MW3 tips/tricks you probably aren't aware of

[SheepBeast]

Quoting from my thread in PC games because I'm guessing most of you guys play this on console.

I've clocked nearly 6 days play time of MW3 so far (yeah pretty ridiculous i know) and from this I've discovered quite a few cool things which don't seem common knowledge. Thought I'd let you guys know about them:

- USAS12 has built in extreme conditioning, gives extra sprint. And yes, this stacks so if you have extreme conditioning and a USAS you have buttloads of sprint

- silencer reduces the fire rate of the FAD and MK14

- underbarrel attachments (noob tube or masterkey) increase the fire rate of the CM901. Basically acts like rapid fire. EDIT: I believe this may have been patched out now.

- the L86 (and to slightly less of an extent, other LMGs) has near zero recoil if you put a thermal sight on it. I only tried it for a joke, thinking "lol this is gonna suck so hard" but ended up going 24-8 the first game I used it.

- the Deagle, MP412 and .44 Magnum all have a special 1.1x multiplies for head and chest, meaning they are 2 shot kills, if both bullets are within this area

- the extended mags attachment for shotguns increases the pellets per shot by 50%. In other words increases the damage you do by that amount which is pretty incredible. If you put damage proficiency (+40%) and ext mags (+50%) on at the same time you over double the power of each shot.

- unlike black ops, frags and semtex have the same damage and radius, so most of the time you're better off using semtex

- don't use hardline if you are also using assassin as your first specialist killstreak reward. It's stupid and in fact just delays all your perks by one kill instead of making them easier to get. You'd be surprised at the number of people I've seen using this setup, even popular youtube players/commentators. EDIT: some people seem not to understand. see posts #10 and #28 for further explanation

- in previous COD games your movement speed was determined by the weapon you were currently holding, hence (for example) LMG users would switch to a pistol when they wanted to run around. In MW3, your move speed is determined by your primary weapon, even if you have your secondary equipped. So there's no point switching weapons.

- akimbo skorpions are better than akimbo FMG9s. This is personal opinion I know, but fact is that the skorpions have no screen recoil at all, which means aiming is much much easier, and the range before damage drop off is over double that of FMG9s.

- after 8 kills when you get your specialist bonus, in addition to getting all perks, you also get all weapon proficiencies. You even get proficiencies which aren't normally available for your class of primary. For example you get the melee proficiency even if you are using an assault rifle. The only one you don't get is damage. So if your running shotgun with specialist killstreaks, you should definitely have damage on, since you'll get range at 8 kills anyway. Not so the other way around.

- one of the best ways to kill juggernauts is meleeing or throwing knifing them (5 melees, 4 throwing knifes)

- if you see a guy using a laptop (to control a killstreak reward) flash him twice before killing him. He'll be blinded even while he's controlling his pred/whatever, so you might deprive him of maybe several kills.

- when using akimbo pistols, fire all bullets from the right hand pistol except one. Then press both fire buttons along with the swap weapon button, all at the same time. The left pistol will fire fully automatic at it's maximum fire cap. Works best with the Five-Seven as it has large mags and one of the highest fire caps. EDIT: this is more of a cool trick than a useful tip. In game you're better off using the pistols normally.

- when using a killstreak reward which requires a laptop to control it, press the "switch weapon" button just as the laptop fully opens. When you finish controlling the killstreak and return to 1st person view, your gun will already by ready to fire, instead of you having to wait to put the laptop away first. This can come in pretty handy.

- booby trapped care packages can't kill you if you have a ballistic vest on.

- trophy system protects you from predators.



Well, that's pretty much it, hope I've helped you guys out. If anyone has any tips or easter eggs to add, I'll edit them into this post.

Added from other peoples posts:

- you can knife your own trophy system to get sitrep pro

- the thermal sight low recoil also applies to assault rifles.

- akimbo FMGs down juggernauts very easily


Other ones I've thought of/remembered:

- if you put colour blind mode on, you can see enemy stealth bombers coming on your map (press start button to see clearly) so you can avoid them.

- if you're using Steady Aim with a shotgun, the pellets are actually more accurate if you don't aim down the sight. I'm not sure if, without Steady Aim, the inverse is true.

- just a piece of general advice: hardline with UAV, Pred, Attack Chopper absolutely rapes in FFA.

 

[SheepBeast]

i don't see what's so hard to understand. i'll quote from my other thread again.

Consider someone using hardline as their tier 2 perk, with the following specialist killstreaks:

Assassin, Extreme Conditioning, Marksman

They get assassin after 1 kill, EC after 3, and Marksman after 5 kills. Specialist bonus at 7 kills.

If they'd just put assassin as their starting perk, they could have assassin at 0 kills, EC at 2 kills, Marksman at 4 kills, <some other perk> at 6 kills, and Specialist bonus at 8 kills.

So the only benefit to starting with hardline is that you get specialist bonus 1 kill earlier. This is definitely not worth it, since you delay all your perks by 1 kill, and you're visible at the start of each life on enemey UAV, until you get a kill.

For the 2 assists = 1 kill to actually make a difference, you would have to get at least 2 assists every 7 kills. For a game of 21 kills, that's 6 assits. Usually, I have 0-2 assits, very occasionally I get up to 4. Never 6 unless I'm using some weird strategy.

Of course, all of the above only applies if you put your first specialist killstreak perk as a tier 2 perk. If you're going with, say, EC, SoH, Marksman, then by all means use hardline, if you're not bothered about the enemy knowing where you are.

See my reasoning?

Reading this over now, I notice I was slightly mistaken with the "For the 2 assists = 1 kill..." paragraph. You don't have to get 2 EVERY 7 kills. But you'd have to get at least 3 or 4 assists (assuming 21 kills in the game) for it to be worth it. This is still pretty rare. My average game is probably 20 kills 10 deaths 1 assist.

EDIT: there are some exceptions - cases where you are better off using hardline first. Such as:

- if the enemy has near constant UAVs and you have a stinger as your secondary. You can shoot down a UAV as soon as you spawn and instantly earn Assassin.
- if you aren't using a tier 2 perk as your first specialist killstreak reward.
- if you're very bothered about earning the "earn assassin x times" challenges.

For most classes though, you're better off using hardline as the 3rd perk in the chain.

 

[SheepBeast]

Indeed, his HL/Assassin comment makes no sense.

Why would you use Assassin insted of HL when using the sepcialist streak.

Mine goes HL Pro in tier 2, then Scavanger pro, Assassin pro, Marksman pro.

I specifically said in OP that the comment only applies to people using assassin as their first killstreak. If you're using it as the 2nd or 3rd, it might be worthwhile, depending on how many assists you get, how often you reach 7 kills, and whether there are any other perks useful to the class/strategy you are using. For example, a decent shotgun setup might be to start with Extreme Conditioning, Assassin and Steady Aim, and put your killstreaks as Dead Silence, Sleight of Hand and Hardline. This is because of two reasons 1) there aren't really any other perks which are genuinely useful with a shotgunning class and 2) specialist bonus is particularly awesome with shotguns, as the range proficiency makes them quite a bit better (I'm assuming you started with damage) and the speed boost lets you close the distance ridiculously fast. Hence it's worth it to have Hardline as your 3rd specialist perk, as you'll get the specilaist bonus a kill earlier.

In fact, this reasoning shows that "it gets you specialist bonus 1 kill earlier" is not a valid argument for starting with Hardline. You can start with Assassin and put Hardline as your 3rd killstreak, and you'll get specialist bonus at exactly the same time.

 

[SheepBeast]

I tested out the Recon Drone tagged assists these do not count as far as Hardline Pro is concerned. Extended mags, range and steady aim seems to boost the range of the SPAS up to almost 16m hipfire which is way beyond what you'd expect.

The range proficiency is responsible for that. If you're running specialist and regularly get 7/8 kills, you're better off using damage as you get range with the specialist bonus. I was disappointed about the Recon Drone tags too, but I think it's probably for the best. Otherwise we'd see everyone just going Recon Drone, Stealth bomber, Escort Airdrop with Hardline.

Most of it is intended and even if its wrong and the result of glitches after weapon balancing it might not get fixed. I'd be careful with the laptop one. That was how people did the infinite stealth bomber glitch, but when I tried it after the first fix attempt in split screen offline it left you stuck walking around the laptop.

I use it every time I use a predator (so several times a game) and nothing untoward has happened so far.

 

[SheepBeast]

The thing is I find the converse of what you say true and the commentators correct. I run a P90 silenced specialist class and there is no better setup than Hardline Pro 2nd perk, Specialist: Assassin, Sleight of Hand, Scavenger. It's so good I call the class Mourinho

Can you please explain why? Did you read my posts other than OP? I explain it pretty clearly. You'd be better off starting with Assassin, then going SoH, Scav, Hardline.

Is any of that likely to get patched? Or is it all intended?

Some may get patched. The FMGs are getting nerfed soon according to a post on twitter by someone on the dev team. Most of the rest will probably stay in.

 

[SheepBeast]

No, no I would not. I think you're alone in your belief there. I can usually pick up Assassin pretty quickly a matter of seconds on certain maps and getting SOH on 3 and Scav 5 is exactly what I need when I need it. There are times when I respawn and get Assassin before I've moved.

For that P90 class I use Extreme Conditioning the UAV is not that accurate when I'm going flat out and also running Dead Silence.

If I'm alone in my belief, then I'm the only one in the world who's thought this through logically. I find that hard to believe.

You honestly believe the "good feeling" of getting a killstreak reward easily makes you play better, despite the knowledge that you could have had that "reward" from the start? I think you are the one, not me, who has strange beliefs.

I'm not getting at you for how you play the game, it's just irritating me that you're telling everyone I'm wrong when you're the one suggesting a completely illogical killstreak setup is better than one which is optimised, simply because it "gives you a good feeling". Even though it's tangibly worse in-game than what I'm suggesting.

 

[SheepBeast]

Thankyou Strife212, you seem to be the only one around here except me who has a brain.

 

[SheepBeast]

Btw finite, I got a MOAB last game on Lockdown with the following class:

Striker damage & extended mags
MP9 silenced
Throwing knife
Smoke grenade
Extreme Conditioning
Assassin
Steady Aim
Killstreaks: Sleight of Hand, Dead Silence, Hardline.

Was on 33-0 then my flatmate turned off the xbox at the plug (he is jealous because he sucks at CoD). The lack of a "good feeling" after the first kill really didn't bother me.

 

[SheepBeast]

Frankly I think you're the one that came into this section with a chip on your shoulder. How much XP do you earn with your setup? And I'm not talking about this possibly fictitious game above of which conveniently there is no record if that's what you're implying.

LOL. You think I care if you believe me? I couldn't care less. I created this thread to give some advice to people, and let them know tips/tricks to help them play better and enjoy the game more. If you don't want my help and think I'm a liar then by all means, feel free to ignore this thread.

And it wasn't convenient at all. I was pretty raging. It was my first MOAB and I never even got a chance to see it.

As far as XP goes, I don't know I don't pay attention to how much I'm earning (I don't go after challenges or anything either). If you want to earn maximum XP then probably support killstreaks with Ballistic Vests, Recon Drone and EMP is the way to go.

Lol, what a tool.

...I give up. Wallow in your ignorance.

 

[SheepBeast]

Surely the XP can only be the same if you get to 6 or 7 every time and earn no assists up to 6.

You're right the XP difference would be negligible or nonexistant.

I don't see the point in using Hardline for Specialist really, you're either going to get 8 kills in a row or you aren't what's it matter if it's 1 less kill if you're just going to die and lose it all anyway? I'd rather just get 3 useful perks that will actually help me to survive to 8 kills such as Blast shield, Blind eye, Assassin, Slight of hand etc.

To a certain extent I'd agree, but sometimes after I've got my first two killstreaks (bringing me to 5 perks total) I don't feel there is any 6th perk which will really make much of a difference. For shotgunning especially, it's the extra weapon proficiencies which you get at 8 kills which make much more of a difference to your chances of survival. I'd rather have that at 7 kills even if it means missing out on blast shield or whatever. (I mean, how often do you honestly get killed by explosives?)

My original point about this, was only relating to people that start with hardline, and follow it up with a 2nd tier perk as their first killstreak. There are plenty of valid reasons to not use hardline at all, so that's not the issue I was addressing.

 

[SheepBeast]

Less QQ, more pew pew.

You are such a boring troll. If I'm accused of lying I am going to defend myself, that's not QQing. Please don't post again if you've nothing interesting/relevant to say.

So how did you reach this conclusion when.

I guessed. I don't see any reason why there would be a significant XP difference.

I've been running specialist with HL pro and Assassin as the first unlock

I can't believe I didn't figure this out my self! Thanks for the tips.

No problem . Took me a while to realise as well lol.

EDIT: just noticed the santa smilies. That's awesome.

 

[SheepBeast]

Sorry you've lost me. I don't see how what perks you have affect how much XP you get?

And it seems from your last post you're saying hardline last is better, but earlier you were disagreeing with me. It's kinda hard to follow.

 

[SheepBeast]

Did you read post #28?? It's YOUR system which delays the perks. The specialist bonus comes at the same time with both systems.

 

[SheepBeast]

Oh god no not again. Ok you prefer not to earn extra XP fair enough you only mentioned assists as your reason for not running it that is all.

I see what you're saying about XP now - that with my method you have to get 6 kills to get the equivalent earning count towards challenges as you get at 5 kills. My bad I didn't understand that before.

Why is this so hard for you to understand?

With your system do you earn a perk and bonus at one? No the first one actually comes at 2 and by putting a non Hardline Perk in Tier 2 and calling it 0 you're robbing Peter to pay Paul.
With your system do you earn 3 perks and bonuses at 5? No you must get to 6
With your system can you earn assist counts as kill before 6? No because you don't earn Hardline Pro until 6.

If you don't understand that the numbers don't lie at best your system might not cost you XP at worst it throws it away. In fact the more you struggle in a game the better the Hardline Pro tier 2 system is.

You're right. You don't EARN a perk earlier with my system - you simply start with it, for free. This is what makes it "better" in my opinion. And I really don't think the assists make enough difference, considering you delay your first 2 specialist perks by one kill. Your system might be marginally better for earning XP (only very slightly), but if people are that bothered about XP they will be running support killstreaks, not specialist. Meh I imagine we are both of the opinion this debate has been done to death. Let's agree to disagree .

Sorry sheep, just thought I'd drop down to your level as you seem to have a very childish arrogance about this whole matter.

Lol. Apologies if I gave that impression. From my perspective though it's not arrogance if my system genuinely is better, which I believe it to be in most cases. Meh.

I've changed my specialist class now since I've seen the light I rarely get assists playing hctdm so not having hardline on at the start isn't an issue for me. So thanks to the OP for pointing out the blindingly obvious that I missed.

The only thing I dislike about running specialist is friggin stalker when you get all the perks. I can't use it anymore since I've stopped running about like a madman with a sub machine gun. It feels like it ups the sensitivity on me and makes ads aiming far too twitchy.

Thanks mate. I mainly use shotguns (so hardly ever aim down sight) so Stalker doesn't bother me most of the time. I use it as my starting perk when I use assault rifles though. It's great to be able to advance towards a corner while ADS if you have the feeling someones about to run round it.

On my specialist setup I run HL pro then first kill Assassin.
If I spawn and there is a UAV up then thats great because that's the first point I need to get Assassin. I run stinger on all of my Specialist setups for this sole reason.

That's a good point actually, I hadn't thought of that. For me personally, I prefer hardline last because with a shotgun as my primary I need an MP9 as my secondary. But for AR and SMG classes your setup is pretty cool. I'll update post #10 explaining it for thread newbies.

 

[SheepBeast]

<double post my bad>

 

[SheepBeast]

But at 4 kills ill have the perks I would usually have got at 5 since I can use assasin to replace hardline.

Instead of Assassin at 1 kill I can start with it, meaning I get slight of hand at 2 kills whereas it would have been 3 before, then at 4 I get Quickdraw whereas it would have been 5 with hardline. Yes the only reason I put hardline on at 6 so I only need one more kill to get all perks, I could replace it with something else but there's nothing that really screams out for me to use.

High five for pro-setup . You should try this with the striker with damage & extended mags. Once you get the bonus, you have range & speed too. It's insane the range you can kill people at. And you move sooo fast

Does anyone know what the equivelent sensitivity setting is when using stalker/stalker pro?

Equivalent to what?

 

[SheepBeast]

The ONLY way in which it's "better" for XP is that it gets you the "earn x y times" challenges. These make up a TINY proportion of the challenges in the game. Over the course of an entire prestige, I'd guess much less than 5% (and that's if you run specialist killstreaks on all of your classes, which most people don't). This is pretty insignificant. Especially when most people (who aren't given a motivational boost by 'earning' a perk earlier) will do worse on average in terms of kills and deaths with your steup. This is due to having each perk delayed by 1. So you haven't proved anything. And the commentators I saw did not specify the purpose of ranking up fast.

You're right about the respawn instaperk. It's because the person you shot at last life who ended up killing you was killed by one of your allies shortly after. Obviously only happens if you already had an assist last life waiting to be "turned into" a kill by you getting another one.

I didn't take "earn" out of context. It's not a word whose meaning changes depending on context. With your system you EARN perks 1 kill earlier, but with my system you HAVE perks 1 kill earlier. If the perks are what you want, mine will generally be better. If it's the act of earning (even at the deteriment of actually having the perks) yours is better. What precisely is the "real guarannteed bonus" you speak of? Which you say is not related to assists? The reason I haven't mentioned it is because I don't believe it exists. If you can tell me, I'd be grateful. The only advantages I see to your system are 1) assits and 2) TINY amount of extra XP. Both of which are negligible when compared to the disadvantages.

I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say which is why I'm continuing this discussion. I don't want it to be an argument, I'd rather it was a debate. The purpose of this thread was to help everyone (including me and you) do better in the game and enjoy it more. I apologise if I've offended you or annoyed you by not understanding your posts. It'd be nice if you could post a summary of the reasons (with explanation) of why you think your setup is better for you. 1) so we can finally be done with this discussion and 2) because if your reasoning is valid, I and others may like to emulate your setup.

 

[SheepBeast]

Buying BF3 is the best trick

Lol. Tried BF3 and wasn't impressed. That said, I'm getting a bit bored of CoD due to playing it way too much over the past couple of weeks. I'll probably come back to it one day but I need something else to move onto. Was thinking Reach but I don't have the disc here with me. Meh.

For gods sake man your equestrian skills are legendary . You have a theory I would be disadvantaged, but look at #40. It failed the real world test.

I'm not going to go over the XP in detail as I said above I'm done for the reasons I said above too, but if someone would give me 5% interest today I'd snatch their hand off like anyone else .

It failed (by your definition) your test, with a small sample size but fair enough. To each his own.