What is Tactical Stance in MW3, and should you use it?

Modern Warfare 3 has hit the shelves with its grand arsenal of customisable weapons, middling campaign, and a new feature known as Tactical Stance. The question of ‘what is Tactical Stance?’ is on many players minds, and it’s what COD describes as a balance between mobility and accuracy.

As a shooter where your movement is now relatively important to your gameplay, Tactical Stance - and knowing when and how to use it - can be quite important too. Here’s what Tactical Stance is in MW3, whether you should use it, and how to disable it.

What is Tactical Stance in MW3

Tac Stance is the middle-ground between aiming down sights and hip-fire, designed for players who like to play aggressively, consistently engaging in close-range fights with enemy targets.

Tactical Stance is new to MW3, and in our MW3 tips for elder millennials and geriatrics, we described it as a bit of a gimmick if anything.

Using Tac Stance will provide you with a level of accuracy (not quite as much as ADS does), while preventing the as large of a bullet-spread that straight up hip-firing does. Those using SMGs such as the Striker or AMR9 may favour Tac Stance.

You can also compare it to the Canted Laser from MW2, as Tactical Stance cants your weapon in such a way that you’ll be more accurate than when using hipfire. But, not as accurate as when using ADS.

If you’re using Tactical Stance when firing a weapon, your weapon will be held at a slight diagonal angle. You’ll also find yourself moving faster using Tactical Stance than when using ADS, with a wider FOV.

Should you use Tactical Stance in MW3?

With MW3 feeling a lot more movement-focused than previous COD entries, you might be tempted to use Tactical Stance, especially considering you can slip and slide around the map while using it and still retain some accuracy.

It’s certainly worth using Tactical Stance if your playstyle is focused on close-quarters encounters and aggressive gunplay, which looks to be where the weapon meta is leaning right now. If you’re instead focusing on long-range weaponry like the Longbow or certain ARs, using ADS for the additional accuracy will be more worthwhile.

But if you’re flying around the map running and gunning enemy targets down, Tactical Stance - which you can use while sliding - is something worth getting used to and familiarising yourself with. It makes sliding into gunfights and catching enemies off guard a viable strategy, and something you’ll need to watch out for.

How to disable Tactical Stance in MW3

If you decide you don’t like Tactical Stance in MW3, or simply want to mess around with how it works, you can go into your settings.

On consoles, if you go to your Controller settings and open the Aiming tab, you can set the Tac Stance Sensitivity Multiplayer. This determines your controller’s stick sensitivity when aiming using Tac Stance.

Under the Gameplay tab, which is also under Controller settings, you can choose how Tac Stance is activated and the behaviour of it. You’ll be able to choose which inputs you want to trigger Tactical Stance, and can choose exactly how it behaves; you can have Tac Stance active on toggle, on respawn, or have it only be active until the release of ADS.

Tactical Stance shares some inputs with Weapon Mounting, so you may find it a little confusing mid-fight to toggle between the two. Through the same menu, you can disable it entirely if you feel like it's going to be too finicky.

For more on MW3, take a look at our list of the best gun loadouts for multiplayer and zombies right now, as well as where to find all Precious Cargo.