COD Modern Warfare 2: BEST Riot Shield Loadouts [Season 2]

The Riot Shield is one of the best weapons in COD MW2 under the melee weapons category. You can use them to block all incoming fire, whether it be from a gun, launcher, or killstreak. All you need to do is get close to your enemy and you can easily kill them with a strike or two. This year, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has once again brought back this iconic weapon. With the brand-new perk system, you’ll be able to make some of the best Riot Shield loadouts in the game.

So, let’s jump right in and look at the best Riot Shield loadouts in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, including its preferred perks, killstreaks, and primary weapons!

The Lachmann 556 Combo

This specific loadout will cover all your long-range and mid-game gunfights. The Lachmann 556 is not only one of the best assault rifles in Modern Warfare 2, but it’s also one of the best guns in the game. The Lachmann’s balance between damage, recoil control, and mobility makes it a great combination with the Riot Shield.

Dead Silence and Ghost add to this loadout’s stealth capability, making you nearly untraceable. Additionally, this is coupled with the Heartbeat Sensor that can track down your opponents with ease. Thermite is also a good choice as a lethal weapon here for getting multiple kills at once.

All in all, this loadout can be used on any map and game mode as this mainly covers most aspects of a good loadout.

The RPK Onslaught

If you’re looking for a loadout where you don’t need to worry about damage, range, and ammunition, then this loadout is for you. The RPK is one of the best LMGs in the game with respectable handling, reload speed, and mobility. For short and sudden encounters, we can simply use our throwing knife to avoid giving the enemy any time to act.

Battle Rage is the optimal Field Upgrade for this loadout since an LMG, compared to other weapons, is still slow. Therefore, this upgrade will make us much more agile and aggressive in combat, alleviating our weak mobility.

In conclusion, this loadout focuses on wreaking havoc on large-scale maps where you can get a collection of kills without worrying about ammo.

The Launcher Loadout

This loadout is ideal for short-range maps where you’ll often find clusters of enemies. The RPG-7 is the one of best launchers in Modern Warfare 2 due to its great mobility which is further improved by Double Time and Fast Hand.

One major drawback of launchers, however, is their low ammunition. The RPG-7 is no exception, so you would often be running around with an empty launcher. With the Munitions Box, this issue can be easily resolved, and you can restock your ammunition and equipment at any time. This is also why we’ve included Scavenger instead of Overkill so that our ammo replenishes more often.

The Heartbeat Sensor is also a great tool on smaller maps as you’ll quickly find nearby enemies, which is essential for the Riot Shield kills. Furthermore, if you come across a sudden 1v1 encounter, then you can use your throwing knife in that situation for its accuracy and one-shot capability.

Overall, if you’re looking for a tanky loadout that can control small maps, then this loadout gives the best bang for the buck.

Best Riot Shield Perks

The important pieces of equipment we need to consider for our loadout are the perks. Certain perk combinations can easily make one of the best Riot Shield loadouts in Modern Warfare 2 themselves.

When choosing perks for the Riot Shield, we need to consider the factors that are essential for a melee weapon – Speed, Mobility, and Stealth. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that the perks improve at least one of these factors. It’s also important to ensure that the perks are centered around improving your secondary weapon’s stats as well so that your build is not entirely dependent on the Riot Shield.

After considering all these factors, here’s a list of the best perks when using the Riot Shield:

Double Time

• Tier: First/Base Perk
• Ability: Doubles the duration of a Tactical Sprint, and increases crouch movement speed by 30%

The Double Time perk is a Base Perk that focuses on mobility and fast movement above all else. Therefore, this is a must-have for a Riot Shield loadout.

The primary playstyle for using the Riot Shield is chasing down your enemies. Once they’re in range, you can simply snuff them out. With Double Time equipped, you’ll not only sprint more, but you’ll also be much faster than your enemies in crouching areas. This means that you can catch other players much more quickly and easily.

Overkill

• Tier: First/Base Perk
• Ability: Carry two primary weapons

Riot Shield is particularly good for close-range encounters since it’s melee-oriented. In long-range situations, you’ll often find yourself vulnerable. No matter how good your secondary weapon is, it won’t be as good or as consistent as a primary weapon. With Overkill, you’ll be able to carry two primary weapons where you can rely on both weapons.

This base perk is perfect for making your Riot Shield loadout balanced all around. You can equip your Riot Shield in smaller maps and encounters while keeping your second primary weapon on standby for long-range maps and gunfights.

Fast Hands

• Tier: Second/Bonus Perk
• Ability: You can reload, use equipment, and swap weapons faster

Fast Hands is a Bonus perk that works extremely when you have Overkill as one of your base perks. This perk allows you to reload and swap between your weapons faster. Additionally, this perk allows you to set up and use your equipment faster as well.

The most essential ability of Fast Hands in this loadout is to swap weapons much more quickly. As mentioned earlier, you’ll often be changing between your 2 primary weapons depending on the situation. Once you have this perk equipped, you can comfortably switch your weapons, leaving little room for vulnerabilities as you’re doing so.

Ghost

• Tier: Third/Ultimate Perk
• Ability: Undetectable by UAVs, Portable Radars, and Heartbeat Sensor

The Ghost is a great all-rounder Ultimate perk that can be equipped with nearly every loadout due to its unique and powerful ability, making it one of the best perks in the game. This perk makes you undetectable to every piece of equipment and killstreak, meaning there’s little chance of enemies ambushing you out of nowhere. Moreover, this ability has a special use for Riot Shield loadouts in Modern Warfare 2.

The best way to get kills from the Riot Shield is by either quickly running up to enemies, or sneaking up behind them. The Ghost perk can help you in both of these scenarios, and you’ll be able to catch your enemies off-guard.

Best Field Upgrades For Riot Shield Loadouts

Now that we’ve covered the best perks for the Riot Shield, we can now move on to the top field upgrades that’ll work well with our loadout. Again, we want to have the field upgrades that’ll make our movement and stealth better. With that said, here’s a list of field upgrades that work the best with Riot Shield loadouts:

Dead Silence

Dead Silence is a field upgrade that temporarily silences your footsteps when running around. This is an easy pick since it’ll help us sneak up on our enemies, hence improving our stealth. You can activate this Field Upgrade once you’re in tight places or inside buildings where players will often look for audio queues to track down enemies.

This aggressive archetype field upgrade is best suited for combative playstyles. This can be unlocked by reaching Level 51 in the Military Ranks.

Munitions Box

If your second primary weapon needs a lot of bullets to be properly utilized, then the Munitions Box is a great choice. Since the Riot Shield doesn’t have or need any bullets, you’ll mainly rely on your tactical/lethal equipment as well as your second weapon for long-range gunfights. Due to this, you’ll often find yourself running out of bullets when you’re on the battlefield for too long!

This is where the Munition Box’s utility shines. This defensive field upgrade can be placed on the ground to completely restock all your tactical and lethal equipment, as well as your ammo. So, if you’re a player who uses guns with lesser bullets and often runs out of them, then this upgrade is for you. You can unlock the Munitions Box by getting to Level 16 in the Military Ranks, which will also unlock the Lachmann 762 battle rifle.

Battle Rage

The Battle Rage field upgrade hugely enhances the player’s movement and health regeneration. Your Tactical Sprint is constantly refreshed, your health generation occurs more quickly, and you also become resistant to Tactical equipment. This is an ideal piece of equipment for a Riot Shield since it allows you to quickly run up to your enemies while resisting any distractions. For a mobility-focused loadout, this is a vital field upgrade.

This highly aggressive upgrade can be unlocked by reaching Level 24 in the Military Ranks. Additionally, upon reaching this rank, you’ll also unlock the JOKR, one of the best launchers in COD MW2.

Summary

The Riot Shield has always been very versatile in Call of Duty. You can try out endless combinations with it to find a loadout that best suits your play style. If you want to max out your favorite weapon in the game and get that shiny gold camo, consider checking out our guide to level up weapons fast in Modern Warfare 2. Other than that, you can also read up on our guide on the best Sniper Rifles in Modern Warfare 2 if you want to try long-range loadouts.

The perk system in Modern Warfare 2 gives you much more variety. You can create a lot more loadout combinations in this game compared to the previous Call of Duty titles. However, this also means that it’s often confusing to decide the best loadouts for a specific weapon, like the Riot Shield.