Warzone 2 players fear riot shields after secret Season 5 buff

Season 5 buffed the Bomb Squad perk, sending a collective chill down the spines of Warzone 2 community members worried about riot shield users.

Riot shields dominated in the original Warzone, but they haven’t quite had the same impact in the battle royale sequel. You will still run into plenty of riot shield users in MW2 multiplayer or WZ2 solo matches, but they no longer pose the threat they once did.

Despite essentially disappearing from Warzone 2’s meta, players may be in for a rude awakening in Season 5. A buff to the bomb squad perk means using a riot shield comes with little to no risks.

Are riot shields meta again in Warzone 2?

Buried in the Season 5 patch notes, Bomb Squad now protects against death from explosive equipment stuck directly to the player when fully armored. So, riot shield users can no longer be killed with one lethal grenade while using the controversial weapon.

Warzone 2 YouTuber JGOD claimed: “Bomb Squad + Riot Shield might be a problem in Warzone after the update.”

However, there may be a new counter, as the seasonal update also reduced the damage from drilling when a player is stuck with a drill charge. This provides a larger opportunity for death from the explosion, which may act as a perfect counter to riot shields.

A potential counter wasn’t enough to ease worried community members.

Warzone Loadout responded: “Oh yeah, did not think about that. Definitely going to see a lot of this combo in solos. Paired that with the buffed chimera mid-range, and you have an interesting loadout.”

As content creator Peak argued, not every Warzone player is worried: “Riot Shields in Warzone 2 are HORRIBLE compared to Warzone 1. It’s literally so bugged to the point where you can just shoot and melee through it.”

Other community members jokingly called out JGOD for exposing the secret to everyone. “Why would you tweet this and give ideas?”

It remains to be seen how much of an impact this buff actually has on the number of riot shield users in Warzone 2. For more, make sure to check out the full Season 5 patch notes.