Ballista - Black Ops 2 Weapon Guide

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This time, we're covering the Ballista.

Unlocked at level 43, Black Ops 2 marks this bolt-action rifle's introduction to the Call of Duty series.

The FN Ballista is a Belgian sniper rifle design, developed by FN Herstal in late 2010.

It was designed for the US Army's Precision Sniper Rifle program, competing alongside the Remington MSR and Accuracy International AWM, amongst others.

The specification called for a high precision, lightweight platform chambered in a powerful .338 calibre round.

The Ballista design is heavily modular, with the barrel, bolt and firing pin rapidly interchangeable to fire a variety of cartridges - and in-game, the Ballista is chambered for the .338 Lapua Magnum round.

Ultimately, it was the Remington MSR that eventually won the PSR contract, a similar design to the Ballista with a similarly modular approach.

In-game, the Ballista is a one-shot kill weapon: killing with a shot to the head, neck, mid-to-upper torso and the arms.

When paired with the suppressor, you'll kill with a shot to the head, neck, upper torso and upper arms only.

The sniper rifles see no damage drop-off, so this lethality is preserved out to any distance - and, like its peers, the Ballista's ability to penetrate walls is high.

As a bolt-action weapon, rate of fire is very slow: as you'll need to manually cycle the action after every shot fired, your maximum output is a pitiful 51 rounds per minute.

Paired with woefully poor hipfire performance, it's vitally important to make shots count with the Ballista - a miss will leave you critically exposed in the time it takes to ready the next shot.

Recoil is moderate, pulling up and to the right - but this is not a factor with the slower rate of fire: your aim will recentre before the bolt is fully cycled.

Otherwise, handling is fairly good for the sniper rifle class: the Ballista is the nimblest option available.

Aim time is moderately slow by most standards, but 50 milliseconds faster than its peers - at 350 milliseconds.

Switch times are marginally faster too - and you even gain a 1 percent mobility bonus, as you'll move at 96 percent of the base speed.

Magazine capacity is fair for its class, too - 7 rounds grants a two-round advantage over the other bolt-action option, the DSR-50.

Reloads are fairly slow, taking 3.10 seconds to complete: but are infrequent, given the slow rate of fire and limited overall consumption.

Also of note is the unique attachment available for the Ballista: the Iron Sight.

This option replaces your default scope with a standard-magnification mechanical option instead - an interesting alternative for smaller maps, but tricky to use at any sort of distance.

Its unique nature does give it appeal, however - and the attachment opens up a new way to play with the weapon, ideal if you like a challenge.

The Ballista is the nimblest sniper rifle on offer, offering greater reactivity than any other of the precision rifles.

Despite this speed, it retains considerable lethality, only losing the one-hit kill upon the lower portion of the torso when compared to the more powerful DSR-50.

It is this combination of speed and lethality that make it an ideal choice for a more mobile sniper role, although this does demand a high degree of precision to be effective.

It is the slow cycling of the bolt-action that will be your downfall, should you miss: the second or so it takes to ready your next shot often sufficient for your enemy to retaliate.

The smaller one-hit kill zone can prove troublesome in such critical gunfights, too - an enemy wounded but not killed outright will be a threat until you're able to finish them off.

Still, if you prefer a faster pace of gameplay the Ballista is the sniper rifle that best fits the bill.

Capable of quickly scoping in and delivering instant lethality - if you're able to deftly leverage the one-shot power of this lightweight rifle...

...you'll send your enemy ballistic.