User blog:Didikins/My favorite Advanced Warfare weapons

Advanced Warfare is a game with a very expansive and unique set of weaponry, especially on next gen consoles. I thoroughly enjoy messing around with various types of weapons in the game, and as such, why not make a list about my favorites?

XMG
The XMG started off as a very piss poor weapon until its lockdown mode buff, making the XMG a very powerful long range weapon. However, late into Advanced Warfare's life cycle, the XMG received a hip-fire accuracy buff outside of lockdown mode, making its hip-fire accuracy third only to the EM1 and MDL when not locking down, and without a doubt the best hip-fire accuracy of any weapon ever when in lockdown mode. Being able to basically snipe your opponents with a ridiculously accurate pair of light machine guns with 150 rounds of ammo in each of them is just great, ridiculous fun. The XMG has some great variants to use too, mainly Death and Taxes, Bacon and Eggs, and the Meat and Potatoes.

NA-45
If you want to talk about "unique", take a look at this gun. The NA-45 is probably the oddest weapon I've ever used in a Call of Duty game, but it is one of the most effective. I was lucky and got the Ravager variant, and with Danger Close, you're basically sniping with a Ghosts-grade C4. If you want to shove some salt into wounds, the NA-45 one hit kills to the head as well thanks to the beefy 3.5x headshot multiplier. It can be frustrating at times when it doesn't detonate and the constant reloading, but the NA-45 will go down in history as one of my true loves.

Ameli
I liked the Ameli in Ghosts to some degree, so I took a stab at it again in Advanced Warfare, and god almighty is it powerful. It's pretty run-of-the-mill good without variants: solid damage and accuracy alongside a steady fire rate all combined for a good feeling LMG, but the variants for this weapon were just over the top amazing. There was no "best" variant to the Ameli, as they all did great things. If you received an Ameli variant that wasn't called the Swift, you could use it in a way to improve over the base Ameli. The insane amount of variety the variants gave made it so an otherwise bland and standard LMG was among the most interesting of weapons to use.

PDW
The PDW in Advanced Warfare is among the oddest of pistols in Call of Duty: a non-shotgun weapon that is more accurate hip-firing than aiming? That's something you usually never hear, but the PDW states it with authority. No recoil whatsoever within the hip-fire box (or at least not enough to deter aim in any way) and some very unpredictable vertical recoil just screams at you to use the PDW in an Akimbo form. Using the Akimbo PDW's after the buff shone light onto me that these weapons had extreme power. Akimbo with the Condensed variant gave accurate, lethal, and reliable firepower from the hip that the other akimbo weapons in Advanced Warfare didn't offer. If your aim was true, your magazines wouldn't be used in vain. I will forever love the PDW's.

Atlas 45
Like the other magazine pistols, the Atlas 45 was just a joke at launch: a four shot kill outside of punching range with a ten round magazine made it so Akimbo was necessary to not get screwed over constantly, and even then, wasn't very good. However, the Atlas 45 received a powerful buff that gave it three hit kill capability to a good distance. The two hit kill range is still shit, but the Atlas 45 became a very well-rounded pistol: a pistol that wasn't all or nothing in close quarters or in one shot. It gave a sense of reliability that none of the other pistols have, not even the new 1911. With Extended Mags, the Atlas 45 is up there with me as one of the greatest sidearms in history. The Atlas 45 also had a lot of good hip-firing variants, making it so Akimbo strategies were great ideas, but the three hit kill range made it so you didn't have to rely on Akimbo strategies, something the PDW is quite guilty of.

Stinger M7
Oh, this badboy. This launcher has punished me many of times, but it has correspondingly rewarded me with a slew of double kills and destroyed UAV's. The Stinger M7 is by far the most reliable anti-vehicle launcher in the game, having the classic lock-on system old anti-vehicle launchers had, but it also used it for acquiring enemies. This would seem completely terrible, but that's not true. The Stinger M7 has a four rocket magazine payload, and if you were able to fire the four rockets at an enemy or two, chances are they were dead men moving. Obstructions, reset of the lock-on process, and enemies stealing your kills were great obstacles you had to overcome while using the Stinger M7, and the reward is priceless, mutually assured kills and multi-kills.

IMR
This is a weapon that seems odd, but incorporates niche features into an otherwise basic weapon. A four round burst assault rifle with amazing centerspeed and good four shot kill report, and a fast fire rate in the burst all sound like things that would be associated with the M8A1, a Black Ops 2 favorite. The IMR also incorporates its 3D printing feature, a way to prolong your ammunition supply without Scavenger. It wasn't enough to keep you going for that much longer, but hey, any ammunition is good ammunition. The IMR also has the Impact variant, a simple yet devastatingly powerful modification to ensure one burst kill potential at any range. A simple, cool, and fun weapon.

S-12
After the S-12 got buffed, it became the premier shotgun in Core. Why? It basically fires as fast as an Ameli, except that this is a shotgun, meaning in the same time the Ameli fired eight bullets, the S-12 fired 64 pellets. Combined with damage comparable to that of the AA-12, and the S-12 was a shotgun that instilled horror and fear into your enemies. What's even scarier is the variants: pretty much all of the S-12's variants help to make the S-12 more lethal, be it through a combination of some the following aspects: firing faster, prolonging the magazine, attaching a Suppressor, or tightening the hip-fire spread and attaching a foregrip. The S-12 just obliterates opponents by matching the fire rate of regular automatic weapons in a shotgun configuration. It just feels so powerful and badass that I feel like I can blow apart an entire wall with just this shotgun.

Atlas 20mm
The Atlas 20mm is among the deadliest weapons in Call of Duty. A semi-automatic sniper rifle usually has inferior or equal power to a bolt action, but the Atlas 20mm takes it a step further by being the most powerful sniper rifle in the game. Almost the entire body was a one shot kill for the sniper/tank destroyer, and if you missed a shot, you had the power of semi-automatic fire to smash the opponents. The Atlas 20mm was frustrating to use at times thanks to its sluggish handling speeds, inability to panic hip-fire, and lack of custom scopes, but the combination of semi-automatic fire and devastating power gelled together to make one of my favorite sniper rifles.

Lynx
How could I forget this sniper rifle? This sniper was shit at first, but Advanced Warfare buffed it to make it the most accurate semi-auto sniper in Call of Duty history. 2000 centerspeed, and very low recoil gelled together to make a very powerful battle rifle. If you shot at 200 RPM or laid in prone, you had near flawless accuracy and a license to kill any enemy at almost any range. You also had a one shot kill area to the head, so you can just embarrass your enemies by not having to spam at all! The Lynx also had a great variant in the Quarterback, greatly reducing sway speed and amount, further adding to the Lynx's accuracy and allowing you to forget the Ballistics CPU altogether, or use it to near-completely kill idle sway. The Lynx has it all regarding accuracy.

The end
That's a wrap from me! There's a lot of quirky weapons in Advanced Warfare, and we all have our favorites. What's yours? I'd love to know!