Warzone expert explains why Season 3’s meta is broken

Luca Di Marzo
Warzone Roland Operator skin Season 3 Reloaded

A Warzone expert breaks down the issues plaguing Season 3 Reloaded’s meta and offers solutions on how to get it back on track.

The Season 3 Reloaded update introduced a ton of Warzone changes to the battle royale. The game-altering update not only brought along new features like the Squad HUD and Redeploy Extraction Tokens, but it also changed the fundamentals of the game by increasing player health on Rebirth Island.

In addition to the Rebirth Island health increase, the devs also rolled out buffs and nerfs that had a drastic impact on Warzone weapons across the board. Many experts believe that the result has left Warzone’s meta in a broken state.

warzone season 3 reloaded player

According to Warzone expert WhosImmortal, the broken meta in Season 3 was caused by the health increases that are now active across every mode excluding Iron Trials, as well as the devs’ weapon balancing changes.

With extra health, it now takes two to three more bullets to kill enemy players. The devs attempted to balance this slower TTK by buffing the majority of Vanguard weapons. This decision has resulted in a very exclusive meta with only a few weapons that can compete at the highest level.

Previous Warzone seasons featured a diverse weapon meta and players were able to choose between several options depending on their needs.

According to WhosImmortal, this is no longer the case, “because of the health changes and because there haven’t been updates to weapons like this [non-Vanguard] to make them actually competitive in 300 health scenarios, we get stuck on a meta that is very defined and not super diverse.”

The Warzone content creator suggests that an increase in magazine size for Cold War and Modern Warfare weapons like the Oden and Uzi would allow them to compete with Vanguard weapons in Season 3 Reloaded, “why does nobody use these? Because you’re stuck with 30 rounds.”

If you’re playing Duos, Trios, or Quads, weapons with a small magazine capacity are simply not viable despite their TTK being competitive. In addition to magazine size, another solution the expert hints at is increasing the damage output of Cold War and Modern Warfare guns.

WhosImmortal explains that there’s no reason to use a Submachine Gun like the MAC-10 when it’s completely outclassed by Vanguard SMGs, “when you have ten attachments on all these Vanguard subs that make it so that they have no recoil, and great mobility, and great mag capacity, and great TTK, a gun that only has decent mobility and decent TTK is not going to be able to compete there.”

Of course, the easiest solution the analyst offers up is to nerf Vanguard weapons. However, given that these weapons have been on the receiving end of buffs for months, the devs are unlikely to change course so quickly.


For more Call of Duty content, check out how to get free Warzone Pride Month Calling Cards & Emblems.

Image Credit: Activision

About The Author

Luca is an Associate Editor at CharlieIntel. An accomplished, writer with interests in sports and gaming alike, Luca is focused on Call of Duty and FIFA as a content creator. After earning his BA in English Literature at Concordia University, he began writing for Gamelevate, OddsShark, and H4X. Luca joined CharlieIntel in 2021. You can reach Luca at [email protected], or via X @TheLucaDiMarzo.