Vanguard players want major buff for “useless” stim shots

Vanguard players demand stim shot buffs for faster healing and improved tactical gameplay performance

The Stim Shot Problem in Vanguard

Call of Duty: Vanguard’s community is voicing strong concerns about the current state of stim shot tactical equipment, with many players labeling them as virtually worthless due to excessive activation delays and poor performance.

Vanguard players are demanding significant improvements to the game’s stim shot tactical gear, citing its current implementation as fundamentally flawed and detrimental to aggressive playstyles.

Since Vanguard’s November 5 release, the community has extensively tested all gameplay mechanics while pursuing level progression, camouflage unlocks, and various challenges.

Unlocking stim shots at level 25 should provide a valuable tactical advantage, similar to their effectiveness in Warzone and earlier Call of Duty titles where they served as essential tools for maintaining combat momentum.

While stim equipment should theoretically enable continuous engagement by accelerating health recovery, Vanguard’s implementation falls dramatically short of player expectations and historical performance standards.

Here’s a comprehensive examination of Vanguard’s Equipment system functionality.

The game includes Stim equipment functionality. pic.twitter.com/HENsKSWAZ7

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) September 7, 2021

Technical Breakdown and Performance Issues

When designing aggressive loadouts for maximum combat effectiveness, players traditionally incorporate stim shots to accelerate health regeneration between engagements.

However, Vanguard players have identified critical flaws in the stim shot’s implementation, primarily centered around the excessively long deployment animation that renders the equipment practically ineffective during actual combat scenarios.

Are stim shots essentially non-functional in their current state?
byu/AlexObery inCODVanguard

Stim equipment typically provides immediate value by triggering health regeneration immediately after gunfights, but Vanguard’s version requires an impractical delay before the character model administers the injection.

The activation process in Vanguard consumes approximately two seconds from initiation to health regeneration commencement. This extended timeframe has generated widespread complaints about the equipment’s impracticality. One Reddit user perfectly captured the issue: “The stim animation takes so long that my natural health regeneration often completes before the stim even activates.”

Player Strategies and Workarounds

Another community member reported, “I’ve suffered numerous preventable deaths while stuck in the stim activation animation,” with countless other players confirming identical experiences across multiple gameplay sessions.

Advanced players have developed several strategies to mitigate the stim shot limitations. The most effective approach involves using stims only when completely safe from enemy contact, typically behind solid cover or during extended lulls in combat. Many competitive players recommend treating stims as out-of-combat recovery tools rather than mid-fight sustain options.

Common mistakes include attempting stim activation during reload animations or while repositioning, which often results in fatal delays. Expert players suggest mastering the timing between engagements and understanding exactly when natural health regeneration begins to optimize stim usage windows.

For aggressive playstyles, alternative tactical equipment like smoke grenades or tactical insertion may provide more reliable value than the current stim implementation. Some players have completely removed stims from their loadouts in favor of equipment that offers immediate tactical advantages.

Community Response and Future Outlook

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Sledgehammer Games has yet to officially acknowledge the stim shot performance issues or confirm whether the current implementation matches their design intentions, leaving players with little choice but to avoid using stims in their Vanguard configurations temporarily.

The community continues to rally around this issue through social media platforms and gaming forums, with many creating detailed comparison videos showing the dramatic difference between Vanguard’s stim shots and their counterparts in previous Call of Duty titles.

Potential solutions suggested by the player base include reducing the animation time by at least 50%, allowing movement during activation, or implementing a gradual health regeneration that begins immediately rather than after the full animation completes.

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