10. Huge Changes for Frost

The changes to how Frost’s Welcome Mats work is one of the biggest news in Siege recently, and if you haven’t played the game in weeks or have not been updated on news about it, this may come as a surprise to you. It certainly has received mixed feedback from the community, and understandably so, because it’s seen as a huge nerf on Frost. What happened is that the devs have added the ability to self-revive from being trapped by Frost’s Welcome Mats. An ability that was never present in the game for so many years, so it’s understandable that players are shocked by this.

The catch is though that when a player opts to revive themselves from a Welcome Mat instead of waiting for a teammate to revive them, they’ll be under heavy debuff for one minute. That debuff includes not being able to sprint. You’ll also be slowed down, and you will be leaving a blood trail that defenders can follow to track you down. A lot of players have strong opinions on this, but I personally am okay with it, because the massive debuff on the self-revive mechanism still punishes attackers for being careless l when entering or vaulting through windows, doors, or deployable shields.

9. Say Goodbye to Iana's Frag Grenades

Another huge recent change in the game is Iana not having frag grenades anymore. I’d say that honestly, I’ve seen this coming, because Iana’s pick rate has been astronomically high, and it’s been that way for a long time. That’s why it makes sense for the devs to issue a nerf on her, and frankly, the removal of her frag grenades is just fair. That’s because with her Gemini Replicator, which allows her to create a holographic copy of her that she can basically use as a drone as it can mimic all her movements, her having frag grenades is bordering OP levels.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for massive Iana fans. While her frag grenades are being removed, the devs have added the gonne-6 hand cannon to her arsenal. With the gonne-6 hand cannon, Iana can become a much more effective entry operator. That’s because with her Gemini Replicator, she can scout ahead safely and gather intel, and when she sees that there’s a pesky bulletproof defender gadget along the way, she’ll be able to disable it using her gonne-6 hand cannon. All in all, it seems like most of the Siege community are okay with this change because it’s really good for the balancing of the operator.

8. Finka Has Been Buffed?

Finka’s frag grenades were taken away from her some time a couple of years back, and it’s an effort to lower her pick rate, because at that time, combined with her 6P41 which was the meta, Finka really was just a monster. But now that her 6P41 have been effectively nerfed by the relatively recent massive recoil progression overhaul which made holding your weapon’s recoil harder in long sprays, devs have seen fit to bring back Finka’s frag grenades in order to strengthen her again. Now I’m kind of mixed on that because in my opinion, Finka is already strong, even without frag grenades and her 6P41 being nerfed.

Finka is kind of in the opposite position as Iana now though, because while she’s getting her frag grenades back, she’s also losing her gonne-6 hand cannon. Having frag grenades will make Finka an offensive powerhouse, because her Adrenal Surge really provides great buffs which makes the whole attacking team tougher and more effective when pushing, and now with frag grenades, Finka will have more ways to kill enemies. But losing the gonne-6 hand cannon is also huge because it’s a great utility that can be used for disabling a pesky bulletproof defender gadget or for opening entry points on unreinforced hatches.

7. Siege Will Now Be A Safe Space?

Siege has had a long-time reputation as being one of the most toxic games out there. That really shouldn’t surprise anyone because it has a ranked mode, and its gameplay requires a lot of strategy. These types of games tend to bring out a lot of toxicity in gamers because they tend to be sweaty as well. What’s crazy in Siege is that players can get toxic even in Casual matches, a.k.a. Quickmatches, where you don’t really lose anything even if your team loses the match. But even though toxicity seems to be the norm for competitive games, it shouldn’t be encouraged.

That’s why the efforts by the devs to make Siege more of a safe space for players has been well received by the community. They first introduced the reputation system some months ago, and now with Season 3.3 of its 8th year, Siege is having a commendation system. With this, players that you played with can commend you and the effects of the commendations you receive can even be displayed on your profile. What’s more is that if you receive a lot of commendations, you’ll be rewarded, literally, because you’ll be getting more alpha packs the more you’re commended. This type of positive reinforcement will really encourage players to be more positive in the game.

6. Rainbow Six Siege Still Carries Ubisoft

Like them or not, it cannot be denied that Ubisoft has been responsible for making so many industry defining games. Those games range from the Far Cry series, Assassin’s Creed series, Watchdog Series, Splinter Cell Series, The Division, Series, and of course, Rainbow Six Siege. So to find out news reports that Ubisoft’s current stocks are being lifted by Rainbow Six Siege, and of course, their newest big game, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, is quite amazing, because it tells us of the former’s strength when it comes to drawing players in.

It can be expected that Assassin’s Creed Mirage will prop up Ubisoft’s bookings because it’s very new and the Assassin’s Creed series has a big fan base that has been waiting for a long time for the series’ return to its roots. So to see reports that Rainbow Six Siege is alongside it when it comes to propping up Ubisoft’s bookings really tells us of the game’s staying power, even after eight years upon release. That’s backed up by Siege still being in the top 5 most played games in Xbox, and on Steam it’s still showing strong numbers and would regularly enter its top 10 most played games.

5. Lord Chanka Keeps Soaring

One of the biggest recent changes to the game is that Tachanka’s DP27 LMG has received a substantial buff. Its damage has been increased to 60 (from 49). Of course, this is welcome news to big fans of his Highness, but a lot of people in the community are discussing how this is the result of the devs making Tachanka’s 9x19VSN essentially OP by making it compatible with the scopes 1.5x and 2.0x. That was an effort to balance out the pick rate between Tachanka’s DP27 and his 9x19VSN. The problem is that the result seems to have tilted the pick rate to the extreme, in favor of the 9x19VSN.

Because of that change, most Tachanka players started opting for the 9x19VSN, so the pick rate for the DP27 has become drastically low. So now, the devs’ solution is to buff the DP27. Some have questioned this move because they feel like they’ve broken Tachanka, meanwhile, Tachanka fans are just rejoicing because now, he’s more powerful than ever. Seriously speaking though, I personally don’t think that Tachanka or the DP27 is OP, nor is his 9x19VSN being compatible with the scopes 1.5x and 2.0x, because they still have drawbacks.

4. Death of Spawn Peeking?

Another very recent game changing feature that has been implemented is called the Attackers Protection in which defenders will be prevented from doing anything to the outside of the mission building for ten seconds after the start of the round. This basically eliminates spawn peeking where defenders would often put tiny holes on windows or doors in order to peek and frag attackers that are just coming off from their spawn points. Spawn peeking has long been a point of contention in the Siege community where many are fine with it and want it to stay, while there are also many who want it gone.

Let’s clarify, however, that the Attackers Protection feature is only being implemented in Quickmatch. This essentially makes quickmatch the best practice area for new players since the game is significantly much easier in it now with Attackers Protection as well as pre-setups when defending. While I see the benefits of this, it also begs the question that if the intention is to make Quickmatch a place for beginners to learn, then how will they be able to learn the common spawn peek spots if it’s essentially not permitted in Quickmatch?

3. Huge Changes to Unranked

Unranked game mode was basically ranked without any consequences if you lose. It served primarily as the training grounds for players who want to get into ranked games someday. That’s because their mechanics are practically the same, and the only difference really is that you won’t gain or lose mmr after the match. This time, however, the devs want to give it a new identity, separate from ranked, and that’s why Unranked is now being rebranded to Standard. In Standard game mode, there won’t be a map and operator ban phase anymore.

The devs have described this in their most recent reveal panel as the mode where players can experience classic Siege. It’s true that in classic Siege, even ranked games had no operator and map ban phase. And now with Quickmatch having the aforementioned Attackers Protection phase and pre-setups in defense, if players want to experience the classic Siege, they should head over to the aptly named Standard matches. In my opinion, having this playlist is a much welcome change because the Siege community will always want to have that classic Siege experience

2. Shotty Mains Rejoice

Shotguns in Siege have always been pretty niche. I personally only used non-slug shotguns when I'm using operators that have a machine pistol as their secondary weapon. However, with the recent changes to the shotguns, I can see myself and a lot of other players using shotguns more and more, even when the operator we’re using doesn’t have a machine pistol. That’s because shotguns have essentially been buffed recently. Now, the player will be rewarded more by going into ADS before shooting because that will mean more precision with the shotgun.

As for hip firing, it will cause more destruction, which is always great when it comes to reworking the map for the defenders and creating entry points for the attackers. Shotguns will also now have more destructive power when the user is moving while shooting. This really gives players much more incentive to use shotguns despite their limited range. Take note, however, that the recent changes to the shotguns only applies to shotguns that shoot multiple pellets per shot and not slug-shotguns like the ACS12, TCSG12, or BOSG.12.2.

1. Renewed Eight Years Support Promise

Perhaps the most compelling recent news about Siege is that its creative director, Alexander Karpazis, in one of their most recent reveal panels, has renewed their promise to support the game for 8 years more. Back in 2018, they also promised to support the game for 8 years more, but it seems like based on the still very strong player population of Siege, both on PC and consoles, they’re confident that they can support it for 8 more years, not starting from 2018, but starting from this year, so Siege fans have a lot more content to look forward to.

The strong player base is probably due to the fact that Siege is very unique compared to all the popular multiplayer shooter games out there because it focuses mainly not just on the player’s aim but also on team tactics and communication. The most recent season, Operation Heavy Mettle, was received really well and there were even reports that servers crashed during its early days. While servers crashing is never a good thing, it was an indication that a lot of players were getting into Siege or returning, and rightfully so, because most of the recent changes really indicate that Siege is heading in the right direction.

Attention operator, please be advised. There is a new directive from Six. Read up on these related articles, and prepare for deployment:

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