For multiplayer, you traditionally want a sniper that has a fast Aim-Down-Sight speed and the ability to one-shot anywhere in the upper-body. Some of the best MW3 snipers luckily have these qualities, but there are also some trash options. To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, we've done a complete ranking of every sniper in Modern Warfare 3.
The average engagement distance in Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer is shorter than in Warzone, and so snipers are naturally less relevant. But they're still strong in multiplayer, especially because other weapons take so much longer to kill this year thanks to higher base health, whereas the snipers are (for the most part) still one shot / instant.
You can find our complete ranking of the best MW3 snipers below.
Note: This is our opinion on the snipers based on what we've seen so far in the MW3 beta. The ranking will be updated on launch.
All Snipers In Modern Warfare 3 Ranked
2. Longbow
The Longbow is one of our superfast "light snipers", with a very high ammo capacity and great handling speeds. However, this really plays like more of a Marksman Rifle than a sniper.
The damage simply isn't high enough to one shot enemies every time. It does it enough to still be a viable gun, and sometimes it feels like the best gun in the game when you aren't getting hitmarkers and every shot is landing, but on balance we don't think it's the best sniper.
One thing we can already say about the Longbow is that we expect it to be outstanding on the new Warzone map.
1. KV Inhibitor
The KV Inhibitor is also a semi-auto like the Longbow, but it's much closer to a traditional sniper, with smaller mags and higher damage. It certainly isn't the most powerful sniper we've ever seen in terms of damage per bullet, but it can reliably one shot to the chest. And this is enough to make the KV Inhibitor feel consistent.
We recommend you level the KV Inhibitor whether you want to snipe or not, because it has an especially good pool of attachments, including an excellent heavy stock that many other weapons can use for extra recoil control.
- Here is our best KV Inhibitor loadout
That was our rundown of every sniper in MW3, we hope you found it helpful.
Remember, if you don't want to rank these puppies in multiplayer, you will have Zombies this year. And because it's more of an open-world style Zombies in MW3, snipers will be a lot more useful than they have been previously in the mode.
Keep the celeb collabs coming Activision!