What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and by popular request our next loadout META analysis will
focus on IQ’s main weapons: the 552 Commando, the AUG A2 and the G8A1 machinegun.
For me personally, the 552 was always the primary choice primarily because the AUG takes
up a huge amount of space on the screen to the point of being obstructive and the G8
is an LMG and as a class, the machineguns never really used to be viable.
But are those assumptions still accurate as of Operation Wind Bastion?
Let’s crunch some stats and find out!
Ok, I mentioned the outrageous silhouette of the AUG and why not start there because
even though not stat related, having your vision obstructed by your gun model is nonetheless
a significant drawback to consider.
Since the launch of Rainbow Six Siege, the AUG has always stood out as a gun that sits
incredibly high on the player’s screen.
As you can see here the AUG with ACOG sight attached reaches three quarters of the way
up to top of the screen and then there is this butt-ugly huge charging handle that sticks
out towards the centre of the screen.
Compare this to the 552 with ACOG or even an LMG like the G8 and you can see the difference.
If you pick a smaller sight, like the reflex, the story remains much the same.
I never understood why IQ decides to run around while holding the AUG up to her face as if
she is wading through water up to her chin.
Like, even when comparing the AUG A2 silhouette to the AUG A3 used by Kaid we can see that
this is only really an issue for IQ.
So yeah, there you go.
It’s been three years since release of the game and the AUG A2 still takes up a ridiculous
amount of space on the screen unlike any other gun in the game.
But ok, it’s not a complete deal breaker, I guess and maybe it’s just me who find’s
this particularly frustrating.
Whatever the case, I am still going to call this a disadvantage for the AUG right off
the bat and if we take a brief look at the stat summary for all three of IQ’s guns,
things don’t really get much better for the Austrian bullpup rifle.
A quick glance is all we really need to see that both the 552 and G8 have advantages,
as well as drawbacks but the stat summary shows that the AUG falls quite conclusively
in the middle of the two other guns and doesn’t really win out in any of the categories.
So let’s start our consideration for these guns out at the top.
For each single shot, the 552 is the most powerful gun of the three, the AUG is pretty
average compared to the rest of the assault rifles and the gun with the largest calibre
in real life (the G8) is actually super weakup close although the long range damage is actually pretty good.
It is also worth mentioning that the damage drop-off for LMGs in Rainbow Six bottoms out
a little later, at 40m instead if 35m.
How useful is this in a game where the average kill distance is below 10m?
My guess would be that this mini-advantage has no real impact for the G8 at all.
But there you go; I have mentioned it fore completeness’ sake.
In terms of fire rate, both the 552 and the AUG are below the assault rifle class average
of 746.7 RPM and this is where the G8 really shines.
Combine the damage per shot and the rate of fire and we get the damage output per second
(against level 1 armour when all shots hit the upper body).
Up to 26m distance the 552 is the winner in this category while the G8 takes the top spot
from 27m plus.
The AUG is just bit disappointing with its below average stats at all ranges but it in
all fairness, it is not the weakest rifle in the game.
In fact, amongst the assault rifles, the AUG ranks 17 out of 21 for raw damage output.
Not great but also not the worst.
Max damage output is a useful little stat when comparing video game guns but possibly
more important are the shots to kill and time to kill.
At close range (up to 25m) the 552 is powerfulenough to take down most opponents in 3 shots,
even with Rook plates.
Despite the lower damage, the AUG manages to keep up quite well at these ranges but
the G8 is left somewhat behind, requiring 1 or 2 extra shots against all combinations
of armour and hit zones, apart from against level 1 armour, body shots.
The ranges at which these guns do their lowest damage are three and a half to four times
the average kill range of Siege, so these numbers are not really that important but here they are anyway.
As you can see the 552 and G8 are pretty well matched (although the 5m extra drop-off distance
provides the G8 with a minimal advantage) with the AUG is bringing up the rear.
Time to down / kill up to 25m is pretty interesting though, since when comparing the 552 and AUG,
the AUG actually has numbers that are just that tiny bit better than those of the 552
in most cases except against level 2 armour leg or body shots with Rook plates and level
1 armour leg shots without Rook plates.
So in most case the AUG is quicker but in the cases where it will be slower it will be quite
a bit slower so at the end of the day, I am going to call both of these guns pretty much
equally viable in terms of the TTK.
And the stats for the G8 are another interesting thing, since against level 1 armour, up to
30m distance, the LMG actually posts the quickest time out of all three options.
That is exactly the same time as Hibana’s Type-89 and only 1ms slower than Ash’s R4-C,
so pretty damn good!
But that is against level 1 armour body shots, without Rook plates, only.
After that, the G8’s weak single shot damage means that you’ll be looking at times to
down or kill that are significantly below average.
That just goes to show that you can’t simply judge a book by its cover.
The AUG may look weaker at first glance but can definitely hold its own and the G8 may
have a huge fire rate advantage but is still too weak to really challenge the other two
in most cases when landing body shots.
Having said that though, the high fire rate and large capacity of the G8 can definitely
allow players to spray a very decent amount of lead down range and in a game where a single
head shot can end a fire fight in an instant; this can work out to be a decent advantage after all.
Reload times are pretty much as you would expect them: similar for the two rifles (although
the AUG is a touch slower) and then quite a bit slower for the G8 to balance out the
gun for its higher capacity.
For Aim Down Sight times, the two rifles come with the standard 450ms (with the option of
an angled grip on the 552) while the G8 has a significant disadvantage at 600ms.
The angled grip can make the 552 the undisputed king in this category but of course that is
at the cost of the 25% better recoil control offered by the vertical grip.
And let’s maybe look at recoil shortly because that was again a pretty interesting factor.
First let me mention the hip fire and get it out of the way, because it’s quite boring.
All guns have almost exactly the same hip fire spread diameter (literally one or two
pixels difference) except the G8 when moving.
Here, the spread becomes a little bit larger.
So, recoil and again here things are quite interesting, because the three guns are so
different from each other.
The 552 Commando has the harshest default recoil.
I mean, look at the left most recoil pattern; the fifth shot in the burst isn’t even shown anymore.
But at the same time, the 552 is also the only one of IQ’s primaries that can get
the best possible vertical recoil reduction by attaching the muzzle brake and vertical grip.
Neither the AUG, nor the G8 have access to the muzzle brake which is very unusual.
But at least the G8 can still attach a vertical grip… that is sort of mounted at an angle…
but it’s still a vertical grip.
The AUG is one of those rifles that comes with a pre-attached grip and can therefore
not attach a separate one but luckily, the default recoil pattern is pretty decent to begin with.
In theory, the G8 has the most controllable recoil but the significantly faster fire rate
actually increases the challenge to a point where the gun is manageable but definitely
requires a positive draw down on the mouse to compensate for the climb.
Despite the pretty evil looking default recoil, the slow fire rate of the 552 achieves basically
the opposite effect making the guns very manageable with the vertical grip attached and still
ok to shoot with the angled grip instead.
But one thing that really surprised me was how easy the AUG was to control.
I think what really helps is the lowish fire rate, combined with the dead straight recoil
and relatively small recoil diamond.
After shooting the other two guns and then testing the AUG last, it really felt like a laser.
One last thing before we wrap up.
In the beginning, I talked about the first person impact of the gun models and in the
case of IQ, I think it’s also worth briefly mentioning the third person impact.
Both the 552 Commando and the AUG A2 are very compact rifles but the G8A1 is much larger.
In some occasional cases, when slowly moving through doorways or around corners, there
is a small chance that the significant length of the G8 could give you away and basically
allow your opponent a free pre-fire kill.
With the two rifles, the chances of that are much smaller.
Although to be fair, the chance of having the G8 length work against you in any given round is quite
small, especially if you take care when approaching doorways and corners but there is still a
chance, so do take this into consideration.
And those are pretty much all of the important stats, so how do we conclude?
Let me start off with the G8A1 machinegun first.
This weapon definitely has some strengths going for it: it is the most powerful of the
three guns at long range (whatever that is worth in Siege), it has a high fire rate and large capacity.
The reload time isn’t great but for me, the number one drawback has to be the slow ADS time.
Not being able to react to sudden threats requires a much more methodical playstyle.
You can’t simply sprint in and wreck people, you need to make sure that you give yourself
enough time to aim in before taking an engagement.
Sure we’re only talking 150ms slower compared to assault rifles but in practice, you’ll
feel the difference.
The G8 is still a viable option if you are going to play IQ in more of a supporting role:
hang back a bit, sniff out those Valk cams and traps and then use the G8 to hold long
angles and protect the flanks.
In that kind of role, the G8 can be amazing but if you are going to play IQ in a more
aggressive manner, then either of the two assault rifles would probably be a better idea.
For the rifles, let me get the AUG out of the way first because on paper, the only thing
this gun has going for it is the ok time to down or kill and even here, it’s only a
few milliseconds better than the 552 in most cases.
In the rest of the cases, it is actually significantly slower and in addition to that, it still takes
up a stupid amount of screen space.
If there is one real saving grace for this weapon as it is currently modelled in Siege,
it is its controllability.
This gun really is a laser and probably one of the smoothest recoiling assault rifles
you can find in the game.
So if you want controllability, here it is… other than that, the 552 probably offers you
the better all-round package.
With high power, decent damage output & TTK and good reload, the only weakness of the
552 is the slow fire rate.
Yes, the recoil is harsh but the fire rate basically cancels that out to a point where
I would say that (at least on PC) the angled grip is definitely a viable choice.
If you want maximum controllability, bring the vertical grip but if you can take the
added recoil, the lightning fast ADS of the angled grip can really seal the deal and make
this gun the best choice for playing IQ in an aggressive manner.
Those would pretty much be my conclusions on all three guns!
What about you?
Do you ever use the G8 or the AUG at all?
If so, what is it that you particularly like about these guns?
Let me know in the comments section below!
Also, feel free to let me know which guns you would like me to analyse next!
I’ve seen a lot of requests for Jackal’s guns but also more and more calls for the P90 vs. MP5.
Those would be pretty interesting to examine or I could do something completely different.
It’s up to you!
And with that, thanks so much for watching; I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see
you in the next episode!