Battle Rifles have always been a strange class of weapon in CoD. They are intended to be somewhere between Marksman Rifles and Assault Rifles, but end up being ARs with a different name. MW3 falls into this same trap, but that doesn’t mean BRs are decisively bad all around. Without further ado, let’s take a look at their rankings on a tier list.
Best Battle Rifle in Modern Warfare 3 Tier List
As stated above, Battle Rifles are always in a strange spot when competing against Assault Rifles and Marksman Rifles, but MW3’s BRs are a strong contender for the game’s best weapons. Below is our Tier List taking into account how reliable, damage, accuracy, and many more factors, ranking them fairly.
| Tier | Weapons |
| S | BAS-B |
| A | Sidewinder |
| B | MTZ-762 |
We’ll continue updating the tier list as more guns are released, and as the META evolves while Season 1 of Modern Warfare 3 approaches.
B-Tier MW3 Battle Rifles
B Tier is for the slightly weak. Not unplayable by any means but are not in the running for top contenders and usually need some love from the balance team to make them competitive. They aren’t currently in the META but with the right buffs can suddenly become the pick of the patch and surprise everyone.
MTZ-762
The MTZ-762 BR is not like its brothers, as it suffers from a significant loss in accuracy and a very bouncy recoil. However, its damage and handling make up for these negatives.
Still, it is by far the weakest Battle Rifle but that doesn’t speak to its uselessness. Instead, it’s the other weapons in this class that are just outstanding in comparison. The mobility and handling of the MTZ is its strong suit ,but it’s hard to land those important shots without significant attention to accuracy through attachments.
Battle Rifles are uniquely equipped to switch to a single-shot ability, and doing so with the MTZ-762 mitigates a large amount of the recoil problems. But you still must be accurate to squeeze every point of damage from this weapon.
A-Tier MW3 Battle Rifles
The A-Tier is what all weapons should strive to be: good all-around weapons that can perform very well even for amateurs and even better in the hands of veteran players. They do not need buffs or nerfs, and remain in a perfect balance between giving damage and taking away some accuracy.
Sidewinder
The Sidewinder may be one of the more perfectly balanced weapons. For its damage it has a low fire rate, for its mobility it has a bouncy recoil and for its range, it has lower handling.
However, thanks to the gunsmith, we can either emphasize the strength of this weapon or shore up its weaknesses. Which is why it is a perfect candidate for the A-Tier class. It can contend with the best weapons in the game but will need a higher-skilled player to truly dominate regardless of the opponent’s weapon.
Whether you decide to increase its damage or accuracy, you will always sacrifice something for the law of equal exchange to take effect. Single shot mode may be a strong contender for the Sidewinder’s best setting, given it is already accurate and gains a boost in damage from switching to a single-shot playstyle.
S-Tier MW3 Battle Rifles
Our S-Tier class is reserved for weapons that are too powerful for their own good. These arms weapons shouldn’t be as strong as they are, and need serious balance changes to bring them down to the power of other Battle Rifles and the rest of the weapon roster.
BAS-B
The BAS-B was introduced in the Beta, and since then players have already realized that this weapon was going to make waves.
It can stand tall against the best assault rifles and keep pace with the MCW thanks to its high damage-per-shot ratio that other BRs aren’t able to match. Any attachment on this weapon will yield positive gains too, so its highly customizable.
We recommend keeping this monster in full-automatic as it’ll then perform similar to assault rifles in every way. While single shot does give it a damage increase, it mitigates all the other positives of the BAS-B.
That does it for best Battle Rifle in Modern Warfare 3 tier list. We will strive to update this list as we move into Modern Warfare 3 Season 1 and the meta shifts. Be sure to check out our related Call of Duty content below for more guides, news, and updates.
