Rainbow Six Siege X has undergone massive, sweeping changes over the last couple of years, completely shifting the meta. Dare I say it, for the better as well, which almost feels rare in today's competitive gaming space.
To set this piece up just a tad bit more, I wanted to let people know who I was in terms of Rainbow Six and my personal history with it. That way, maybe, you could better understand who at least tested these changes.
First, I've been playing ranked off and on again for the last two years after a rather long hiatus, hitting Emerald in my first ranked season back. Before that, I was, as the kids say, goated on Rainbow Six Vegas 2 as the number one survival player on Xbox 360.
Since then, between whatever other game I cover, I always find myself falling back toward the call of Rainbow. For me, nothing quite compares. So getting the chance to see changes early and play with them in person was, for lack of a better phrase, a dream come true.
That said, today at the Osaka Major event, Ubisoft announced a full list of changes and additions coming to the game in Year 11, Season 4.
Doc Operator Remaster
Doc is getting an all-new healing system through the new "E-HEAL" monitor. Acting as a remote device, Doc can now target allies through walls without any distance limit.
To make it a more grounded, realistic look, other operators have a "patch" installed, which acts as a sort of adrenaline shot when triggered remotely by Doc. However, you still can't heal Skopos!
This patch is delayed; once triggered, players have to wait a few seconds for their health to regenerate fully. The same goes for revives when Doc hits teammates. Their health will return to full at a slow, gradual rate.
He also gets a deployable shield to help create a better, more stable anchor position that Doc players can now expect, since he won't need to move around the world to heal fellow teammates. I made a lot of use of this on Bank, where I held the sewer entrance while being able to provide any needed heals to teammates out in Garage, Vault, or even entirely different floors.
New weapon — the MBZ-19
Built on one of my favorite weapon platforms, the Bizon, the MBZ-19 comes in with a wicked 64-round magazine and 33 damage per shot at 750 RPM. At 412.5 DPS, it sits on the lower end of the damage scale, but it makes up for it with a fairly easy-to-control recoil pattern.
For headshot players, the MBZ-19 could be a go-to headshot sweep machine. My personal hands-on feel for it led to some easier SMG kills, but you could definitely feel the time to kill if only body shots were landed. Honestly, if I had to guess, I don't see the MBZ-19 launching in its current condition.
While the DPS is low, the low recoil and massive magazine size remind me largely of a point, click, and hold version of the ACS12 gun they're also nerfing in this exact update. I could be wrong, but some other media and creators thought the gun itself needed to be downscaled somehow. Possibly it's otherworldly magazine size.
The weapon will be coming along with a pretty significant Thunderbird revamp, which you can check below. It will also be available on Jäger and fan-favorite Warden.
Thunderbird gets stun and concussive cleansing abilities
While it's not to be labeled as a character rework, Thunderbird is getting enough added to her utility that you could almost call it one.
Going into Season 4, her Kona Stations will provide stun and concussion cleansing effects that trigger and remove said effects in less than a quarter of a second.
Additionally, the number of stations will go from 3 to 4, giving multiple anchor positions even more positional value. The station cooldown has also been reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.
Standing on a Kona Station made flashbangs feel pointless, as shown in this set of screenshots from content creator Poxlox at the Ubisoft event above. Entry flash, or stun, was negated before operators even had a chance to use it.
The station will prioritize flash and stun effects before healing. The two stacked on one another will prioritize in a similar fashion, with the closest station triggering first and the second triggering afterward if an additional charge is needed.
Slug shotguns get significant nerfs
Both slug shotguns, the ACS12 and TCSG12, will have their damage-per-shot values reduced from 69 to 45 and 75 to 50, respectively. This means nearly all interactions for the ACS12 will now need 3 shots to kill, while every 2- and 3-armor operator will need 3 shots from the TCSG12. Headshots, obviously, remain unaffected.
That's not the only nerf coming to the ACS12, as its magazine size will also decrease from 30 to a more respectable 20. The magazine total will go from 4 to 6, meaning the total ammo count will remain the same, at 120.
As an Azami main, I can't help but agree. To start the season, I dropped a four-piece holding the garage on Clubhouse without ever reloading. Even after missed pre-fire shots, I still had over a dozen slugs left. The ACS12 nerf was absolutely needed.
This comes just one season after the defender DMR nerfs, which aim to create a more dynamic weapon setup across defensive setups.
Bank gets additional attack route
Bank is now receiving an update to its outer terrace with an added stairwell for faster access to the double window and doorway entrance points on the southeastern corner. On top of that, additional cover will be added between the two points so defenders won't need to watch both angles while breaching either one.
During my time with it, every 2F bank site was met with a coordinated assault on the updated entrance. Stocks/Office became an extremely important position to hold, similar to, if not more necessary than, holding Library on Chalete.
Additional visual and gameplay enhancements will also be coming to Yacht, Favela, and Tower. None of which I had a chance to see or test.
Ranked 3.0 Update - Solo/Duo/Flex Queues
Ranked play is getting separated into its own ranked solo/duo and flex playlists. Solo and duo queues will better reflect individual players and duo setups, while flex queue will give larger squads more rounded, coordinated experiences.
Individual or small-team players will no longer be matched against a full stack; instead, at worst, duo players could be placed in flex queue to help manage matchmaking times, with an added +10 RP bonus if that happens.
Five-man squads will be an additional setup on top of this, which also means 4-man squads will no longer function in ranked, similar to systems found in Valorant and League of Legends.
Social Hub and Testing Grounds
Those looking to squad up without having to add people just got their lives made easier with the addition of a new Social Hub overlay. You'll also be able to test out tactical prototypes, like the upcoming half-wall reinforcement, which won't be available in Season 4 but is testable nonetheless in a new temporary Testing Grounds playlist.
The playlist will run from January 19 to February 2. The addition of this playlist is to allow players to test potential new features without having to download or switch to the Test Server.
Seasonal Event and Rewards
Last, but not least, are the goodies coming with Season 4!
For the first time in years since it was first introduced, Grand Larceny is coming back. This mode allowed for complete and utter destruction the likes of the world had never seen in Siege.
Fully destructible rooms, floors, and more, all leading to absolute chaos that definitely feels largely removed from the standard Siege experience but was once one of the highest-rated events in Siege history.
Players will also get their hands on 20 days of Christmas with Winter Daily Rewards. Logging in from December 1 until January 15 can net you one of 20 rewards, which could include Gold Dust or Glacier camo, as well as a new animated weapon skin for the T-5 SMG.
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