Warzone’s overpowered NZ-41 could receive major nerf soon
The NZ-41 has emerged as Warzone’s number one weapon in recent weeks, and the Assault Rifle’s dominance has continued into Season 4. In response to calls for a change, devs have now hinted that the NZ-41 could be hit by a serious nerf very soon.
Despite the two new weapons introduced in Warzone Season 4 so far, the NZ-41 has remained the go-to for many players. The Vanguard Assualt Rifle overtook the STG-44 as the game’s most popular weapon towards the end of Season 3 and has stayed on top of the tree ever since.
This may not be the case for much longer, however, as Raven Software’s Senior Game Designer, Tully Ackland, has revealed that he thinks the NZ-41 has actually become too simple to use, hinting that a change could be on the way very soon.
After tweeting to announce that the Taped and Leather Grip attachments, which were were granting incredibly fast sprint speeds early in Warzone Season 4, had been fixed, many players responded to Ackland calling for an NZ-41 nerf.
One player said: “The NZ is a problem. ARs in general should not be that easy to control… especially at that range.”
Ackland responded agreeing that the NZ-41 isn’t functioning as intended. “Agreed it’s not where I’d like it to be right now. There are weapons designed to be easy to use, the NZ isn’t one of them,” he explained.
Popular YouTuber TheTacticalBrit also messaged calling for a “big shakeup” to the meta, believing that the NZ-41 and STG-44 feel too similar at the moment.
Once again, Tully Ackland acknowledged the problem and admitted that the team may have gone too far when trying to make the AR into a more useable weapon. “We over indexed on the enhancements to make it viable,” he replied.
While the dev didn’t go as far as officially confirming that the NZ-41 will be nerfed, it’s clear that the team isn’t happy with how dominant the gun has been. We’d expect Raven to be working on a nerf that makes the AR less overpowered but still a viable option going forward.
The June 2 update gave the NZ a boost in range and bullet velocity, while also reducing the amount of recoil. Don’t be surprised to see one, if not all, of these areas changed in a future update.
There’s no timeframe on when the nerf could be rolled out just yet, so we’ll have to wait and see what the team has in store for us as we head towards Warzone Season 4 Reloaded.
For more on Warzone, check out the best landing spots on the new Fortune’s Keep map, as well as how to open Mercenary Vaults on Cladera.
Image credits: Activision