Examining PUBG's 1.0 Patch #12

Last month PUBG Corp. released the PC 1.0 Patch #12 which was a patch focused on nerfing the ARs and buffing the other types of weapons to make every weapon in the game more viable and to allow set-ups to have more variety instead of the old double AR-setup. Now that the dust has settled and everyone has had a chance to try out the new balance changes, let's examine what got changed in the patch and in the game overall!

Double AR Setups Aren't Mandatory (for now)

The professional players have been using these setups for ages but there have finally been changes to the amount of recoil that SMGs and LMGs have that they are vastly superior compared to before the patch. On top of that, the LMGs and SMGs had their damage increased while already having a large magazine. The nerf of the damage per bullet on the ARs also contributes towards this, but weapons like the M249 are just overpowered at the moment. Different sources have also mentioned that the UMP9 (often seen in competitive play) has been shadow buffed (buffed without being mentioned in the actual patch notes) which is interesting to say the least.

The weapon damage balancing changes shown in the PC 1.0 Patch #12. Full Resolution

This chart also shows that the DMR and Pistol damage have gone up with the exception of the SKS getting nerfed for the full 4 damage per bullet. The pistols aren't important or viable at all except for in the early-game but they'll definitely kill more quickly when it's a matter of seconds before the enemy player gets a shotgun or any other primary weapon.

The DMRs in-game are actually very important now because their damage is high, the bullet velocity is great, and you can now use both SR and AR attachments on the weapons. The Mini-14 is definitely a better pick over the SKS now, having less recoil and with the damage gap being narrowed by this patch.

A larger number of bullets = more kills when you're talking about the SKS.

Mini-14 with an Extended Magazine, 30 bullets x 46 damage = 1380 total damage

SKS with an Extended Magazine, 20 bullets x 53 damage = 1060 total damage.

The only 2 advantages that the SKS has over the Mini-14 is that it does more damage per bullet that you hit and there are more attachment slots on it then there are on the Mini-14 making it a slightly better pick if you have all the attachments for it that you prefer. If you're using the SKS for its higher damage you should probably choose a Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle over any DMR since that's the only type of weapon that can kill with 1 bullet.

The New DMR: The SLR

Everyone likes new weapons to play with (at the beginning) and the SLR is no exception. This new DMR has the highest damage out of all the non-airdrop crate DMRs and its recoil is comparable to the Mk14.

I personally don't like to use this weapon since the recoil rate is a bit too high and the damage per bullet still isn't high enough to make it an obvious choice above either the Mini-14 or a Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle. Try it out for yourself and see if it's a worthy pick-up for your playstyle!

 
Changes to Swimming

For normal games, this change isn't too impactful but that's not the case for scrims and tournaments. When you were in the water you could be submerged (almost invisible to people that were looking in your direction from the coast) for 35 seconds without taking damage. After those 35 seconds you needed to swim to the surface or take damage per second which wasn't too bad, but now everything changed.

Swimming has been nerfed all around
• Damage per second has gone up from 4 to 10 damage
• Amount of time submerged without taking damage gone down from 35 seconds to 15 seconds
• When you've reached the surface to "recharge" your breath meter it now takes 4 seconds to fully "recharge" instead of 1 second

We won't see as many swimmers as before in tournaments since their only weakness was catching back their breath when they swam to the surface.

New Attachments

The first attachment we're going to talk about is the Duckbill. This is a new Muzzle attachment that reduces the vertical spread and increases the horizontal spread, making this attachment useless when compared to the already commonly found Shotgun Choke which lowers horizontal and vertical spread. The horizontal spread is only good for multiple enemies at the same time, but that doesn't happen often in PUBG.

The Light Grip is an attachment that makes the weapon steadier but increases the recoil recovery time. I don't use it since you need to compensate a lot for the recoil in sprays but it's definitely viable.

The Thumb Grip greatly decreases the time needed to go from hip-fire to ADS, slightly decreases vertical recoil and makes the weapon steadier. I don't use this grip solely because of the fact that faster ADSing doesn't really help you in-game and the other grips just offer a better alternative.

The Half Grip reduces both vertical and horizontal recoil, decreases the recoil recovery rate of your weapon and makes it less steady. This grip is perfect for spraying but absolutely horrendous for tapping at a longer distance due to the weapon swaying quite a bit when you're not pulling the trigger. This attachment is currently the most used on AR's and definitely makes for a good alternative compared to the vertical grip (a PUBG favourite). Unlike the other grips mentioned, you can also use this grip on the Vector.

The first new Scope we'll be talking about is the 3x scope, offering a middle way between the 2x and 4x Scope. I prefer this Scope on an AR compared to the 2x and 4x but for long-range weapons, I would never use anything less than the 4x. You can adjust the brightness of the reticle by scrolling up/down.

The last new attachment we'll be covering is the 6x scope replacing the 8x Scope as the best Scope that you can currently use on ARs with the removal of 8x and 15x Scope compatibility. You can't adjust the brightness of the reticle but you can zoom in/out between 3x and 6x making it a perfect Scope for players that use the AR as a tool for all kinds of encounters.

Conclusion

PUBG's meta has certainly changed for the better due to the fact that high-level gameplay didn't utilize any other types of weapons except for the occasional DMR. This lets the meta become quite stale and I'm confident that PUBG Corp. will continue to implement changes to different types of weapons and make the game more fun for everyone!

You can find the full PUBG 1.0 Patch #12 notes here.

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