Best Competitive Class Setups Week 4 – Return of Raid

With the announcement of the new format of the CDL season, players are now hitting their stride to get ready for the start. The League announced that all 12 teams will be attending the 5 major tournaments during the 2021 season, with the year capped off with the 8 best teams battling it out at Call of Duty Champs. Bringing back having every team at each tournament was an absolute necessity, as it eliminates doubt and proves that the winner of the tournament is the top dog of the League till the next one.

That wasn’t the only major change in the past two weeks to the competitive scene. Season 1 of Black Ops Cold War dropped and brought back a major present for the competitive community. The legendary Black Ops 2 map Raid made a comeback and was instantly welcomed into the competitive map pool, talking the place of Cartel in Hardpoint. To many, it was immediately regarded as the best hardpoint map in the rotation and brought additional hype to the start of the season.

We’re currently at the part of the offseason where teams start to ramp up practice and get into form for the launch of the season. Teams start grinding respawns and figuring out SnD tactics, while some take the time to break down VoD to perfect gameplay. There has been an additional wave of GAs in the scene as well, slightly changing the meta. Players have shifted attachments around, as many of the barrels, including the Task Force on the AK74u, have been GA’d from competitive play. This leads us to the newest batch of competitive class setups that we have seen since the drop of the Season 1 update.

Interestingly there is a very different meta in professional play, North American Challengers, and European Challengers, as each has its own set of GAs that shape the game. EU Challengers decided to continue to use the Task Force while banning the AK47, among other GAs. North American Challengers have been back and forth with an AK47 ban, but have opted to keep it in while banning damage/range barrels, the 1911 pistol, and limiting teams to 1 smoke grenade per team in SnD, among other restrictions. The professionals continue to trial different restrictions as they prepare for the next ruleset and the beginning of the season. For now, we’ll look at classes following professional GAs and break them down.

Krig 6

The Krig is still regarded as the best Assault Rifle by professional players after the update, but Challengers have deemed it the clear underdog to the AK47. In the newest update, the Krig did see a nerf, as the headshot multiplier went from 1.4x to 1.2x. Before this patch, the Krig needed only 1 headshot with 3 body shots to produce a 4 shot kill. Now the gun needs 2 headshots and 2 body shots to get a 4 shot kill, which is much harder to do. A 5 shot kill now for the Krig 6 takes 368 ms to kill, while the 4 shot kill of the AK47 only takes 300 ms. BUT if the Krig hits 2 headshots with 2 body shots (much easier to do with the Krig than AK47), the time to kill is 294 ms. It’s still a viable AR in the current meta.

Methodz

The Toronto Ultra Main AR is the first player we look at this week. Zinni prefers to run the stacked Krig, loading up 7 attachments thanks to the Gunfighter Wildcard. These 7 attachments are pretty standard on the Krig now, with players taking off 40 Round Mag and either the Range barrel or Muzzle Brake if they use the Lawbreaker Wildcard. With Zinni’s stacked AR it has increased bullet velocity, faster strafe speed, ADS, and Sprint out time, as well as decreased recoil. It’s a laser on the map while allowing the user to move around the map to take challenges. It’s one of the best builds you can have with the Krig.

*For pubs put on the 19.7” Takedown Barrel and Steady Aim Laser. Due to GAs, these aren’t allowed in comp but that would make the best stacked Krig for pubs.

The 7 attachments are:

• Millstop Sight
• Muzzle Brake
• 19.7” Ranger Barrel
• Field Agent Grip
• 40 Round Mag
• Airbourne Elastic Wrap Handle
• Raider Stock

Ak47

The next AR on the list is the AK47. The weapon has been a hot topic over the past couple of weeks, with the majority of AMs wanting the gun GA’d due to it being too strong. It’s a very good weapon that locks down the mid-range gunfights with its solid 4 shot kill range. The gun was recently nerfed a bit, as the headshot multiplier was decreased from 1.4x to 1.3x. This is a huge change because it’s now impossible to make a 3 shot kill if the opponent is at 150 health. Even if the user hits 4 straight headshots it will still be a 4 shot kill. It’s still a very strong weapon to competitive play.

Arcitys

While Arcitys doesn’t usually run the AK47 on most of the maps, this is his build for the weapon. Alec prefers to run the Lawbreaker Wildcard, meaning he rocks only 5 attachments. The standard currently is the 5 attachments below, because it decreases recoil and increases the major 3-speed categories. The ADS is down to 210 ms and the sprint out speed is at 340 ms. It’s a great AK47 build to run the comp.

The 5 attachments are:

• Microflex Sight
• Muzzle Brake
• Spetsnaz Speedgrip
• GRU Elastic Wrap Handle
• KGB Skeletal Stock

Ak74u

The main SMG in competitive Call of Duty currently is the AK74u. It’s a great weapon in close-range engagements and has a decent range to compete in medium-range fights. The gun has seen a set meta develop for its attachments, as 90% of the players currently run:

• Muzzle Brake
• 9.3” Extended Barrel
• Spetsnaz Speedgrip
• GRU Elastic Wrap Handle
• KGB Skeletal Stock

The only change we see in builds is using the Spetsnaz Compensator for the Muzzle Brake. With this set up it has increased bullet velocity, faster strafe speed, ADS, and Sprint out time, as well as decreased recoil. Thanks to the Speedgrip, the build has +10% to its sprint speed and increases the sprint out speed to 297 ms, the strafe speed to 8.84 mph, and ADS speed to 210 ms. The strafe is very strong on the weapon, and allows SMGs to preaim around corners and take unexpecting fights.

The main difference we saw in the competitive builds was the change in perks across the CDL. All AK74u players are using Lawbreaker currently, allowing players to use 2 perks from 1 perk group.

ATTACH

One of the most common perk setups is using two perks from the 1st perk category. Attach uses both Tactical Mask and Flak Jacket, and picks Ninja for his last perk. This setup protects him from all utility while giving him silent footsteps to counter players listening for sound.

Simp

The second most common perk build is using Flak Jacket, Gung-ho, and Ninja. This was very common in the early days of Black Ops Cold War but has died down since players have gotten good at using utility. Simp uses Gung-ho instead of Tactical Mask to allow him to keep his pace higher, and throw utility while still moving. Gung-ho gives him better hipfire while sliding, allows him to throw utility and reload while running, and switch weapons faster. It’s a great perk to have when your team is great with Trophy Systems.

Priestahh

The last perk combination is from the Minnesota Rokkr’s flex player Priestahh. He uses a setup similar to the one from Attach but with Engineer instead of Tactical Mask. This perk is solely used for the purpose of finding and destroying enemy Trophy Systems. Players who use Engineer and excel at destroying enemy trophies give their teams huge advantages because it allows their teammates’ utility to land and do damage. It’s an excellent perk for players to use that are consistently in or near the hill in hardpoints.

XM4

The final AR in this week’s article is the XM4. It is a solid AR that is on the cusp of the meta currently. It’s behind both the AK47 & Krig 6 as of now, but it can hold its own and is one weapon balancing away from breaking through into the meta. It’s a fun gun to use in pubs and GBs and feels great on host.

Formal

FormaL is one of the rare players that has used the XM4 as of late. Chicago OpTic’s Main AR gave it a go on a couple of maps and did find some success. The attachments that he uses are very similar to what players use on the Krig. The only change being the Extended Barrel is used over the Ranger Barrel. This gave FormaL increased bullet velocity (+100%) but decreased his strafe speed by 20%.

The 7 attachments are:

• Microflex Sight
• Muzzle Brake
• 13.7” Extended Barrel
• Field Agent Grip
• 40 Round Mag
• Airbourne Elastic Wrap Handle
• Raider Stock

Diamatti

The lone pistol left to be used in competitive CoD currently, the Diamatti has been forced into the meta thanks to the GA of both the 1911 and Magnum. Players have deemed the two pistols too strong as they both can get 3 shot kills and gave AR players strong options in close-range engagements versus SMGs. The Diamatti is the only burst pistol in the game and is significantly weaker compared to the other two, but in the hands of comp players, it can still be deadly.

SIMP

In Simp’s latest video on his AK74u class, he also included his Diamatti attachments and thoughts about the gun. With it being a new gun in the meta, there should be some experimenting with the weapon until players find exactly what they like using on it. One attachment that is a lock is the Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle, as we could see players using a sight, switching the magazine, and experimenting with the Extended barrel. Let us know what you like using on the gun.

The 4 attachments are:

• Muzzle Brake
• 7.8” Chrome Lined Barrel
• 24 Round Speed Mag
• Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle