Call of Duty: Vanguard pros call for damage mag nerfs after banning STG loadout

Another Call of Duty: Vanguard class has been banned from competitive play, as pros slam a “two-bullet” STG 44 loadout. Now, players want the setup’s problematic damage mags nerfed too.

Call of Duty: Vanguard hasn’t been out for more than a week and players are already finding overpowered guns. Just like the “two-shot” 1911 pistol loadout, an STG 44 class is also getting banned from tournaments.

This STG loadout relies on two principal new attachments that make it overpowered: the Vital Proficiency and .30 Russian Short Magazine Ammunition. The latter, which was also used on the 1911, is a type of mag that buffs damage — and players think it’s gone too far.

The efforts to get rid of this STG loadout came to a head on November 6, when Atlanta FaZe pro Alec ‘Arcitys’ Sanderson won a tournament and posted the class setup to Twitter. In his caption, he asked for it to get banned.

Vanguard pros ban “two-bullet” STG 44 loadout

While Arcitys caps-locked a “ban this class” request, other pros replied chiming in. The LA Guerrillas’ Austin ‘SlasheR’ Liddicoat asked “why are we using damage rounds?” And the Minnesota ROKKR’s Preston ‘Priestahh’ Grenier claimed he was “getting sniped.”

Responding to Priestahh, Arcitys laughed about how the gun kills in just two bullets from far away and three bullets up close.

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Of course, the Vital Proficiency plays a key role in this — as it applies a headshot multiplier to other areas of the body. It has already been the subject of nerf requests, but the damage mags are also getting attention now.

Vanguard players request nerfs to “broken” damage mags

In a video shared to Twitter, content creator Hayashii pointed out just how deadly the Vital and damage mag combination is. With both the STG and Type 100, they proved Arcitys correct — showing how the guns kill in just two bullets using the attachments.

So far, the developers at Sledgehammer Games have yet to respond. There were no weapon balancing changes in the November 10 update, but players are hoping for nerfs in a future patch.

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Until then, it seems that the community will simply need to manually get rid of attachments they deem overpowered. (Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee of Gentlemen’s Agreements in pickup games.)