Topic: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - OT

I was just wondering does any three other people want to try "My Brothers Keeper" Trophy? The Easter Egg in Zombies. I know what to do & it would be helpful if you know how to upgrade the bows, but its necessary. Also a mic would make things a lot easier, as a lot of communication is need.

@banacheck: Already answered in the online topic about this game.

@Not-Another-Ad: To be honest, I haven't really done a lot of 'either' campaign. I have had far too much fun playing Zombies and the MP and feel I have more to achieve from playing those. The campaign Camo's for weapons are not that impressive either and so doesn't have much pull. I do intend to complete them but I find the challenges in the other modes far more appealing at the moment.

@Tasuki: I understand - CoD is one of those games that took me a few prestiges to get to grips with and start to see 'improvement'. It wasn't easy to try and find a 'style' that suited me and it wasn't helped that certain perks/weapons etc weren't unlocked either. Based on your comments, I know it's difficult to play an aggressive CQC style without Dead Silence (which isn't unlocked until level 50 - I permanently unlocked this with my first Prestige token so always have it available - an idea you may want to consider). Something suddenly clicked with me, and it was then I started to see improvements - understanding the perks, how they work etc, the weapons - weaknesses and strengths etc also helped and I also got a better feel for them too. After that, I expanded my game play to include more variety - although I still 'snipe' in the traditional way and don't really enjoy Shotguns either. I do play a lot of FPS games and that helps too - some of the tactics required in other games works well in CoD but you can't play the MP like you do the campaigns as you are not the 'super-soldier' that the campaign versions lead you to believe. Running into a group of 3-4 AI enemies is possible to survive in a campaign but unlikely to in a MP.

@BAMozzy: Yeah I am finding that right now I am getting discouraged way to easy right now and that's causing me to play really sloppy, which isn't helping. Although last night I tried hard point and did enjoy that, my KDR was still bad 8 to 15 but not as bad as when I do Kill confirm or Domination. I also tried out the ICR assult rifle as a co-worker of mine said it was fairly easy to use for new players. But yeah I just think it's time for a break and clear my palette so to speak. Alot of times I find when I do that and come back to a game like CoD I will start doing better with a clear mind. It did so that way with me and WoW during raids.

Ok looks like I will be playing Black Ops this weekend. Double XP is too good to pass up.

@Tasuki: And double weapon XP too so you can unlock any attachments you want. Also double XP counts in Zombies as well!!

Lol yes sir. Although probably won't do Zombies I tried it and without others to play it with its just meh.

So I just need an honest answer here, is it practical to just hipfire? I just can't react fast enough using the sites.

@Tasuki: Hipfire is a very viable option. All the weapons though have varying degrees of accuracy when you hipfire though, some are a lot more viable than others but it is still 'possible' to get hipfire kills with every weapon. When you ADS, The bullet goes exactly where you expect a bullet to go. When you hipfire, the bullet can go anywhere in that crosshair on screen - the bigger the crosshair, the wider the potential spread of the bullet and depending on how close that target is, will determine how viable hipfire will be - the closer, the bigger the target and therefore more likely the crosshair is within their 'body'. If you think of the crosshair as a 'circle', that's where the bullet will land - the bigger the circle the more likely it will miss the target. Running also makes those crosshairs spread wider (If you look at the crosshairs while doing different movement, they change size).

In general, SMG's are better than AR's for hipfiring, LMG's are a lot better than Snipers but not as good as AR's.

Shotguns are often used as a hipfire weapon, although to increase your 1 shot kill potential - those that can of course, ADSing increases the chance significantly. Shotguns fire 'pellets' and there is often a big difference in the 'spread' of these pellets. The Argus, when ADSing, is like firing a 'slug' as the pellets don't spread. Some shotguns are not worth ADSing wth. The way they work in BO3 (different to every other CoD), is that if you hit the target, it automatically does a set amount of damage (I think 50). Every pellet (upto 8) then does additional damage (between 2 and 8 depending on shotgun) to determine the overall damage dealt. Those Shotguns that only have 2 extra damage per pellet (up to an additional 16 pts) wouldn't make a difference if 1 or all 8 pellets hit as its still not enough for a 1 shot kill in core - so hipfire these. Those that have 8pts per pellet require the majority of pellets to hit for a 1 shot kill and ADS'ing is far better than hipfiring to keep the pellet spread tighter. Watch Drift0rs 'in-depth' on Shotguns - he demonstrates each Shotguns hipfire and ADS spread.

Laser sights on weapons reduces the potential spread of bullets/pellets (indicated by a smaller crosshair) and therefore increases hipfire accuracy. The downside to hipfiring is that you don't get any aim assist at all but you do benefit from a lot more movement speed.

Another tactic to use is to start firing first and then ADS as that tightens the spread and then 'locks' on to the target because of the aim assist - although this really only works with automatic weapons. I tend to ADS a lot but I do get a lot of hipfire kills too. I don't always ADS - especially in CQC situations.

@BAMozzy: Yeah I found that I have really good success with shotguns especially with the Bericci or whatever its called. But of course I get out ranged using those. The reason I was asking cause alot of my deaths the last few days, I notice alot of times the enemy was running laser and gung ho along with other perk combinations so that got me thinking.

I have seen Drift0r's shotgun video very interesting but as I said I tend to get out ranged lol.

I did try out the Vmp last night and I really like the feel of it (much better then the Vesper) in fact I had one of my best games last night in a long time (10 Kills 10 Deaths) but I also attribute it to unlocking and finally using dead silence.

@Tasuki: Laser sight and gung ho combination is perfect for hipfiring and works well with Shotguns and SMG's. Understanding the Range of Shotguns is crucial to being successful with them - outside of their range, they do NO damage where as SMG;s will continue to do at least minimum damage (around 19 so require 6 bullets to hit) at the extreme distance. A big part of CoD, particularly where Shotguns are concerned, is knowing their range. It comes down to experience of using that weapon - knowing when an enemy is within that range or not. Movement and positioning is fat more key to success with these. Dead Silence obviously allows you to get into the best positions for these engagements undetected but knowing when to pull the trigger or not comes from experience with that weapon. If/when I have a Shotgun equipped, I generally use Overkill (a wildcard that allows me to equip 2 primaries) and have the shotgun as a 'secondary' option. This means I can equip a Sniper, LMG or AR for the longer ranged engagements.

As I said Dead Silence is essential for CQC and I wouldn't consider a CQC style without it - well not if I want to break even with my KDR. Its why it was my first permanent unlock!

@BAMozzy: Thanks for the advice as always.

I am about to hit level 55 (both me and my son) and are thinking of prestiging especially with the double XP weekend. I know everything gets locked again but what about the weapons you get from the Black Market? My son got the assult rifle (the MX Grande or whatever its called) and he's afraid he will lose it if he prestige. I tried looking online but can't get an answer. You wouldn't happen to know would you.

@Tasuki: I don't have any of the weapons myself to know BUT as the Garand is NOT linked to a level, then it should be available when you prestige. I don't know about the Melee weapons as they are equivalent to the Combat Knife but in the past DLC weapons haven't been locked when prestiging. Prestiging only locks out the gear associated with level and will also clear your unlock tokens too. You DON'T lose any weapon progress or attachments either. With each Prestige, you get 1 Unlock token to permanently unlock anything you want - Weapon, Perk, Specialist, Wildcard or Scorestreak (I recommend Dead Silence as your first choice - otherwise you will have to reach level 50 before you can equip it again). Its not quite as bad as starting over as you obviously have 1 extra equipable item as well as any weapon attachments unlocked as soon as they become available so you don't have to regrind to unlock those every time. You also unlock additional challenges when you prestige too which obviously helps with the levelling up again too - things like x number of kills with y perk/wildcard/attachment attached.

Hope this helps.

@BAMozzy: Yeah it makes sense what you said about the Garand. I have read in various places that stuff you get in the Black Market, camo, gestures etc. don't get locked but wasn't sure about the new stuff like the Garand, or Crossbow but I figure it's cause they are new. I will keep searching for an answer but maybe I he just might do it and see.

So I prestiged and now I am starting to regret it. I was so excited that I hit 55, but now to have to do it again, I just don't know if I have it in me. I don't see the point in prestiging. On top of that I don't see any improvement on my part and it's just discouraging. I am seriously thinking of just trading it in now which is sad. I want to enjoy the game, but the time you have to put into this game to get better just to keep up with everyone else is just discouraging. This is game is definitely not for a casual gamer which is a shame but Activision just wants to cater to the hardcore CoD fanboys that don't do anything else but play this game 24/7. I will say though that it does take skill to play this game something that I will admit I didn't realize before playing and getting as into it as I have.

Maybe when this next CoD game comes out this year the hardcore players will go to that one and then the lobby will be better suited for a casual player like me. Just might hang on to the game till then.

This is game is definitely not for a casual gamer which is a shame but Activision just wants to cater to the hardcore CoD fanboys that don't do anything else but play this game 24/7.

Not surprising really, just look at Destiny, even after 1000 hours there are players moaning about the lack of content. People want the end game to go on forever and don't know when to just put something down for a while and go back to it. When it stops being fun, give it a rest.

@Tasuki: As someone who has put in 1,000's of hours across the franchise and a regular player since CoD4, I can tell you that 'success' isn't going to happen overnight. I know my KDR on this is not bad (around 1.5 - 6th Prestige now and 4th on XB1) but even as recently as BO2, Ghosts my KDR was around 0.8-0.9. Some of that maybe down to playing clan wars and being the 'objective' guy. One of my best friends in CoD though has a KDR around 0.5-0.7 and he has been playing since CoD4. That's with much simpler movement mechanics too. The majority of CoD players don't get a 1.0 KDR unless all they play is TDM and play very conservatively - to the point of camping in some cases. The best player in my friends list has a KDR of around 1.6 and he is a beast at this. Breaking even (a KDR of 1.0) is very difficult in objective modes especially if you play to win. Capturing objectives, collecting tags etc puts you in the firing line and therefore more likely to get killed. Generally though KDR is more significant to 'kids' and not that important. You can finish higher on the score sheet by playing the objective and having a terrible KDR. You can be more important to the teams success by capturing more objectives, collecting the most tags etc. I have finished higher than team mates with more than double my kills because I played the objectives.

Obviously you have to do what's right for you. Prestiging for me is important as I hate earned XP counting for nothing. Things like double XP is pointless unless you do. I know you have to 'start' again so to speak, but your weapons are not usually without attachments when you unlock them and you can have some items permanently unlocked. Like I said I unlocked Dead Silence first and so I can equip it at level 1- something you can't do during your first run. At 6th, I have a few perks and some weapons (M8, Razorback) always available too - including the attachments.

I guess its not helped by the fact that you are always in lobbies with others that have the DLC. These tend to be the less casual players. However that can also help you improve as you can learn from them. Like I have said, watch you killcams to see how they killed you and try to emulate them.

There must be a lot of new players as according to Activision, this is the best selling CoD. It also has the highest Season Pass attachment too

@BAMozzy: I never thought about it that way, and I do try to win. I have noticed that at times during Kill Confirmed people will kill others but just leave the tags behind and I just sit there and think to myself um are you going to get that?? Sure enough, the moment I try to get it, I jet shot and killed.

I did noticed Drift0r's new video last night points out that with the DLC more "hardcore" players tend to make up the lobbies as hardcore players are more likely to shell out the money for DLC easier then a casual player. I just wish they had a shut off DLC button like he said. Lol

I did taken dead silence but I think after this XP event I need to give Black Ops a break lol.

So I don't know maybe it's me but after the free XP weekend, the match making seems to be a bit better. I wonder if the free XP weekends brought out alot of the non causal players and now that there isn't free XP THEY left. Anyone else notice that or is it me?

@Tasuki: It could be that the double XP weekends put an extra strain on the servers and that could effect the quality of the games or it could be that the more casual players aren't bothered by the bonus XP so the percentage of hardcore players is higher. I personally haven't been able to detect a great deal of difference - mainly because most weekends, matches end up with connection issues that affect the game quality - lag mainly!
I have noticed that it seems to be taking longer for all the textures and gun camos to load in at the start of matches. I also find that if a few scorestreaks are up, the matches get very laggy too. I can only attribute this to PSN as it doesn't happen on my XB1 version .

Double XP Weekend!!!!

So I decided to take a break from Blops the past week, yeah the double XP weekend got me back lol. But I noticed a slight improvement to my KDR last night especially in modes like Domination. I started using the HVK-30 AR and slowed my pace down instead of running all over the place. Not sure why I decided to do that its just like something clicked.

So for example on Skyjacked on Domination I tend to patrol the sides of the ship more often then going down the middle where point B is. I find if I am cautious enough I can get a good amount of kills since some of the other team will try to come down the sides to take our point.

I guess that break even though it was a small one was needed there lol.