The recent addition of "Specialists" in Call of Duty multiplayer has introduced more ways to die than ever before. Be it scorestreaks, lethals, tacticals, specialist weapons and abilities, or just plain old guns, Black Ops 3 is a veritable death trap waiting to gobble up the untrained.
Though it may be uncomfortable to die with the shrapnel from a Hellstorm missile lodged in the side of your skull, it brings great comfort to know that the Call of Duty community never changes. Every single person that picks up a controller eventually gravitates towards the same loadout.
Here are the top 10 things currently killing me the most in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer.
The Man-O-War Assault Rifle
Much like Hawksaw and Red Death appearing on my Top 10 things currently killing me in Destiny article, the Man-O-War seems to have appeared on this list only to spite me.
On a First Look Camo YouTube video last November, I questioned if this assault rifle was still competitive after being nerfed from the time of the beta to the game's release. Apparently it is! I can barely go a single game without being massacred at least once by this machine.
One of the most powerful assault rifles to choose from, the Man-O-War is capable of a three shot kill at considerable distances.
The Hellstorm Missile
Available to equip at level one and every subsequent prestige's level one, the Hellstorm missile is one of the most effective scorestreaks in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.
With the meager cost of 800 score to earn, this streak provides quite a bit of bang for your buck, and can slaughter up to 8 people at once (and that's just from personal experience)!
However, something that a lot of players don't know can turn the tables. The Hellstorm missile can easily be shot down with any regular bullet weapon! As long as the missile is in full form (pre-cluster strike) a bullet or two will take it out, providing the scorestreak killer with a ton of points.
The Wraith Automated Gunship
Second only to the UAV, the Wraith has made quite the rise on my "banes of my existence" list. An AI controlled gunship with the ability to massacre dozens of enemies in a single use, this chopper is not to be trifled with.
Costing just 1100 score to produce, the Wraith can easily be brought to the battlefield (especially if players use the Hellstorm missile as a scorestreak first). When placed strategically, the Wraith is an absolute beast and can be tricky to shoot down, or avoid in general.
Many a time have I been killed by a Wraith and spawned back in to get insta-melted by its guns again.
The M8A7 Assault Rifle
This burst fire assault rifle is unlocked at the very last level, so you would think that not a lot of people use it. WRONG. This might be the most used assault rifle in Black Ops 3 multiplayer. The weapon is easy to use, making it favorable among less experienced players.
A four-round burst weapon that generally kills in four rounds, this weapon is highly accurate and has a half decent fire rate. Upon my first use of it, I found it less than desirable. It wasn't until I equipped the ELO sight and Rapid Fire that I changed my mind. Speaking of which...
Any Weapon With An ELO Sight
It's rare that any sight is used in a Call of Duty game more than the red dot or iron sights themselves. Black Ops 3 serves as the outlier to this claim. Every single guy that kills me has an ELO sight. ELOs on their assault rifles, ELOs on their pistols, ELOs on their sniper rifles, SMGs, LMGs, shotguns -- if there was a way to put the ELO on a rocket launcher, I'm sure people would.
Despite my outrage, I must admit that the ELO is one of the nicest sights we've seen in Call of Duty history. A floating dot with no top bar enclosing the optic makes for a very clear view.
Spectre's Ripper
Call me a hypocrite. I love the Spectre's specialist weapon: the Ripper. This is the best thing since sliced bread, which ironically could be sliced with the Ripper itself. Essentially the return of the commando lunge from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, this weapon obliterates anyone that gets close to you.
The only specialist power that provides targeting assistance, the Ripper locks on to close-by enemies, and its use will suck the player towards them, blade first. It makes for an amazing tactical choice in stealth situations. Tack on the fact that it's the fastest charging specialist in the game and retains any charge if you die while using it, and this thing is unstoppable.
The Suppressed KN-44 Assault Rifle
Suppressors in Call of Duty negatively effect a weapon's range. Black Ops 3 being the hardest on the suppressor in the history of the series, almost every weapon was unusable with a suppressor attached. Except the KN-44.
For reasons beyond me, the KN-44 saw the same penalty as the SMGs (rather than the other assault rifles) when it came to suppressor usage. From launch, the KN-44 only had a 40% decrease in range, making it one of the most effective suppressed weapons in the game.
A recent buff has made this weapon even more powerful, dropping the range decrease to a mere 23%. If I make it out of a game without seeing at least three people using the suppressed KN-44, I'm lucky.
Trip Mines
When I first saw that a Bouncing Betty variant would be available as a lethal in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 I laughed -- I thought it was a joke. But it turns out that Treyarch really does hate us after all.
The Trip Mine can be placed on any surface at any orientation. This means that you'll find the damn things on the ceilings, walls, underwater, and just about anywhere else you could imagine.
The mines shoot about five feet out of the base before exploding so you can't just duck to avoid them. You'll need to jump, dive, duck, sidestep... you'd be surprised what you'll do to avoid them, but more often than not: splat.
Sound and UAV Whores
Excuse the French, but this is the only way to describe these players -- not to mention, it's how the community describes them.
You've probably noticed that in some killcams, the enemy player was just nonchalantly minding his own business, totally looking the other way, when - BAM! He spins around and adds twenty-five holes to your face before you can even say, "Boo!" He could be one of two people: a sound whore, or a UAV whore.
Sound whores will use a high end headset with the Awareness and Dead Silence perks. This will allow them to hear your footsteps almost halfway across the map. There's no way you can get close to them.
On the other end of the spectrum is the UAV whore. This person will use UAVs like they are going out of style, then sit and analyse them. The only time they'll come out of their hidey-hole is when their UAVs catch a glimpse of you.
Both of these people are hard to get around but using the Ghost and Dead Silence perks are a good start.
The Locus Sniper Rifle
Last but not least, the Locus. I could broaden this entry by saying sniper rifles, sniper rifles equipped with suppressors, quickscopers, or any variation of those things, but I'd like to really narrow in on the Locus this time around.
I don't know what it is about this sniper rifle, but EVERYONE is using it all of a sudden. Did it get a buff? Is there a small amount of auto-aim on it now? I don't know, but the snipers are driving me crazy nowadays.
Every time I turn around - BAM! Sniped again. The scariest part is that everyone using the sniper is good with it. The Locus is one of the sniper rifles that doesn't have auto-aim, so unless there's been a patch, people are just getting extremely good at sniping - and that's terrifying.
What's currently killing you in Black Ops 3? Let me know in the comments!
Published: Jan 18, 2016 04:16 pm