What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and with the recent release of Patch 2.2 for Operation
Para Bellum in Rainbow Six Siege, six weapons have had their damage profiles buffed or nerfed
in order to adjust the balance of the game.
I have tested these new damage drop-off profiles for all five weapons and added the results
to my online spreadsheet (link below) and in this video, I want to show off these results
as well as explain what actual benefits and drawbacks will result for each gun.
With this patch, three weapons have been nerfed: Glaz’ Ots, Black Beard’s SR-25 and Twitch’s
F2 while three weapons received buffs: Blackbeard’s Mk17 and Frost’s 9mm C1 & Super90.
The patch notes were quite helpful in giving us the baseline damage changes for each of
the 6 guns and I have tested each gun at various ranges to confirm the drop-off curves, so
let’s take a closer look at how the damage profiles change across distances.
As you may already know, Glaz’ sniper rifle has a very early damage drop-off and this has not changed.
What is different now is that max damage, up to 5m, is 71 points instead of 85 and the
minimum damage at 15m or more, is 59 instead of 65.
As you can see from the chart, the greatest change for the OTs is at very close range,
with the nerf at longer ranges being less significant.
Black Beard’s DMR has become the go-to weapon for players at all ranks with high level competitive
and pro league play focusing almost entirely on the SR-25.
This may be partially down to the SR-25 being a well-rounded gun in Rainbow Six but I personally
believe that it’s mostly down to the fact that his alternative gun, the Mk17 is hands
down the worst primary option for any attacking operator.
To make the choice a little harder for Black Beard players, the SR-25 has had its damage
nerfed from 72 to 61 points up close and from 43 to 35 points at 40m plus; a significant
change across the board.
The Mk17 conversely has been significantly buffed with a 7 point damage increase per
shot at all ranges.
This rifled will now do 49 instead of 42 dmg up close and 33 instead of 26 dmg at 35m and more.
Now on the face of it, these changes look as if they will even out the choice between
these weapons but let’s take a closer look in a bit as to whether or not there will be
any actual impact in game.
The final nerf of this patch goes to Twitch’s excellent F2, which up until now was arguably
one of the best attacker primaries in the game.
Close range dmg is reduced from 40 to 37 while damage from 35m onwards remains at 22 points per shot.
And finally, let’s quickly look at Frost’s guns.
The C1 gains a relatively modest 2 points of damage up close (now 45 instead of 43)
and one whole point extra damage at 28m+, going from 27 to 28 points.
The Super90 shotgun gains 3 points per pellet at close range and 1 additional point per
pellet at distances above 20m.
So there are the raw changes for each gun but the real question is: how will this affect
the combat capability of each or theses weapons?
More specifically the question to look at is: how have the required number of shots
to down or kill (STK) changed?
For Glaz’ OTs, you could argue that the changes are pretty limited.
This gun used to be a 2 STK weapon against all 3 types of armour, at all ranges and as
long as you are hitting the upper body or arms this will still be the case against level
1 and 2 armoured opponents.
Yes, before the patch, you used to get a straight kill on any level 1 armour defender at any
distance and now, you will only get a down.
But I think the effect of such a change will be pretty limited; the main thing is that
you’re still out of the fight after two hits.
The only circumstances where you will see a real difference while playing as Glaz, is
against level 3 armours, at distances from 13m and onwards or once Rook armour comes into play.
Here you will now require 3 STK instead of the 2 it took before the patch at the ranges
shown on screen and since the average kill distance in Rainbow six is 10m or less, the
most significant impact will be against level 2 and 3 armours once they have picked up Rook plates.
One extra shot may not sound like a lot, but due to the limited fire rate of the gun, this
will actually mean and increase from 255ms time to down or kill (TTK) to 511ms (if using
the theoretical limit on the gun’s fire rate).
The bottom line for the OTs is that you probably won’t feel any difference in most gunfights
but when you do, the extra shot will significantly increase the time it will take to deal with an opponent.
The nerf of the SR-25 follows a similar pattern although the impact will be far more noticeable.
Now against level 1 and 2 armour opponents, you will see no difference in terms of STK
up until at least 28m distance.
But for level 3 armour targets or level 1 & 2 armours wearing Rook plates, you will
need one extra shot from 0m until 26-30m and this engagement distance covers most gunfights
you will face in Rainbow Six.
Just like the OTs, this extra bullet means that the SR-25 will require 3 shots instead
of 2 and that translates into a TTK of 267ms instead of 133ms.
My conclusion would be that yes, against certain armour types you will now face double the
theoretical TTK but, at the end of the day, 267ms is still highly competitive and if you
have the skill to make those shots land, this nerf should not overly concern you.
And while we’re dealing with Black Beard, let’s go straight to his alternative primary, the Mk-17.
As you can see from the chart on screen, sadly even though the buff for this gun looks quite
impressive on paper, it only really kicks in at distances beyond 24m, as long as you
are landing direct upper body shots.
Only when facing level 2 armour defenders that have picked up Rook plates will you see
a benefit of one less STK at regular combat distances and that means 3 hits instead of
4, which is 205ms TTK instead of 308ms.
And whatever armour category you look at, the Mk-17 always remains below average in
terms of TTK and is consistently one of the weaker primary weapons and this even after
the recent patch.
Has the choice between the SR-25 and the Mk-17 become a little harder?
Yes!
But going by the numbers, I would say that you are still better off using SR-25.
The only real advantage offered by the Mk-17 is the full-auto capacity that could help
you get a lucky headshot by spraying down an opponent but it’s definitely worth practicing
with the SR-25 to get used to its semi-auto fire.
You’ll be better off in the long run.
For the F2, the raw damage data already suggested a relatively soft touch nerf and this is confirmed
when we look at the STK data.
At reasonable combat ranges, the only impact is against level 2 armour and level 3 armour plus Rook.
Here you will now need 4 shots, instead of 3 and 5 instead of 4, which means 184ms instead
of 122ms and 245ms instead of 184ms.
So only two out of 6 possible armour combinations will impact your F2 and in addition to that,
in both cases the new and longer TTK is still below average for assault rifles under those circumstances.
Bottom line, if you like Twitch and her F2, you have no real need to worry about here
being under powered now.
You will still be able to do extremely well with her, just not quite as well against 2
armours and 3 armours plus Rook.
And last… and maybe in this case also least, we have the mini buffs to Frost’s primaries.
The damage increase for the C1 will result in at most one less STK and this only sporadically
for most armour combinations and only at almost double the average engagement range.
Saving one bullet will decrease the TTK by 104ms, which is not to be sniffed at, so…
I guess if you like fighting at long range with Frost… maybe this will benefit you
in a few limited situations?
But no, the conclusion here is that this buff will have no effect in almost every defensive
situation in any given match.
The situation for the Super90 is not very different.
280 max damage instead of 256 doesn’t really do much for you.
I mean what will the extra damage do at close range?
Make your opponents extra dead?
Sure, the close range damage output rises from 853 damage per second (DPS) to 933 but
this number is really nothing special, since it is still on the lower end of the spectrum
for semi-auto shotguns and shared by 3 other guns.
Where you may see a slight improvement, is when fighting at around 7-9m distance, where
that little bit of extra power per pellet might just net you a one hit down or kill
where before it wouldn’t have.
But all in all, the Super90 after it’s buff is definitely not the wonder weapon it once was.
Yes, it is slightly better but it basically just went from the absolutely worst choice
(along the M1014), to just about on par with most of the other weaker shotguns.
So yeah, we again get a bit more balance into the game but this gun is still nothing to
write home about.
And that’s pretty much it.
The takeaway for me is that for almost all of the guns, the changes are very subtle and
their impact is limited to very specific circumstances.
And that’s actually a good thing.
The last thing we really want to see is balancing changes going too far and ruining the experience
for weeks before the issue can be addressed.
Final announcement, I have upgraded my streams with a face cam!
So if you ever feel like hanging out, link on screen and in the description below; leave
a follow and I will see you when I next go live!
And if you’re still here, all the way at the end: Thank you so much for watching!
I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode!