What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and while we may not have any new weapons to explore this
season, there are some guns that are receiving major damage stat changes for Operation Ember
Rise; first and foremost among them Jackal’s PDW9.
This means that my previous Loadout META video is now out of date, so good news everyone:
We are going to be revisiting Jackal to compare his C7E and PDW9!
What are their strengths and weaknesses and which one should you be using in which situation?
Let’s go and find out!
As always, let’s start out with a quick check of the overall stats.
I briefly checked over all of the important ones with a few tests in-game and it appears
that everything but the damage output of the PDW9 is remaining as is.
The SMG is getting a damage buff at close range and a nerf at long range to finally
give it the proper damage drop-off it always deserved.
No longer will the PDW be the outcast amongst Siege’s guns; the only gun that for some
reason got more powerful at longer ranges…
For better or worse, those days are finally coming to an end!
But despite the long range damage nerf, the PDW remains the better gun at long range for
Jackal and with both guns having the same fire rate; the individual damage advantages
and disadvantages translate through into the damage per second stats.
And as I mentioned all else remains equal.
Because of this, the way I will be structuring this video is that I will briefly recap all
of the important elements about the guns that are not changing and then go into a more detailed
discussion and comparison of the takedown power of each weapon before issuing a new conclusion.
If you have seen my previous Loadout META video on Jackal and you remember all of the
details from back then, then feel free check the comment’s section below for a timestamp
that will allow you to jump straight to the damage discussion.
If you would like a quick refresher on all of the other stats, just sit back… relax…
close your eyes…
take a deep breath in…
hold…
and gently breathe out…
AND NOW OPEN YOUR EYES AND PAY ATTENTION 'CAUSE I HAVE SOME QUICK-FIRE GUN INFO FOR YOU!
In terms of capacity: 30+1 bullets is great but 50+1 bullets is even greater!
Standard balancing in R6 is: more bullets in the gun means longer reload times and that
applies to Jackal too.
The C7E has blisteringly fast reload times, the best of any assault rifle in the game
and even better than most SMGs.
The PDW9 is the polar opposite with reload times that are 300-500ms below the averages
for the SMG class.
But I guess you get almost double the capacity so: swings and roundabouts!
Aim Down Sight times are the standard 450ms and 300ms respectively but with the angled
grip, you can cut each of those down by 40% giving you a pretty good 270ms with the C7E
and a downright amazing 180ms with the PDW.
Hip Fire spreads are also very, very good for both guns with the C7 taking an advantage
while stationary and prone and the PDW winning out while on the move.
This emphasises the playstyles that have already been hinted at by the ADS times.
The PDW is probably one of the best guns in Rainbow Six for fighting on the move and quickly
acquiring any targets you come across.
The C7 will benefit more from a measured approach involving meticulous droning and pre-aiming every push.
And last but not least in our little recap: recoil!
In the charts at the bottom of your screen now, from left to right for both guns, you have:
Recoil patterns with no attachments
Recoil patterns with minimised vertical recoil (i.e. the muzzle brake and vertical grip attached)
And on the C7E side only, also a variation with the compensator instead of the muzzle brake
All in all, the recoil of the PDW is more
consistent and not as strong vertically, so this round definitely goes to the SMG once again.
Now if we tally up the scores so far to decide which gun is better based solely target acquisition,
controllability and ammo availability: I would call it a draw in terms of the ammo
because one has more bullets but the other much better reload times;
A draw in terms of hip fire, because they are very similar in most cases;
A win for the PDW in terms of Aim Down Sight time;
And another minor win for the PDW in terms of recoil.
The interim conclusion is that, without considering the takedown power of each gun, the nimble
PDW definitely has the age over the more cumbersome rifle… has the age?!
I don’t even know what I’m saying here… has the “edge” of course.
But of course that begs the question: How do the new damage stats affect the PDW’s
ability to take out opponents?
Which gun now comes out on top in this category?
We’ve seen the raw damage stats per shot, the fire rates and the resulting Damage Per
Second stats and they would suggest that the C7E is far more powerful in the all-important
short range gunfights but that the PDW still wins out at stupidly long ranges of 34m plus…
Let’s see if this initial indication is confirmed by the new Shots to Down/Kill and
Time to Down/Kill stats.
If you still remember the original PDW9 stats from my video 7 odd months ago, then first
of all holy cow; what diet are you on to have a memory like that?!
I definitely need to start eating more of whatever you’re on… but secondly you will
notice that at short range the change to the PDW’s damage stats have reduced the shots
to down/kill for level 2 armour opponents by 1, making the PDW just as good as the C7E now.
Against most level 1 and 3 armour shot placement and Rook armour combinations though, the 4
extra points of damage will not make a difference (at least as long as the enemy is still at full health).
And so overall, the C7E is still the more effective gun at taking down opponents at
close ranges up to 25m although the gap between the two guns has narrowed considerably.
This is also reflected by the Time to Down/Kill stats where the one extra bullet that the
PDW needs in just over half of all cases will mean 75ms extra to deal with the opponent.
At longer range, after both weapons have had their damage bottom out, the significant nerf
of the PDW9’s damage (from 35 down to 26) means that the gap between the two weapons
has narrowed significantly.
Nevertheless, the damage of the C7 is even lower here which then means that the PDW will
still need on average one less shot to down/kill which then results in an average time saving
of 75ms for the corresponding time to down/kill.
So that confirms our initial conclusion that the C7E is still the more powerful gun up
close (although the advantage is not quite as consistent anymore) and the PDW9 is still
a whole lot better at very long range BUT!
Now that the PDW has a proper damage drop-off curve we have to consider the much earlier
drop of range of the SMGs, compared to the rifles.
You see last time that didn’t matter because the PDW’s damage just went from 34 to 35
at some point but now that the damage starts falling away from 18m and onward, that means
that there is an intermediate distance at which this SMG will be much weaker than the
C7 because the rifle’s damage does not even start to fall off until 25m, at which point
the PDW’s has already pretty much bottomed out!
Let me show you what I mean.
At the very top you see the damage for each gun at all ranges, for chest shots with no Rook armour.
Then below in blue are the shots to down/kill for the C7E and below that the same in orange for the PDW9.
The last three rows show the difference between the two guns in terms of shots to take out
an opponent and as you can clearly see the close range and long range stats tell a bit
of a biased story because it makes the PDW actually look like the stronger gun on average.
But it’s the middle distance that tells the true story and as you can see, the PDW
will consistently need 1 or even 2 extra shots at those ranges.
Once you add in Rook plates, leg strikes or both at the same time, that disadvantage is
going to become even more noticeable with the PDW needing 1, 2 or even up to 3 shots
more at certain distances.
This means that the true conclusion actually favours the C7E much more than we may have initially expected.
Yes at ranges below 18m the rifle is only a bit stronger than the SMG and at distances
of 35m or more the PDW will actually frequently need one less hit.
But if you’re fighting at medium range, the clear advantage goes to the C7E.
The question is: how likely are you to encounter opponents at any of these distances?
The fact is that most interior spaces in Siege are not that large.
Rooms will be a few meters across and even hallways are not usually that long.
Most combat will definitely take place at the range below 18m and if you do go above
that, then the chances of it ever going to 35m or more are very slim indeed.
Since nobody has time to constantly be measuring the distances to their opponents, I would
say that the simple fact is that with the new PDW stats, you always want to keep things
relatively close ranged because if you try to go for long ranged fights, you are most
likely to end up in that middle distance that you don’t want to be at, rather than the
ultra-long range where you will start to see an advantage again.
So despite the PDW9 becoming more powerful at short range with Operation Ember Rise and
still remaining a great option at very long range, the new damage drop-off will be a definite
nerf at certain ranges.
In conclusion, I would still say that the C7E is the more flexible and more reliable
gun for most players but as long as you keep your gunfights below the magic 18m mark, the
PDW is still an excellent choice and its target acquisition and controllability perks are
pretty much unrivalled amongst all of the attacker weapons.
Jackal still has two of the best guns in the game and the fact is that you won’t go far
wrong by picking either of the two; just as long as you stay away from that god awful ITA12L…
Such a pointless option to include on an operator who already has a secondary shotgun.
And that’s it!
If you the info and tips I have presented today could be useful to you, do feel free
to give the video a thumbs up; if I wasted your time then that’s what the thumbs down is there for.
As always, thank you so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video
and I will see you in the next episode!