MW3 Improvement #9 Assault Rifles and Set-ups

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.