L86 LSW

The L86 LSW is a Light Machine Gun featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The L86 LSW makes its first, and so far, only appearance, as a Light Machine Gun in Modern Warfare 2. It appears in both the campaign and multiplayer modes with a 100-round drum magazine, iron-sights and the carrying handle. Uniquely, when the ACOG Scope attachment is equipped, it takes the appearance of the British SUSAT sight.

Singleplayer
In singleplayer, the L86 makes its only appearances in the campaign mission Loose Ends, and the Spec Ops mission Estate Takedown. Three of them (complete with SUSAT sights) can be found in the room next to the kitchen on the first floor of the house. Another L86, with iron sights only, can be found in the basement of the weapon and ammo cache armory.

Multiplayer
The L86 is one of two pre-unlocked light machine guns, and the primary weapon for the default Overwatch class which includes a red dot and grip. The L86 LSW has one of the highest damages per second of any weapon in the game. At close range its damage per second is beaten only by the shotguns, the G18 and MP5K, and is equal to the TAR-21 and the PP2000. The L86 LSW has the highest damage per second at long range out of all the automatic weapons, and is able to kill in two shots with Stopping Power or three shots without it. But the L86 also has the highest recoil of all the LMGs by far, making it difficult to use at longer ranges unless firing in short bursts. The L86 has the second fastest reload time of the LMGs, after the AUG HBAR, and benefits greatly from Reload Canceling (The latter has a reload time comparable to some Assault rifles).

L86 has heavy recoil when firing in full-auto and its iron sights are generally disliked as they block the target at long range and will suffer heavily from muzzle flash. As a result, it is most commonly used in conjunction with the Bling perk, with a grip and sight attachment. Like other LMGs, it also suffers from a slow ADS draw time, although this can easily be mitigated with the Sleight of Hand Pro perk, but still the recoil from this LMG is very hard to control. Firing single or double shots can make the L86 much more accurate at longer ranges and make it easily capable of racking up kills on maps with tight alleyways where suppressing fire is often needed. If the player chooses to add a sight to the gun, the SUSAT scope is a good candidate, as although it does increase recoil slightly, its clear sights are several times clearer than the iron sights, making it more effective at long range, while raising ADS to the point where muzzle flash is not even seen, let alone a problem. The alternative choice is the Holographic sight, which offers the most precision at the expense of some muzzle flash.

Due to the extremely high damage per second of the L86 it can be surprisingly effective in CQB, certainly the most effective of all the LMGs. Compared to most CQB weapons it sacrifices fast handling for tons of ammo, so for engaging large numbers of enemies it excels. Sleight of Hand Pro helps hugely in such situations, as the slow ADS time when compared to assault rifles and SMGs can otherwise be crippling. Additionally, with Sleight of Hand the reload time of the L86 with reload canceling is as low as many assault rifles. Due to the rarity of needing to reload, having a secondary as a backup is less necessary than on most guns, freeing up this space for launchers or OMA. Finally, the very high bullet penetration the L86 shares with all LMGs can give it an edge shooting through walls over most weapons particularly on maps like Favela or Scrapyard.

The Silencer reduces damage, but still makes the L86 LSW arguably the best stealth LMG since the other four LMGs either have a faster fire rate but lower damage, or the same damage and a slower rate of fire compared to the L86. As stated it suffers from having higher recoil than any other LMG, meaning at longer ranges burst-firing or semi-auto firing is required to kill where the others would be able to fire full-auto.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grip
 * Red Dot Sight
 * Silencer
 * ACOG Scope / SUSAT
 * FMJ
 * Holographic Sight
 * Heartbeat Sensor


 * Thermal Scope
 * Extended Mags

Behind the Scenes
The L86 was supposed to be an L85 rifle at one point, as the L86's texture sheet has the L85's 30-round magazine on it. The L86's kill icon in multiplayer is still an L85, giving further evidence that the L86 was once an L85. Also, the maximum ammunition amount in single player, 420, is divisible by 30, the usual Assault Rifle magazine size, further suggesting it was the L85 earlier in development.

Trivia

 * The pickup icon shows the L85 infantry rifle, which has a shorter barrel and 30 round magazine rather than the L86 LSW. However in the Museum and Loose Ends, the correct pick-up icon is used.
 * The L86 LSW is one of the few weapons where an attached Heartbeat Sensor will be fully visible when aiming down the sight.
 * The silencer is not centered on the LSW's barrel. It appears to be mounted a little below the muzzle.
 * In both Single Player/Spec Ops and Multiplayer, when turning, the L86 stays at the same angle as when the player is still. However, this is different from most of the other weapons. In Multiplayer, most weapons rotate on the muzzle, whereas in Single Player/Spec Ops, most weapons act like the L86 does in multiplayer.
 * LSW stands for Light Support Weapon.
 * The L86 LSW is the only weapon on Modern Warfare 2 to have a unique ACOG scope, the SUSAT scope attached in Multiplayer.