What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and in a recent patch update to Rainbow Six Siege,
both of the automatic slug shotguns in the game (Kaid and Goyo’s TCSG-12 & Maestro and Alibi’s
ACS12) had their damage buffed and of course the question is: How good are they now? Well,
they will definitely be more powerful than before but are they worth playing? Let’s find out!
And this video is brought to you by Nvidia and Alienware but more on that in a little while.
In the designer notes, the devs explain that both of the slug weapons are somewhat underpowered
compared to the alternative weapons each of the four operators has and as a result end
up being drastically underpicked. The purpose of the buff is to address both of these issues
without making the guns too strong and to achieve this, the ACS is getting an
extra 10 points of close range damage, while the TCSG goes up by seven points.
As the devs also note: the damage drop-off values are not affected. And what they mean
by that is that the drop-off distances and the minimum damage for each gun remain the same.
Both weapons have the same drop-off characteristics and since they are essentially
their own little hybrid weapon class, these characteristics are unique and different from
all other guns in the game. Drop-off starts at 18m (just like for the SMGs) but doesn’t bottom out
until a massive 50m! (That’s 5m more than the DMR and LMG classes and 15m more than assault rifles)
Why is this?! I don’t know… it makes no real sense for a 12 gauge slug to outperform a
7.62 calibre machine gun or marksman rifle in terms of range and I don’t really see
any reasonable gameplay purpose for this either. But ours is not to reason why,
ours is just grind the battle pass and buy skins. The minimum damage stats at 50m+ are 42 points for
the TCSG and 46 points for the ACS, resulting in drop-off curves that look like this.
And just for context and reference, why don’t we add in Buck’s CAMRS and as you can see,
the drop-off starts much earlier for these shotguns but is significantly less steep.
And before we continue with our analysis of these two weapons, I am delighted to announce
that I have been approached by Nvidia and Alienware to test the new Nvidia Reflex and
Nvidia DLSS technologies available in Rainbow Six Siege. In a few weeks’ time, I will be releasing a
dedicated video in which I demonstrate the latency reduction that I am able to achieve on my gaming
PC, while playing Siege with Reflex turned on. To be able to run those tests appropriately
Nvidia and Alienware have very graciously provided me with a GeForce 3080 and a 360Hz
AW2521H Gaming Monitor and I have been using this hardware for a couple of months now.
With my current setup, I have been able to achieve an average framerate of 337Hz with
all of the graphics cranked up to Ultra and it’s the smoothest that R6 has ever run for me
and that smoothness isn’t only visually pleasing, but in a fast paced game like Rainbow Six,
where every millisecond counts, the high refresh rate and incredible 1ms response
time of the Alienware 25 translates into lower system latency and easier target tracking to
give you the best possible to opportunity to spot, target and take down your opponents.
Stay tuned in my upcoming videos for more littles nuggets of info about how this new
technology can help perform better you but for now, let’s go back to the slug shotguns!
Comparing the pre- and post-patch versions of the two weapons, we can see that despite
the same drop-off characteristics, the new versions will of course outperform the old ones
at essentially all ranges until max, with a decreasing advantage the further the range.
And that’s all nice and good, of course the guns will now hit just that little bit harder
but what does that mean practically, in terms of Damage per Second and Shots/Time to Kill?
Here are the DPS stats for the old shotguns, compared to the alternative weapons all of the
relevant operators have access to and as you can see, even the old TCSG wasn’t that bad compared
to Kaid’s AUG A3 and Goyo’s Vector. BUT, keep in mind that this DPS stat is the theoretical maximum
and it assumes that you can fire the guns at full fire rate and still hit every shot to the body.
That might be relatively realistic with the AUG and at close to medium range is also
doable with the Vector but with the TCSG, this becomes quite a challenge unless you
are really close to your opponent. The old ACS (due to its fire rate
being hard locked to 300RPM) had quite an abysmal DPS at only 295
which is the lowest in the entire game apart from the Polish RG-15 sidearm and Kali’s CSRX rifle.
But of course, both guns have been buffed and (at least in theory) the TCSG can now outdamage both
the Vector and the AUG A3. The ACS on the other hand can still not compete with the alternative…
ehm… GIS weapons… I’m gonna go with that. Long-time followers of the channel will by now
know that, while DPS is a great stat because it lets us objectively compare the damage
output of various guns, it can also be pretty misleading, so we need to follow up this analysis
with some more practical measures: the number of shots to down/kill and time to down/kill!
I have crunched all the numbers and let’s skip all that and jump straight to the results!
What you are basically looking at here are the differences in shots to kill and time
to kill from before and after the buff, for each of the two guns at all ranges
and we have those stats for level 1, 2 & 3 armours for both chest and limb strikes.
For the TCSG, the 10% additional short range damage does very little to boost the gun’s
actual performance against full health opponents. Only level three armours with chest strikes will
require one less hit at close ranges up to 18m and any further than that and the benefits become
rather patchy. Due to the 450 RPM approximate fire rate of the TCSG, each saved shot results in 133ms
in reduced time to take down your opponent. The ACS does see a stronger improvement,
saving one shot against level 3 armours and level 1 & 3s when scoring limb strikes
but once damage drop-off kicks in, the improvements again become patchy. Each
saved bullet, reduces the TTK by 200ms but, will it be enough to compete with the ALDA and Mx4?!
Weeeell… not quite but the ACS might not be just straight up trash anymore.
The ALDA does require more shots to down every type of opponent with every strike location but
the higher fire rate still ensures that the ALDA’s TTK is lower in almost every situation although
it must be noted that against level 2 armours, the ACS at short range is now just as effective
and against level 1 armours at long range, the TTK is actually lower for the shotgun (on paper).
Against the Mx4, things look even more promising! Overall, the SMG does hold the advantage at
short range, as well as extreme range but level 2 armours are once again the short range exception.
The new ACS is just pretty good against 2 armours it seems. In the mid to long distance,
the ACS can (at least in theory) outperform the Mx4 by quite a chunk against certain armour
types and if you were ever going to realistically consider bringing the ACS on Alibi, it should
probably be for situations in which you are going to hold a relatively long indoor angle.
With the TCSG, we see our earlier conclusion confirmed. Against the Vector, the raw power of
the improved slug shotgun leads to significantly shorter times to kill in most situations.
Only against level 1 armour limb shots, at short range and level 3 armour body shots
in a tiny range window, does the Vector win out. Against Kaid’s AUG, the picture almost identical.
Level 1 armour limb strikes and level 3s just as the drop-off starts are the TCSG’s weakness but in
almost all other situation, the TCSG fucking slays (… as long as you can deal with the semi-auto only
aspect and the quite considerable recoil). Bottom line for the new & improved TCSG
is that the only real downside to the gun nowadays is the handling. Slower ADS time, semi-auto only
mode and more difficult recoil are the limiting factors of this gun but if you’re holding mid to
long range angles and you are happy controlling this weapon, I’m borderline temped to say that,
purely from a damage on target perspective, the TCSG is now a reasonably viable alternative
for most experienced players, given the right defensive situations. Add to this, that both of
the slug guns have access to 2x sights and as surprising as this conclusion might be,
after this relatively modest buff the two slug guns seem to be in a pretty good place. They are
more difficult to handle and less versatile than the alternative choices for each of the affected
operators, but with enough practice, in the right situations these guns might not only be viable
alternatives but actually the preferable choices. What are your thoughts on these guns? Did you ever
really use them before the buff and have you checked them out since? Worth bring out every
now or then or nah? Leave your comments below and with that, thanks for watching; I hope you enjoyed
the video, leave a like if you learnt something useful and I will see you in the next episode!