Rainbow Six Siege Guide to Operation New Blood
Ubisoft’s latest Rainbow Six Siege update, Operation New Blood, brings a slew of exciting changes and features. Among the highlights are two new Operators, Striker and Sentry, the launch of the Siege Marketplace, and significant balancing updates. Soniqs General Manager, Seth "Supr" Hoffman dives into the major changes and shares his insights
Reworked Recruit: Viability and Strategic Implications
The additions of Striker and Sentry bring a new twist to preparing your strategies. Supr points out, “the reworks are interesting as they don't have an actual operator ability, but they offer unique kits that can help the team aspect of the game."
Striker, the latest attacker, may not see much play, as the utility they bring can be easily replicated by other operators. However, the defender version, Sentry, shows promise. Equipped with a Super shorty and Commando, the operator is already aligning itself with an offsite, roaming playstyle, similar to the original Mozzie kit. Having the freedom to also choose two of any secondary utility means access to both a shield, C4, beepers, or barbed wire, whatever the situation requires. The newest defender will therefore be a valuable asset in creating versatile defensive setups. “I expect to see the new defender [Sentry] played situationally in competitive, but don't expect to see much of the attacker [Striker]”, states Supr.
Siege Marketplace: New Opportunities and Challenges
The introduction of the Siege Marketplace marks a significant step in skin availability and customization. "The Siege Marketplace is a great idea to drive engagement and give players the opportunity to grab some skins they didn't have the ability to get in the past," says Supr.
However, the Marketplace also presents challenges for esports organizations. Supr expresses concern about the impact on organizations. “I do have some concerns about how this affects partnered organizations who rely on R6Share for funding. Now that those skins are available in the Marketplace, orgs will not receive a portion of those sales. Overall, I think this is a positive move in the right direction and I look forward to seeing what Ubisoft have planned in regards to player-to-player trading and even potentially transactions outside of Ubisoft credits.”
Balancing Updates: Solis, Fenrir, and Future Adjustments
Operation New Blood also brings crucial balancing changes. According to Supr, "Solis was completely destroyed by the nerfs." The loss of drone hunting in prep, range and timer reductions, alongside the removal of impact grenades, have significantly weakened Solis's competitive viability. Players will now need to make effective use of the primary shotgun to obtain similar levels of vertical deniability and site destruction or choose to run the P90 for more fragging potential.
Fenrir remains useful, but is now more situational. The reduction of active gadgets, total gadgets, and the removal of barbed wire will make the operator simpler to counter by a coordinated attacking squad. F-NATT Dread Mines being susceptible to gunfire, even in their closed state, means vigilant players can easily deal with the vision denying smoke. “Fenrir's greatest ability was to be able to cover so many zones solely off of his utility use. Now Sentry could replicate this by pairing barb and beepers together,” suggests Supr. Looking forward, Supr believes Azami, Ying, and shield operators are still overpowered and require nerfs. “The game has become very cheese reliant on attack which takes a lot of strategy out of the game.”
Conclusion
Operation New Blood promises to inject fresh dynamics into Rainbow Six Siege, balancing the game while offering new ways for players to engage with one another via the Marketplace. For more Rainbow 6 Siege content, subscribe to Soniqs Esports YouTube. To keep up to date on when Soniqs play next, subscribe to the newsletter below or follow us on X!
