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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3has made radical changes to player mobility in both Multiplayer and Warzone. Slide canceling is back, movement speed values are higher than ever, and there are many perk options to further boost your character’s mobility.
Playing against those with good movement can be a nightmare, so it’s important to master each of MW3’s movement mechanics. Once you master every movement technique and find the right settings, you will have no issue topping scoreboards and winning Warzone matches. This guide will explain every movement technique in MW3, ways to buff your movement speed, and recommend some useful movement settings.
Movement Basics
This section is intended for newer CoD players or those who have not played since Modern Warfare 2019.
If you’ve played a CoD game since MW2019,skip to the next section.
Before you can perform any advanced movement techniques, it’s important to master the basics first. At any point during a match, your character can do the following:
Sprinting
Sprintingis crucial to performing advanced movement techniques in MW3. Clicking the left thumbstick (or pressing “Left Shift” on PC) will cause your character to sprint, lowering their weapon while increasing their movement speed. The movement speed bonus is primarily determined by the weapon you’re holding. Unlike older CoD titles, you can sprint indefinitely in MW3.
Sprinting greatly increases your character’s footstep audio, especially Tactical Sprint.
If you press the sprint input a second time, your character willTactical Sprint.This is a version of sprinting that drastically increases your character’s movement speed for a couple of seconds, but you will incur a major sprint-to-fire penalty (roughly 100-200 milliseconds) if you attempt to fire from this mode. In other words, if you get caught Tactical Sprinting mid-gunfight, you’ll struggle to pull your weapon up in time to fight back.
While you can’t fire your weapons while sprinting, the enhanced movement speed allows you to slide and jump great distances. In essence,you should almost always be sprinting, but Tactical Sprinting should only be used when you’re preparing to slide, jumpshot, or are confident no enemies are nearby.
Jumping
Jumping in MW3 can be a powerful tool in throwing off your opponent’s aim in a gunfight.Your jump velocity is mostly determined by how fast you’re moving, so you’ll want to sprint or slide before jumping to cover as much distance as possible. Jumping around corners and low surfaces is a great way to start a gunfight in your favor.
But similar to Tactical Sprint,jumping will reduce your aim down sights (ADS) speed and accuracy until you touch the ground.It’s great for starting a gunfight, but attempting to jumpshot mid-duel is a recipe for disaster in core Multiplayer. If you’re determined to jumpshot, you can mitigate this penalty with the Assault Gloves perk and certain attachments.
Crouching And Lying Prone
As with sprinting, the main purpose of crouching is to enable more advanced movement techniques.Pressing the crouch button while sprinting will cause your character to slide, a vital tool for playing aggressively in MW3 and Warzone. If you hold the crouch input, your character will lay prone instead.
The main use for prone is for dropshotting, a technique where you quickly lay prone mid-gunfight to throw off your opponent’s aim. This is easiest to do with the Tactical Pads perk in core Multiplayer—Warzone players don’t need any perks for this. If you attempt to lay prone while sprinting, you will perform a dolphin dive instead of a slide.
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How Sliding Works In MW3
Sliding is the single most important movement tool in Modern Warfare 3.While sprinting or in Tactical Sprint, press the crouch key to initiate a slide.This will give your character a massive surge in velocity that quickly trails off. You may shoot your weapon while sliding, but you cannot fully ADS; you’ll enter Tac Stance instead.
The single largest change to movement in MW3 is the reimplementation of slide canceling from MW2019.Pressing the jump key mid-slide will immediately end the slide animation.This allows you to rapidly exit a slide and ADS your weapon with minimal penalty. If MW3 matches feel significantly faster than previous CoD games, this is why.
Slide canceling is the preferred movement tool for aggressive players since it doesn’t incur any ADS or accuracy penalties.Performing a slide cancel will incur a short delay before you can sprint again, and sliding doesn’t refresh your Tactical Sprint, but these are fairly minor downsides for an otherwise powerful movement tool.
PC
Shift -> Spacebar-> Spacebar
Increase your character’s speed by sprinting, then press the jump button.Right as your character touches the ground, press the jump button again.This will carry some of your momentum on your second jump, launching you further than usual. Bunny hopping experiences severe diminishing returns after two consecutive jumps.
Press LCtrl
LShift -> C -> Spacebar -> LCtrl
Holding the crouch input in the middle of a duel will force your character to lie prone.Do not sprint and attempt this,or else you will perform a dolphin dive instead. The transition from standing to prone is quite fast in MW3, especially if you have the Tactical Pads perk in Multiplayer. Use this during a gunfight to throw off your opponent’s aim.
More experienced players will chain dropshots with sliding.you may hold crouch after a slide to immediately go prone.This happens so quickly that most players will struggle to react. You can also perform a slide cancel and follow up with a dropshot to seriously confuse your opponent.
Shift -> Spacebar
While Tactical Sprinting, press jump to launch your character forward.Firing your weapon mid-jump is known as a jumpshot, and it’s a great tactic for initiating a gunfight in Multiplayer or throwing off an opponent’s aim in Warzone. You can carry some of your jump’s momentum through a bunny hop or a follow-up slide.
LShift -> C -> Spacebar
Slide canceling is much easier to perform in MW3 than it was in MW2019.While sliding, press the jump key to prematurely end your slide.You will be able to ADS and fire immediately after ending your slide. Unlike MW2019,slide cancels donotrestore your Tactical Sprint, but they don’t drain your stamina either.
LCtrl -> LShift -> Repeat
Snaking refers to a player who alternates between standing and prone stances while behind a chest-high wall.Once behind cover, go prone and immediately sprint forward.You’ll get a clear shot of your foe, but your enemy won’t see your head until half a second later. You can repeat this chain of inputs as needed to safely peak lanes.
This movement technique is highly controversial since it exploits MW3’s netcode to give the user an unfair advantage, but Sledgehammer has made balance changes to discourage its use.The more times you rapidly snake, the slower your character will change stancesuntil snaking is no longer possible. you’re able to use the Tactical Pads perk to somewhat mitigate this.
How To Increase Your Movement Speed
Your main method of increasing your movement speed is tochange your weapon build.Your equipped weapon will determine your character’s movement speed, sprint speed, and Tactical Sprint speed.
Excluding the Riot Shield, there are no penalties for stowing heavy weapons. Your movement speed is determined by what you’re currently holding.
If you are using a Riot Shield, your movement speed is reduced by 10%.
All movement speed values can be viewed in the Gunsmith menu under your weapon’s detailed stats page. Mobility stats are broken up into five categories:
Lighter weapons, such as SMGs and handguns, offer the best movement speed modifiers to your character.Certain Gunsmith attachmentscan also be installed to improve your mobility, notably underbarrel handstop attachments.
Multiplayer Perks
MW3 Multiplayer has a small selection of mobility perks you’re able to choose from. We highly recommend theTactical Padsperk for aggressive players. It extends your slide distance tomatch Warzone sliding, greatly improves your crouch and prone transition speeds, and allows you to fully ADS mid-slide.
For raw movement speed, theLightweight Bootsincrease your movement speed with all weapons by roughly 7%. It’s a solid pick if you’re using theInfantry Vestto double your Tactical Sprint duration. If you are using a different vest,Running Sneakershave the same properties as the Infantry Vest.
Finally, you might consider theStalker Bootsto boost your strafe speed by 15%. It’s not nearly as powerful as Tactical Pads or even Lightweight Boots, but it’s a solid option for more passive playstyles.
Warzone Perks
Nearly every Warzone player should useDouble Timein the first two perk slots. It doubles your Tactical Sprint duration and greatly increases its recovery rate, the same as the Infantry Vest in MW3 Multiplayer. You can pair this withMountaineerto greatly reduce fall damage for a highly aggressive playstyle.
Unfortunately, every other mobility perk isn’t great.Irradiatedoffers a 10% movement speed bonus while inside the gas, but it’s in the same slot as Double Time and Mountaineer. Perk three’sStalkerperk is only a 15% strafe buff, and perk four’sResoluteperk is a 10% movement speed bonus that’s only active while you’re taking damage.
Best Movement Settings
Despite popular opinion, there is no panacea for input settings in Modern Warfare 3. Settings such as sensitivity, deadzones, and aim assist curves are highly subjective and should be tested on your own time. Experiment with these settings until you find a combination that feels right for you; there’s no objective “best” setting here.
Finding The Right Sensitivity
For M&K users, your sensitivity setting should allow you to comfortably rotate your camera 180° by moving your mouse to the edge of your mouse pad. Ensure mouse acceleration is off in your operating system for consistent results.
As for controllers, set your sensitivity as low as you feel comfortable with. Rotational aim assist will make up for the slower aim speed. Most controller users play on 4-6 sensitivity and adjust their ADS sensitivity multiplier to taste.
With that said, there are a few settings wehighlyencourage you to change:
Tactical or Bumper Jumper
Increase until it feels comfortable
0.00
3rd Person Camera Movement
Least (50%)
Automatic Sprintallows you to instantly switch to sprint or Tactical Sprint without clicking your left thumbstick or pressing Shift. This is incredibly useful when paired with slide canceling. Slide enthusiasts will also want toset Slide/Dive Behavior to Slide Only.This removes the small input delay that occurs when pressing the slide button.
Controller users should seriously consider rebinding the slide and jump inputs to something more accessible. If you own a controller with paddles or back buttons, those inputs are ideal. If not, change your button layout to eitherTactical or Bumper Jumper.
Tactical lets you slide by clicking your right thumbstick, allowing you to aim and slide simultaneously. Be wary that most joysticks aren’t built to be clicked this frequently, so the Tactical button configuration can seriously shorten your controller’s lifespan. A safer alternative to this isBumper Jumper, binding the jump key to one of your bumpers.
For visuals, we recommendreducing camera shake and disabling motion blurto reduce visual noise during gameplay. You might also want to adjust your Field of View (FOV) setting. A larger FOV presents more information, but it can create a fisheye lens effect at higher values.
