What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and by popular demand, this episode of Rainbow Six Siege
Loadout META will focus on Capitao and I have to say to all of you requesting a comparison
of the PARA-308 and the M249: “Good Choice!”
According to the in-game stats, the two guns have exactly the same damage and fire rate;
the only difference is the capacity of each gun which makes it seem as if the two choices
are virtually identic al.
But of course we know by now that there are loads of other hidden stats to consider, so
let’s get right to it!
At first glance, the stats seem kind of evenly split with a damage and capacity advantage
going to the M249 but the, let’s say: “comfort of use” stat advantages going to the Para.
But the question is: “How much are those three extra points of damage at max range
for the M249 really worth?”
My answer is, probably not all that much.
The average kill distance in Siege has always been just under 10m and the damage drop-off
for both of Capitao’s starts at 25m.
And at the end of the day, the 3 points of extra da mage only results in a max Damage
Per Second output advantage of 33 points; nothing to really right home about.
And speaking of not writing home, the fire average fire rate for machineguns in Siege
is 741.6 RPM while the average for Assault Rifles is 746.7 RPM, almost identical and
pretty much a full 100 rounds per minute (or 1.5 rounds per second) faster than either of Capitao’s primary guns.
Both guns might hit reasonably hard with each shot but the slower fire rates are really
a significant disadvantage when spraying for those oh-so-rewarding headshots.
But for the sake of argument, let’s look over the shots to down or kill and time to down or kill stats.
Up to 25m distance (i.e. almost all engagements you will ever have in Siege) there is no difference
in damage, so the shots to kill are the same and with the exact same fire rate, of course
the time to kill is also the same.
At max range after damage drop-off, the M249 needs one less bullet to down an opponent
in exactly half of our test permutations of different armour types and bullet strike locations.
This results in an improved time to kill of just over 92ms in these specific cases.
So sure, in theory the M249 does come away with a bit of an advantage at long ranges...
if you ever manage to find a map with sightlines that are that long.
Good luck!
Being a belt fed LMG, the M249 of course comes with a significant capacity advantage.
You can pre-fire for an awfully long time before needing to reload with this thing, glorious!
But if you ever need to reload the SAW during a gunfight…
May God, Buddha or the Flying Spaghetti Monster help you because the reload time is an eye
watering 7.6s for both full and tactical reloads.
The Para’s reload times are much more palatable, with 3.3s being the exact average for all
Assault Rifle full reloads and 2.6s being only just slower than the 2.5s average.
But let’s just go back to the reload of the M249 for a second before we move on because
as an open bolt weapon, we should really see a difference in full and tactical reload times.
See when you empty the gun completely the bolt should remain to the front and Capitao
should have to manually recock the gun but for a tactical reload, the bolt should still
be at the back, meaning that you can skip the recocking; giving you a slightly shorter reload time.
So why are the two times the same in Rainbow Six Siege?
Well, you see Capitao’s M249 is not just any normal machinegun but instead it is one
of those rare firearms that has been blessed by Harry Potter himself because it will never run out of bullets.
As you can see, after firing off all 100 bullets the gun still has ammunition remaining!
Even when you go ahead and use up all of your reserves, the gun is still loaded…
But luckily for us, Capitao is a very sporting old chap and for the sake of game balancing,
he has entered into a verbal agreement with the rest of team Rainbow to not take advantage
of the magical properties of his M249 and instead, he just pretends to no longer be able to shoot.
Oh and even though he never runs out of ammo… he also recocks his gun during every reload cycle.
Just to create a fair and balanced environment.
Holy cow… sometimes I amaze myself at the amount of nonsense that goes through my head…
moving on!
When it comes to Aim Down Sight time, the Para-308 once again has a very firm advantage
and if you can take the added recoil, the 40% ADS time advantage of the angled grip
can widen the gap between the two guns even more.
270ms vs. 600ms is not even comparable and the fact is that you really need to be pre-aimed
with the M249 before going into any engagement if you want to stand any chance of coming away victorious.
When it comes to hip-fire spread, both guns are virtually identical in most situations.
Prone, kneeling and standing still will result in exactly the same spread for both guns.
It’s not until you start jogging (that’s basically moving forward w ithout holding the
walk or sprint buttons) that an advantage for the lighter Para-308 starts to emerge.
This advantage also transfers into the spread while firing in full auto, where the Para
ends up spraying its bullets in a cone that is about 25% smaller than that of the M249.
And last but not least, controllability.
Once you attach the vertical grip and muzzle brake for the Para, the recoil becomes very
manageable and the LMG is also extremely controllable since the general recoil buff to all LMGs
several seasons ago.
So I would say that the M249 is maybe just that little bit easier to control, especially
if you’re running the angled grip to minimise your ADS time on the Para-308 but at the end
of the day, both guns are very manageable and you should not really have any issues
in handling their recoil.
Conclusion time!
The sad fact is that Capitao’s guns just never quite measured up to the weapons available
to most of his colleagues.
In a one-hit-kill headshot game, high fire rate is king and both of the firearms we have
looked at today are quite a bit below average.
Nevertheless, if you are one of those masochist people I’m always reading about and you
decide to play Capitao anyway, then my recommendation would be to run the Para-308 for maximum effectiveness.
Having a much better aim down sight time, with the added ability of attaching the angled
grip pretty much seals the deal.
If you are not pre-aiming constantly with the M249, you will sooner or later lose gunfights
because you were not able to aim in quickly enough.
Everything is secondary… a little more damage, more bullets but slower reload… all of those
factors won’t really play a massive role in any given match; ADS times is what kills
the effectiveness of the LMG class in Rainbow Six Siege, even after the recoil buff.
To be fair though, these disadvantages are not necessarily deal breakers.
You can adapt your playstyle to work around the slower ADS time and I guess the M249 is
still viable but why make your life harder than it needs to be.
Playing Capitao is already enough punishment as it is.
But that’s just my opinion.
Let me know yours in the comments section below!
Do you ever use the M249?
Do you maybe even prefer it?
Or do you just stick to the simpler option of the Para-308?
I will look forward to hearing your thoughts and until then, thank you so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode!