Part deux

up soon.

O.K. I've done these in the past as many of you know. I'm going to do one for this game as well, but I'd like it to be complete and concise, so I'll wait to post all of my findings.

The series will be composed of 1 blog for weapons, 1 blog for attachments, 1 blog for questions, and 1 blog for gameplay. Maps will not be mentioned. There are plenty of videos on yourtube which explain maps much better than I ever could.

So, let's have at the questions now. If they coincide with one of the specific blogs mentioned above, I'll answer them in that section. If they are seperate questions, I'll answer them in my final blog for this game.

OK, It's time for another addition of MW3 Improvements. Last week we did all of the secondary weapons and today we're doing lethal and tactical equipments. So, without further ado...

Lethal Equipment:

1.) Frag Grenades- These are one of the first two lethal equipments given to you and in my opinion, they are the best to use. Why? Because you have more control over them. This grenade has a little under a 4 second timer as soon as you pull it out. It takes a little over a second for it to leave your hand. It is a hard grenade, unlik the sticky and as such you can bounce it around doorways, off walls, through nooks and crannies etc to get guys you wouldn't normally have a chance at killing without exposing yourself and decreasing your ability to stay alive. An example of the way I like to use them is if I'm on one side of a doorway and I know an enemy is on the other side of the doorway camping it out waiting for me to come charging at him, I'll pull out my Frag, cook (I'll talk about this later) the grenade a bit and bounce it off the doorjam to his side of the door. Bye bye, buddy! Great thing is there's nothing he could do about it. OK, so you heard me mention cooking the grenade. Sometimes you want the grenade to go off as soon as it hits where you want it to go instead of just rolling around and having the 3 second timer go off. You do this by holding the grenade in your hand for 1, 2 or even 5, I mean 3 seconds, but never after 5, I mean 3. And easy way to time this os to watch your reticle when you have the grenade out in your hand. The reticle on your screen will begin pulsating in and out. Each one of these pulses is indicative of one second passing. So, just use that as an indicator of when you need to get rid of the grenade. So all this should tell you one thing. This weapon has versatility. And as I've told you before, I like versatility.

2.) Semtex Grenade- The Semtex grenade is a different animal than the frag. There is no cooking this weapon and no bouncing it off walls. This thing sticks to whatever it touches and stays there. Once it has stuck itself to whatever it has hit, the timer on it, which is about 2 seconds, begins. While I'm not a big fan of it, some people swear by it. I think this is because it is a throw and forget weapon. Generally the timer is quick enough to get a kill if you get it close enough to someone, but I like the ability to lesson the amount of warning someone has with the Frags and leave them with only 1 second. The one benefit of this weapon is it is a 1 hit kill on shield guys. Soit has that going for it.

3.) Throwing Knife- This is the silent, reusable killer. It takes some getting used to, but many people are very good with this 1 hit weapon. There are some tricks to know when using this thing though. It bounces off the ground, so aim low and you'll improve your odds of getting a kill. When you getthat kill, just run up to the body and grab your knife out of him and voila, you have retrieved your knife for later use. This is the only reuseable equipment, which is fitting because the thing is so hard to use in the first place. Stay away from it unless you're an uber god. Hell, I don't even use it.

4.) Bouncing Betty- This is a stationary equipment that pops up and sprays an amount of damage equivalent of a grenade at center mass level. This is one of two "stationary" equipments that can be thrown. Not only can you use this in a set position, but you can toss it at an opponent and have it activate right on top of them. A nice perk of the thing...But there's a catch... This weapon spread does not go down. These things are fairly easy to dodge (I rarely get killed by them anymore). All you need to do is go prone as fast as you can as soon as you hear the binnnggg sound it makes as it goes off. The explosion will go off above you and you'll be fine. Some tips for placing these things. Keep them outdoors. Inside they tend not to do as well because someone can cross a doorway, set them off, and still have time to run around a corner and live. Put them outside in crossways that have two or three paths intersecting there. As an example: A good place to put one would be on the map Resistance behind the magazine/candy shop where the pathways form a T shape. Stick it in the middle of the flat part and you might steal a kill or two with one blast there. All in all, I don't care for these things. I prefer the last two equipments over it anyday.

5.) Claymore- This is a stationary equipment that shoots its explosive off in a 40* directional manner. It is really good for guarding doorways, HQs, dom points and so on. This is the preferred equipment for hardcore players. There are some tips to remember when using this. When placing it, you want to hide the red lines from sight as much as possible. This means when you place it next to a doorway, you need to move it back so those red lines don't protrude into the doorway. That's a dead giveaway a claymore is there, and every time I see that I end up shooting it out of my way. Another tip is to angle it facing in just a tad. This is so the blast area can be maximized and your opponent has less time to try and run past it. I like these things and run with them exclusively in hardcore games.

6.) C4- This is the most powerful explosive equipment. The blast radius is larger and more powerful than either of the grenades or a betty. many people believe for this to be useful they have to place them on an area and wait for someone to run into it. Not so. They can be used like mini-grenades. They can't be thrown as far, but the only limit on how quick they explode is how quick you can activate them. Take the semtex for instance. No matter how you throw it, the timer will never be less than 2 seconds. The C4 can be as quick as a quarter of a second. This makes it impossible for your enemy to get away from it. Some tips on using it...toss it over walls (like in hardhat)...throw it on dom points with people gathering on them...if you want to wait for someone, place it on the ceiling or a wall (9 times out of 10 no one looks there) and then blast them. This equipment can be fun, and I know many people swear by them. They're good, probably the seconds best IMO, but I still like my frags over everything else. Versatility my friends. Versatility.

OK, now we're on to Tactical Equipment

Tactical Equipment:

1.) Flash Grenades- These things blind your enemies and are best used in small rooms. They have a timer on them of about 2.5-3 seconds that starts as soon as they leave your hand. So be aware of that when you toss them. You can also bounce these things around doorways like frags. These things are alright, but are not my favorite. You'll see why when I talk about the next one.

2.) Concussion Grenades- These are my second favorite tactical equipments. They are perfect for inside use, outside use and thrown at long distance. That's right, long distance. These things don't have a timer on them. They go off when they hit the ground. As such you can launch them clear across a map to slow an enemy advance right at the beginning of a game. Priceless. A tip for launching these and any other grenade, lethal or tactical, take a running jump and throw them while you are in the air. You'll add about 20 feet to your toss. In valuable information to know when using these puppies.

3.) Srambler- This is an OK equipment. I've used it in the past, but I admit they're only useful in limited situations. First of all, you can sit inside the radius of the scrambling effect. That's just asking for someone to come and kill you. Generally speaking people get scrambled and they tend to know and be on guard for someone sneaking around the joint. The best way t use this is to place it in a corner, get a long distance away from it, and kill the suckers who come and try to find the fictional guy hiding in the scrambled area. I find this to be useful in some dom games (is actually good on dome) and a few CTF games. Anything else, you can use it , but be aware the practicalty of it lessons. A tip for this...If you find a user controlled air streak like a predator is in the air, lay this down at your feet and you'll disappear off his targeting radar. Use it for this if you feel like running blind eye is a waste.

4.) EMP Grenades- This is probably, no wait, it is, the worst tactical equipment. It has a shorter fuse than a flash grenade and a smaller blast radius than both flash and concussion grenades. This means you have to be absolutely perfect when tossing these things. Not only that, but EMP'in an enemy might not be worth it. I don't generally run scopes or sit-rep, so EMP'in me is pretty much worthless. It won't affect me in the least. In addition to these lousy stats, you only get one of these crap jobs, instead of the two you get with the flash or concussion ones. Just do this if you want the exp points and then forget it. It just isn't worth it.

5.) Smoke Grenades- This is pretty much as it sounds. Toss it and get some smoke. You only get one of these, so make it count. I can not stress this enough...DO NOT THROW SMOKE ON YOUR OWN POSITION! All it does is blinds you. You want to blind your enemy, so pick an avenue of attack they might use, toss it there, and wait for them to come charging through it and blow 'em away. In dom games you might toss it on your position, but even that should be a rarity. Also, don't use smoke if you aren't running asassin pro. Just because they can't see your physical body, doesn't mean your name won't appear if they aim down the sights and sweep the smoked out area. That's what you should be doing to them instead. Sweep your sights through the smoke and look for THEIR names.

6.) Trophy System- This can be a thing of beauty at times. Not only is it essential for Headquarters, Dom and Demo games, it is great for TDM and other gametypes as well. Essentially what this thing does is stops two enemy explosive things from popping off at your position. This goes for flashes, concussions, grenades of either type, predators, reapers and C-130 cannon blasts (the C-130 machine gun fire can still kill you though). There is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing some guy waste a predator missle on you. I've even been in a game where our whole team (all 6 of us) sat underneath a trophy system, gave the guy an inviting target, and screwed him with the trophy system. That was beautiful. There are two ways to use this thing. Put it down on an area you're trying to cap, or hold onto it for when a predator shows up. As soon as you see the red bloom on your radar, place that puppy on the ground and let the hilarity ensue. Love these things.

7.) Tactical Insertion- These things are invaluable in CTF, Sabotage and Demolition matches. The tac inserts are placed down so the next time you die, you'll spawn where they were put down. In games where there is no respawn timer you can immediately respawn on them, but in other games, like CTF and Sabotage, you'll have to be a bit more clever in where you put them. In CTF games, it is often best, if you are a runner class, to place your tac insert behind their flag. This way, when you die, 10 seconds later, you'll respawn behind their base ready to grab the flag once again. Two guys on one team doing this in tandem can wreck another team's defense and can win a CTF game in quick order. In sabotage, you need to place your tac inserts outside of your spawn in about the middle of the map. This is so the timmies who try and spawn kill guys in this gametype won't be able to lock you in. This thing is useful, but it is really speacialized. I personally don't run with it except on one class (CTF class). That's not to say they aren't good, it's just that there are better, more versatile options out there.

8.) Portable Radar- This is my personal favorite. I suggest everyone use a prestige token to grab this after they've grabbed dead silence and the MP7. These things are useful in every gametype except hard core gametypes. They are really useful in Search & Destroy. So much so that I've seen whole teams run with these things and essentially had a permenant UAV on the map. Since guys generally don't run assassin pro in S&D (not enough UAV killstreaks to warrant using assassin pro), almost every player on the enemy team shows up on the map. Not only that, but your teammates can see the results of the radar as well. You can use this in every other game type to good effect as well. It works better on smaller maps because there is less of an area to cover, but it's still good on larger maps as well if you place it in high traffic areas. I love this thing, and ever since I unlocked it, I've been running with it almost exclusively on almost every class.

So there you have it folks. Episode 12 is done. Next time we'll go over assault killstreaks. What are the best ones to use and is there any special way to set them up?

Once again, any questions, leave them in the comment section and I'll answer them in this blog or in the comment section.

O.K. We're now done with the primary weapons. If you missed any of these, just go back to blogs 6-10 and they'll be waiting for you. On a side note, I have never really used the LMG class in the past because I never liked the lack of mobility it gave you, but I've found that on certain maps they're actually quite fun and easy to use.

Today we're going over the secondary weapons. I know most of them seem easy enough to figure out, but there are some subtle differences between them and which ones are better for certain situations.

We'll begin with the Machine Pistols:

1.)FMG9- If you don't know this by now, you've probably been rip van winkled for a while. This is probably the most powerful secondary weapon in the game when it is used with the akimbo attachment. Even though the weapon has little to no power, that has no bearing on its effectiveness. It has such a high rate of fire that anything even close to its range will find itself dead rather quickly. They've nerfed this gun, but you wouldn't know it when you use it. This weapon is so deadly when you run it in conjunction with a steady aim class based set-up (SMGs/Shotties) it almost isn't fair. This weapon is a one clip juggernaut killer. Seriously. This weapon is the fastest way to kill a juggernaut. Just get behind one and let loose and he'll be down by the end of your clips. Now, on the flip side, using this gun as a singleton, is next to useless. The kick is rediculous and you'll have a hard time aiming down the sight for anything. Just get it to akimbo and forget about the other stuff. THE THING TO REMEMBER ABOUT THIS GUN IS that it has a poor reload rate and it has a funny unlock animation the first time you pull it out. You can mitigate this by pulling it out first thing when you spawn so when you need it you don't have to wait for that animation. remember to reload it in cover.

2.)MP9- This is the most controllable of the machine pistols. You can use it akimbo, but it really isn't as good as the other Machine Pistols when used this way. I use it for my back up weapon on my sniper classes. This is because it is essentially a mini-SMG. it doesn't have the power of an smg, but it will save your bacon in the medium to short range encounters from time to time. This doesn't mean I won't abandon it as soon as possible for an enemy weapon, but for a starting set-up, you could do worse. The kick on this weapon is pretty light, so it can be super accurate. Just remember to take cover when using it. This is not a run out into the open weapon.

3.)SKORPION- This is a good mix of the first two weapons. It has a better fire rate than the MP9 and more damage than the FMG9, so it is almost a hybrid of the two. You can run with it akimbo, which isn't a bad thing, or you could use it as a singleton weapon. The only problem with using it as a singleton is it does have some kick to it. It isn't totally uncontrolable like the FMG9, but it is worse than the MP9.

4.)G18- These are like mini-FMG9s. Everything the FMG9s do, this thing does as well. The biggest and most important difference between the two is the G18 has a smaller clip. You'll be reloading a lot more with this weapon, and you don't really want to be on reload a lot when you're running a weapon akimbo (which is the only way you should run this weapon). The positive differences are, the reload rate is much quicker and there is no animation the first time you switch to this weapon. These are not really big positives, and the fixes for the FMG9s make these small improvements not much. I'd go with the FMG9s any day and twice on Sunday.

Now we'll go into the Handguns, but before we begin, I'd say aside from a couple of weapon being used akimbo, most of these weapons would shine more if you're playing hardcore than playing any regular gametype. We'll discuss which ones those are when we get to them.

Handguns:

1.)USP.45 and the P99- Why there are two handguns with the same stats and essentially the same properties in this game I'll never know. They're both starting weapons. One has a slightly larger clip and the other has a slightly quicker reload. I forget which do which but that's because it doesn't really matter. They're both crap weapons and would be much better off left to playing with in Hardcore gametypes. The reason I'd chose Handguns over launchers and machine pistols is because of ammo issues. The handguns are all controllable semi-auto weapon, and in hardcore, I like to know how many rounds I have left. With killing shots in hardcore with a silenced pistol only one or two shots, these weapons are perfect for hardcore, but otherwise, stay away from them.

2.)MP412- This is a little snub nosed revolver. You should probably try using it in hardcore for those first few kills until you unlock the tac knife or akimbo set up. This gun has the same stats as the Deagle but doesn't have as much ammo and takes much longer to reload. Because of its lack of a silencer, after you get those first few kills with it in hardcore, you should focus on using it in regular games. With tac knife this gun can actually be quite fun.

3.).44 MAGNUM- This is the most accurate handgun. I think you should always use it in regular games and run it with tac knife on certain speedy classes that specialize in things like CTF. This is because many times you'll be firced to quick knife people in those gametypes, and with this weapon and tac knife, you can recover pretty quickly and still have the ability to shoot at a distance. This is real specialized though, so I'm not really encouraging anyone to go out of their way to use it.

4.)FIVE SEVEN- This is the best handgun. It has the largest clip and also has the quickest reload time. Running it akimbo is like running the MP9 akimbo with the added benefit of super quick reloads. That is because this gun has no reload animation to speak of. When you hit the X button, this gun is already reloaded. You don't have to wait for the animation to continue like you do every other weapon in this game. With this gun, you can hit X and then run or hit YY to immediately make this weapon ready to fire again. This is a big thing! Don't underestimate it. You could use this gun in hardcore and regular games equally well, and I suggest you do so. No other handgun is as good.

5.)DESERT EAGLE- This is essentially the "best gun" in the hand gun class, but in reality, as I told you last gun, it isn't. It is really just a glorified MP412 with a bit more ammo in the clip and a shorter reload. Those things are fine...But is it really worth it? Not really.

So we're done with handguns and now we're off to do the Launchers. Just to make sure everyone knows, shooting down or eliminating ground killstreaks are counted just like kills. So shoot stuff down when yuou get a chance. Now, you don't want to waste a first perk by having the whole team run blind eye. There are other, more useful perks your team can use than blind eye. So have a back-up blind eye kill class set up with a launcher to use so when you respawn you switch classes and blow that chopper out of the sky.

Launchers:

1.)SMAW- This weapon isn't really as bad as everyone makes it out to be. It is versatile, and I like versatility in my weapons. This thing can lock onto vehicles and can also free fire. The downside it you only get to use it once. It is good for free firing into massed enemies taking on a dom point, or a group of people camping out a certain area.

2.)JAVELIN- This thing is fun. It isn't free fire, but you aren't limited to shooting at vehicles only. It has a super impressive blast radius, which is just as large as a predator missle's one. The downside to this is this weapon has an incredible lone lock on time, so when you're aiming, you're a sitting duck. It also only has one shot in it, so use it as a shoot and forget weapon. Used right this weapon can get you numerous multi-kills.

3.)STINGER- This is the quintessential air defense weapon. many air support streaks have chaff they can pop off on the first missle out of a launcher. This means many time the first missle will miss and the second will have to be the one to kill the streak. I suggest running a trophy system with this class. Put the trophy down, and then start shooting at the streak. This is because often the person controlling that reaper will see your missle, where it came from, and shoot one of his own missles at you so he'll kill you before you can kill his killstreak. Don't let him do this. Use that trophy. The only downside to this weapon is it isn't free fire or free lock on. It can only be used on vehicles

4.)XM 25- This weapon is about as average as it gets. It excells in Hardcore games where you can just pick a spot and spam explosives at it until you run out of ammo. In regular games you might as well just run with it and aim at the feet of the guy you're shooting at. It will usually take anywhere between 2 to 3 shots to kill someone unless you get a direct hit. Is fun to use, and in theory it should be awesome, but in reality it blows.

5.)M320 GLM- This is just a noob tube. It has two shots in it, just like the noob tube attachment on your weapon, and boths shots have as much power as the one in your weapon. It is a waste of a secondary and no one should use it, not even in hardcore, where it would fare better. There are just too many better options.

6.)RPG-7- This is the behemoth launcher. It is super inaacurate and doesn't have the vehicle lock on ability, but in recompense for the loss of both those abilities, the weapon has 2 shots in it. Just pick a general area (the closer to it you are, the better) and let fly. You're bound to kill someone (maybe even yourself). I like this. It's nice to run into a group of people and see them freak out as I suicide rush the position with my RPG. Some will stay and try to kill me, but the smarter ones generally run away. They know that in an enclosed area nothing is as devastating as the RPG

So we're done with secondary weapons. Tomorrow we'll be going over the equipments, lethal and tactical. Once again, any questions, leave them in the comment area and I'll answer in the next blog or in the comment area itself.

OK, we're on the last section of weapons. Since the snipers and LMGs are both two of the under used classes in MW3 I'll be lumping them together along with the shield class, then we'll go on with future editions.

Some things to know before we go into the sniper rifles. I suggest you always run the following perks with each and every one of these weapon. Run blind eye, assassin and marksman. You want to stay alive longer and without being noticed and with the ability to spot targets at long range. All three of these perks allow you to do this.

So we'll begin with the sniper rifles and attachments and proficiencies:

1.)BARRETT .50CAL- Not really known as one of the better sniper rifles in the game, the Barrett is the first sniper given to you. It is tied for the highest amount of damage among the sniper rifles. It really isn't too bad of a weapon, and I enjoy using it. Most people favor the last couple of sniper rifles, but I like this one just fine. It does have an incredible amount of weapon sway when looking through the scope, but that is easily avoidable by using your BREATH ability every few seconds or so to just keep the weapon still. When using this weapon I run with kick until I unlock stability. Stability is the better choice, but it does take some time to get to. Since this gun is a semi-auto the kick works fine for those few times you'll have to spam the trigger to get a kill. For attachments I run with the extended mags or heart beat sensor. The mags is because on certain maps you'll be able to live a long time, and having a ton of ammo is helpful for getting the most out of the weapon. The heartbeat sensor is for staying away from up close encounters, which is where you'll more often than not lose battles using this weapon.

2.)L118A- This is one of the two weapons you'll see people running around with and quick scoping on the maps. It is a bolt action, so the fire rate is slow, but since people quick scope with it, that doesn't matter so much. It has decent power and very little kick for a sniper rifle and allows you to run around as fast as an SMG or shotgun guy. I've noticed quick scopers tend to run around with the speed proficiency and the acog scope. If you find you can't handle the quick scoping, I'd suggest running kick with the extended mags. The extended mags are because this weapon only has a 5 round clip, and the reload rate is sllllllooooowwwwww. The larger clip will help you fire a bit faster.

3.)DRAGUNOV- This is by far the worst sniper rifle out of the group. If you can help it, stay away for it. People who run it hate the scope, which is not your regular crosshair scope, but is set-up like an acog with distance and lead markers. That is rediculous in this game seeing as how there is no need to lead your target or adjust for distance in anyway. Those things just occlude your view of the battlefield and make finding targets a bit more difficult. The good thing about it is it has very little recoil. It isn't the least amount of recoil, but it is very slight. If you were to use this weapon, I'd suggest using it in hardcore gametypes. You will always struggle with it in regular games.

4.)AS50- This is the other sniper rifle which is tied with the BARRETT for the highest damage in the game. It behaves a lot like the BARRETT but doesn't have as much kick and what kick it does have is a bit more predictable, with more kicked shots heading to the right than all over the place, so if you run across someone and must spam the trigger to get that hail mary kill, ain slightly to the left of the guy you're shooting at. Stability is the proficiency to run here, and extended mags are must for this weapon because it does have a small clip.

5.)RSASS- This is the weapon the DRAGUNOV should aspire to be. It is super accurate (you almost don't have to aim it), has a ton of ammo in a clip and even when hip firing this weapon the spread is really small. It may have the same stats as the DRAGUNOV but it is a far superior weapon in every way. Use the attachment proficiency so you can double up on the attachments. This is because you don't need kick...you don't need stability...you don't need focus. The gun is that accurate. Run extended mags with this puppy. You'll find the initial mags are large, but there is only one extra one as opposed to the two extra ones you normally get. Having an extra 20 rounds with this weapon is really helpful. Then, depending on your situation, run either a silencer (for hardcore games especially) or the heartbeat sensor. This weapon shines in hardcore games with assassin pro. Just keep still and fire from cover and you could live throughout the entire game. It doesn't suffer much in regular gametypes either. Because the second, third and fourth shots on this weapon, even if you spam the trigger as fast as you can, almost always land on top of the first shot, you can usually get your kill in one or two shots.

6.)MSR- This is the weapon everyone seems to love. It does everything well, but is still not the best in every category, which you really don't need for a sniper rifle anyway. Quick scopers love it. As a bolt action it does the same as the L118A, but it has a quicker reload time. As a regular sniper, It almost has the same one shot one kill ability the BARRETT and the AS50, which is all you really need. The only drawback to this weapon, besides being bolt action, is the fact the kick on this gun is TREMENDOUS. You are almost forced to quick scope with it because if you're just sitting there waiting for the kills, you might get one guy heading across your screen, but the two guys running behind him will get to where they're going. Quick scoping this just has more advantages over camping with it. Here's the difference with this class and the L118A though. I'd run kick with it and an acog. Do kick because that will allow you to recover from shots quicker. Speed is good to have, but the one shot ability of this weapon means being able to fire as fast as possible should take precedence.

OK. We're done with snipers.

A note about the LMGs. They spit out the most lead, and as such are not super accurate. They are also the slowest class you can run, so don't expect to be rushing in an popping caps in people asses with this weapon. It just won't happen. This is a "hold the flank" type weapon. Stay to the sides of the map and help keep the enemy contained. You are also forced to run kick or grip with them (not steady aim). You don't run steady aim because that doesn't help you when you look ADS. Grip and kick do. Good perks to run with this group are sleight of hand for quicker reloads or extreme conditioning to make up for that crap movement speed, blast shield or overkill(especially if you decide to go with extreme conditioning over sleight of hand) with another LMG in tow and Marksman.

Let's turn to the LMGs:

1.)L86 LSW- This is onoe of the first weapons you are given in the game, and it feels like it should be. It's pretty average in most every category, but it does fire bullets out at an amazing speed. It has a faster than average reload time (for LMGs at least). The grouping of this weapon when just holding down the trigger in ADS mode is about man sized. It is not the most accurate LMG by a long shot and the kick tend to take it up and to the right. You must compensate the aim for this gun to be effective and always hold the crosshairs down a bit. For proficiencies I'd say take stability. You want to make this gun, or any LMG, as accurate as possible and being able to trust aiming down your sights is a great advantage. For an attachment you must go with grip. You need this to make this weapon accurate. None of the LMGs have particularly bad sights except one, and even that isn't so bad. There is no need to use a red dot or any compensating scope on this weapon because at long range, you just aren't going to be able to reliably get kills anyway.

2.)MG 36- The second LMG is probably the weaker of the LMGs. It has a slight improvemet in the damage stat, but loses out in the accuracy and the fire rate department. This is probably the worst LMG in my opinion. This LMG has a decent reload rate as well. The grouping when trigger is held down is decent, with the pattern tight in a horizontal direction. This weapon kicks left to right though, which is pretty weird and hard to adjust to. With many weapon you hold the right thumbstick down a bit to compensate for kick, with this weapon you have to move it left to right. Not an easy gun to use.

3.)PKP Pecheneg- This weapon has the least amount of power in the LMG class, but is far and away the most accurate. I prefer accuracy over power any day. The fire rate is tied for second and with the accuracy of this weapon, you won't be wasting a lot of bullets. The grouping of a LMG is tight with a solid round group at center mass. I didn't have to adjust aim on this weapon once during the test. It just did the work on its own. The reload is long though, so be aware of this when using it.

4.)MK46- This is about the most average LMG of the bunch. It has average damage and average accuracy, which put together make for a really good weapon. The reload is long, but most of the good LMGs are. This weapon has an unpredictable kick to it though. The kick tends to go up, to the right, and then further up heading in a zig zag fashion, but there is no way of knowing exactly when the movements are going to happen. You must fire it in bursts, which is a shame because is already has a slow rate of fire as it is. Many people love this gun though, so I won't harp on it too much, but there are better options out there.

5.)M60E4- This weapon is in my opinion the best LMG out there. It has the highest damage rate and fire rate available. The accuracy is crap, but adding stability and grip to it make it behave just fine. You might have to fire it in bursts, but then again, with this gun and the damage it can do, bursts is all you'll need. This weapon groups in a wide V shape with a predictable, if ungainly kick. The kick goes left to up to center to right and up and center. Rinse/Repeat. The reload is by far the longest of the LMGs though, so keep that in mind when using it. You are, perhaps, the juggernaut when you use this bad boy. I like this LMG the best, and so should you.

And now we'll talk about that pesky little shield dude and what to run with him:

Shield- This is essentially only good for objective games. If you use it during a regular TDM, you're not doing it right. This is great for deflecting those grenades while trying to cap flags, hold demo areas and be a general pain in the ass. Typically guys won't shoot at you because they know nothing will happen unless they see your sides/back or feet...What's that you say? Feet?. Yup, your feet. I always try to shoot the feet of the idiot who tries to rush me with the shield. 9 times out of ten I'll kill him. You need to stay kneeling for this thing to have any real effect, and it helps to sit in a corner. You should use equipment that will help you take and hold point on the map. The trophy system is great, as is the scrambler and portable radar. For your proficiency I'd go with speed. The power proficiency is useless. It'll still take you two hits to kill someone who doesn't have a shot on him already. Just abandon that tact and try to move around the map as fast as possible. For you perks I suggest running Sleight of Hand (i'll tell you why later), Overkill, and steady aim or dead silence. You need the sleight of hand so you can switch to that secondary weapon quickly(which should either be an SMG or a shotgun so you don't effect your movement speed...I use an SMG MP7. More versatile). If I have the MP7 I'll use dead silence. If not, I'll run steady aim. For your lethal grenade you should run C4. C4 is devastating, and is probably the best lethal in the game. It is the most versatile and most powerful explosive to have except the RPG, which we'll go into later.

OK, so we're done for today. Tomorrow we'll talk about secondary weapons and what's good for what.

Once again, any question or comments, list em below.

It's time for another installment of Improvements and today we'll be talking about the Assault rifles. Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to write this one, but I have been busy. So let's get on with it.

Here are the different assault rifles and the best set ups for them:

1.)M4A1- This is one of two first guns you get, and it is actually pretty good. It does a lot of things well and only really has a couple of drawbacks. We'll begin with the drawbacks. Its damage is really low, and as such you'll find yourself on reload and running out of ammo a bit with it. The range on the thing is also pretty poor, and it can have some kick issues as it tends to go up and slightly left or right. Here are the good things. The fire rate is good, and up close this thing can spray like a medium class SMG. It is also extremely accurate making the hip firing of this weapon pretty good. This accuracy also allow you to aim for headshots at longer range targets. When I run this gun I often run Sleight of Hand (b/c of reload issues) assassin and either marksman or dead silence. This is not a set up and camp weapon. If you want to use the weapon to the best effect you need to move around a bit, so dead silence is a good fit. For proficiencies I'd run with focus. The kick on this weapon, while unpredictable, is still negligible. Focus helps you in those tight spots you'll find yourself running into as you go 'round the map. For an attachment, go with the extended mags. The iron sights on this weapon are actually pretty good, so there's no need to use a sight of any kind. Extened mags will help you stay off the reload and allow you some extra ammo in case you need it.

2.)M16A4- This gun sucks. It is by far the worst assault rifle and quite possibly in a tie for worst weapon in the game. Stay away from it if you can help it...But if you're a glutton for punishment, you need to know how to make this weapon work for you. You need to stay away from people and you need to really camp an area with long sight lines. Markman is a must and I'd run either hardline or assassin and blindeye. You'll need the blindeye to help stay alive and marksman is to help identify targets at a distance. Hardline is to get those killstreaks quicker, because God knows you're going to die a lot using this gun. DO NOT USE THIS WEAPON ON A SMALL MAP. That is all.

3.)SCAR-L- I like this weapon, and it is probably my second favorite Assault rifle. The reload rate is good. The damage is decent, the kick is virtually non-existent and it is extremely accurate. The only thing I would suggest is to run this with scavenger. You will run out of ammo with it. The other perks are your's to do with as you please. You really can't go wrong with this gun. For proficiencies I'd run stability as soon as you can, which will make this weapon just as lethal at long range as it is at short and medium range. As far as attachments go, I'd stay with extended mags. This is another weapon whose iron sights are pretty good. If you're running scavenger, run with a silencer instead, but really, any choice here and you can't go wrong.

4.)CM901- I like this gun too, but you have to know what you're doing for it to be worth it. The damage on this gun, for an automatic, is excellent. It also has a really good range. The bad thing is it takes forever to reload it and the kick on this gun is tremendous. Because of this, you are forced to run the kick proficiency on it. This is a must. It has a decent clip size, so for attachments I'd say pick a red dot or heartbeat sensor. The red dot is because this gun has a sleigthly wider iron sight than most of the other assault rifles. It isn't too bad, so if you can live with it I'd go with the heartbeat sensor. This is because you DO NOT want to get into close up battles with this weapon. Medium range is where it is at with this gun. Use the baby monitor to stay away from up close fights. For proficiencies I'd say run with sit-rep or dead silence. Chances are you'll be kneeling alot with this gun anyway, so sit-rep might be a better option. Hardline or assassin for a second perk and sleight of hand for a first. The sleight of hand is for a quick switch to those akimbo machine pistols you're going to need for the chance up close encounter.

5.)TYPE 95- This is the best weapon in this class...bar none. no exceptions. It does medium and long range excellently and up close it can kill with a hip fire quick as all get out if you have rapid fire on it, which you should. The damage of this weapon is incredible, the fire rate is fast (much faster than the other 3burst weapon the M16) and since you ar firing short bursts and killing quickly, ammo should rarely be a problem. If I were to run specialist class with any assault rifle, this would be the gun to do it with. The only drawback to this weapon is the horrible iron sight. It is absolutely the worst iron sight of the assault rifles. I know it is a little gripe, but it forces you to run the attachments proficiency so you can have a red dot and rapid fire together. For your perks, run whatever you want. You can't really go wrong. Marksman is a preferred one of mine, it helps out with the long range battles quite a bit. For the other two perks I'll play it safe with blind eye and assassin, but you could go with anything and still do well with this gun (and I do, and I have).

6.)G36C- This weapon is not a favorite of mine. It sucks at distance and can be real wonky at medium range if you don't have kick, which is the proficiency you should run. The kick is totally unpredictable so this is the spray and pray assault rifle. But it does do well up close if you spray and pray. Of course with any assault rifle you're going to try to keep the battle to medium or longer distance, but with this one sometimes you won't be able to help it. Run kick with a red dot sight. This is another assault rifle with a crap iron sight, so the red dot will help quite a bit. For a third perk run steady aim and abandon any hope of consistently getting long range kills. It isn't going to happen. Steady aim helps you out in short range, and that will happen. The other two perks are yours to choose.

7.)ACR 6.8- This was the weapon of choice for me in MW2 because it had great damage and a lazer like ability to hit targets at long range with NO kick. The no kick part is still there, but the damage part is long gone. The stats on here say it has decent damage, but the stats only account for the best range of the weapon, and this one has piss poor range. This means the further out your bullet goes, the less damage this gun does. Which is a shame because it is super accurate with little to no recoil which would, you'd think, make this an ideal long range lazer gun like before. Nope. It now takes much more ammo to kill someone at a distance. This doesn't make the weapon poor, but it does limit how often I use it. The proficiency to use is focus. You'll need it because you'll get pinged a bit at medium range, and since this gun has no kick, even if you're hit, you'll still probably get a kill. For attachments, run with extended mags. This gun, for the damage offered, has a small clip. The iron sights are good so there's no need for a red dot and the extended clip will keep your ammo full. I usually use this as my air support class. I run it with the stinger, blind eye, assassin and dead silence. It seems to work well for me. Some times I'll vary it up and run silencer instead of extended mags because I know with my air support class I won't be using it long. Generally when I die, I switch to an air support class and when I die again, I'll switch back to my original class. The silencer is also helpful if you find your team is getting its ass kicked and you just want to cry and have the game end. Just get the air support kills, use the silencer to get a few cheap kills and rinse repeat until you've unlocked the emp or whatever you've got set up as a support class.

8.)MK14- I love this gun, and run with it almost exclusively. It sucks up close, I won't lie, but the way I play with it, I rarely find myself in an up close encounter. The power and range and rate of fire are rediculous with this gun. It's like a mini sniper rifle. Don't let the rate of fire stat fool you. If you spam the trigger this thing shoots pretty fast. The only reason it has a low rate of fire is because they count the rate of fire as bullets per minute. If they counted it as damage per minute, this thing would win...hands down. This gun is a 2 shot kill at really long ranges, and a one shot kill at medium ranges. 1 SHOT!!! Stay away from up close encounters and you'll be gold Pony Boy. You'll be gold. For proficiencies I run with stability. This thing has a bit of a kick to it, but if you run stability, your first shot will almost never miss. Wiith a gun that gets one shot kills, all you need to do is not miss that first shot. For attachments I run with one of three things...rapid fire/red dot/extended mags. The iron sight doesn't bother me on this weapon like it does with other people, so I hardly ever use the red dot. Rapid fire helps f I get hung up close, but that rarely happens, so I just run extended mags because I tend to live the longest when I use this weapon. I use slight of hand for my first perk (to once again switch to my akimbo up close machine pistols when I need to), assassin (because when I'm not firing, the last thing I need is for people to know where I am, and I run with Marksman to allow me to shoot as far as possible with this lazer. I love this gun. People might swear by the Type-95, but I think this one is a beast at medium to long range. The Type-95 is just good all around.

9.)AK-47- I liked this gun in BLOPS, and it was my favorite weapon in that game. Not so in MW3. The kick on this gun is rediculous, and tends to jerk up and to the right insanely high. If you get shot while shooting it, you're going to get dead, real quick. None of your bullets will hit your target. If you try to use the incredible power of this gun (and it does have some pop to it) and shoot long distance to eliminate the focus factor and have kick as your proficiency, you'll still probably miss...a lot. You have to baby this gun. Short bursts only. Full auto is a mess. I say screw when I run this weapon and go for the kick proficiency with a red dot for my attachment. Anything to help this weapon be more accurate is a boon. It doesn't matter what perks you run with it, you'll be focused more on trying to fire it accurately than what perks you have. Just do the general thing and run the stuff which will help keep you alive in weird situations. Run sleight of hand, blast shield and steady aim. You're going to get up close eventually. Just live through the grenades and hip fire if it gets too much.

10.)FAD- This is really just an SMG without the movement speed. It has lazer like accuracy with no damage and next to no range. For the fire rate of this weapon though, it has amazingly little to no kick. This thing needs focus. You're going to get in up close battles. This gun won't allow you to just drop people at will at medium range, and up close, you're going to hit. Use the extended mags for your attachment. This gun already has a decent ammo clip, but with the amount of bullets it will take you to down someone, you'll be surprised at how quickly it runs out. Steady aim is a must here, and I'd consider either hardline or blastshield as a second perk. For the first perk, you could always go with the tried and true sleight of hand, but I think extreme conditioning works better with this gun. There is a caveat however. If you are going to use this gun, consider using the MP7 if at all possible. Evereything this gun does, the MP7 does just a teensy bit better, plus the SMG class has a better mobility rate and you'll be able to run farther if that is your desire.

So there you have it. The assault rifles are now done. Tomorrow I'll have the Sniper rifles ready for you and I'll lump the shield in with them. After I finish the main weapons, I'm going to run through the secondary ones and then do the equipment. After that I figure I'll run by some helpful killstreak advice and move on to some specific places to look out for on specific maps.

Once again, any questions, post them below and I'll either answer them in my blog, or answer them in a comment in the same blog.

It's time for another Modern Warfare 3 Informational guide and today we'll be focusing on SMGs, the best ones and the perks/proficiencies to run with them.

I personally prefer SMG's over most any other weapon. Some of them tend to be more versatile than assault rifles with the added benefit of being able to run faster around the map. I'll start off this guide by saying you should run extreme conditioning with every SMG. This strengthens an already impressive movement speed and makes you able to outrun the uavs of the other team. I say outrun them because there is no reason you should ever run assassin with an SMG class. since you'll be playing to your strength of quick movements, a lot of times you'll find yourself running and being visible on the map anyway. Just take the loss of visibility and add something else as your secondary perk. I like hardline myself.

So here are the SMGs:

1.) MP5- The MP5 is one of the first SMGs given to you at the start of your prestige. It isn't great at any one thing, but it is diametrically opposite of the other SMG offered as your initial starting weapon. The MP5 is a reasonably accurate SMG with little kick to it. It has a decent rate of fire, although there are better options to be had for rate of fire if that's what you're looking for. Since the weapon is so average, the difference between this being a better weapon is decided on the proficiency and third perk to use with it. With most SMGs I'd suggest you run focus and steady aim with this particular weapon. Focus is helpful for when you get up close. The ability to keep your weapon on target (Stay on target...Stay on target!) is paramount when you're expecting up close encounters...which you'll find yourself in a bit when you use this weapon. Steady aim is a better choice than kick because this weapon is already pretty accurate when you aim down the sight. What you'll need is the ability to accurately hip fire it when you come across those knee jerk up close battles. You'll need to be accurate for those battle because this gun, for it's rate of fire, is weak compared to others in it's class. For an attachment I'd say run with Rapid fire or a silencer.

2.) UMP45- This gun is the other first option for SMGs. It is the only weapon with a higher damage stat and range stat than the other SMGs, but there is a drawback to this. It has the worst rate of fire of any SMG. This means this weapon is not really an SMG like the others, and shouldn't be played as one. Forget steady aim on this one, you're probably going to lose most of the up close battles you'll get into even if you have steady aim on. You're going to need the Stalker perk to make this gun worth it. This means instead of trying to get up close, medium distance is where it's at, and you'll need the ability to strafe faster than another SMG or Assault rifle in order to make this weapon better. As a proficiency I'd take focus once again. This is because this weapon is already relatively accurate, and at medium range you're going to get hit at least once by the enemy unless you're in a spot they can't see. A good attachment for this weapon is the silencer or a red dot...either or.

3.) PP90M1- I personally like this weapon, although it has been dubbed by many as one of the worst SMGs to play with. I believe this is because it is one of the two most inaccurate SMGs at range. This makes this gun pretty one dimensional, but that one dimension is incredibly strong. The rate of fire for this weapon is the second highest of the SMGs, and because it isn't as high as the highest, aiming down the sights in short bursts still makes this weapon enough of a threat at medium range that it is reasonably effective. This weapon forces you to run steady aim though. This is because we're going to go with the focus proficiency to make this weapon, which will almost always be used up close with hip firing, more accurate. This loadout will often lead this gun to win up close battles with shotguns in the first shotgun blast doesn't kill you outright, which is invaluable on smaller maps. For an attachment I'd say run with the extended mags. The reload time on this weapon is the slowest of the SMGs, and you don't want to find yourself reloading every two kills or so.

4.) P90- This is the weapon that does everything well, but nothing perfectly. It isn't too strong, isn't the fastest or slowest reload, isn't the most accurate and is in the middle of the pack in rate of fire. If you want to be more versatile, then this is your weapon. The only problem with being more versatile is that you're going to lose to specialist classes like high rate of fire classes or assault rifle classes. There is a small window of perfection with this weapon, and you have to be the right type of player to use it. I'm not. You can not be aggro with this gun. You have to be sneaky as hell to get kills. The perk to use with this gun is Dead Silence, so no one hears you moving around the map. You have to be sneaky with this thing. Kick is your best bet for this weapon. You don't want to trade bullets with anyone, but you want to make what you shoot count. Since this weapon's damage is slight, you're going to need to fire at your target while aiming down sights longer than most guns. Keep those bullets accurate. Kick also has the added bonus os making close in hip firing encounters a bit more controllable. You'll be able to win out on some of these encounters...but not by much. Stick with the silencer on this gun. You don't want to annouce your presence if you can help it. This is probably the only weapon I would consider running assassin on, but even then, I'd probably not do it myself.

5.) PM-9- This is, imo, the worst SMG. Up close this thing is a killing machine because of its high rate of fire. But that high rate of fire makes it totally inaccurate and worthless at medium range, and even makes it a bit wonky at shorter ranges. You have to run steady aim on this weapon. Kick would be nice, but the gun is worthless when aiming down the sights, and even kick won't help much in this department. Just give up on the ADS system and play to this weapon's strength. Use the attachment proficiency and put rapid fire and extended mags on this puppy and just pull the trigger when you see someone. Because this weapon fires so fast, you'll probably hit them with enough lead quick enough to put them down fast, and the extended mag will give you the extra ammo you'll need and the ability to fire more ammo at one time. If you can help it, stay away from this gun. It is next to worthless and is just a glorified machine pistol. If you're like me and just want the quick exp points to rank up faster, just get to 300 kils with it and give up on it. It's not worth losing games over.

6.) MP7- This is by far the best SMG, and many would say it is the best weapon in the game. I agree with that sentiment. It has good stability when aiming down the sights because of its natural lack of kick, has decent rate of fire, and can win up close battles. Dead Silence is the way to go with this weapon as a third perk. Sneaking up on people is the best way to get the kill, and since you really don't need any stabilizing factor for this weapon, you don't need kick or steady aim at all. You have a ton of choices to make on the proficiencies, and really you can't go wrong with anyone of them except to use the kick one. You just don't need it. The weapon is that accurate and easy to control. I've run focus on it and had success. I've run attachments and had: rapid fire and extened mags, Red dot and silencer, rapid fire and silencer, red dot and extended mags. Hell, I've even run the hamr scope and done well with this weapon. It is just that easy to use and I would reccomend people use a token to unlock it as soon as possible.

So that's it for the SMGs. Once again, if you have any questions, leave a comment on my blog and i'll answer them in my next installment.

I had a question from Tuefel a week ago about the Trophy system, its uses and benefits. Here you go...the trophy stops enemy grenades (tactical and lethal) and predator missles from exploding near you. It doesn;t work well for people who throw C4 or betties at you because those things aren't considered active when they're thrown. If a C$ lands at the foot of a trophy system, the trophy doesn't recognize it as a threat until the guy uses the clicker to activate it. Since the Trophy is a sphere, it only deflects thing from the direction they explode, and if a C$ goes off, the trophy will save anyone standing on top of the trophy. The explosion will however bloom out on the ground and kill whoever happens to be next to it, and how many people do you know who stand on trophy systems? The betties, since they don't activate until they hit the ground, will still bounce up, but if they bounce up on your side of the trophy, you're toast. If they were to bounce up on the other side, you're safe.

Hope this helps.

Tomorrow we'll go over Assault Rifles.

Welcome to another edition of Modern Warfare Improvement and today we'll start the first of 5 weapon subsets of my improvement blog. We'll begin with shotguns.

From here on out I'll list each shotgun, the proficiencies to use with perks and attachments and if I think using the weapon is worthwhile or not:

USAS 12- This shotgun is fully automatic, but you wouldn't know it if you pulled the trigger. You can spam it like a semi-auto and fire just as fast if you held onto the trigger. This weapon excels in no particular stat (accuracy, damage, range, fire rate) and is the most pedestrian of the shotguns. If you were to run with it (and I have no idea why you'd want to...smg's are a better option than this weapon) I'd suggest running a range proficiency to make up for the lack of range it has, extended mags (because every other attachment is unnecessary) extreme conditioning and steady aim to improve hip fire.

KSG 12- This is by far the worst of the shotguns. Yes, it has a large damage stat, but it is negated by it's lack of range, accuracy and fire rate. As a pump action shotgun the Spas is much better even if it loses a bit in the damage department. If you were to run with this weapon, I'd run a slightly different set-up than the USAS. I'd run range, grip to improve hip fire extreme conditioning and dead silence for a better chance killing someone from behind or the sides ( about the only way you'll reliably be able to get kills with this weapon). I changed perk three and the attachment for a reason I'll explain at the end of this blog.

SPAS 12- This is the better pump action shotgun. It has decent damage (a tad less than the KSG) and better range. The accuracy is still poor though. To keep this weapon in a sweet spot for killing power, I'd run it with the damage proficiency, grip extreme conditioning and once again dead silence. The change of proficiencies from the KSG actually make the damage of the SPAS higher than the KSG and since their range is essentially the same, the SPAS will win out more often than not over the previous set up of the KSG.

AA-12- This is the fastest shotgun in the game. It's auto fire ability is incredible and not even spamming the striker as fast as possible can anything compete with the ability of this weapon to fire downrange. This weapon is essentially a limited range smg with incredible damage. The drawback to this weapon (or we'd all be using it) is it's very low ammo clip. You can easily burn through a clip of this weapon in one kill, and when you only have 3 clips for your gun, you will run out of ammo very quickly. The damage of this weapon is surprisingly high. Only the KSG has a higher damage stat. It also has by far the worst accuracy for shotguns. This weapon can be fun to run, and will often piss some people off when you do, but you are very limited in what proficiency, attachment and perks to use. You are almost forced to run the range proficiency, the extended mags attachment, scavenger and steady aim. That's right, I said scavenger. Even with extended mags, you'll still run out of ammo relatively quickly with this weapon. You need to have scavenger to replenish ammo and having steady aim is a must have with the amount of hip firing you will do with this weapon.

STRIKER- This weapon is considered the best shotgun in the game, but I personally think its a tie between it and the next weapon. The stricker is a semi-auto shotgun which has, even though the stats say it doesn't, the same rate of fire as the USAS. This is because being able to spam the trigger of the STRIKER makes it react like an auto shotgun. This weapon probably has the most leeway in the loadout department. You could, if you wanted, run it with range or damage (your pick), grip, sleight of hand and dead silence. Or you could run with damage or range (once again, your choice), extended mags, extreme conditioning and steady aim. Or you could run kick, extended mags, extreme conditioning and dead silence. I prefer the first option with range, but i've seen many run it with the range/extended mag/steady aim loadout perfectly well.

MDEL 1887- I like this gun, even though many people I've talked to don't I think it is better than the pump actions by far and the two auto shotguns can't win against it at medium range. This weapon is essentially in a tie with the STRIKER for best shotgun. It has the second highest damage behind the KSG, ties the SPAS in accuracy and has the best range in it's class. The fire rate is a bit slow but with one shot kills, who cares if its slow? When I run this weapon I always run range. Since the damage is already high and the rate of fire so slow, you DO NOT ever want to find yourself in up close encounters where you can be swarmed. Keep a respectable distance and you'll always win out in a fight. The best loadout for this weapon is range, extreme conditioning and steady aim. Since this weapon does not have any attachments, you are forced to run steady aim, but that's not really an issue. This is probably the ONLY SHOTGUN YOU'D EVER AIM DOWN THE SIGHTS WITH! So if you felt comfortable doing that, you can switch out steady aim for dead silence. Personally I think it is unnecessary because with this weapon you'll be trying to keep your distance anyway, so having steady aim for those chance up close encounters is a much better option.

Here's the crux of the shotgun class. You remember above I said I'd tell you why I don't stack kick/grip/steady aim together to create one uber accurate shotgun? That's because those things don't stack up. They do to a certain extent If the weapons had the range of sniper rifles I'm sure we'd see a difference. But they don't, and to maximize the ability of our shotguns we need to equip them with what they are best suited to handle. The SPAS gets a grip because if you had to aim down the sights, the grip would be a better option, and it is essentially the same as steady aim when hip firing. The AA-12 forces you to run steady aim because you have to run extended mags in order for this gun to be the best it can.

I'll try to explain my system for optimizing your shotgun.

The primary thing to look at first is dead silence. You should always look for this 3rd perk first. Take the KSG as an example. If I have dead silence, I need to have some way of improving the hip firing ability of my weapon. Grip is still availble and doesn't subtract from the performance of the weapon, so I choose grip, Then I have my weapon proficiencies to play around with.

So I try the same thing with the AA-12. I set up dead silence first. Then I look at the attachments. If I took grip here, I'd be severely limiting my weapon. I'd be on reload all the time, so I'm forced to use the extended mags to optimize my gun. I then look towards the proficiencies and I see kick is the only stabilizing feature left available. But that still makes this weapon crap. You must make this weapon be able to kill from further away, because the range on this thing is so short, you might as well be knifing the guy instead of shooting him. So you're forced to take range. The only way to get stability with this gun is to head back to dead silence, remove it and use steady aim instead. This weapon is now as good as its going to get.

You need to take this approach for all the shotguns when choosing how you'll run with them. You must have something to stabilize it for hip firing and then customize the rest of the weapon to improve the weakest values of the gun.

On a side note....In the past the shotguns used to shoot more pellets out of each shell if you added extended mags to it. If a shell had 8 pellets per shell, like the striker, then it would have 12 pellets with the addition of extended mags. I'm sure you've all seen the videos on youtube by people like tMARTn and WOODYSGAMERTAG (both channels I enjoy myself...woody is our age btw). Those videos ARE OLD PRE-PATCH VIDEOS. Since the last couple of patches IW has removed this feature from the shotguns. Pellets in shells no longer increase by 50% when extended mags is added. This is why damage is to be considered when setting up a shotgun class now. Before everyone ran range with extended mags because the pellets would have a spread such that only 4 pellets would kill someone, and with 12 pellets flying down range, you'd have a decent chance of a one shot kill with a SPAS at medium range. Now, damage has to be considered (I use it with the SPAS to good effect) because it improves a weakness the weapon has without detracting from it's nature. Damage on a SPAS makes it great up close and meduim at range. Add range instead of damage and the gun remains medium up close and medium at range for killing power.

Hope this helps. Tmorrow I'll be going into the SMGs.

Welcome to another daily edition of MW3 improvement strategies. Today will be the final day of speaking about gametype strategies. Future blogs will focus on more specific loadouts, killstreaks and weapons. But for today, we're talking about Capture the Flag and Demolition. We'll be doing 2 because both are relatively simple and alone neither are long enough to constitute a single blog.

First we'll start with Capture the Flag.

The parameters of this game are:

1.) 2 rounds, each 5 mins in length

2.) score limit per round is 3 pts (first to 3 or whoebver has most flags at time limit wins round)

3.) Wave spawn delay of 10 seconds

4.) flag pickup and return times of 1.5 seconds

These are pretty simple parameters, and the game looks straightforward enough, and it really is. But there are a few things you need to know when trying to win this gametype.

The first thing to always recognize is hold the middle of the map. Having someone camping your flag for defense is a recipe for disaster. That person would be much better served helping out in the middle and ensuring middle domination stays in your hands than camping out your spawn. The more in the middle, the more you have to help defend the middle, and defend the flag carrier as he runs back to your flag, or kill their flag carrier. You do this also because there is a WAVE SPAWN DELAY OF 10 SECONDS. This means every 10 second increments from the start of the game, you will be allowed back into the game. If you die at 4:59 seconds into the round, you will respawn back in at 4:50 seconds. If you die at 4:51 seconds, you will respawn back in at 4:50 (assuming you hit that x to respawn button as soon as possible. If you're looking at killcam, you're not in the respawn queue.) So for god's sake, just hit X as soon as you die. If you die in the middle, you'll respawn next to your flag, and have the chance to defend it again as you move back towards the middle. This makes it incredibly hard for the other team to penetrate your defenses.

Also, you'll need runners, at least 2 with smg or shotgun classes with extreme conditioning and dead silence or sitrep. These guy must also run with tac inserts. The whole plan is for these guys to penetrate the enemy spawn and set tac inserts back there so they'll always be able to hide in the enemy spawn. If one dies, or captures the flag, the other immediately grabs the new flag and tries to run with it and so on and so on. With rotating tac inserts you'll always be keeping the pressure on the other team. This lessons the pressure to defend a flag for your team. Another strategy is to have 2 other people on your team run tac inserts as well but place them in the middle of the map to help maintain middle control. The other two guys on the team CAN NOT RUN TAC INSERTS. They must be able to respawn within your spawn should your lines of defense break and have the ability to reform the line in your base and move it forward.

Do this and you should win most capture the flag games. But there is a side note. Most maps have sides that favor one side more than the other. You can usually tell which side favors which. An example is Bootleg. It is much harder to take the flag from A dom point in bootleg than it is to grab it from the other side of the map. This allows the side who controls the A dom flag to play a lot more aggressively. If you have that area, there is no reason you should not win that round with 3 captures. When you switch it becomes harder. If you manage to get a 1 flag lead on the other side, you must play incredibly defensive to hold off the other team unless you're just pwning dudes left and right.

Remember this and you'll do fine.

Ok, now for Demolition. The parameters of this game are:

1.) 2.5 minutes

2.) bomb plant time of 5 seconds

3.) bomb disarm time of 5 seconds

4.) active bomb timer of 45 seconds

5.) if one bomb explodes, you get an extra 2.5 mins for the round.

This game also sounds simple. Arm the bomb, defend the bomb, arm the other bomb and defend that one in turn. And it can be just as simple as that. But there are some hepful tips to get you winning most of these gametypes.

Fight for the hardest arm point first. The defending team often bites off more than they can chew by trying to defend both arm points, and will generally send 3 to one site and 3 to another. If you send all 6 of your guys to the hardest arm point first, you get the hard part out of the way, and will generally have more than 2 and a half seconds to get the easy one.

Once that first arm point is on the counter, one person needs to sneak over to the other arm point and plant there. Generally speaking, when one point gets armed, the whole other team tends to freak out and run towards the site on count down. That leaves the easy arm point open. By arming there as soon as possible, you've now sown even more confusion into the other team. They'll have a hard time figuring out who should go where so you should almost always keep numbers at the hard to arm spot and make that spot much easier to defend. The other arm at the easy spot is just to confuse them If it gets disarmed, no biggie. Since it is the easy one, you should have no problem rearming it and defending it with six instead of 1. This is an all or nothing strategy though. If you don't get that first area armed, generally the round will end in 2.5 mins. This could be a good thing too though. It limits the killstreaks the other team will get. Generally the defending team will get more kills per death than the attacking one. If the round ends before they have the opportunity to get more free kills, or they waste theirs 10 seconds before the end of the round, that's less killstreaks you'll have to deal with when defending.

When defending, the trick is to control the middle of the map. It helps to have 1 or 2 people with tac inserts in strong positions. You need to have four people dedicated to holding the harder point of attack for the other team, and 2 guys to focus on the other arm site. They don't need to camp it, those two just need to be around it. All you have to do is stop one point from being armed, not both, so don't worry if one goes boom or gets armed. There's no need to send everyone out to defend 1 point until there's one point left. Just keep the 4 to 2 ratio up as long as there are two arm points and you should be fine.

A helpful tip in this gametype is to always look at the time. There is no reason why you should be dropping a chopper gunner, reaper or emp if there's only 10 seconds left on the clock. Save those things for the next round. It'll make it that much harder for the other team.

On ties, which this gametype seems to have a bit of, there is only one arm site in the middle of the map. First to arm it generally wins. Make sure you 'nade it first by throwing a grenade behind the arm point (the side you can't see) to kill anyone the other team might have arming and then arm it yourself. Then push forward past the arm site to deny lanes of approach and leave one or two guys back to camp the heck out of it and you should win outright.

Tomorrow: Good weapons and how to maximize their potential and bad weapons to avoid like the plague.

We're doing another installment of improvement guides and today we'll be talking about Headquarters Pro. This is by far the longest blog of this type that has been done, and will be done. There is a lot of information in here to be digested, but it is all neccesary for understanding how to win in this gametype.

I'm not a huge fan of this gametype because winning can often be determined by only one factor, but there are ways to help you improve your odds of winning a HQ match.

Once again we'll begin with the parameters of the game:

1.) time limit is 15 mins

2.) score to win is 500

3.) HQ activation delay is 30 seconds

4.) HQ Lifetime is 1 minute

5.) HQ first appears 5 seconds into the game

6.) HQ capture time is 20 seconds for 1 person

7.) HQ disarm time is 10 seconds for 1 person

8.) HQ appears 5 seconds after disarm.

9.) When defending team dies, they remain dead until HQ's is disarmed or the HQ time limit is reached.

10.) For defending team equipment stays on the map for duration of death.

All these parameters really don't mean much if you're not the first team to grab the very first headquarters. The team who gets the first one is almost always set up to get to the new HQs respawn first and has the advantage of defending it from fixed positions, so make sure you get the first one and you'll have the best shot at winning.

Getting to the HQs first isn't a guaranty that you're going to be able to secure it though...but it does help quite a bit. This is because of the reason stated above.

You have to always be aware that the capture time of the HQ's for one person is 20 seconds. That is forever in this gametype. Even 10 seconds is a long time to grab that area. You're going to need at least 2 people (10 seconds of capture time) and maybe have a third run through the area (doesn't have to stay, just needs to run through for a couple of seconds) to help that capture time decrease. The reason that third person doesn't need to stay is because just running through the HQ's area for 1 second with 2 people alreay on it makes that 1 second count as three. If it takes you 2 seconds to run through, that time multiplies to 6 for your 2. Having 3 guys sit in a clustered area is just asking for a grenade or a rocket to take you all out, so the guy who runs in and runs out helps lessen the chance of losing 3 defenders to only losing 2.

Once you have that HQ's point capped is when the real strategy comes into effect. You need to defend that area as long as possible, and since if you die while your team holds a HQ, you stay dead until the HQ's is destroyed or the HQ's time limit runs out, you need to be as prepared as possible to hold out as long as possible. You can do this by a few ways. You need to have people equipped with trophy systems (no more than 2) portable radars (at least 3, if portable radars are not an option, use scramblers or trophys) and for lethals you need to have people running with betties and claymores. The betties and claymores are what people in the military call force multipliers. They effectively increase your killing capacity by 1 more, making it seem as if you have 12 people defending that area as opposed to 6. The reason you use claymores (I personally prefer claymores) and betties as opposed to the more powerful C4 is because the claymores and betties remain active on the map after your death. Since C4 must be activated by a live person, if you are dead, the C4 becomes useless. Those claymore's and betties might be the difference between the other team disarming in 10 seconds or 20 seconds.

So you're saying, "This is helpful to me if I grab the HQ's right off the bat, but what if my team fails to grab it?" If your team fails to grab it, you need to be prepared to change your class. Initially you should have a defending class whenever you're trying to grab an available HQ's, but you need to abandon that class if you die while trying to disarm one. This is because those betties and claymores become useless when trying to force your way into a HQs. You now need to switch to a class that helps you attack the HQ's faster. You do this by using a class that has Tactical Insert and frag or sticky grenades. This set up is non-negotiable. Those tac inserts are instrumental in getting to that HQs faster than if you spawn on the other side of the map. You can effectively halve your approach time with a tac insert and keep up the pressure on those defenders. Always use your grenades first (you should never have one left on you when you die...never) and make sure the first thing you do after that first respawn away from the HQs you run halfway to the HQs and set up that tac insert.

A helpful tip to the attackers. Recognize how many dead the defenders have by looking at the gamescore by pressing select. If the whole other team is dead, and there is only ten seconds left on the HQs, leave it alone, don't try to disarm it. You'll never make it in time anyway, and if you do, the points you're denying the other team are insubstantial. Instead cut your losses and focus on attacking the new HQs. But if you see the other team is all dead relatively quickly, send 2 people (which would be a 5 second disarm) to disarm and send the other four out to find the new HQs. If you happen to be dead or on respawn when the HQs is disarmed, switch classes back to the defending class so you'll be ready if you guys win the new one.

Switching classes won't get rid of the highest killstreak you have earned. you'll still have it ready for use in the new class.

Other key set-ups for attacking HQ's are running Extreme conditioning, Quickdraw pro, and stalker pro or sit-rep. Don't use the perks I listed as pro if you don't have them though. This is because quick draw is useless without the recover from equipment usage addition, and stalker is useless without the delayed explosion addition. Why should you use these perks? Extreme conditioning helps you attack faster, quickdraw pro helps you throw grenades and be ready to fire as soon as possible, and stalker pro and sit-rep help you get rid of those force multipliers I was talking about earlier.

"So what do I run if I have succeeded and grabbed the HQs?" You will definetly need the blast shield or assassin perk, scavenger, blind eye or sleight of hand (I prefer this) and dead silence. The blast shield is for the inside defenders. You will be inundated with grenades and you will need to stay alive as long as possible to defend your area. Blast shield does this by allowing you to live through at least 1 extra grenade than normal. Assassin is good for staying off the radar and dead silence keeps your where-a-bouts unknown from the other team if you're moving around. First thing you need to do if you're inside defending the HQs is to put up those trophy systems. Then, if you have a doorway, put the claymores, FACING AWAY FROM THE DIRECTION YOU ARE HIDING IN next to the doorway (generally best placed facing towards the HQs just a tad, and toss your betties outside the doorways or approaching paths as far away from you as possible. The betties are almost as dangerous to you as they are the enemy. If you were to put one inside the same room as you and the eemy set one off by either shooting one, by grenade, or by running into it himself, you'll die too, and we don't want that. Not everyone on your team should be defending the HQs up close. You need at least 2 guys running around outside of the HQs. These guys need to have their portable radars or scramblers place near the HQs but not stick around them themselves. These radars are to help the guys inside, the last line of defense if you will.

"What killstreaks should I run if I'm playing the way you suggest?" You should not run anything higher than a 7 attack killstreak or a 5 support killstreak. If you're constantly changing classes, you'll almost never be able to get the higher killstreaks, so use what you can when you can. A good assault set up would be uav, care package and helicopter. No streaks that require you to stop shooting and aim like a predator or an air streak. If you're indisposed for even a couple of seconds, that could mean your death. For support classes I would run a uav and Counter UAVs. That's right, just the two. In mw3 you don't have to run 3 streaks. Since it is highly unlikely you will ever get those 18 kill streaks like emps or juggernaught constantly switching classes, there's no need to even try to do it. Just set it up so you can get what you can as many times as you possibly can. Getting a UAV every 3 kills (if you decide to only use UAVs) is infinitely easier, and more productive, than getting 3 killstreaks for 18 kills. If you got 18 kills and only ran one killstreak at 3, you could effectivey have 6 killstreaks to the 18's 3. What a deal!

All this strategy could very well mean nothing if you don't get that first HQs though. This gametype has always favored the team to win the first HQs. Inevitably, because the new HQs spawns where the least amount of people tend to be, and the previous HQs winner spawn together as far away from the attackers as posiible, the new HQs will almost always be closer to the winners than those who lost the first one...not to mention they'll be in force where the other team will be spread out a bit and easy pickins for the most part.

Hope this helps, and next time will be the last gametype strategy on Capture the Flag.After that we'll move into sucsessful weapon perks and proficiency combinations followed by good perk combinations.