What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here!
We all know that the pistols have been changed in Rainbow Six Siege but the update goes so
much further than just the recoil animation that everyone has been talking about.
Besides it being much easier to target your enemies now, the fire rate and damage stat
changes also significantly increase the damage output of all pistols, making them highly
competitive in close range gunfights.
So let me show you exactly what has and hasn’t changed for the pistols
since the launch of Operation White noise!
I compared the reload times and aim down sight (or ADS) times for a selection of different
pistols from before and after the recent patch and I can confirm that neither of these parameters
has been modified.
Total ammo carried by the operators for each of the different pistols also remains the same.
In terms of what has changed, easily the most noticeable update is that
to the visual recoil of the pistols.
In the past, the handguns would kick upwards and to the right quite violently, covering
the most important part of your screen for a few frames and thereby making it difficult
to track targets while shooting at maximum fire rate.
And while this representation of the visual recoil is much closer to what you would experience
while shooting a pistol in real life, landing targeted headshots in the game was almost
impossible like this and depended more onluck than on skill.
With the new visual recoil, you operator is able to keep a near perfect line of sight
across the top of the gun, allowing you to track and target your opponents.
It also allows you to get a better feeling for the actual recoil affecting your point
of aim so that you can better judge where your next bullet is going to land when you're
pulling the trigger as fast as possible.
An amazing improvement already but that’s not all that has changed.
Fire rate, damage and actual recoil have also been modified so let’s check those updates
out, starting with the actual recoil.
When recording my comparison footage I made sure to always stand at the same spot and
fire at train cart from the same distance away.
This allows us to compare the impact patterns of the bullets to see if the actual recoil
has changed in any way.
One caveat for this test is that I was also trying to achieve the maximum fire rate, so
not all bursts were always the same length.
But that limitation aside, I think it is quite clear that for many of the lower damage guns,
the recoil seems to have increased quite a bit.
This is down to two causes: An actual minor increase in the recoil for the guns, plus
(as we will see a little later) an increase in the fire rate for each gun, meaning that
successive bullets can be shot just that little bit earlier, when the muzzle is still pointing
a little higher compared to where it would have been pre-patch.
The minor recoil increase is confirmed by the in-game recoil patterns for each gun,
as you can see here.
Of course, trusting the in-game stats is always a bit a leap of faith, but since they fit
in with my pre- & post-patch test recordings, I am inclined to trust these images.
So even though the new visual recoil makes it possible to actually see what you are shooting
at, the actual recoil affecting the bullet impact is a little harder to control.
Now let’s move on to the fire rate and in previous tests, during the Blood Orchid season,
I found out that the designated marksman rifles (or DMRs) and pistols had the same fire rate.
I recorded myself shooting all of these guns as fast as I could and the mode average time
between shots was 133ms or eight frames at 60fps.
This translated into a nice round fire rate of 450rpm and while the DMRs still shoot at
this rate (I double checked) the pistols can now be fired somewhat faster.
To be able to measure the new fire rate as accurately as possible, I turned my graphics
settings down to full potato mode to get the game running as smooth as buttered silk with
a frame rate of up to 350fps.
But sadly, the benefit of doing so was still limited by the fact that I am only able to
record at a framerate of 60fps so precisely determining the new fire rate was not possible.
The time between shots after the update was usually 7 frames (indicating a fire rate of
514.3rpm) but on several occasions I also managed to fire two shots within 6 frames
of each other (which translates into 600rpm) and analysing the audio waveforms of the footage
I recorded, revealed that the time between shots was around 6.5 frames (meaning around 550rpm).
So despite the limitations of 60fps footage and my annoying human inability to click my
mouse at a consistently high rate, I would conclude that under combat conditions, most
players will be able to fire the pistols at somewhere between 500 and 550rpm with the
max possible rate being up to 600rpm.
On consoles, depending on your controller and button layout, I can imagine that achieving
this maximum fire rate is even more challenging, so for the purposes of calculating a realistic
new damage output, I will assume a fire rate of 550rpm instead of the max rate of 600rpm
I managed to achieve on occasion.
So that’s step one down in estimating the damage output per second, now let’s see
what has changed with the damage drop-off curves.
All pistols have kept their existing linear damage decline between 12 and 22m but the
maximum and minimum damage stats have, in some cases, changed quite significantly.
The overall tendency in the update is that high powered pistols like the Luison, LFP586,
the D-50 and the PMM keep their stats unchanged
while some of the mid-low powered guns received considerable buffs.
The only exception here is the RG15 used by Ela and Zofia; it was relatively low powered
to begin with and has received no buffs at all, which has now made it the weakest sidearm of all.
But this makes complete sense, since this pistol is also the only one that comes with
an optical sight attached so the low damage output is likely used to balance the weapon out.
The biggest winners in terms of increased damage are the 5.7 USG and P9, which both
received a 14 point buff to their max damage (that is a 50% and 45% gain over their previous stats respectively).
The Q929 and M45 are also significantly more powerful now after a 20 & 21% buff amounting
to 10 points absolute gain each.
The minimum damage buffs for ranges of 22m and onwards are, as you can see, a bit more
diverse with the 5.7 USG receiving the greatest benefit of 10 points, the P226: 8 points,
the GSh-18: 7 points, the P229: 6 points and the Q929, USP40, P12 and P9: 5 points each.
As a part of these changes, there have also been a couple of nerfs.
The P226 lost 4 points of maximum damage, which brings it more in line with the other
medium damage weapons and poor old Capitao’s PRB92 also lost one point of max damage, putting
it on par with the new 5.7 USG as one of the absolutely weakest pistols in the game.
Don’t ask me what this guy did to deserve being punished even more.
Both of his primaries have always been kind of lacklustre and now his already less than
stellar sidearm has been kicked down another notch.
I would say R.I.P Capitao mains but I guess there are none so I suppose none really cares?
In summary, the damage range of the pistols has been compressed by raising up the low
damage pistols and now that we have this data, we can compare the new pistol capabilities
against other classes of weapons in the game.
The online spreadsheet I created after the Blood Orchid patch has been updated now to
include the new and changed weapons for White Noise, so if you want a full insight into
stats like damage per second, shots to kill and time to kill against all three types of
armour and more, use the link in the description.
The average maximum damage per shot of the new pistols (without the Luison) is now 52
points and the average minimum damage is 28 points.
That puts the pistols in second place, in terms of raw damage output per shot, only
beaten by the DMRs (when excluding Glaz’ rifle).
That may make the pistols seem overpowered but even with the new and improved fire rates,
average max damage per second is pretty mediocre and in terms of average min DPS, the pistols
come in at the very bottom of the rankings.
Average time to kill stats against all three types of armour (as always assuming max fire
rate and that all shots hit the torso or arms of your opponent) also perfectly reflect these findings.
At max damage range, the pistols are pretty average and at longer ranges, they will lose
out to all other types of weapons.
So in conclusion, ammo count, ADS time and reload time all stay the same.
The visual recoil is vastly improved, making it easier for you to track your target while
the combination of a minor recoil increaseand the higher fire rate make the guns slightly harder to control.
Damage per shot has been increased significantly for the lower damage pistols making the class
as a whole very competitive against all other types of weapons up close but their earlier
damage drop off and average minimum damage make them a poor choice for longer range engagements.
As mentioned before, for a much more detailed insight into the stats, do check out the online spreadsheet.
And that’s it!
This was once a gain quite a challenging topic to tackle and it required a whole shedload
of testing, number crunching and analysis to root out all of these details.
If you appreciate the effort, do go ahead and give the video a “like”, the YouTube
algorithm apparently really likes that kind of stuff.
And one last quick message, before I leave you for today.
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And with that, thank you so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video
and I will see you in the next episode!