When Call of Duty: Vanguard made its debut, it did not take long for players to recognize that the Shotgun class was not properly balanced. In particular, the Combat Shotgun decimated any and all competition, with the weapon boasting absurd range, ridiculous, damage, and huge magazines. With a player managing to pull off a nuke in thirty seconds using only the Combat Shotgun, Sledgehammer stepped in and nerfed the weapon. Unfortunately, the Double Barrel shotgun instantly took its place as the most laughably overpowered gun in the game.
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While Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Double Barrel Shotgun does extreme damage like the Combat Shotgun, its downside is that it can only be fired twice before reloading. However, once players started to level up the weapon and unlocked the dual wield attachment, as well as some attachments that added to the Double Barrel’s range, it became just as problematic as the Combat Shotgun. Thankfully, the Double Barrel was finally nerfed via the January 20 patch, and Redditors like Kalashcocknov are thrilled about the changes that have been made to the gun.
The Redditor’s thread is essentially a celebration that Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Shotguns are no longer overpowered, and the happiness is understandable. As pointed out in the post, “bad” players were able to dominate using a combination of the broken Shotguns and Riot Shields, beating out experienced gamers simply because their weapon was so strong. Now, that strategy is useless, making small maps like Das Haus a lot less frustrating to play. As pointed out by ErAsEr-DaRk47, flanking was nearly impossible while the Double Barrel was dominant, but now it is a viable approach once again.
With the comments full of players like KaMikonis that are thrilled about this nerf, it is nice to see the Call of Duty: Vanguard community happy for a change. The game has recently been plagued by numerous bugs and glitches, from invisible skins to the unfortunate appearance of Call of Duty: Warzone’s demon texture bug. With Call of Duty: Vanguard Season 2 delayed so that developers can work on these problems, as well as issues with the Control game mode, the Vanguard player base is clearly happy to have some good news.
With Shotguns weakened, Incendiary Grenades being addressed, and Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Ranked Play coming next month, players have a reason to be optimistic again. Hopefully, the game will be far more balanced and stable in Season 2 and beyond.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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