The latest Rainbow Six Siege Designer’s Notes are out and Ubisoft crunched the numbers for Y5S2. The blog post features vital statistics on the latest operators, Ace and Melusi, showing that both have a stellar presence and a positive win delta—and the ban rate that goes with it.
This edition of the Designer’s Notes also teases upcoming adjustments to Oryx, Fuze, and Gridlock, revealing Y5S2.3 changes to their kits, and shares an evidence-based verdict on Amaru’s Y5S2 rework.
Designer’s Notes are a series of regular updates from Siege developers that contain vital information, such as pick rates and win deltas of operators across the board. Win deltas, for instance, use win-and-loss statistics to determine whether a team is more likely to win or lose by having a certain operator in the match. The data can serve as a measure to gauge the popularity and viability of certain characters and to plan buffs and nerfs accordingly.
Ace and Melusi
The latest operators seem to be doing well, according to Ubisoft’s data. Ace and Melusi have a strong presence and win delta in matches, unlike their predecessors, Void Edge’s Oryx and Iana.
Ace is present in over 50 percent of ranked matches in Platinum and above, according to Siege data, which makes him the third most popular attacker. His positive win delta signifies that he has a positive impact on the outcome of a match. Ace’s 21-percent ban rate makes him the fifth most banned attacker, still behind established bans such as Thatcher and Jackal.
Melusi is also doing well. She’s the fourth most-picked defender with a presence of over 40 percent and a win delta of two. These statistics mean that Melusi is also a positive influence on the outcome of her matches, which could be the reason behind her skyrocketing ban rate. She’s the second most common ban in ranked games with an astonishing 61 percent ban rate, only behind Mira’s 64 percent.
The two latest operators both have a significant impact on Siege gameplay. They quickly rose in popularity and both can shift the battle in their favor, based on their win deltas. Their scenario is completely different from Operation Void Edge operators Iana and Oryx, who, at the time, were present in less than 10 percent of matches and had a win delta of zero and negative 2.5, respectively.
Upcoming Y5S2.3 changes: Oryx, Fuze, Gridlock
The Designer’s Notes also shared a taste of the upcoming changes to three operators: Oryx, Fuze, and Gridlock. As a whole, the adjustments target casual players and the upper echelons of the competitive modes.
Oryx’s Remah Dash won’t consume charges when going through soft walls and the recovery time between his dashes was cut down to 0.5 seconds. The adjustments aim to “increase his mobility to make him more popular and fun to play, while increasing his survivability,” according to the Designer’s Notes, and to make him a better roamer.
Oryx’s statistics don’t paint the operator in a positive light. He’s present in only five percent of matches and has a neutral win delta, which is a big improvement from his release in Y5S1 when his win delta was negative 2.5. These changes should increase his presence and viability.
Fuze will also get more bang for his buck in Y5S2.3. The Spetsnaz operator is getting an extra Cluster Charge. Ubisoft’s statistics show that players use less than two charges per match, which could be a product of careful placement. The extra explosive should encourage players to go all-out with his gadget and improve his minus four win delta.
Gridlock’s Trax Stingers are getting a series of adjustments. Their deployment time dropped drastically (from 13 seconds to nine) but gained a 0.45-second delay before they start deploying. Ubisoft also reduced the time before individual caltrops arm to 0.45 seconds (from 0.7). But the developers “do not expect this change to have a significant impact on her Presence or Win Delta.”
Amaru’s verdict
Amaru got a significant boost to her Garra Hook earlier in Y5S2 and it seems to have paid off. Ubisoft’s verdict is that the adjustments had “a very solid improvement” on the operator. Her pick rate more than doubled, from four percent to 10 percent, and her win delta saw a significant increase.
For casual players, Amaru’s win delta doubled from 0.8 percent to 1.7 percent. The improvement is even more violent among the so-called top players, the highest-ranked on the ladder. Her win delta evolved nearly sevenfold, from 0.2 percent to 1.5 percent. Her K/D following the use of her Gadget nearly doubled, another successful statistic after the adjustments to her kit.
In Y5S2, the Siege team updated Amaru’s unique gadget. The Garra Hook would break barricades when Amaru trespassed them and the recovery when landing also became faster. Although Ubisoft mentioned that “our goal is to improve her overall presence” but didn’t expect many changes to her performance, the statistics show that her win delta has skyrocketed as a byproduct of the tweaks.
Balancing retrospective: Oryx, Kali, Echo
The Designer’s Notes also evaluated the impact of the adjusments to Oryx, Kali, and Echo. All three operators have received heavy interference in Year Five and Ubisoft’s tally shows how the adjustments impacted each operator.
The reduction of Oryx’s self-damage on the Remah Dash increased the number of dashes per round and decreased the number of rounds in which the dash didn’t see any play. The changes helped save his win delta from negative three to negative 0.2, a significant improvement.
The tweaks to Kali’s Lance also saw enemies destroy her gadget 13 percent less often in ranked matches and 10 percent in casual modes. The Lance decomissioned 10 percent more enemy gadgets and was used seven percent more often across the board. The changes helped improve her win delta from negative 1.6 to negative 0.6 while maintaining the same presence.
Unlike the other two operators, however, the changes to Siege‘s drone pilot drastically decreased his efficiency. The adjustments to the Yokai’s disorienting effect dropped his win delta to negative 0.2, down from 0.9 in the previous season. His presence, however, remained mostly unaffected over the course of Y5S2.
