User blog:Panzer II/The Case for LMG's

I'm sure we all remember Lightweight. Such a nice perk, if you wanted to be a colossal asshole and run around with a silenced USP .45 TacKnife. What Lightweight was good for, besides being a dick, however, was using LMG's. Instead of walking at a snails' pace, hoping you aren't shot by someone zipping around the map, you'll be walking at a more comfortable speed. By walking, I of course mean sprinting. LMG's should slow you down, yes. Even in an arcade style game like Call of Duty, lugging around an LMG will make you much less speedy. Hell, they're not made to run and gun. An LMG is a support weapon, right? Well, not anymore. With the advent of Modern Warfare 3, we no longer have access to Lightweight. The closest possible perk to Lightweight is Stalker, and that only helps when you're aiming down the sights. The removal of any kind of speed boosting perk severely hurt the LMG users, and now they see very little, if any, use online. It's sad, really, since the LMG lineup is interesting, and can be quite fun to use. Now, it wouldn't be a problem to use an LMG if the game was centered around objectives. Instead, even in objective game modes, most people will be sprinting around the map with their ACR's. This leaves the LMG user at a disadvantage, seeing as the ACR using can easily outpace him. Situational awareness, you say? Situational awareness is rendered absolutely useless with Dead Silence and Assassin. A stealth/speed player will have no problem getting the jump on the LMG player, no matter how well he may know the map. Call of Duty is centered on killing, and who can kill the most in the amount of time given. Even on objective modes, killing is still the priority. It's a warfare game, killing should be center stage; however, when the limitations of a weapon make it so unbalanced among most game modes to the point where it isn't used, what's the point in having it? You'll have a hard time racking up kills and achieving your pointstreaks using an LMG. If you're not getting flanked, you're getting sniped across the map by someone using a G36C with Gold Camo and a Thermal Scope. It's amazing how far the LMG's have fallen, and I'd love to see one person online who can use one succesfully while still keeping up with his teammates. It's truly sad such fun weapons have been killed by the loss of their crutch perk, and the addition of a perk like Assassin, which, instead of just protecting you from UAVs, now protects you from thermal, heartbeat sensors, and with the Pro version, EMPs and CUAVs. Not only are LMG's being actively screwed, a focus on using Assassin has been added, especially for people not even using a stealth class. It is truly a sad day for the Light Machine Gun.