Fortnite SMGs Are Getting Nerfed

Being a fan of Fortnite is like riding a dingy in the middle of the ocean in spring time. You're going to get a bunch of awesome sights and some amazing moments while the sun shines out over the vast ocean. But ...then there are going to be moments where the weather gets nasty and the waves get choppy and you start getting frustrated and scared about what's coming next. That's exactly how a lot of fans feel now that the news dropped that the SMGs in Fortnite have been nerfed. Yes, Epic Games announced that the SMGs in Fortnite have been hit with a massive nerf in the latest update, and anyone who has become reliant on the weapon type in order to rack up kills and skate through the Battle Royale mode in order to become the last one standing aren't too pleased with the results.

The news about the nerf was rolled out through the changelog for the hotfix patch, which Epic announced through a post over on the official Fortnite subreddit. The changelog reveals that the SMG and Combat SMG have had their accuracy bonuses reduced from 35% to 15%, which means that they're more spray and pray than ever before.

The damage reduction has also been applied, going down from 19/20/21 to 17/18/19. So you're losing a 2 point damage falloff across the board. This will also be affected by the fire-rate, which has been reduced from 13 down to 12, meaning that the average fire-rate DOT will see higher falloffs the longer you fire and the more damage soaked up by opponents, effectively making SMGs far less useful during mid-to-long range encounters.

But the bad news doesn't end there for SMG enthusiasts. The SMG, Compact SMG and Silenced SMG have also all received an increase in damage falloff, meaning the more you fire at longer ranges, the less damage you'll do. The Fortnite sub-weapon has now been reduced from 2400/3500/5000 to 2000/3000/4000. The last figure of the falloff sees a massive 1000 point drop-off in effectiveness over longer ranges.

Accuracy percentages have been reduced along with the drop rates for the Rare SMG and Compact SMG types. So it will be harder to get your hands on more devastating SMGs.

To rub salt in the wound, a developer from Epic Games noted that the falloff damage and damage reduction to the SMGs also applies to environmental damage. What this means is that when you attempt to use SMGs to destroy structures, it will be more difficult especially from a distance.

Some people were happy about the re-balance being made to the SMGs, as some gamers felt that the overpowered element of the sub-machine weapons meant that a lot of the assault rifles felt less useful. This balance will mean that you'll stick with certain weapons for certain situations but you won't instantly stick with an SMG over every other weapon and there will be more evenly spread out over who uses what.

These balance issues always pop up in popular games, as companies like Blizzard are incessantly fine-tuning games like Overwatch to find that perfect balance in the characters and weapons. We also see it happen often with MOBAs like Valve's Dota 2 and Riot Games' League of Legends.

Now when you hop into Fortnite, don't expect to overpower everyone with your SMG.