CoD: Black Ops 7 Dev Reveals Highly Requested Changes To Aim Assist, Perks, And Movement

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 releases on November 14, and Treyarch’s latest Dev Talk video revealed plenty of new changes for the game’s multiplayer. This includes one of the most requested changes from the beta, which makes adjustments to the game’s movement and the Dexterity perk.

The latest Dev Talk video featured Treyarch associate design director Matt Scronce, who discussed the community complaints about the Dexterity perk. Black Ops 7 initially removed the ability to aim down sights with weapons while diving and sliding, and players needed to equip the Dexterity perk to get the same fluid movement offered in Black Ops 6. Scronce announced that player feedback was considered, and Dexterity will no longer be needed to ADS while sliding or diving. Players can still equip the perk to speed up those specific actions, but it’s no longer required to perform the movement.

Adjustments are also made to the game’s sliding and the mantling movements. The slide speed is lowered and distance has been reduced.

“It still feels great. It still feels fluid,” Scronce said when discussing the slide tuning. “But we want to make sure that’s not the only way you can enter an engagement.”

For mantling, the developer agreed with feedback that some of the mantling speeds felt too slow. Scrone said the team is going through every mantle in the game to make sure they all have consistent speed and everything feels fast and fluid.

Perk changes were also announced. Some perks were moved to different categories, and unpopular perks were combined to make more powerful options. One complaint from the beta was that so many powerful perks were stacked in the slot 1 category, so some of the perks are now shifted around to allow players to choose better perk combinations. This includes Tac Mask being moved from slot 1 to slot 2, Tac Sprinter from slot 3 to slot 1, and Cold-Blooded from slot 1 to slot 3.

As for combined perks, Black Ops 7’s Shadow perk is being combined with the Engineer perk. This will allow players to not only see enemy traps but also move past them without triggering any effects. For melee players, Bruiser is now combined with the Close Shave perk. This will allow increased health regen and score for melee kills.

Aim-assist changes are also confirmed. The developer revealed that data collected from the beta revealed controller players were winning close-range fights, while mouse-and-keyboard players were winning longer-range fights. Because of this, Treyarch is making changes to rotational aim assist, including requiring the right thumbstick to be moving in the direction of a target for aim assist to start.

Black Ops 7 has received a few other major changes since its initial reveal. Catering to community feedback, Activision revealed that Call of Duty’s Carry Forward program was canceled. Black Ops 6 weapons, operators skins, and cosmetic items will no longer transfer over to Black Ops 7, with the only exception being some Zombies-related content.

The publisher also revealed that Black Ops 7 would launch with little or no SBMM, making the game’s matchmaking feel more like the classic system used in older Call of Duty games. This matchmaking change is something a portion of the community has been requesting for years.