Ever since the Season 3 Reloaded update went live in Call of Duty: Warzone last month, the NZ-41 has dominated the game. The weapon received a slight buff in Season 3 Reloaded and, as a result, turned into arguably the best weapon in Warzone.
Matching superior recoil control with a high damage range on a weapon is never a good omen for the meta. However, the NZ-41 has taken things to a new level, as players barely have to aim with the assault rifle. Because of this, the developers at Raven Software are presumably looking to make a change to the NZ-41.
According to one Raven developer on Twitter, the NZ-41 isn’t where they want it to be. The developers originally wanted to buff the NZ-41 so it would be more competitive with other Vanguard ARs, but they made it a little too strong, which will eventually lead to a nerf.
It’s unclear exactly when the nerf for the NZ-41 could come through in Warzone. However, according to developer Tully Ackland, the nerf sounds imminent. Ackland responded to a fan on Twitter saying that the NZ-41 wasn’t intended to be as easy to use as it is in Season 4.
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.
— Tully Ackland (@TullyAckland) June 25, 2022
Ackland went on to say that the developers “over-indexed on the enhancements to make it [NZ-41] viable.” So, basically, the devs buffed the NZ-41 too much in terms of recoil control. As of right now, the NZ-41 has virtually no recoil, making it a literal laser no matter what attachments players equip on it.
The developer doesn’t offer a timetable for a possible nerf. Although, based on their comments, we can assume that the NZ-41 will be receiving a substantial nerf, likely to recoil control. Bullet velocity and damage could also be affected, as those aspects for the NZ-41 were also buffed in Season 3 Reloaded.
