What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and currently the Mid-Season Balancing Patch for Operation
Void Edge is live on the Rainbow Six Siege test servers, so I hopped on over to take
a closer look at the changes that will be coming to the game soon!
Now April Fool’s day might have only just gone, but the devs definitely aren’t messing
around with this patch… or actually, maybe they are because there’s some hefty looking changes here.
There has already been quite a stir on Twitter, with just about everyone who plays this game
upset and even outraged.
Professional players as well as casuals and everyone in between have been venting their
frustration about the proposed changes so, why don’t we take a closer look at them
and see how they will affect the game.
First up in the patch notes is a nerf/buff combo to the JTF2 operator Buck.
On the one hand, his SK 4-12 “Skeleton Key” shotgun attachment is being upgraded from
using 4 shot magazines to 5s.
This actually makes sense, since the real life counterpart to this shotgun, the M26
Modular Accessory Shotgun System, can use either 3 shot or 5 shot magazines but 4 shot
magazines do not exist.
So this is a “two birds with one stone” move that not only finally updates the gadget
to use the correct amount of ammo but also buffs Buck’s soft breaching capability.
5+1 shots can allow you to do just that extra bit of damage before needing to reload and
Buck also keeps the total number of 5 magazines, which means that he will bring 25+1 shotgun
shells with him, instead of the current 20+1.
This buff is counterbalanced by a change in
his secondary gadgets.
He is losing his hand grenades and gaining Claymores instead.
This is most definitely a nerf because hand grenades are arguably one of the most useful
attacker gadgets in the game right now.
Not only can they be used quite effectively to fight the enemy team but they are also
vital for dealing with many of the defender’s gadgets.
Deployable shields, Goyo shields, Maestro cams, Castle barricades, bullet proof cams…
there are a lot of very useful defensive gadgets right now that will often require explosives
to be able to deal with them quickly.
And hand grenades have even more uses, such has preventing bandit tricking on some sights
or clearing out Mute jammers, Mozzie pests or Kaid Electroclaws.
The bottom line is that grenades are an incredibly versatile tool in the attackers’ arsenal
right now and they play a very important role in the current META.
Taking them away from Buck is a definite blow to his overall utility.
What do you think about these two changes?
Is this an overall buff or nerf and more importantly how do you feel about playing Buck in future?
Let me know in the comments or in the poll on screen now!
If you enjoy plavear... plavearing?! *laughs*
If you enjoy playing Caveira, well then good news
everyone, because she is getting a tiny little micro buff in the form of the Razor Holographic
sight becoming available for her M12 submachinegun besides the currently accessible Red Dot and
Reflex sights.
It won’t change anything about the way she will play or her capabilities or power level
but if you are a fan of the Razor sight, well you can run it on the M12 now, hurray!
Jäger is still the most picked operator in the game right now and the simple fact is
that as long as he is played to such an extent, he is going to be nerfed bit by bit, until
his presence in the game balances out.
This time around, the devs are nerfing his movement speed: Jäger is changing from a
3 speed operator into a 2-speed, 2-armour.
The idea with this is to reduce his roaming capability and make him less of a menacing gunfighter.
Whether or not this is the right thing to do is up for debate.
Some people argue that pick rates, just like power level, should be balanced across all
of the operators while the counter argument is that it’s ok to have some characters
that are stronger and played more often.
I personally feel that having a single character played almost every round of every match is
a bit too much and kind of boring and if nerfs are the only way of forcing some diversity
into the game, then in general, that’s fine by me.
But at the same time, I get it, right?
A strong operator can be a lot of fun to play, so I understand why nerfing them is always
going to be a divisive subject .
Next up to the chopping block is Mozzie.
This is another defender that just has it all: great gadget, great guns, great utility
and unsurprisingly this pushes up his pick rate up to a level that the developers are
not comfortable with and so as a small initial measure, Mozzie will be losing access to his
Super Shorty secondary shotgun.
This will give him a bit less utility because if you want to make a rotation hole with Mozzie
in future, your only option will be the nitro cell; not an ideal use for this gadget.
I personally see a bit of a positive side to this nerf because think about it: Mozzie
and Gridlock were the last operators to come with full loadouts of new weapons.
Since then we have had an entire year’s worth of new operators with recycled guns.
So what a shame is it that both Mozzie and Gridlock came with a unique new sidearm that
literally nobody ever uses?!
Seriously, how many times have you played with the SDP 9mm?
I don’t think I’ve ever really used it, like at all and I personally think that it’s
a good thing to finally see this asset used.
Over to Ying and she is getting a huge, triple pronged buff that is giving some players,
who were playing back during the Ying-smokes-Glaz META time, literal nightmares.
But, the META has changed, Glaz is a shadow of his former self and there is now also Warden
on the defender team, so maybe buffing Ying will work out ok…
With that said, Ying will be getting: one extra Candela (four instead of three), she
is losing the Claymores and getting back her smoke grenades and also her T-95 LSW is getting
a damage increase from 43 to 46.
An additional Candela is undeniably useful and smoke grenades in combination with that
will make Ying an absolute powerhouse at clearing Jäger and Wamai’s defensive utility.
Will it take us back to the hellish rush META of the past or will Warden finally become relevant?
I guess time will tell.
Something interesting that we can look at right now though is how the damage buff to
her gun will affect the game.
We know that the damage is going up to 46 at close range and I also tested the long
range increase and from 40m and onwards, the damage is going up from 29 to 31 points.
So that’s basically a 7% increase across the board and brings the T-95 up to the exact
same damage profile as the Russian 6P41.
This will elevate the damage for the T-95 from pretty much bang on average for the LMG
class, to well 7% above average, on average.
The comparatively low fire rate of the gun, means that even after the 7% increase, the
damage per second output will still be below the overall LMG class average at all ranges.
But what will be the practical effect in terms of the number of shots to down/kill and the
time to down/kill?
Well, against full health opponents at close ranges, the impact of this change is literally almost zero.
Only against level 1 armours, if all of your shots hit the arms or legs, will the new T-95
give you one less shot to down or kill.
With a fire rate of 650 RPM, this will save you 92ms, huzzah!
But, oh boy, at long ranges of 40m plus… yeah there’s also literally no change.
One less shot for limb strikes only, against level 2 armours which again, saves you 92ms.
That’s it.
In a recent analysis video, I discussed the viability of attaching suppressors to certain
guns and even though the T-95 is actually not bad when suppressed, I didn’t include
it in my list of viable guns because it did require one extra shot against level 3 armours
at close range and therefor failed my strict selection criteria.
With the new damage stats, does anything change in this conclusion?
Well the game tells us that the new suppressed damage is 39 points (instead of the old stat
of 36) and since this is being literally updated right now, you would think that the new stat
is going to be accurate, right?
But...
you would be WRONG!
When I tested the suppressed damage in a custom match, it actually did 40 points up close
and 24 after damage drop-off…
The menu is being updated (from 36 to 39) but the new stat is still inaccurate…
ok…
I…
I literally don’t know what to say to that but… there it is!
Moving on… could the suppressor now be more viable with the new damage?
The short answer is no, not really; maybe just a bit.
The suppressed T-95 is kind of viable already because up to 25m, it only needs one extra
body shot against level 3 armours (with and without Rook plates) as well as level 1 armours with plates.
Against all other armour levels (including Rook plates) you need the same number of body
hits and after the damage buff, we will see a slight improvement because level 3 armour,
Rook plates opponents will no longer need that extra shot.
At long range, there will also be a bit of an improvement with less shots required against
Rook plated 1- & level 2 armours but again, that’s it.
The conclusion on suppressing the T-95 is that it is borderline viable right now and
will become just a tiny bit more viable after the patch.
Final thoughts on the T-95 buff: even though the shots to down/kill will see almost no
effect at all, of course because of the slightly elevated damage, the switch over distance
at which you will require more shots on a target is pushed out a little bit… by 2
to 3 metres to be precise as you can see here.
And of course there are also cases where you will be dealing with less than full health
opponents and maybe, sometimes those extra 3 damage can actually make all the difference.
But all in all, this is a very subtle buff you basically won’t feel any difference at all.
With the exception of Blackbeard’s Mk17, the 650 RPM fire rate of the T-95 is the slowest
fire rate you’ll find on any full-auto attacking weapon and even after the damage buff, Ying’s
gun is still going to be weak compared to the guns available to other operators and
considering her gadget utility this makes perfect sense in order to keep her balanced.
So: “more Candelas and smokes are going to be helpful but don’t expect anything
from the damage buff of the LMG” would be the conclusion.
And finally, last but not least, Kaid and Goyo’s TCSG12 slug shotgun is getting a
massive nerf… although some people feel that the changes could overall be a buff.
These operators will be getting 1 extra magazine, taking the overall ammo pool up from 51 shots,
to 61 per round.
This mini buff is being added to counterbalance the massive damage nerf to the gun:
Close range damage is going down from 84 to 55 and after drop-off (from 21m onwards) the
damage is dropping from 40 to 26 points.
That’s a 35% reduction across the board.
This means that at close range (up to 19m) you are going to need 1 or even two extra
shots to down/kill your target in almost all cases, except against 3 speeds.
This is now going to be predominantly a three hit weapon.
Given the maximum speed at which you can spam fire this gun, the time to down/kill will
be going up by around 133ms in most cases (or 267ms in the cases where 2 extra shots will be needed).
After the steep drop-off the gun experiences at the 20m mark, so from 21m and onwards,
the effect of this nerf will be even stronger: 1, 2 or even up to 3 additional shots will
be required to deal with attackers resulting in between 133ms up to 400ms of additional takedown time.
So straight off the bat, that’s a significant nerf in my books.
But it gets worse because the TCSG actually was one of the guns that I recently identified
as being a viable option when combined with the suppressor.
The new menu tells us that the suppressed damage of the gun will be 46 but as you can
probably guess by now, the actual damage is 49, dropping down to 22 at range.
Right now, the suppressed TCSG is almost exactly as effective as the unsuppressed version.
It only needs one extra shot at long range against level 2 armours but that is changing
once this nerf goes live.
At close range you will need one extra shot against level 1 armours and after drop-off,
every armour level will need that one extra shot.
Ok, that means that at close range, every operator will take a consistent 3 shots with
the suppressor, so I guess you could still use the attachment without that much of an
impact but the new damage stats definitely make the suppressed TCSG less viable in future.
Conclusion on the damage nerf is that it is definitely real but as I mentioned at the
beginning, there are a good number of people who believe that the TCSG is getting an overall buff.
And sure, once you are done remodelling the site, ammo scarcity is a very real issue with
this gun and so the extra 10 shots will definitely come in handy but I personally still feel
this is going to be more of a nerf than anything else because first up, if you are running
out of ammo with the TCSG during the prep-phase because of all of the rotations you are opening
up, then that’s a user issue not a gun issue.
The limited ammo means that you cannot rely on the TCSG to be the main tool for reshaping
the site; you need to get some of your teammates to pitch in with shotguns of their own or
at a pinch, even the odd impact grenade.
And besides that, there is also a more objective way in which we can judge this change.
Right now, you will have a total of 51 shots that will each do 40 to 84 points of damage.
After the patch it’s 61 with 26 to 55 damage.
That means that the total damage you can do (against level 1 armours) is 2550-4284 (depending
on distance) and after the patch, that is going to change to 1586-3355.
We are going to lose between 929 and 964 points of combined total damage potential with this update.
That’s still a nerf!
Only if you use more than 36 shots in the prep-phase (basically 2/3 of your ammo, leaving
you with only 18 shots or less right now & 28 or less in future) will the total damage potential
of your remaining shots actually be higher after the update.
Is it going to be helpful to have more ammo in future?
Yes!
Will one extra mag be enough to offset the damage nerf and turn this into an actual buff?
In my personal opinion: no!
But as always, I would be happy to capture your sentiments on this topic and in fact
all of the topics discussed in this video.
Each will have a poll attached to it (like the one popping up on screen… now !) and
if you’re answering that, feel free to quickly go through the other ones and leave me your
thoughts for those as well and of course if you would like to elaborate a bit more, I
am also happy to read you more detailed comments below!
And with that, many thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see
you in the next episode!