Fortnite Releases First Balance Changes of Chapter 3

The Fortnite Chapter 3 meta has been a mixed bag for many players as shotguns were tuned down significantly and SMGs were made to be much stronger.

For some players, this is nice because instead of having to hit accurate shots with a shotgun, you can spray with the SMG and get easy eliminations. Other players are upset because it sort of negates the whole building aspect of the game since they can just get sprayed out of any situation now.

Epic Games appears to have heard the concerns of fans, and they released their first adjustments of Chapter 3. It has tackled concerns with the shotguns, and it also gave a nerf to the MK-Seven Assault Rifle.

Let’s look at the changes.

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Balance Changes

According to the Fortnite Status Twitter account, several changes came to the shotguns. While we haven’t been playing on the Chapter 3 map for very long, it’s clear that Epic believed some changes were needed.

When you fire up Fortnite now you’ll find out that the Pump Shotgun has better accuracy and it shoots faster. If you’re a fan of the Auto Shotgun, Epic made it so it gets pulled out faster than before. Here’s a breakdown:

• Increased the accuracy of the Striker Pump Shotgun.
• Slightly increased the fire rate of the Striker Pump Shotgun.
• Decreased the amount of time it takes to pull out the Auto Shotgun.

None of the damage was tinkered with, but the gun should perform better than it did in the past.

On top of that, we saw some nerfs to the Assault Rifles in the game, and Guzzle Juice has gotten a bit better.

• Decreased the environmental damage of the MK-Seven Assault Rifle and made it less accurate while hipfiring.
• Slightly increased the damage rate and moderately increased the accuracy of the Ranger Assault Rifle.
• Increased the heal speed of Guzzle Juice.

Interestingly enough, none of this seems to cover the issues that lie with the SMGs being too strong, but it does make the shotguns a viable option again.

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SMG Nerf?

As of right now, it doesn’t look like Epic Games has any plans to nerf the SMGs, which means they’ll likely continue to dominate the meta the same way they have been all season.

Instead of making one gun bad in favor of making another better, it looks like the plan for Epic here was to find out how to make every gun viable. The Ranger Assault Rifle gave off huge Heavy AR vibes from Chapter 2, so it was never all that worthwhile to pick up.

The same could be said of the shotguns, so this update makes all of them decent options again. At the end of the day, we’re likely looking at the spray meta continuing until something is done to make the SMGs not as strong. There’s really no telling how long it could take, so strap in because it might be a long season.

At least we don’t have the mechs anymore.

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