What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and as we are all used to by now, the new Operators coming
with Operation Steel Wave will bring with them some familiar weapons and the choice
to give the 2-speed / 2-armour attacker Ace the AK-12 assault rifle is… shall we say
interesting, to say the least.
Now normally, the goal of my Loadout META series is to compare a character’s two main
weapons, in order to help players decide which one is better for them but let’s be honest
here: bringing the M1014 shotgun on an attacker… who not only has a hard breaching tool as
his main gadget… but also has access to breaching charges as a secondary gadget…
is about as redundant as bringing a reserve of spare snowballs, on you trip to the Antarctic.
I mean really…
Ace doesn’t need more breaching capabilities and a primary shotgun on attack is literally
never a competitively viable choice.
Ace might as well just come with one primary weapon for all the good the 1014 will do.
So, with that in mind, we will be switching things up a little today.
The focus of this video will be to firstly explore the differences between Fuze and Ace’s
AK-12s, then to provide evidence based recommendations on which attachments to slap on the
rifle while playing as Ace, then we’ll check whether or not it’s worth considering the suppressor
on the AK before rounding the video off with a bit of a general insight into the rifle’s performance.
Basically answering the question of: What can you expect in terms of the fragging power
when playing as Ace?
When looking at the AK-12 on Ace, one of the first surprising things I noticed is that
there are some subtle, yet noticeable differences when compared to the AK-12 as wielded by Fuze.
The technical stats of the guns are identical.
Same fire rate ;
same damage and damage drop-off;
same magazine capacity and total ammo pool.
But when it comes to the handling of each
gun, they are slightly different and I have to say: I really like that.
It makes perfect sense that the same gun could possibly handle slightly differently when
handled by different characters… with their hands.
Now a simple comparison of the in-game recoil patterns shows that they are essentially identical
but here on the Rogue-9 channel the word “simple” and “analysis” just don’t go together,
so of course we tested the actual recoil in-game and lo and behold, they are similar but there
are some apparent differences that consistently recur from trial to trial!
If you look closely you can see that the first few shots in the bursts fired by Ace tend
to be less horizontally dispersed but with slightly more vertical recoil.
Later on in the burst, it appears as if Ace’s pattern is usually just that little bit wider
than that of Fuze.
I have a theory as to why the recoil patterns are different in practice, even though the
menu charts are the same but I think I will have to reserve a discussion on that for a
dedicated video on how the recoil actually works in Rainbow Six Siege.
I’ll add it to my to-do list and hey maybe I’ll get around to it before the end of the year!
The important takeaway for now is that Ace does not have quite the same control as Fuze
does, when it comes to firing the AK-12 in full auto.
It’s subtle but I do believe there is a difference.
The factor that is definitely different is the hip-fire spread each character will experience.
In principle the two AKs do have the same hip-fire stats in all different stances: whether
that’s standing,
firing while standing,
kneeling
or prone.
The difference for the two operators comes from their different movement speeds.
Fuze’s key weakness is that over the years, he has had a few too many Beef Stroganoffs,
which turned him into a chunky boi . But when it comes to hip-fire spread, being faster
is actually a disadvantage because the faster you move, the greater the spread you will
experience and you can see this affecting Ace simply when moving
or when moving while shooting.
So two slight handling disadvantages when playing as Ace but on the plus side, he is
able to use the standard NATO sights, while Fuze is still stuck with the Russian ones
(because that’s still a thing in Siege apparently).
Sight preference is a personal matter really but I think most players will prefer the ACOG
over the PK-AS sight, so I’ll put this down as a slight advantage for Ace.
Besides the sight choices, all other attachment options are the same, so why don’t we move
seamlessly over to those?
Which attachment options offer the best controllability for the AK-12?
Let’s start out by choosing a muzzle attachment.
In our earlier recoil comparisons you will have noticed that the first three shots of
a burst with AK-12 are pretty straight and after that the gun starts to veer off to the
right, while the horizontal movement can become somewhat random.
In the comparison in the background now, you can see the Muzzle Brake, Flash Hider and
Compensator compared side by side.
As you would expect, the Muzzle Brake is great at controlling the first shot recoil, the
Compensator is useful for dampening the random horizontal movement throughout the entire
burst and the Flash Hider is result of when a Muzzle Brake and a Compensator love each
other very much and we end up with something that is a bit of both, it has a bit of an
effect on the first shot recoil and a bit of an effect on the random movement during
the entire burst.
Once we have run through all of the ammo, these are the resulting burst patterns.
If you only ever shoot very short bursts, then I guess the Muzzle Brake would be ideal
for you, it really evens out those first three shots perfectly.
Most players in Siege though will frequently fire very long bursts and if you’re going
to be doing that with the AK-12, then really the Compensator is the way to go.
You can always train yourself to counter the vertical recoil but random side to side movement
is by definition… well random and unpredictable, so my personal recommendation here has to
be the Compensator.
My follow on practical test, where I tried all three attachments while controlling the
recoil only served underline this conclusion.
Because the AK-12 has a relatively large recoil diamond (that’s basically the chance of
random dispersion from shot to shot) the Compensator is the perfect fit for this gun and will suit
most players in most situations.
That’s the muzzle attachment sorted and when it comes to grips, the questions we need
to answer are pretty simple: Do we need the vertical grip to control the recoil or can
we get by without out it, in which case the 40% faster ADS time of the angled grip is
the way to go!
Fun fact, I have come to realise that I hate the slow ADS time in Siege so much, that I
recently went through the menu and slapped the angled grip on literally every gun that
can take it… but, as the test footage clearly shows, the recoil of the AK-12 is a bit stiffer
than for most other guns and controlling the burst is much easier with the vertical grip.
At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice for each individual player: I think that the
angled grip could be viable and I might start out using it, but if I notice that I’m not
accurate enough with my bursts, I will simply have to go for the vertical instead and put
up with the slow as shit aiming.
The final attachment question to consider is whether or not the suppressor could be
a viable choice for Ace.
The in-game stats tell us that the damage of the AK-12 goes down from 45 points per
shot to 38, once the suppressor is attached and as is tradition, this information is of
course wrong and the actual suppressed damage is 40 points up close and 19 at max. range.
It’s quite surprising how misleading all of the suppressor info in the game still is.
For more information on this topic, do check out my recent video, link in the top right
hand corner now and coming up in the end card!
What does a reduction from 45 to 40 damage mean?
Well actually, it’s good news everyone!
Up to 25m distance, the number of total shots to down or kill is only increased by one shot
against level 3 armour opponents and level 1s wearing Rook plates.
That means that level 1 and 2 armours, as well as level 2 and 3s with plates will take
the exact same number of body hits with or without the suppressor attached.
Of course at long ranges you will need one extra shot for every opponent type (with or
without armour) but Siege is a pretty close ranged game and so I would say that the suppressor
on the AK-12 could actually be a viable choice.
In most situations, against 4 out of 6 armour and plate combos, the loss in damage won’t
actually affect your takedown power and in every other case, it’s one extra body shot.
The only other question is whether or not the gun will still be controllable enough
without the compensator and if we check out the footage in the background, I would say:
“yeah, the suppressor is not too bad.”
Sure, the vertical grip and compensator combo is definitely still easier to handle but compared
to the angled grip option, the suppressor with vertical is pretty good.
My conclusion here would be that any of these three choices could work really well for you,
depending on the playstyle you pick for any given round.
If you are pretty confident on your vertical recoil control and you want to push a bit
more aggressively, the angled/compensator setup could be your best pick.
If you are feeling like being a sneaky snek, then vertical and suppressor is a pretty decent
option but if you need a bit more help with recoil control or you’re going to be playing
more cautiously, with a lot of angle holding and longer range engagements, then go for
the vertical grip plus compensator.
And finally, if you were wondering whether or not the AK-12 on Ace would be any good,
let’s perform a quick analysis of how strong this gun really is!
I my recent-ish Fuze Loadout META video (pssst link at the end if you haven’t seen it yet),
I offered the following conclusion: “The only reason that players are not calling the
AK-12 OP or a crutch is because Fuze, as a 1 speed attacker is just not picked often
enough for it to make the impact it really could.
As long as you use the compensator to get the gun under control, it is a real beast
of a weapon and quite possibly one of the best you can get on any operator in Rainbow
Six Siege right now.”
Over the last year, poor old Twitch has been hit with nerf, after nerf, after nerf… all
because in the eyes of the devs, “the players were using her wrong”.
People were choosing Twitch not for her utility, but for her incredibly powerful gun, which
was called overpowered and a crutch!
Well, now that the mighty AK-12 will be available on a 2-speed operator, I almost feel that
sooner or later it’s going to become the new F2 because the fact is that out of all
fully automatic weapons in the game, the AK-12 has the second highest damage per second outpit… outpit?!
The AK-12 has the second highest damage per second output of all (only beaten
by the SMG-11).
Let’s just compare the basic stats of the two guns, shall we?
The AK-12 has very high damage and still has a fire rate that is 100 RPM higher than the
average for the assault rifle class.
DPS is unbeaten at close range, capacity is pretty standard and the reload times are only
one tenth of a second below the class averages of 3.3 and 2.5s.
It does have access to the angled grip and the hip fire spread is about a third better
than the F2 in every situation; see the comparisons here!
And last but not least, despite all of its power the recoil is only slightly more challenging
than usual and compared to the F2’s recoil (which has been targeted by nerfs several
times now) it’s still an absolute dream.
In terms of shots to kill both at short range and at long range, the AK has advantages and
despite the slower fire rate, this still translates into time to down or kill advantages at short
range in almost all cases.
Hibana is probably the closest rival of Ace terms of their roles in the team and interestingly,
the AK-12 has the exact same fire rate as her Type-89 rifle… except with 12.5% more
close range damage and a 50% larger magazine capacity.
The end result is that whichever way you slice it, the AK-12 is one of the best weapons in
the game right now and on a 2-speed operator with very useful hard breaching utility, it
has every potential to become the new R4-C, the new 416-C or the new F2.
If you have access to Ace once the new season launches, all I can say is make use of him
while you can because sooner or later, the AK-12 is almost certainly going to get nerfed
in some way or another.
So there you have it, a quick… ish overview of the AK-12 performance potential, the minor
differences between Fuze and Ace and a guide on how best to set the gun up for your individual playstyle.
What attachments do you think you will be running most on the AK-12?
I would normally ask you to vote in the poll but YouTube is discontinuing them, so leave
a comment below instead!
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode!