User blog comment:AntiScootaTwo/Advanced Warfare Havoc DLC preview/@comment-174.64.99.147-20150116003123/@comment-4872910-20150117102107

/While initially the Bal was the only gun anyone ever used, it's pretty easy to counter now. Vanilla HBR was barely ever really used, only the Average Joe variant was ever worth using. AK-12 needs a recoil boost.

There is no standout "best" weapon in AW. There are bad guns and there are good guns, but even the overused weapons like the Bal and the MORS are really only effective in the right hands. At the end of the day it's all down to the player who uses them. A skilled team using KF5s and ARXs can still go positive agianst a team of people using ASM1s and Bals.

By comparison, AW has a lot less "overpowered" weapons than MW2 or CoD4 ever did, and nothing on the scale of the M1887/Akimbo disaster or CoD4's grenade launcher. Whether AW is as good as MW2 or CoD4 on the whole is really up to the player.

Also, the MW3 FAD wasn't at all bad./

I'd say the best variant of the HBRa3 is the Insanity or really any variant that adds, at least, +1 damage. I don't understand why the AK-12 needs a recoil reduction. It's a low damage assault rifle, give it higher recoil then you have an extremely shitty ACR. Want proof? Try using the Wrecker, see how good it is. And that's only with a 20% viewkick increase.

No weapon is "overpowered". There are just weapons that are good, and weapons that aren't. Most weapons are good, useable. And there are a lot that aren't (or just aren't practical). Weapon balance was never an issue in MW2 because every weapon had its niche. Of course, some stuck out a bit more. Sure. But to honestly say that the UMP is OP, when it's honestly the worst close range weapon in the game, is just downright wrong. But when there is clear overflow of "not-as-good" guns vs good guns, then you have a problem. And I'll tell you this right now, if there were awards for most unbalanced CoD games, AW wouldn't even be a nomination. It'd all go to CoD 4, that balance nightmare.

Remember, it's never the gun that killed you. It's the player. Saying that someone only killed you because they had a specific gun, is pretty stupid. I remember a FFA match I was in. This was when the EM1 got that stealth buff on the last gen and everyone started calling it OP. So, I was using it, and this guy stated that I only won because I used "the laser gun". So, I told him I'd use a regular gun next match. So I did. I used two guns actually. The SN6 and the ASM1 (before the buff made it useable). And what do you know, I actually won that match too. Needless to say, he made more excuses and then he left. Boo-fuckity-hoo.

My advice to all of you: Stop complaining, give the guns some fair usage time (not just one match, and deciding it's shit), then give recommendations on what to change.