In the Season 5 update, the Warzone 2 devs made a number of weapon balancing changes that could have a huge impact on the meta, but they didn’t nerf the Signal 50 despite growing concerns from players — and they even explained why they chose not to.
The Signal 50 sniper rifle has been steadily growing in popularity in recent months, to the point that it became a near-essential weapon to carry for World Series of Warzone players while competing in the $1.2m tournament.
It grew massively in popularity throughout Season 4, to the point that many players believed a nerf to the sniper was guaranteed to happen.
However, in the Warzone 2 Season 5 patch notes, there was no indication that the Signal 50 had been nerfed — in fact, the devs explained why they chose not to nerf the gun.
Signal 50 nerf “not necessary”
“We are aware of concerns surrounding the Signal 50 in Warzone,” they explained in the blog post. “While our data does not suggest the Signal 50 is out of the normal range in performance, its experiential impact for Players is equally important to us.
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“At this time we do not feel it is necessary to make changes to the Signal 50, but we will continue to monitor the data and your feedback closely.”
This will not be the news many players were waiting to hear, especially in Warzone ranked modes where the Signal is starting to really take over the meta.
Outside of the Signal 50, there were a number of weapon buffs and nerfs in the Season 5 update.
The VEL 46, BAS-P, and Fennec SMGs all got buffed, while other weapons, such as the meta Cronen Squall and Lachmann Sub, received nerfs to bring them more level with the rest of the weapon pool.
Evidently developers Raven Software are aware of concerns surrounding the Signal 50, but whether they actually act on it and change something soon remains to be seen.