Rainbow Six Siege Operation Steel Wave is now live on the Test Server. The new season adds two new Operators, the hard breacher attacker Ace, and the roaming three-speed defender Melusi. It also brings the very first rework of the casual map, House. This map is everyone's go-to terrorist hunt map. The new Season also brings operator balancing changes along with some cool new features.
Amaru Changes
The “yeet” operator Amaru finally received a much-needed buff. Previously, using Amaru as intended will get her killed. The barricade breaking, the loud sound, and the inability to shoot while using the ability worked against her. Developers were aware of this and have come up with a solution. Now Amaru will be able to equip her weapon faster after grappling, hence making her vulnerable for a shorter period of time. The wooden barricade will only break when she is close to it. This will give the attacker a surprise element. The defenders will still be able to hear the loud sound that the ‘Garra Hook’ makes.
Proximity Alarm
Defenders will now have one more gadget in their arsenal. The developers at Ubisoft are introducing the Proximity Alarm, which is a secondary gadget for defenders (like C4 and Impact Grenade). It does exactly what you think it does, Proximity Alarm is a throwable device that will stick to most of the surfaces, and it will emit loud noise whenever an attacker is its vicinity. Attackers can shoot this device, so defenders need to be smart about where to place it. This device acts like an intel-gathering device.
Unified MMR and Champion Rank
If you are a Siege player then you must be aware that many players change their servers and can get ranked three times in three different regions. Previously each region had its own MMR and players could get a fresh start three times. However, from now on all the servers will have one common MMR ratio. This will reduce server hopping as there is no reason to change servers anymore.
The Siege developers are also upping the requirement for the highest ‘Champion’ rank. You will still need MMR over 5,000, but from now on, you also need to play a minimum of 100 Ranked matches to get the Champion rank, which will make it more exclusive and prestigious.
Game Balancing
ACS12 New Slug Bullet Type
The automatic shotgun has a bug where it does tons of destruction very fast. The developers have given the shotgun a new slug type bullet which should make its destruction capability more stable.
Player Comfort
Updates to Playlist Guides
Ranked Guide is improved, and you can see all the rewards and charms you have earned. You can also see the Rank of your three previous seasons. Map rotation is improved as well. The map playlist will change three times for both Ranked and Quick Match playlist. (I hope they bring back Bartlett University).
Audio Localization
Audio recordings for the new operators, Ace and Melusi, are not available in Russian and French. You will get English audio for the new operators if you change the audio to those two languages.
Game Health
Match Cancellation
Sometimes while playing Ranked, your teammate can disconnect even before the match starts, putting you at a severe disadvantage. Developers have introduced a new feature called Match Cancellation. When there are fewer players at the start of the match, those players can choose to cancel the match. The option will come during the prep phase of the first round and the majority of players will have to vote ‘Yes’. A canceled match will have no impact on a player's Win/Loss ratio or MMR.
Ranked Clearance Level
We all have witnessed the cheating problem in Rainbow Six Siege. Whenever a cheater is banned, they can purchase a new account and start all over again. Developers have increased the Ranked clearance level to 50 from the previous 30. This means that the new account will have to grind the PVE and Casual playlist more in order to even play the first match of the Ranked playlist. This should also reduce the smurfing problem in the game.
Benchmarking Update
A new and improved benchmarking tool has been introduced which will give more information about your performance. The new benchmarking tool now takes place in Oregon and not in House.
So what do you think? Are you excited about the new Season? Which operator are you most interested in? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
