Slept-on Cold War AR is meta again after Warzone Season 5 Reloaded buff

Warzone’s Season 5 Reloaded update has brought about some big changes to the weapon pool, and has even made a classic Black Ops Cold War rifle meta once again.

TheSeason 5 Reloaded update for Warzoneis the final big shake-up that the battle royale will receive before the launch of Warzone 2.0 – which is set to come in November.

QBZ being held aloft with blue and white skin next to Warzone Pacific logo

With players looking to give the second Call of Duty BR a pretty big send-off, they’ve been revisiting some classic weapons and loadouts. The likes of the Grau, M4, and XM4 have all shot up the pick rate charts over the last few weeks, but the meta is still dominated by weapons from Vanguard.

However, the older weapons are still pretty viable, and that includes the QBZ from Black Ops Cold War. While its pick rate hasn’t exactly skyrocketed, some experts are still giving it the nod as being useful.

warzone and dexerto logo above best weapons subheader in front of blurred promo art.

Cold War’s QBZ is meta again in Warzone Season 5 Reloaded

That includes Warzone YouTuberWhosImmortal, who highlighted the weapon during his updated meta tier list video following the Season 5 Reloaded update as the QBZ received a slight buff.

“The QBZ, I’ve been back-and-forth with for a while because it’s always had a very consistent TTK and, for a while, I had it in the top meta category because it’s so similar to the XM4 which is a top tier gun,” the YouTuber said.

Black Ops 6 Weapon Tier List cover

“They ended up buffing the QBZ with damage multipliers as well. I feel like it deserves a spot back up in here with the XM4. These two weapons are so similar in so many ways. QBZ, great TTK, XM4 has a little easier recoil. When it comes down to it, those two are right there with one another.”

Timestamp of 2:55

the replacer operator firing lmg in black ops 6 season 5

As noted, the buff hasn’t exactly made every player sit up and take notice of the QBZ. As perWZRankedstats, it still only has a 0.27 pick rate, but it clearly is viable.

Best guns in Warzone Season 5

Best guns in Black Ops 6: Meta weapons and tier list for Season 5

All weapon buffs and nerfs in Warzone & Black Ops 6 Season 5

Who knows if we’ll see it used a bit more across Caldera, Fortune’s Keep, and Rebirth Island before the launch of Warzone 2.0, but it’s worth trying for a least a few games.