Rainbow Six Siege's newest season is on the horizon, and with it is coming a whole slew of both new features/mechanics, updates to existing mechanics, an operator balancing pass, and a new map rework.
These fresh operators look like they're going to change the playing field in a really drastic way and are going to be the most severe changes coming in this season, but the new secondary gadget is also really going to spice things up, too. (One thing to mention is that any/all of this is subject to change, as all of this content/changes are currently on the Test Server.)Let's go over each and every change coming in the new season:
10 ATTACKER: ACE
Let's take about the new operators, starting with the new attacker, Ace. The newest hard-breacher since Maverick, Ace is coming with a somewhat terrifying combination of utility and weaponry. First off, Ace has the indisputable best weapon in the game with the AK-12. Formerly restricted to only Fuze, expect to see a lot more of this weapon with it being on a hard breacher.
Speaking of hard breaching, Ace's gadget is capable of opening a more-than-sizeable hole in hard walls, and at a distance, meaning he doesn't have to get nearly as up-close-and-personal like Thermite and Maverick are forced to. With his weaponry far-exceeding that of Hibana's, the choice between the two of them is pretty clear. Not to mention, he has the option to bring a smoke grenade as his secondary utility, making him capable of essentially setting up a defuse-scenario entirely on his own.
9 DEFENDER: MELUSI
While not quite as crazy on paper as Ace seems to be, Melusi is still going to make a radical difference in Siege and is likely to be a near-constant presence. Weapon-wise, Melusi has access to either Lesion's T-5 SMG, or the Super-90 shotgun. These are both pretty solid choices, but more are going to prefer to bring the SMG.
Her unique utility is a Banshee Sonic Defense, which is placeable on a wall, and, when an Attacker gets in close proximity with it, it slows them down, much like barbed wire would, and also makes a sound, alerting Defenders of your presence. It's bulletproof, so must be dealt with much like a bulletproof camera would be; either with some kind of utility or by getting up close enough to melee it. Also worth mentioning is Melusi is a 3-speed, which is, for most people, the optimal setup, especially for a Defender.
8 HOUSE REWORK
While this new rework isn't likely to be going in Ranked or Pro League, House is still getting a massive rework to make it more fun and a bit more competitively viable.
House has been a Siege classic for a long time, and while a lot of players probably have some kind of sentimental attachment to it, sometimes it's best to let your darlings go in lieu of something better.
7 AMARU CHANGES
While there is a variety of smaller operator balancing changes coming in this new season, the most drastic is coming to Amaru.
Before, when Amaru used her Grappling Hook to launch herself through a window, the barricade would break immediately as Amaru starting grappling. Now, the barricade dow won't break until Amaru actually makes contact with it, giving Defenders that aren't paying close attention less time to read and hopefully enable Amaru to fulfill her role a bit better.
6 PROXIMITY ALARM
Another humongous change coming to Siege in Steel Wave is the inclusion of a new secondary gadget, the Proximity Alarm. This is only going to be available for Defenders, and is going to work as yet another way they can gather intel on exactly where Attackers are throughout the round.
While they aren't bulletproof, they are small enough to hide in pretty difficult or impossible-to-see places for Attackers, until they happen to trip the alarm. The alarm will, obviously, make a pretty loud sound, alerting Defenders to your presence and generally just ruining your day.
5 RANKED CHANGES
Another change is coming to the MMR and Champions Rank. No longer will you have a different rank in different regions; from now on, ranks are going to be worldwide, meaning if you're a Plat 3 in EU, you're a Plat 3 in NA, too.
This will prevent some forms of matchmaking abuse, and will also have the side effect of making the Champion Rank that much harder to achieve.
4 ELITE ECHO
A new Elite Skin is coming in Steel Wave, this time going to Echo. This skin gives us a glimpse of Echo in another where, where he's "the hero of his own city", according to Ubisoft's description of the skin.
It contains skins for Echo's uniform, Yokai Drone, Supernova, MP5SD, P229, and Bearing 9, while also giving him a new Victory Animation and a new weapon charm.
3 OPERATOR PRICE DECREASE
As usual, some Operators are getting a price decrease this season, this time affecting Nokk, Warden, Alibi, and Maestro.
Nokk and Warden will be dropping to 20,000 Renown or 480 R6 Credits, while Alibi and Maestro will be dropping to 15,000 Renown or 350 R6 Credits.
2 NEW SEASONAL WEAPON SKINS
With a new season comes to seasonal weapon skins, this time coming in the form of the Wooden Carvings skin and the Beach Trip skin.
These skins will be available for all of the currently available weapons, and will be purchasable for Renown or R6 Credits for the entirety of Operation Steel Wave.
1 OPERATOR BALANCING CHANGES
Some smaller Operator balancing changes are coming too, such of the more notable being: removing the camera shake from the Yokai's concussion effect, and also removing Echo's deployable shield with impact grenades.
It also includes reviving a teammate with Finka's boost bringing them to 30hp as opposed to 5hp, as it was before. One Candela has also been removed from Ying's arsenal, down to 3 from 4.