As Year 8 of Rainbow Six Siege continues on, Ubisoft is making small tweaks and adjustments to some of the operators in order to help even out the playing field, though, in this latest update that dropped on July 11th, a lot of these changes have come as quite the surprise for many Siege players.
Ubisoft isn't exactly a stranger to nerfing operators unexpectedly, but more recently, they have decided to crack down on some of the stealthier operators in an attempt to bring more attention to the sound design, making it easier for both defenders and attackers to identify their enemy by listening in on the noises around them.
For some players, especially those who main operators who are more deceitful and sneaky, a lot of these changes have the potential to drastically change the way they play, while others will benefit from the few buffs that have been introduced in the latest patch.
5 Quality Of Life Improvements
Slowly but surely, Ubisoft is ironing out a lot of bugs that have been plaguing the game for years at this point, with a few of the most annoying issues being resolved in this update. The biggest change here is the issue of not being able to accept an invite from a player who was part of the same squad in the previous match. This was an incredibly annoying glitch that would require a full restart to fix, but it has now been resolved luckily.
The Battle Pass roadmap will also no longer flash on the screen when moving to the Progress section, and the Shop has been improved to be a little smoother and less glitchy than it was before, something that has been bugging players ever since it was first introduced as part of the main menu.
4 New Thorn Sight
Thorn's UZK50 SMG is an extremely powerful gun with a moderate rate of fire that can take down enemies in mere seconds so long as the player manages to land all their shots, but the issue is that it has always been very tricky to control due to the recoil which has forced a lot of players to use other trap defenders like Lesion and Kapkan instead.
The good news is, Thorn is finally getting a 1.5x scope that she can use on her custom uzi which will make it far more accurate and viable for medium-distance gunfights which she has always struggled with. This is definitely an attempt by Ubisoft to make Thorn a little more usable since she is currently one of the least-picked defenders in the game, despite how devastating her Razorbloom mines can be when catching attackers off guard.
3 Faster Oryx Climbing Speed
While he may not have been used much upon his initial release in Operation Void Edge, Oryx has gone on to become wildly popular among players who love navigating around the map at blistering speeds while playing defense thanks to his Remah Dash which he can use to break through walls and knock over attackers and shields.
Despite his growing popularity, Ubisoft has actually made Oryx even faster by reducing his hatch climb animation time by 30%. While this unique ability has been very handy for vertical movement, it was always far too slow and very easy for the enemy to land a headshot on Oryx if they knew he was returning to the site, but now, he will be able to initiate flanks far more reliably thanks to this generous buff.
2 Vigil ERC-7 Changes
Everyone's favorite roamer has received quite a few changes in this latest update, facing both buffs and nerfs which change the way he is played quite drastically. When Vigil now shoots while having his ERC-7 cloaking device activated, the device will no longer switch off automatically and will continue emitting the same glitch effect onto attacker drones, which is a massive buff for him.
On the other hand, though, Vigil has received a minor buff which isn't too big of a change, but that definitely makes him a little easier to spot for anti-roamer attackers. So long as Vigil has his ERC-7 ability up, he will still be immune to Lion's drones, but if the attackers are on a personal drone and Vigil is moving while Lion's ability is activated, they will be able to see a rough outline of Vigil which can give away his position. It's unlikely that this will affect Vigil's position as one of the most reliable roamers in the game, but it's definitely a nerf that coordinated teams can make use of.
1 Huge Nokk Nerfs
Nokk is definitely not the operator that players were expecting to be nerfed in this update, especially considering that she has a fairly low ban rate and never seemed too overpowered in the way she played. Nonetheless, she has now become a lot noisier than she used to be. Nokk will no longer have Silent Step when she activates her HEL ability, so while she will still be invisible to observation tools, no longer will she be able to roam around the map silently in the same way that Caveira can.
On the other hand, her cloaking device will now last 20 seconds instead of 12 which is admittedly a huge buff, but the loss of silent movement is a massive downgrade that will surely confuse a lot of players since it never felt too unfair in actual gameplay. Ubisoft has made it clear in the latest patch notes that they feel that every defender should be able to hear when an attacker is approaching, and since Nokk defied this rule, she has therefore been altered accordingly.
Rainbow Six Siege is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, Amazon Luna, and PC.