Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's recent 725 shotgun nerf is, in a roundabout way, actually a buff
In what's becoming an increasingly common occurrence, players discovered that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare patch notes have once again misrepresented the changes.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare received a new update yesterday that brought some much-needed balance changes, chief amongst them a nerf to the 725 shotgun and M4 AR.
This is the third time the controversial 725 shotgun has been nerfed since the game's launch, but this particular change is the most bizarre yet. The official patch notes say the shotgun's range was reduced, but that's not what actually happened.
According to testing by YouTuber TheXclusiveAce, the pellet spread when aiming down sights was tightened, which means the one-shot kill range has effectively been increased. XclusiveAce's video demonstrates this clearly, even if he believes the damage range per-pellet may have been reduced.
As he points out, the tighter ADS spread could be unintentional or the result of a bug, but it doesn't change the fact that the 725 is now more lethal at range without attachments.
One other major tweak the path supposedly made has been reducing footstep sounds when walking/crouching while aiming down sights. As has been the case with most footstep-related updates post-launch, the change is very subtle and hard to measure.
Footstep sounds are quieter when you're crouch-walking at anything but the top speed, which is hard to consistently nail down in the heat of the moment, not to mention nearly impossible on PC using a keyboard.
You can watch the full video above.