Snipers buffed again in Warzone Pacific Season 5 with huge flinch changes

Warzone devs Raven Software have confirmed that sniper buffs will be arriving in the game in Season 5 after earlier nerfs left them “unusable” in the eyes of many players.

Towards the end of the Verdansk days in Warzone, you could barely move across the map for fear of being sniped from just about any direction. They were incredibly powerful, and the Kar98 was a must-have in every meta loadout.

They underwent several nerfs since, however, and now snipers are somewhat of a rarity in Caldera, Fortune’s Keep, and Rebirth Island, with rifles like the KG M40 and Cooper Carbine proving more popular as the long-range options.

That might be all set to change in Season 5, though, as the current generation of Warzone Pacific enters its grand finale ahead of Warzone 2.

As noted in the Season 5 patch notes, snipers will be getting a notable buff in the season, bringing them ever so slightly closer to where they were at their dominant best.

Raven Software explained: “Snipers have almost climbed to the ideal healthy usage rate, and for the first time we’re seeing a good spread of different Weapons being used depending on map and situation. With the rebalancing of some of the Vanguard Optics and a further reduction of flinch, we expect this category of Weapons to be in a solid position going forward.”

They also included the following broad changes to snipers:

• Flinch Decreased on Heavy Sniper Rifles by 11%
• Flinch Decreased on Light Sniper Rifles by 40%

As well as the above, certain sniper rifles received balancing changes to make them stronger in the Warzone Season 5 meta:

• LW3 – Tundra (BOCW)
  • Damage Range Increased to 69 meters, up from 61 meters
  • Upper Torso Damage Multiplier increased to 1.52, up from 1.1
  • Lower Torso Damage Multiplier increased to 1.3, up from 1.05
  • Extremities Damage Multiplier increased to 1.0, up from 0.9
  • ADS Transition In Time decreased to 430ms, down from 460ms
• Type 99 (VG)
  • Shiraishi 712mm Sniper
    • Neck Damage Multiplier scale increased to 1.62, up from 1.0
    • Upper Torso Damage Multiplier decreased to 1.1, down from 1.181
    • Sprint to Fire Penalty decreased to -15%, up from -18%
• 3-Line Rifle (VG)
  • .30-06 20 Round Mags
    • Damage Bonus decreased to 7%, down from 10%
    • Rate of Fire Penalty decreased to -6.5% , up from -10%

With these massive changes coming to sniper rifles in Season 5, could we see the return of the sniper and marksman meta before Warzone 2 arrives?

Only time will tell, but for now, you’re going to want to be careful popping your head out from behind cover when traversing the Warzone maps.