by 5%.
    • Bruen Thunder V9 (Stock)
      • Decreased hipfire spread benefit by 6%.
  • M4 (MW2)
    • Increased maximum damage from 28 to 35 (+25%).
    • Decreased head and neck damage multipliers from 1.37x 1.1x (-20%).

Battle Rifles

  • BAS-B
    • Increased damage multipliers in semi-auto fire type to intended values.
      • Lower-Torso: 1x to 1.2x
      • Arm & Hand: 1x to 1.35x
  • Sidewinder
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 280ms to 265ms (-5%).
    • Tempus Predator Precision (Barrel)
      • Increased gun kick control benefit by 5%.
    • Huntsman Series-R Integrated Suppressor (Barrel)
      • Increased gun kick control benefit by 7%.
    • RB Borealis Grip (Rear Grip)
      • Increased gun kick control benefit by 5%.
  • TAQ-V (MW2)
    • Increased lower-torso, leg, and foot damage multipliers from 0.8x to 1.1x (+38%).

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Submachine Guns

  • Decreased hipfire spread penalty incurred while firing/moving for all Submachine Guns.
  • Striker
    • Decreased sprint to fire time from 110ms to 100ms (-9%).
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 230ms to 215ms (-7%).
    • Striker Stubby (Barrel)
      • Added 9% aim down sights time benefit.
  • WSP Swarm
    • Decreased sprint to fire time from 110ms to 88ms (-20%).
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 190ms to 175ms (-8%).
  • Striker 9
    • Decreased sprint to fire time from 110ms to 100ms (-9%).
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 225ms to 205ms (-9%).
    • Striker Stubby (Barrel)
      • Added 9% aim down sights time benefit.
  • Vaznev-9K (MW2)
    • Increased near-medium damage from 29 to 30 (+3%).
  • ISO 45 (MW2)
    • Increased maximum damage from 30 to 33 (+10%).

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Shotguns

  • Lockwood 680
    • Tac-Stance will no longer reduce damage pellet count.
  • KV Broadside (MW2)
    • Increased far-medium damage range from 9m to 10m (+8%).
    • Decreased aim down sights spread slightly.

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Light Machine Guns

  • RAAL MG (MW2)
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 470ms to 390ms (-17%).
    • Decreased sprint to fire time from 375ms to 320ms (-15%).
    • Decreased tactical sprint to fire time from 496ms to 416ms (-16%).
  • 556 Icarus (MW2)
    • Increased maximum damage from 28 to 34 (+21%).
    • Decreased head damage multiplier from 1.4x to 1.1x (-21%).

Marksman Rifles

  • MCW 6.8
    • Equipping the Full-Auto Conversion Kit and 60rnd Drum Magazine will no longer result in a broken aim down sights animation.
  • SP-R 208 (MW2)
    • Increased maximum damage range from 15m to 20m (+28%).
    • Decreased aim down sights time from 370ms to 340ms (-8%).

Handguns

  • Basilisk (MW2)
    • Increased maximum damage range from 5m to 7m (+35%).
    • Increased near-medium damage range from 6m to 15m (+140%).
    • Increased far-medium damage range from 17m to 23m (+32%).

Melee

  • Riot Shield
    • Increased melee damage from 50 to 75 (+50%).
    • Added a 10% movement speed penalty while stowed.

Attachments

  • S-37C DL Breacher Device (Muzzle)
    • Decreased hipfire spread benefit by 14%.
    • Resolved an issue that prevented one-hit melee kills in round-based Modes.
  • Bruen Tactical Vertical Grip (Underbarrel)
    • Decreased hipfire spread benefit by 8%.
  • Hollowpoint (Ammunition)
    • Decreased inflicted sprint penalty time from 800ms to 200ms (-75%).

Modern Warfare 2 (Carry-Forward)

  • Increased reserve ammunition for all Weapons to MWIII standards.
  • Decreased hipfire spread benefit of Underbarrel vertical grips by 5-12%.
  • Decreased hipfire spread benefit of applicable Lasers by 2-5%.

COD MW3 available on GeForce NOW


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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg