What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and it has now been almost 2 seasons since the introduction
of the GIGR defender Kaid into Rainbow Six Siege.
At the launch of operation Wind Bastion, the apparent anticipation was that his gadget
would have a significant impact on the META and so to ensure that he was not overpowered,
he came equipped with one of the worst SMGs in the game: the AUG A3 Para.
But a lot has changed since then and the gun has in fact gone through two separate rounds
of buffs, which of course raises the question: is the AUG A3 viable now or should you still
stick with the TCSG12?
Let’s go and find out!
To begin our reassessment of Kaid’s primaries, let me first give you an overview of what
has changed for both guns.
When the TCSG was first introduced, it came with a major bug that gave controller users
a massive amount of recoil after every shot.
For a number of weeks, the gun was basically unusable to console players but this issue
has been fixed by now and even though we’re talking about a bug here, I think it’s still
fair to say that this was a major buff for controller players.
Other than that, there has only been one minor nerf to the shotgun.
Kaid is getting on in age a little and with patch 4.1.3 he misplaced one of his magazines
so now he will have to play PvP matches with 51 shells in total rather than 61.
Other than that, the gun remains unchanged.
The AUG on the other hand has become quite a bit more useful.
First of all, the aim down sight time of the gun has been reduced from 450ms to 300ms.
To me, it never made any sense for the Kaid’s AUG to be the only SMG in the game that had
the slow ADS time of the rifles so this to me is again more of a bug fix than an actual
buff but hey, the gun is better for it and that’s all that matters.
And yes, before I get buried under another avalanche of comments explaining to me that
the AUG is actually a rifle…
Yes, the AUG is originally a rifle BUT the version that Kaid uses is the 9x19mm AUG Para.
And a fully automatic carbine, chambered in a pistol calibre is the very definition of an SMG.
So to me, this gun is without a doubt an SMG and not a rifle and this is even confirmed
by the in-game damage drop-off distance of 18-28m (instead of 25-35m) which puts the
gun into the game’s SMG class.
So faster ADS time was the first buff but even after that, the gun was shockingly bad
with a below average damage per shot and a pretty slow fire rate.
The resulting Damage Per Second (DPS) was, at 315, the lowest out of all of the SMGs in the game.
With the recent buff in Patch 4.1.3, the single shot damage for the AUG has been raised by
around 20% at all ranges and this has resulted in relatively decent DPS values of 385 up
to 18m and 280 beyond 28m.
Compared to the SMG class averages of 406 & 283, the AUG is still a bit low but only just.
Does that mean that the AUG A3 is redeemed and is now a perfectly capable, kind of average weapon?
Well no, sadly not really.
In terms of the number of shots required to down or kill and the related time to down
or kill, the gun has become more consistent to what it used to be but not really much better.
Yes, we can definitely see improvements of needing one or two shots less, depending on
armour type and shot placement but the best time to down or kill is still 257ms and against
level 1 armour attackers, that is still the worst time of all full auto weapons in the
game and a good chunk slower than the 204ms average for the SMG class.
Against level 2 armour the SMG average TTK is 245ms (still faster than the AUG) but for
level 3 armour it is 270ms, so sure… the AUG actually outperforms a lot of other defender
guns in those circumstances.
Keep in mind though that out of all of the attackers, there are only 3 that wear heavy
armour: Montagne, Fuze and Gridlock (and yes, a couple of the recruits as well).
Basically the AUG does well against a tiny handful of opponents; it’s mediocre against
the most common level two armours but still but still really underwhelming when going
up against the 3 speeds.
The buffs are better than nothing of course but I kind of whish that the damage had been
raised to 34 points per shot instead of 33.
The results against full health opponents would have been exactly the same for level
2 and 3 armours but for level 1 armours the TTK would have been 171ms instead which is
very good but still only 5th best SMG overall.
But I guess, the objective with all of these buffs was to make the AUG more viable but
still keep it a little weak overall due to the versatility and power of the electro claws.
As always, I also tested the remaining stats for the gun such as fire rate, ADS time and
reload times and nothing has changed on that front.
The capacity for the weapon is also still unchanged at 31+1 bullets although in real
life, the capacity of the AUG Para is 32+1…
It’s a minor issue but one bullet extra wouldn’t really upset the balancing at all
and since pretty much all of the other guns in the game stick to the real life magazine
sizes, we might as well update the AUG A3 to also be correct.
And now, how do we conclude on this?
Which gun is now the best primary choice for Kaid?
The TCSG 12 has barely changed and so my summary remains pretty much the same.
Because this gun fires 12 gauge slugs instead of the regular buckshot, you’re basically
getting a very respectable DMR with breaching capabilities, although the recently misplaced
mag will force you to be just that little bit more careful in terms of how much ammo
you expend on opening up walls.
In the plus column for the shotgun is the fact that you can still attach an ACOG to
it, which can make all the difference when holding long angels and fighting at range.
The one big drawback of this gun is that it is semi-auto only, making it just that extra
bit more challenging to use compared to a full-auto weapon.
The AUG A3 has become a lot more viable but I would still rate it below average against
most opponents based on the detailed breakdown I provided earlier.
So the choice for us has changed from picking between a good DMR/Shotgun and a very poor
SMG to picking between a good DMR/Shotgun and a mediocre SMG that maybe just a little
below average over all.
And if you think about it, that actually leaves us with a real choice to be made.
At close ranges, the AUG is now definitely viable and more comfortable to use than the
TCSG, but on sites where you might want to bring some soft destruction or where you know
you will be holding long angles, you can sacrifice the full-auto capability and bring the TCSG instead.
I personally will be switching over to the AUG more often now and I think most other
players will benefit from doing the same but the shotgun will still remain a valuable option in Kaid’s arsenal.
What about you?
Which of the two guns will be your weapon of choice going forward?
Let me know in the comments section below and while you are there, feel free to give
the video a like if you want to support the channel!
If you haven’t seen my Siege development history video yet, I highly recommend that
you check it out by clicking the top left box on screen now.
The video is stuffed full of fascinating pre-alpha footage and if you are interested in Siege
or game development in any way, this video is definitely for you!
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode!