Black Ops 6’s best gun handed huge nerf in Season 1 update

The Black Ops 6 Season 1 update brings a host of weapon buffs and nerfs, and the game’s best gun has been completely “destroyed.”

Weapon balancing is always a hot topic in any Call of Duty, and Black Ops 6 is no exception. Although there are plenty of options to choose from, a handful always rise to the top and stand above the rest, such as the KSV or AS Val.

But arguably the most powerful gun since launch has been the AEK-973, a burst Marksman Rifle that was capable of melting players at virtually any range. Now, with the Season 1 update, Treyarch have handed it huge nerf.

In the patch notes, the developers revealed that the AEK’s recoil penalty has increased significantly from 20-25% to 50%, making it much tougher to handle. This is on top of small mobility nerfs, including an increased sprint-to-fire time.

However, the nail in the coffin is the change to the Rapid Fire attachment, which now only buffs the fire rate by 5% and has had its burst delay changed from 115ms to 295ms. This increases the TTK and means that you have to wait longer to land a follow-up shot.

The Rapid Fire mod was the go-to attachment in any AEK-973 loadout prior to the update, as even the devs admitted that its benefits were “too strong not to take.”

Not everyone is happy with the change, though. Shortly after it was confirmed, players took to Reddit to criticize the decision, claiming it may have been too much of a nerf.

‘FlowKom’ posted saying, “Well, that was a fun week,” before plenty of other players replied.

“If that burst delay is true they may as well delete the guns from the game. Pathetic devs, won’t even let us have an M8A1/ COD 4 M16 vibe,” said one reply, before another added: “Wow, they completely destroyed this thing.”

The main issue that fans seemed to have was that the changes to Rapid Fire have made that attachment impossible to use. “Why would anyone use something that gives you 5% fire rate in exchange for 50% recoil?” asked another reply.

However, there were also those who felt that the AEK-973 will still be more than viable without this attachment.

“They’re really only needing the rapid fire attachment specifically. The rest of the gun they’re leaving alone. It’s still a good gun without rapid fire,” said a more positive player.

Only time will tell how badly this nerf impacts the AEK-973 in Black Ops 6, but it could make it difficult to recommend in Warzone after the integration.