Sledgehammer Games has issued an emergency fix for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 beta this weekend, nerfing the obviously overpowered Battle Rage Equipment—even despite Sledgehammer themselves believing the pre-beta buffs to the Equipment were necessary.
The developers heavily nerfed Battle Rage in a late Oct. 6 update, with its move to the Tactical slot and its pre-beta adjustment proving too much for the live game. The duration after activating the equipment has been reduced from 10 to six seconds, and kills will no longer increase the duration of the buff.
Enhancements to health regeneration will now be interrupted when the player takes damage, which only activates upon killing an enemy now instead of throughout the item’s duration. Sledgehammer has also removed the increased health regeneration speed granted by Battle Rage.
It’s a welcome sight for MW3 beta players who were utterly fed up with the state of Battle Rage, which was heavily over-tuned after Sledgehammer’s MW3 showcase. While we’re sure Sledgehammer didn’t mean to buff Battle Rage as much as they did, its Oct. 5 tweet reaffirming its stance ahead of the beta weekend was frightening given the state of the Tactical Equipment when it launched.
Just hours after the MW3 beta launched, hundreds of clips emerged of players winning gunfights while outnumbered or outgunned, all thanks to the state of Battle Rage. Its effects were broken beyond doubt, with the buff feeling more like something a high-level killstreak would grant.
Players were quick to praise Sledgehammer for acting so swiftly in nerfing Battle Rage. “[It] would’ve taken Infinity Ward 17 patches and three months to address, bravo,” said one commenter. Many more began piling on numerous other suggestions hoping the devs would look into more issues, which we’re sure they’ll look into both now and ahead of the all-platform open beta next weekend.
In the meantime, catch me on Skidrow running down players who are still using Battle Rage like it hasn’t been nerfed.
Published: Oct 6, 2023 08:42 pm