MW4 and Warzone Season 1: 17 weapons tweaked and only one direct nerf

Season 1 of Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone arrives with a sweeping overhaul of the arsenal. According to information published by The Loadout, the patch touches a total of 17 weapons, and what stands out is not the number but the direction of the changes: only one of them, the Apoc-338, receives a direct nerf. The rest of the adjustments aim to strengthen entire categories, with assault rifles and SMGs as the main beneficiaries.

This matters because the start of a season is when the meta for the coming months gets set, both in multiplayer and in the battle royale. When a studio decides that almost every change should go upward, it is saying something about how it wants the game to be played: more viable options, fewer dominant weapons and, in theory, more variety in ranked matches and in community tournaments.

What you need to know

• 17 weapons modified in Season 1 of Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone, as reported by The Loadout.
• A single pure nerf: the Apoc-338 is the only weapon that comes out of the patch clearly weakened.
• Assault rifles and SMGs on the rise: these two categories concentrate the buffs in this update.
• Affects both modes: the changes apply to multiplayer as well as Warzone, so the meta shifts on both fronts at once.

What changes and who it affects

The simplest reading of the patch is that the studio has chosen to level things upward. Instead of cutting back the most-used weapons, it prefers to lift the ones that had fallen behind. For anyone running an assault rifle or an SMG, that is good news: there is more room to experiment with builds that until now could not compete with the usual picks.

The exception is the Apoc-338. Being the only weapon with a direct nerf puts it at the center of the conversation. The source does not detail exactly how much it loses, so it is best not to jump to conclusions about whether it stops being viable or simply drops a tier. What is clear is that it was the weapon the studio considered out of line with the rest.

Background: the "buff everything" formula

This approach is nothing new for the franchise. Season-launch patches usually combine broad buffs with a couple of targeted cuts, because an across-the-board upward change draws less backlash from the community than a long list of nerfs. The risk runs the other way: if everything hits harder, time to kill drops and matches become faster and less tactical, something that in Warzone, with its plate management and rotations, is felt far more than in multiplayer.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz editorial team, we welcome a patch that widens the range of competitive weapons. For our ranked players and for those preparing scrims, a meta with more viable assault rifles and SMGs forces you to adapt your loadout to each map instead of copying the same class into every match. That rewards those who understand the game, not just those who follow the trending build.

That said, we are skeptical of the "only one nerf" label. When a large part of the arsenal goes up and one weapon stays the same or goes down, in practice that weapon has been nerfed too, even if it does not appear on the list. Balance is relative, and presenting this as a patch with almost no cuts is a gentle way of selling changes that, on the server, feel just as hard-hitting. For content creators, moreover, these "everything goes up" patches are a gold mine: every buff is a "new best class" video, and that feeds a hype cycle that does not always line up with what matters in competitive play.

Our recommendation is clear: do not change your class on day one because a headline says so. Test the buffed weapons in private matches or in unranked modes, compare notes with your team and decide based on your own data. And the Apoc-338 deserves a second chance before you write it off.

What do you think?

The patch is now on the table and the Season 1 meta is starting to take shape. Do you think strengthening assault rifles and SMGs is the right call, or would you rather see more nerfs to the dominant weapons? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.