Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Update Trashes One of the Most Popular Guns

A new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War update is live on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC alongside official patch notes. The update, which requires a download, makes numerous buffs and nerfs to the arsenal of the game, with the biggest changes being made to the FFAR, which, before the update, was not only one of the game’s most effective weapons, but one of its most popular. That said, its popularity is about to plummet because Treyarch didn’t just nerf it with this latest update, it more or less killed it.

According to the patch notes, the FFAR’s max damage has been reduced by 3.5%, bringing it from 28 to 27. Meanwhile, its max damage range was also reduced by 34%, bringing it from 38 to 25m. Biggest yet, the recoil has been increased. Treyarch doesn’t divulge how much the recoil has increased, but as players have found it, it’s been substantially increased, registering the gun largely ineffective.

Of course, the gun is still viable in causal play, to an extent, but it just lost its place in competitive play. The FFAR, which had virtually no recoil before, now has quite the recoil. And while it’s not impossible to learn this recoil pattern, it’s simply not worth the trouble at the highest level.

As you would expect, players aren’t too happy with how big the nerf is. Just this week, a similar nerf was dished out to the MP5, but it wasn’t substantial enough to completely remove the gun from the meta. This FFAR nerf though is substantial enough and then some.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available via PC and both current and last-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles. As always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What guns do you think need nerfs and buffs in the next balance update?