Some weapon balance changes are coming in the next Gears 5 update

Some players are currently unhappy with the balance of different weapons in the competitive modes in Gears 5. As part of a plan to address these issues, The Coalition has detailed the changes coming in the next update for Gears 5. Here’s the exact details on how the Lancer will be changing in competitive modes:

• Active reload rate of fire increase reduced by 50% (was 20%, now 10%)
• Long range damage reduced by 20% (damage done beyond 30m)

This isn’t a huge change, rather it’s simply meant to give players hit by Lancer fire a tiny bit more to time to respond or think. There’s also some global weapon tuning changes that will arrive in the next update:

• Aim assist (adhesion) effect strength reduced for all weapons by 25% at all ranges up to 30m (beyond which there is no adhesion)

It it important to note that this update does not affect Arcade and naturally does not affect any PvE modes like Campaign, Horde or Escape. Our Senior Xbox Editor Jez Corden recently wrote about how Gears 5 hasn’t lived up to expectations as a live service. Hopefully this update is well received and is part of the changes needed to make fans happy and help the game succeed in the long term. Gears 5 debuted at the #7 spot on the overall September 2019 NPD charts and is included in Xbox Game Pass.

Related: Gears 5 gets powerful characters like General RAAM with special abilities