BETA 10: WARLORD FOREVER!
The full ambient soundscape is here, and it's not alone! Beta 10 also comes with expanded bothacking abilities, two more alternate endings, many more types of drones, and of course lots of other features to improve the overall experience.
Diving right in here...
(Note: Beta 10 is far too large to fit the entire release notes in a Reddit post, so I've had to share the changelog here as an image rather than text. For a normal view of the full release notes, see this same announcement on the forums!)

Cogmind Beta 10 "Warlord Forever!" (200915) changelog

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 10, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 9.6 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like.

Ambient Soundscape

You can now fully hear the world of Cogmind!
Cogmind has always had a ton of sound effects that help bring the world to life, but as far as continuous tracks go, for many years we've only had a few ambient sounds emitted by special machines and sample mapwide tracks in a couple maps as a test. Now all named machines have their own audio, as do all the maps!
Hear an array of Construction Platforms at work in the Factory, the rumble of a Megafabricator in the distance, Plasma Injectors down in the Mines, the hum of Power Conduits, busy Mainframes echoing throughout the Research branches, and so much more.
Aside from thematic mapwide drones that meld everything together, when you're not blasting robots and using the interface the audio experience is primarily defined by environmental factors, yet another new facet of Cogmind's emphasis on immersion.

Here's a debug shot visualizing the variety of machine audio across a Factory floor, where each unique sound is associated with a random color.
Any gaps or areas where no specific local machine can be heard will generally have a higher-volume mapwide ambient track to unify the floor's audio and maintain the theme, as you can see in this visualization of mapwide ambient volumes (brighter is higher volume).

I wrote an in-depth article about the content and process behind Building Cogmind’s Ambient Soundscape (visual overview).
Related to the expansion of Cogmind's audio content we have an important new advanced option, muteAudioOnFocusLoss, which you might want to turn on if you do a lot of Alt-Tabbing and prefer that Cogmind not continue playing its audio while you're in some other window. We might want that to be on by default, but it's off for now since I need to make sure it doesn't mess anything up first :P (it seems okay so far, anyway--I've been using it for a while now, but that's just me).
The soundscape is also fully accessible in text form as well, a new feature that will benefit both those who can't turn up the volume or simply want the extra visual reinforcement enabled by being able to also "read" all the audio sources. This is made possible via a new Audio Log, off by default but toggled in the options menu.

See the Audio Log in the top-right corner, listing all heard ambient audio sources and their relative volume as heard from the current location as I walk around a Materials map:
Here's another demo showing ambient sound sources alongside sound effects and the visual sound effect system as a battle rages outside this room:

There's a summary of Audio Log features and behavior in the manual, or if you want an even more in-depth look at how the system was built you can check out the article I wrote on the topic: Audio Accessibility Features for Roguelikes (visual overview).
The install size of the game has definitely gone up as a result of all the new audio, by a whopping 50%! It wasn't exactly huge to begin with, but with Beta 10 we're going from 30MB to 45MB.

New Endings

We have two new endings, bringing us to a total of nine different ways to win! I won't spoil the new ones here except to say that they're both a part of the extended game, and to point out the obvious, that yes the "expanded Warlord arc" indicated in the changelog is what you've been waiting for if you're one of us Warlord fans. Warlord forever! (Hopefully...)
Each of the new endings presents new challenges beyond what was already in the game, and of course as with the other seven, they each come with their own unique animated ending sequence. A ton of work went into these endings as a whole, and based on initial feedback from patrons they seem to have turned out pretty well. I even had to add a whole new type of UI window to enable you to trigger access to one of the new endings--you'll know it when you see it ;)
On a related note, I've also expanded some NPC interactions that people have wanted to see over the years. Under the right circumstances it's been possible to get certain major NPCs to meet each other, but in the past they wouldn't take notice or otherwise react in any way. Now they do, usually with consequences :P

Drones and AI

There was a decent list of optional features to consider for Beta 10, and this time patrons voted to prioritize a drone mechanics rework together with a significant expansion of the types of drones available. It's turned out pretty nicely, resolving what I saw as some longstanding issues while adding fun new options at the same time.
Importantly, the new additions are not simply "drone with guns A, drone with guns B, etc.", or even drones using just standard tech, but instead come with unique features or behavior that can enable special strategies, or at least just be really fun to use--launch decoys, self-guided bombs, your own posse of thieves, drones that do your hacking for you, and more!

New drone bay art!

Drone Bay Basics
The most fundamental change with respect to drones is that you must have an attached and functional matching type of bay in order to use them. The bay does not actually need to be active, however (activating a bay is simply a way to launch drones). There are a number of implied changes connected to this one, including:

Releasing a drone directly from a bay on the ground (e.g. with '>') can only be done if a functional matching type of bay is already attached
Zionite Recon dispatches now arrive as a Z-Drone Bay (since you can't have drones without a bay anymore :P)
Drone bays never autoactivate on attach, regardless of part autoactivation settings

If you remove the necessary drone bay (or it's destroyed xD), all related drones will take on the new "Unconnected" status and shut down. You lose the FOV info, but can gain it back again immediately by attaching an appropriate bay.

This requirement really opened up the drone space for more possibilities and was pivotal in making the new drones much more interesting since the bay becomes a part of the requirement for using them, meaning we can get more powerful/numerous drones because the bay itself can be huge or heavy as a balancing factor to compensate :)
One surely welcome QoL under this new system is that if you have multiple matching drone bays and the attached one is full, drones can actually return to those which are currently in your inventory, as long as one has sufficient space.
Less Micro
Overall there'll be less micromanagement involved with drones, and in some cases other allies as well, with the biggest change being the complete removal of the GOTO order! That feature just encouraged a lot of micromanagement to get the most out of allies, especially drones which could then be carefully moved around to explore manually in some cases, and would often be optimal but tedious (i.e. not good). (Even after the removal you can technically still get them generally where you want by using a combination of movement, waiting, and STAY orders, though this incurs a time cost which can be prohibitive except when very important.)
This encouraged me to make some improvements to the AI as well, most importantly that unarmed followers will slightly trail behind rather than gathering around your current location. And they'll be smart about retreating ahead of you if you're retreating, too, generally keeping them out of the line of fire (unless you're suddenly ambushed from behind, or surrounded, in which case good luck :P).

Implementation: Instead of following your precise location, unarmed followers will target a point lagging behind you, as demonstrated here in debug mode (you can't normally see the point itself)

Drones and all allies will also really do their best to avoid stepping on known traps now. It turns out that although they would never path through traps, they might sometimes decide to stand on one if you were hanging around near it long enough.
Fleeing drones will now always RETURN automatically, rather than running around wildly, so it'll be easier to get them back and they'll be much more likely to survive longer. By extension, any disarmed combat drones will also automatically return, possibly improving their lifespan as well. The potential drawback here is that they might lead enemies right back to your position! Of course if you're not there when the enemies finally arrive then it's all good anyway... (or you can choose to sacrifice the drone by removing the bay to disconnect it and then you'll be fine, too)
Drone QoL
One long-requested new feature is the ability to have the map view follow a drone as it moves. You can easily cycle through your drones using the normal Enter key (or center mouse button), which highlights them and their FOV. You can just use this to more easily check where they are, or even pass turns while focused on them and watch as they explore even distant areas.

Drone cycling demo
Drone following demo
When active drones are offscreen, you also get a blue 'n' marker like the one you get when Cogmind is offscreen
And there's a new type of dedicated intel marker to record the location of a drone that was destroyed when that happens outside your remaining FOV.

The allies menu system got some upgrades, too:

Opening an ally order list via the Allies console centers display on that ally if they are outside the map view
Accessing the ally order list via keyboard displays it adjacent to the ally rather than below the Allies console
Fleeing controllable allies appear differently in the allies menu, and explicitly refuse orders with a warning message

Acquiring Drones
A majority of the new drone bays are available in the early game, although every single type except for one is a unique part, so you won't be seeing all of them in the same run. Less unique drones with similar mechanics might be available in the future (for example via Merchants!), but there's currently no good place to add them yet so I decided it would be better to make the bays unique so they could be especially useful or fun.
Many are available in the Mines via a new prefab encounter, and the rest are scattered about in other plot areas. One is a regular 0b10 prototype bay.

RIF Expansion

For all the Botlord builds out there, the pool of potential robot hacking abilities has been expanded from 9 to 15. Half of the new ones can be obtained multiple times to increase their effectiveness.
(Skip this section if you want to discover them on your own!)
Here's an overview of what's new...

Hotswap allows you to automatically swap in additional matching Couplers in sequence from your inventory when the effective code value of current attached Couplers is insufficient for the desired hack. (No this doesn't mean hacking directly from inventory Couplers, but it does reduce the need to free up utility slots and attach additional Couplers mid-combat, while also allowing you to more easily get the most out of your existing Couplers.)
With Command Fork you have a chance to duplicate each hack, also applying it to the visible applicable target nearest to the initial target, at no extra cost! It's compatible with most hacks, excluding generate_echo, map_walls, map_earth, map_route, or those that would have no meaningful effect. This is super useful because you can hack a combat bot and have the same hack affect a nearby different type of combat bot for which you don't even have a Coupler--very powerful under the right circumstances! (link_fov fork demo) (demo of forking overload_power and streamctrl_high)
Threat Obfuscation reduces all influence increases by a certain percentage (depending on your ability's level).
Signal Jamming blocks local transmissions from visible hostiles while you have a matching Coupler attached, making it impossible for them to share information about your current position. Also prevents calls for reinforcements, and suppresses alarm traps. Basically against bots it's like having a targeted Transmission Jammer, a nice little bonus for having a given Coupler.
Zone Cloak causes extermination squads to take longer to pinpoint your position for dispatching, essentially the same effect as taking out Garrison Access points, but you get it for free.
With any [NC] Coupler attached, Watcher Feeds makes it possible to tap into the visual feed data of all 0b10 Watchers within a range of 24! This basically gives you temporary access to free drones that can maintain visual contact with enemies without themselves being attacked. One less reason to destroy Watchers :P (demo of the Watcher Feeds effect--while applicable, the link range is highlighted in faint yellow)

Mechanics

You can ram walls and machines now! Doing this is will mess you up pretty bad and there are warnings against it, of course, to help prevent you from smashing your face into that adjacent nuclear reactor, although if you're getting really desperate and squads are gathering around, this might actually be a good idea ;)

Machine ramming demo

So it's there if you need it. This also provides a last ditch way out of escaping situations in which you've accidentally allowed Engineers to entomb you without any weapons to escape :P
Ramming like this uses the same old force melee commands.

Wall ramming demo

We also have a more controversial mechanical adjustment in terms of using melee weapons in dug out spaces. For a number of reasons being able to safely dig winding tunnels could be pretty cheesy, even more so using them to fight pursuers. Projectile weapons could cause instant cave-ins when used like this from within unstable areas, but not melee weapons. Now all weapons are treated the same in this regard. The chance of melee attacks causing a cave-in are lower than, say, a kinetic cannon, but it is no longer completely safe to do so.
In terms of tunnel combat I imagine the effect of this change is less of an issue for players since that practice probably wasn't as widespread, though this does also affect the ability to dig consecutively through multiple spaces with a melee weapon, which will no doubt cause concern for some stealth builds which will need to consider alternative options if they can't risk a cave-in.
In any case, we'll see how things turn out, but stealth is already super effective and melee digging in particular was only one small part of that effectiveness.

Balance

Trackers have been nerfed. See the multiple changelog lines regarding them :P
The changes essentially mean they'll be a bit slower to catch up to you, and also have to be within view before they can open fire. Technically this is also an indirect nerf to builds that liked to farm Trackers and take their OP gear to turn it agaist 0b10, but players who could do that were few and far in between (in Rogue mode, at least xD).
We also have some OP weapon nerfs, specifically the Firepult and Guided EMP Blaster. Both are still good, but were definitely way too good earlier. The Firepult nerf in particular was planned to happen eventually, but don't worry, it's still quite good, just can't be used indefinitely because the idea behind most EX-tech was that it's stuff which is fun and effective to play with through the early/mid-game rather than become something you stash away to help crush the extended game :P. Some other Exiles parts will likely be revisited in the next release for updating as well (they were intentionally made OP when first introduced basically just for fun, since you can't get them every run anyway).
Impact weapons got a situational buff across the board, since all walls and reinforced barriers are now weaker against them.
I made some changes to the Access garrison situation, namely removing the original extremely deadly result of visiting one, a nasty surprise for anyone doing it their first time that was probably not survivable for most builds. The origial effect (instant Max Security!), was my first reaction to Pimski trying to loop indefinitely since it was an easy way to use the game's existing content to mostly discourage or outright block that possibility. Now there's a much less deadly result specifically for that situation.
Going inside that garrison itself has gotten more dangerous, however--I mean it's Access, right?! :)

QoL

Our favorite three-letter combo around here!
We've got some useful new protective warnings, including most importantly a warning if you're attempting to attack from a position that might cause a cave-in as a result, since it can be easy to that accidentally in the heat of battle. (This warning also includes melee attacks, as per the earlier mechanical change mentioned earlier.) There's also a warning if your attempted line of fire is blocked by another robot, since a fair number of people don't seem to notice that as readily, especially if the situation is changing as a lot of bots are moving around during combat (note that the LOF indicator also changes color).
Previously used guided waypoints can now be recalled even if some were outside FOV (demo).
By request, as long as you have Tactical HUD mode active, parts that have been damaged for whatever reason (like... being shot :P) now retain a box around their integrity display in your parts list until your next action, so that you can more easily recall what has just taken damage (demo).
I've activated this behavior by default, but if it bothers you you can deactivate it in advanced.cfg using partDamageIndicatorsRetained.
Also by request, we now have the ability to add custom log notes!
Log notes could later be expanded in a number of ways depending on player needs, but the primary purpose behind its current form is to allow you to leave in-game notes about what you were doing at the end of a play session, making it easier to pick up where you left off next time.
This feature is currently only accessible via Shift-Alt-z, but we'll be later getting a new menu system for easier access to all Shift-Alt key combo features, including mouse accessibility.
And no, your notes do not appear in the final scoresheet at this time (they're excluded from log output and only appear in game).
I've updated any Mines reward encounters that required randomly visiting a hidden location, which encouraged the optimal tactic of scouring every inch of the Mines in search of them, especally in the hope of uncovering the famous early Exp. Sensor Array.
As you can see, the event is now triggered by rifling through some visible Scrap. The original behavior was meant as a placeholder until there was a better solution--now we have one :)
We've got a couple little special mode updates as well. First of all a dedicated indicator for when your built-in sensors are being jammed, since the normal indicator was attached to sensor parts, which you may not even need in RPGLIKE mode :P
Player 2 now displays their parts with raw integrity values rather than as percentages.

Community

I've been doing a lot of streaming over the past months, about half of it Cogmind-related. In fact, we'll be starting a new run today, not long after Beta 10 is officially released here :)
Past streams are archived on my YouTube channel, including the relatively recent Magneto run where we go for that achievement, some RIF runs, and others checking out the new ambient audio, including one dev testing stream.
Many others have been streaming lately as well, including MTF, Tone, Valguris and other top players. The Discord is a good place to get a heads up on streams and when people are planning to go live.
For those of you out there interested in the latest flavor of cheese, Pimski has put together an Exiles Kill Guide demonstrating a new pastime among Cogmind's more brazen and greedy (and evil!) players.
As per the announcement last month, the leaderboards are back in action and better than ever. I'll be continuing to expand their features down the line.
The next leaderboard reset will come tomorrow now that Beta 10 is out! All the current scores are from the Beta 9 builds (although the separate patron leaderboards include some Beta 10 and prerelease runs).

The Road to More

Thanks to all patrons and players for your support!
We've still got that OP rating, so the next goal still stands. Keep the reviews coming :D
Reminder: There will eventually be a big free expansion happening that adds Merchants (in fact there are a growing number of references in the game foreshadowing their arrival, including more in this release ;)), though I haven't yet decided for sure whether it will be before or after 1.0.
Regardless, we've got lots and lots of plans, both small and large, still out there just waiting for some attention...

To those agents still wanting to protect DC and NYC but are struggling with TU8...

TL;DR:
While this is a very unpopular opinion, you can't play Division 2, TU8 like you played Division 2, pre-TU8 and expect to have the same level of success.
I posted a reply to another thread that kind of got away from me so I decided to expand upon it in it's own separate thread. I am a veteran of The Division (around 500 hours) and Division 2 (700 hours) and Looter-Shooter games in general like Path of Exile and the Borderlands series (over 1000 hours in each of those). I am also a full-time embedded engineer and Dad of 4 kids (3 of whom love to sit and watch me play said looter-shooters) so I have a lot of other responsibilities and can't "no-life" games.
I come here to this subreddit every day, multiple times a day - sometimes commenting and sometimes just lurking - and it's hard not to notice all the salt and vinegar from the many bugs to most recently the Ban Hammer for those who allegedly used one of several glitches over the last few weeks. Before I get into the meat of the post, I want to acknowledge some things that are wrong with the game that should probably be fixed (none of this is new):

Any known glitches / exploits should be acknowledged and fixed. Massive / Ubisoft need to be way more transparent about this and the criteria that was used to determine who got banned and who didn't.
Certain status effects need a second or third look because getting insta-killed by fire, poison, and bleed sucks.
Gear drops still don't feel right - I'm getting Level 40 items as Heroic Mission rewards that have complete garbage for stats, like all 3 stats are below 20% of max. Yes, I have received a number of God-Rolled items but those are few and far between and certainly don't live up to the "Doing harder content will garner better loot" that the devs talked about prior to the WoNY launch. 75% of the time I open boxes or weapon cases I'm getting purple items. I'd be okay with this if the rolls were God-Rolls, but they are not.
With a handful of exceptions, TU8 made Exotics mostly irrelevant
Grenade accuracy is insanely ridiculous
Enemy accuracy and damage from range, especially with non-marksman weapons, is completely over-tuned. I don't even mind getting one-shot from afar by a sniper or wardog because that's their job. I do mind getting all of my 1 million points of armor wiped out by 3 shots from some tweaked-out Hyena shooting at me from 100m with his SMG that he's holding gangster-style.
Enemies getting stuck in textures or in spawn areas so missions can't be completed

I fully recognize that there are way more issues and bugs but these are the ones that I think really detract from what the game could be. Having said that, I am respectfully asking that people not comment about any of the above issues or really any other gripe related to the game unless it's related to how you had to change how you played the Division 2 after TU8 dropped. Like the title of the post, I am interested in hearing from two groups of agents who are continuing to enjoy TU8 while recognizing there are serious issues:

Agents who have had to change how they play the Division 2 from how they played pre-TU8 to be successful
Agents who are struggling with gear, enemy AI, or the new mechanics in TU8 but want to continue playing

There are plenty of other posts to choose from if you want to complain about everything that is wrong with the game; this is not one of them.
If I haven't lost you yet, this post is broken up into two sections: one section that deals with how I had to change how I played and another that goes over a couple builds that I'm currently using solo to be successful.
CHANGE OF STRATEGY / TACTICS
TU8 brought a drastic change in not only the gear and RPG system, but to enemy AI, enemy health and armor, and enemy damage. Prior to TU8, a well-geared Agent could face-tank most enemies and come out with most of their armor in-tact as long as it was effectively, a 1v1 scenario. With the combinations of gear and weapon talents, it was fairly easy to put a build together that had fantastic sustain and output high amounts of damage. Skill builds were also a thing. You could sit back and spam Cluster Seekers and Stinger Hive and wait for them to completely clear a room; rinse and repeat. There were a number of skilled agents who could solo the Heroic Invaded missions and many who didn't really have a problem with CP4's.
The release of TU8 changed that. Enemies were tankier and did more damage in addition to being more aggressive. There were new enemy types, specifically the new war dog variants, that were constantly forcing you out of cover. When I first started playing WoNY, it was a bit jarring. I wasn't used to getting completely rekt on Hard mode. I realized though that I was still trying to play TU8 like I was used to playing prior to the update and I needed to change. Below are some of the many lessons I learned to be more successful in The Division 2, TU8.

Movement is Life - If you're used to finding cover and engaging from one spot, you probably realized pretty quickly that it doesn't work. Suicide bombers and melee attackers will immediately rush you and grenadiers will consistently bombard your position with pinpoint accuracy. We often see posts that decry that the AI is "cheating". As some have pointed out, it's possible to use this to our advantage.
- Enemies respond to your movement - Ever notice how melee rushers will change direction quickly based on which direction you are moving? Notice how if you approach aggressively, it will push some enemies back? Use this to your advantage. If you stay in one place, enemies will just make a beeline to you. Don't let them. Unless I'm playing a Rifle or MMR build where I'm engaging enemies from range, I'm moving every 5 to 7 seconds. Sometimes it's just back and forth between two different pieces of cover but that's enough. It buys you precious seconds that you might otherwise not have.
- If you see you are getting rushed, you need to fall back - While I agree that the AI sometimes "cheats" because it knows when you are the weakest and will sometimes exploit this, some of the responsibility has to fall on the Agent. Don't sit in cover if you see 3 guys advancing on you. Look for an early opportunity to fall back or re-position that gives you more protection or more avenues to escape and evade. If you are almost surrounded, it's probably too late to make a move. We wanted more tactical combat and that's what we got.
- Use Cover-to-Cover moves during combat - This has been posted multiple times before, but it's worth repeating. It's crazy that it works this way but C2C moves significantly reduce the amount of damage you take in combat when moving from point A to point B compared to just running there regularly.
This is a cover shooter so play it like one - Cover is there for you to take advantage of so it's a good idea to use it. Yes, there are times where you are going to have to move or pop-up to shoot but do it smartly.
Situational awareness is more important than ever now - There are multiple things you should be paying attention to in combat.
- Mini-Radar-Map - You should constantly be checking your three, six, and nine o'clock positions for rushers. I can't tell you the number of times I let my guard down and was one-shot by a suicide bomber or got an ax for my inattentiveness.
- Grenade / AoE indicators - The AoE indicators are easier to spot because you will see a red circular area painted on the ground. The grenade indicators can sometimes get lost in the shuffle so I'm always glancing up to make sure I catch one if I missed the telegraph.
- Audio cues - I'm not sure how many of you play with headphones or 5.1 audio setups that allow you to identify threats through audio cues. This is invaluable and has saved my ass multiple times.
- Prioritizing targets - Everyone has their own list but here's mine: Immediate threats (melee rushers, shotgun rushers, suicide bombers), medics, remote operators, grenadiers, everyone else. Here is where Demolisher Firefly is an invaluable skill (more on this below).
When solo, learn to play the game without a healing skill - This was a tip that some kind Redditor offered me a couple of weeks ago and it has completely changed my effectiveness in combat. Of my 3 main solo builds, none of them have a healing skill. Closest I come is the Defender Drone for my MMR build because it's a 6 Red build and you get shredded too easily. Two of my solo hybrid builds that do damage via guns rely on AoK and Armor Regen to improve my survivability to the point that I rarely even have to use an armor kit.
- The biggest reason is that as a solo player, having skills that reduce the effectiveness of your enemies (or kill them) is a greater force multiplier than the ability to heal yourself beyond Armor Kits.
- Many agents use the healing skills and the reviver hive as a crutch instead of playing in a way that promotes survivability. I'm not saying this is wrong or bad so if you like that added level of comfort, by all means. What I'm saying is that by not playing with either of these things you will be forced to make survivability a priority and will overall, become a better player.
- Instead of going all-in on a 6 red build with all red (CHC, CHD, HSD, WH) attributes, add some Explosive Resistance, Hazard Protection, and / or Armor Regen to your build. You'll be surprised how 20 - 30% of ER or HZP will buy you a few extra seconds; sometimes, that's all you need.
The Skills to Pay the Bills - Skills underwent a change when TU8 dropped.
- Due to the enemy scaling, explosive skills are not as powerful. In TU7, a well-built explosive build could one-shot reds and most purples with cluster seekers and strip most of the armor from elites. With enemy scaling the way it is now, cluster seekers are barely taking 20% of armor from elites with a well-built explosive build. I have a somewhat-optimized 6-skill-tier explosive build that uses Explosive Sticky and even with Perfect Spike + Perfect Rooted + Acosta's bonus proc'd it's hitting for around 5.4 million and only stripping about 50% of the armor off an elite.
- CC is so strong now so gun builds should have at least one of their skills be a CC one - I generally will run 2 CC skills from the following list - Demolisher Firefly, Blinder Firefly, EMP Jammer, or Banshee Pulse (if using gunner). The Demolisher FF is an absolute game-changer because it completely takes enemy skills off the table and makes the fight about gun damage and positioning. Even with no investment in skill tiers and minimal investment in SH, my cooldown (with no assistance from any skills that modify cooldowns) is around 40 seconds.
- As secondaries, sometimes I'll use the Assault Turret or Stinger Hive to protect my flanks. I've been experimenting with the little electrical mines but haven't really gotten the hang of them but also believe they may be bugged (I've seen enemies walk through the mine field and not get shocked until they pass the 3rd or 4th one). Riot Foam would be on this list but it's definitely bugged.
- If you need some extra protection for a fairly squishy build, Defender Drone is a good option. I'm using it on my all-offense, all-the-time MMR build and it's really handy to pop it in a tight spot when you have to cross a hot field of fire or when you get pinned down and need an extra edge to give you time to escape.
Throw Grenades like They are Going Out of Style - It doesn't matter what kind you have. Often times, I just use them to get enemies to move out of cover. They are constantly dropping so there is no reason to put them away for any of your engagements. I did District Union Arena yesterday on Heroic with a 4-man team of randoms and was using my explosive skill build that includes Acosta's backpack. I was using almost all my grenades for each engagement but would end up going into the next fight with 9 or 10 grenades due to enemy drops. I'm going to work on a Mad Bomber + Acosta's build that is more tank / skill than gun damage.

BUILDS
I don't necessarily agree with the sentiments that there is no build diversity. Yes - there are builds that are essentially Best-in-Slot but that doesn't mean that you can't put a well-rolled build together that is more than capable of clearing solo Heroic content. The 3 builds I'm sharing are ones that I've used successfully in-game to complete Heroic content solo; none of them are completely optimized. While I can get through a lot of Heroic activities / missions without dying, there are some that are way more difficult than others and will take multiple deaths before I finish them.
Build #1: LMG + Shotgun with Sustain for Days
I made a post about this the other day; you can find it here.
Build #2: MMR, Death from Afar
Mask: D&H Punch Drunk with God-rolled MMR Dmg, HSD, and Armor Regen with a 9% HSD mod
Chest: Airaldi Pristine Example with God-rolled WD, 6.7% Status Effects, 7.6% HZP, Perfect Focus, and a 9.5% HSD mod. This is by far, the weakest piece in this build.
Backpack: Ceska Vyroba with God-rolled WD, CHD, CHC, and a 12% Protection from Elites mod with Concussion
Gloves: Airaldi with God-rolled WD, HSD, and 7.8% HZP
Holster: Providence with God-rolled WD, CHD, and Armor Regen
Knees: Providence with God-rolled WD, Armor Regen, and 9.1%CHD
Primary: Paratrooper SVD with God-rolled MMR Dmg, HSD, Health Dmg, and Ranger
Secondary: Artist's Tool with 10% WD and God-rolled CHD and CHC with Perfect Rifleman or Diamondback
Sidearm: Mozambique Special with God-rolled Pistol Dmg and 7.5%CHC with Perfect Breadbasket
Skills: Blinder Firefly and Defender Drone
Specialization: Sharpshooter
This is a straight-forward damage build that has some sustain due to the 15K / sec regen. Yeah - it doesn't seem like a lot but every little bit helps. There are some CP4's / missions that this build excels with, pretty much anything that gives you room to kill from distance, others that it performs very, very poorly. I spend a lot of time repositioning to avoid melee mobs and grenadiers.
Build #3: 6-Skill-Tier Explosive Sticky + Assault Turret non-HW build
Mask: Hanu-U with +1 Skill Tier and God-rolled SH and SD with a 9% HSD mod (ideally I'd like to replace the Red Mod)
Chest: System Corruption with 150K armor and God-rolled SD with a 12% Protection from Elites mod (2-pc System Corruption gives 15% AoK)
Backpack: Acosta's with +1 Skill Tier, 8.2%SH, 7.8%SD, with a 10.8%SH mod. The rolls on this backpack aren't great but I'm not going to complain since a kind soul dropped it for me during Federal Emergency Bunker.
Gloves: System Corruption with +1 Skill Tier and 8.2%SH
Holster: China Light with +1 Skill Tier and God-rolled Status Effects and SD
Knees: Hanu-U with +1 Skill Tier and God-rolled SH and Armor Regen
Primary: Surge with 12% Rifle Dmg, 13%CHD, and God-rolled DtH
Secondary: The Send-Off with God-rolled Shotgun Dmg, 10%DtA, and 7% CHD with Perfect Distance and Perfectly Rooted
Sidearm: Liberty with God-rolled Pistol Dmg and 4% Damage to Targets Out-of-Cover
Skills: Assault Turret and Sticky Bomb
Specialization: Technician
This build is far from optimized but it does get the job done. Playstyle is deploy turret, throw grenade (proc Acosta's), shoot with Surge to get HS (proc Perfect Spike) go to cover (proc Perfectly Rooted), and then let loose with the Explosive Sticky Bomb. You should see the turret's damage increase as you start to stack more of the proc's. I've seen the turret hitting for around 130K / shot. With all three proc'd, the Explosive Sticky is hitting for around 5 million. Before I got Acosta's, I was using an Alps with Combined Arms. If I could replace the System Corruption with two skill-based pieces that both had God-rolled Armor Regen, I would. Over time, that would be stronger than the AoK.
CONCLUSION
The goal of this post is in no way meant to diminish any of the problems or issues the game has had or currently has; some of them are quite egregious. It is also in no way meant to "call-out" those players who are struggling with the content by telling them to "Get Gud". The changes to TU8 dramatically affected how Agents need to approach the content and be successful. I hope some of you found this helpful. If I missed anything, please feel free to post your tips and suggestions.
HAPPY HUNTING, AGENTS!

What if Pro Perk returns to BOCW?!?

Hello all. I first want to say that if any developer is reading this, please feel free to use any ideas mentioned. You have provided me with so much joy and fun with your titles, dedicated to the community and listens to feedback, and will be providing us with free content this year. Please feel free to use any ideas as a thank you for everything you provided me.
I was looking at Black Ops 1 and the Pro-Perks and I was wondering why it was discontinued. I get that that the effect became part of the core game or other perks/attachments, but I was thinking it can return to as an amplified version of the perk. I realized that this can lead to a balancing issue and making certain perks meta/crutch. After watching the multiplayer reveal and seeing the wild card option, I was thinking it can be a wild card but then the wild card would be overused/meta. Also, the Pro effect would be constantly used/in effect and might not be healthy for the game. Then I was playing MW19 and I activate the dead silence field upgrade. It then hit me: when don’t we have the PRO Perks as a field upgrade similar to Dead Silence in MW19?
After 3.5 to 5 minutes, you can activate HITMAN/PROfessional/SPECIALIST(?) (I don’t have a good name for the field upgrade but I was thinking of a half suit and tie and half black dress as the icon as James bond 007 came into my head). Your perks effect will be amplified and can last 10-15 seconds only (depending on the speed of the game). I’m still debating it should reset with every gun/melee kill (we will continue the discussion below in perk 2 slot). Also, this can be healthy for pros to mix into the field upgrade selection as they now have PRO, trophy system, and EMP as a grenade. I don’t want to make the effect too strong but at the same time useable for highlight moment and clutch plays. Gunsmith in MW19 made the guns unique and let us make the perks/ entire class fun to use.
Here is my ideal perk list with its boosted effects:
Perk 1: the dress-up Perks
Flak jacket – lethal resistance and fire.
PRO: survive direct impact lethal and resistance to kill streak explosive and fire.
Tac Mask – tactical and gas resistance
PRO: hold breath underwater 2-3x longer
*Also see perk 3 Cold Blooded for another idea about Tac mask
Engineer – see equipment and reroll care package
PRO: hack equipment and capture an enemy care package faster with a booby-trap
*Also, since it is a goggle maybe add night vision to see dark corners better
Fast hands (my perk suggestion)- swap weapon faster
PRO: Plant and defuse faster (20%) like COD’s CSGO defuse kit and amplify reload speed.
*Amplify reload speed – there are attachments that make reloading faster. This will increase the speed by 10%. Example: there is a mag that increases reload by 20%. With this perk, it is boosted to 22%.
Med Kit (my perk suggestion) – similar to MW19 quick fix: start healing after gun/melee kill.
PRO: Heal 2x fast and revive down a player (like the VIP game mode) 2x fast
Light-weight (my optional/filler perk suggestion) –Increase movement by 3-5%
PRO: Increase movement by 5-7%
* This perk might not be needed if the maps are smaller and if the game is fast pace but to have the speed buff that dead silence had would feel cool. If it were to be added to the game, it would have to be the first perk unlock so everyone has access to the speed so then it became a choice to use.
*Maybe a field upgrade like Dead Silence
*See Perk 3 Ninja for another idea.
Perk 2: Equipment
Scavenger – pick up ammo from enemy killed by melee or gunfire.
PRO: pick up a weapon that is reloaded ammo stocked.
Quarter Master – lethal and tactical reset after 25 seconds.
PRO: melee will instantly restock
Tracker – see footprint and mark enemy by ADS
PRO: MW19 high alert or BO3 sixth sense
Overclock (my perk suggestion)- MW19’s Tune-up: Field equipment cost 30% less
PRO: Right now I’m thinking gun/melee kill add 3-5 second to the timer if you are NOT using perk greed. Or if you got no-kill and were killed, you get 25-40% of your field upgrade
Hardline (my perk suggestion) – Reduce streak cooldown by 10% or Melee and gunfire kill reduce streak cooldown by 1or 2 second
PRO: kill gain additional +25 points per 5 kill streak
Mad Mechanic (my optional/filler perk suggestion) – field upgrade gets an additional effect.
* Examples - SAM turret has 1 extra rocket, Jammer will not charge the enemy’s field upgrade within its range, Trophy has 1 additional deflect, and the EMP grenade will disable trophy on deflect for 1-2 second.
PRO: Streak will have an additional effect.
*Examples: UAV has 1 more ping, Artillery strike has 1 more shot, Air patrol has 1 more chopper, RCXD has 1 more boost, and Copper Gunner has 1-2 more flares
* This seems too strong and might as well be a wildcard effect.
Perk 3: Skills
Ghost – not UAV ping when moving or plant/defusing the bomb
PRO: will be periodic ping on when moving VSAT (a UAV ping with some delay)
Cold Blooded – cool on thermal and not seen player control or AI target streak
PRO: hold sniper breath 2x long
*I was thinking this hold breath effect can go with Tac mask PRO and put remove nameplate from the enemy outside of the vehicle but it might be too strong.
Ninja – sprint quietly no battle chatter
PRO: Enemy cannot hear sprinting directly begin them in a cone shape radius no fall damage or breaking ankles.
*Dead silence seems too strong and has no counter. It might work but lets play it safe. I wanted lightweight to have the no fall damage with the speed increase as the PRO benefits but it was an optional perk inclusion.
Hardwired (my perk suggestion) – Protection form EMP, Counter UAV, Jammer, and Shock. Delay tracker, and detection device/equipment.
PRO: Cannot be detected by Tracker (and Tracker PRO), and detection device/equipment.
Park-core/Dexterity (my perk suggestion) – mantel and climb faster
*The original perk idea for no fall damage or breaking ankle
PRO: Jump stamina has fast recovery or Faster movement when crawling and crouching
Meditate (my optional/filler perk suggestion) – meditate to gain Awareness/Sitrep Pro
* 3 seconds to activate by holding triangle- put down your weapon, fold your hands (customizable or operator specific), take a deep breath (audible with ninja no batter chatter), closed your eyes to amplify sounds.
*3 seconds to deactivate by releasing the hold triangle – breath out (audible with ninja no batter chatter), open your eyes, and pick up your gun
* interrupted by stuns, flash, lethal and bullets.
PRO: Not interrupted by stuns, flash, lethal.
*meditation takes 2 seconds by skipping the breathing step.
*Alternatively, a greater range when crouched and a better range when prone.
* I really don’t like the alternative pro effect but I don’t like this perk idea in general.
Perk 2 seems lacking for pros aside from overclocking/tune-up. I can switch perks around but I do like the theme for each slot. Also, I don’t want a standard build like MW19 but a rotation of class, equipment, and field upgrade. Black ops 2, pros had to rotate perks depending if the opponent was using EMP grenade and stuns. I think the perk 3 slot can bring that back that. Off the ripe, dexterity, and ninja to get to the power position. To hold or rotating, you will need Hardwire so you can use your field equipment to protect or break a site and not be EMP (stopping you from using trophy/streak) and nade off the hill/bomb site. Maybe, someone can use Engineer to spot the trophy/setup. I personally was Molotov to be competitive even if it “GA” to 1 per team. With Flak Jacket, Trophy System, Fast Hands PRO, and maybe a tactical to get rid of gas, fire, and a small section of smoke, Moloto will not be auto-banned.
This my wonderful mind.
I have other crazy though like riot shield as field equipment so the shield trolls/challenges will not slow down the game. You would drop the weapon in your hands and you will get the shield. You can swap weapons to have it on your back. When you die it drops and when it is picked up, with will have 300-350 health then break. Also, maybe let us have the ballistic vest and a Taser gun as a field upgrade. Ballistic vest has 25-30 health and only applies to body shots. Shock charger can be equipment but then the field upgrade is a Taser gun similar to Prophet's shock drone.
I think there should be a “perks-only Lawbreaker” for pros to use and a “Gun Juggler” wild card.
Gun Juggler: You can have a primary/secondary weapon as you primary, secondary, lethal, tactical, and field upgrade. This might be a DLC perk.
Wild cards have unlocked my creativity! I’m genuinely excited for the game!
Questions, comments, thought?

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I'm upset about the current state of siege.

I'd like to at first go on record and state that I'm in no way a 'good player' skillwise. I try to communicate and am never toxic but I'm not highly ranked. To continue this disclaimer, I'd like to explain my situation. I got into siege 2018 with a friend lets call him X. X and I played for a bit but decided to give up due to a multitude of issues at the time, we never even got ranked because we didn't get far enough in clearance level. Fast forward to February this year I start playing again and see that the game has improved in various ways, so I asked if X wanted to try again and he did. We got a new friend lets call him P to join us as well and started playing again. I however feel like I'm the cusp of quitting again due to a multitude of issues I will discuss in this post. I've accrued about 100h of game time in the latest sprint with my friends getting a bit less. We also play on PC and I have no idea what the console experience is like.

Tech issues

In the 100 hours I've played, there has been countless tech issues. I'm bound to compare siege to dota, CSGO, and overwatch since I've played those games fair amount. I've been actively playing CSGO for about three years now and have almost 2000 hours in the game. Once in that three year window have I not been able to play due to the servers being down, whereas with siege maintenance seems to be a common occurence. In addition to maintenance simple bugs like how sometimes the sound engine just decides to not play sounds properly when using a drone or when sometimes it just randomly twists sounds to come from places where they must certainly aren't coming from. I know that siege uses a system where sound travels through open areas and sometimes this causes oddities, but I've had a game where sounds coming from directly in front of me sounded like they were on top or to either side. It was a single game and I'm certain my headset is not to blame due to the other audio problems with siege and siege being the only game that produces any issues for my setup. There have been issues where some things like gunshots or steps don't make sound but other sources do so I'm pretty sure whatever is keeping the sound running needs to sober up. I'm also certain that siege is the broken link in my audio chain because restarting it fixes the issues without exception, whereas sometimes queueing for a game after encountering something has that something persist.
In addition to the multitude of sound issues, the game isn't too stable. In the limited time we've been playing either me or a friend of mine has crashed ten or so times in total. This in itself wouldn't be that bad if the game wasn't so slow to start up and reconnect at times, because if you crash and fail to make it back until the end of the match you get penalized and have a matchmaking cooldown. We've in total waited maybe two hours for cooldowns due to games crashing which is ridiculous. It feels incredibly inconsiderate to prevent someone from playing because your game doesn't run properly. That's like serving raw chicken in a restaurant and making that person clear up their own vomit they produced because of the salmonella you gave them.
The game has also refused to connect to the siege servers multiple times (all of us have great student internet connections and get these issues in no other game), the servers have lagged out with mad rubberbanding and the peekers advantage is insane compared to CSGO. It sometimes feels like you got killed by someone who didn't even show up on your screen and in the killcam you can see that they had almost half a second to aim at your head. This could just be the desync between models and camera position since it mostly seems to occur when leaning is involved but I felt it best mentioned here.
Interestingly, I tried to test something while writing this to confirm accuracy and couldn't connect to siege servers at all.

Menus

This should be a quick chapter. I feel like the menus of siege were designed by an undergrad that was really proud of all the animations they made and refused to figure out how caching works. They are sluggish, require too many clicks to do anything and overall are a pain in the ass.
Let's start with something simple. You have been invited to a lobby by a friend and would wish to join that game. In overwatch, you get a prompt with a button both for the mouse and for your keyboard. In dota or CSGO an element pops up on your screen you can click to join the game and in all cases you instantly get to the lobby. In siege you get the popup on the overlay and have to either shift-f2 and if you were fast enough click the popup that for some reason still unclear to me jumps to the other side of your screen or you can click my invitations and with a good 80% chance the invitation is there to be accepted. You can also click your empty party and my invitations after that which opens the Ubisoft overlay thing. That's either three clicks or shift-f2+click minimum. Why? Why does it have to do that? Couldn't you just click the notification? Maybe an element would pop up under your party in the menu? I fail to understand the point of this and find that it just makes the navigation pointlessly complex. This isn't helped at all by how every button press feels incredibly sluggish due to either animations or loading something. It takes one click and about a second to join a lobby in any other game, but for some reason in siege it takes 3 seconds and three clicks.
Speaking of the overlay, what the absolute fuck Ubi. That thing has three features I use, the friends page for adding people I already knew in steam, notifications for joining lobbies, and club challenges for getting that sweet renown. Why does it have to have 11 buttons? Surely 'activate a code' could be put into whatever opens when I click 'store'. Maybe 'chat' could be incorporated somehow with 'groups' and 'friends'. The notifications panel is useful for joining games but that's about it since the messaging system that takes up a lot of the overlay is the worst one I've ever encountered. It lacks features like emoji support, often fails to notify me when I get a message which if I'm not mistaken is the point of the system. To finish on the overlay, I'd like to talk about club challenges. In my humble opinion, when I click collect on a challenge, I should get the reward. This may be revolutionary at Ubisoft, but I like to think of myself as a visionary. I'd go as far as to question the point of adding and collecting club challenges in the first place. Why do I have to go press a button to add a club challenge when there is no point in not adding them? I'd also like to point out that I have all the categories selected for getting notifications, so it's not that. I tested with a friend and the notification arrived in the chat tab so what's the point for the notifications tab other than to make accepting party invites harder?
Enough of the overlay, what about the in game menus? I'd dare say they suffer from over compartmentalization. If I for example want to change a sight for the smg-11 I use on smoke, I have to click operators>defenders>smoke>loadout>smg-11>sights>holo. That's six clicks. Now consider that for some reason, none of my guns have attachments. This is true for every operator released before y4s1. I don't exactly know why it changed then, but that means I have to click every single gun on every single operator through to put everything in it's place. But what if I heard from a friend that using holo is bad and want to try reflex? I'd have to manually shift all the guns on all the operators I use to use reflex instead of holo and considering that from the operators screen that would be five clicks per operator + (2esc/back button + 2clicks) per additional gun on operators, I'd reckon it would total close to a hundred clicks. Could there maybe be a 'guns' option next to the top bars 'operators' button to quickly access guns? Maybe even a tool to set preferences so that you can easily change things like optics for many guns. I'd imagine you could set specific attachments to guns but also have the option of 'default' which would be customizable per weapon class (shotgun, smg, assault rifle, dmr). Since all guns don't have all the options, the sensible way to handle defaults would be to sort them in order of preference for each class and each slot. You could say that you prefer acog on assault rifles and if there isn't one available, take the holo, then reflex, then red dot, then iron sights. Caring about skins or charms isn't something I do anymore simply because handling them is a hassle. Could it maybe be that I'd like to use the same skin for both docs and rooks mp5? Why do I have to set the skin for both of them separately?
If sensible customizable defaulting isn't possible, then can we at least reduce the clicks a bit and make it so that on the loadout screen instead of having to 'open' each gun, the boxes highlighted here could be clickable and open individual attachments or charm selectors. Clicking the background would open skin selection. If you want to maintain current functionality, clicking the gun could open skin selection and clicking the background would open the current menu you get from clicking anywhere in the frame. It's not even that Ubi doesn't want small buttons since the small dial on the bottom left of each gun equips it and it's a small button already in the game, they just genuinely saw that this is the way to go.
The shop is also poorly structured, but I barely use that thing so can't really complain about that.

Gameplay

I'd like to note that the gameplay, when everything works as it should, is fantastic. The gunplay is tight, bullets for the most part hit on the server where they did on the client and that stuff is handled well. Some elements however confuse me from a design perspective and that's what I'm going to talk about. Like, why is it that on bomb when the attackers drone out one objective, both aren't revealed. An experienced player knows where the other one is automatically in most cases, but for a new player this is just pointless obfuscation. Sure, on some maps like Oregon and Kafe some defense options share a site and for those the behavior could remain as is, but for the majority of cases the sites are unique pairs with no overlap. It might even be fine to reveal both when there is overlap. Another one is how you need to scan to reveal which operators the opponents are playing as. In my opinion, if an operator's viability or options get signifficantly limited when the other team knows they exist, that is not a good operator design. Sure, mozzie is way better when people are running their drones full throttle into pests, but is that really why mozzie is a good pick? I'd be fine with doing what I understood pro league does and reveal all operators once the action phase begins. It removes some frustration from playing with randoms without a microphone who fail to communicate who they killed and honestly I feel like the biggest issue with current siege overall is how it introduces elements to what seems like intentionally frustrating.
As for operators, I feel that they are way too expensive. This is probably the point where someone gets the first bingo. Yes, I wouldn't complain about operator prices if I had them all and yes I'm a relatively new player but the system causes some really frustrating situations that I have no way out of. Our stack is relatively new and we have editions ranging from gold to deluxe, so none of us have the newest toys. This became rather apparent when playing on chalet with Thatcher banned. The thing was that someone on the other team had Kali, so even with an ads next to the drone hole and an electroclaw on the top, the other team bust that wall open in seconds. None of us nor our teammates had Kali so we tried to do it with a Maverik which ended up poorly and was a lot harder. Serves us right for not having all the operators I guess. Sure, the launch operators are cheap and cover 95% of your bases but the last 5% is not insignificant. Not to mention the handful of cases before I unlocked Hibana when Thermite was banned. Those were rough games. The system also has issues where if they change older operators to cause an issue that is solved by recent operators, our shitter games take a steep turn downwards. It's also noteworthy that I did the math and to unlock kali, I'd have to play for about 35 hours, which is five hours per day for a week. She isn't even the type of character I like playing, so to drop what would probably be two weeks worth of renown on an operator I don't like playing just so that I won't get fucked the 5% of the time that Thatcher is banned.
In addition to the operator acquisition process being flawed, I have problems with the operator designs themselves. This will likely be the most opinionated chapter of the post so beware. I will talk about balance later, this is exclusively for the designs. My problems can be boiled down to meaningless overlap, overly complex rules, and base mechanics like speed/armor. I'd also like to be able to pick a spawn by clicking on the map instead of on the list that is sorted in a seemingly random order. This is more of an issue for attackers, since sometimes I'd like to spawn on the west side but have no idea which of these options is the west side so I'll slowly hover them all to find out something that shouldn't have to be searched for.
To start with the last one, I don't like the speed/armor system. When I started playing the game didn't properly explain that they were mutually exclusive which was confusing since we thought things like mute being one speed but two armor and that didn't fit into what others were saying. This is a simple ui design problem that I think I've ranted enough about so I'll leave that for another day. My true issues with the system is that for new players it is framed as something where having speed or having armor are both valid choices and one is not better than the other when in reality speed wins nearly always. Another issue is how traits that at least for me have nothing to do with running fast or having heavy plates on your torso are linked to the system. For example, high speed reducing the noise from your footsteps. The game seems to be filled with mechanics like that that at no point are explained to the player and it is just assumed that the players will figure something like that out or go to community wikis or test stuff out themselves. I still don't know if equipping an acog will increase ads time since the game doesn't tell me this, but I remember hearing that from someone. Someone also said to me that a Jäger ads shoots out projectiles and if you stand in front of it, it shoots you instead of the grenade. I don't think that is true, but I'm not a 100% certain which is my point. The game is known for having a few of those mechanics and not explaining them and that is confusing and 'fake mechanics' for no reason.
By meaningless overlap I don't mean exactly that but couldn't think of a better term for it. I'm talking about how the Ash-Zofia dynamic works. In my opinion, there shouldn't be operators you pick because they have a good gun and the notorious speed 3 rating. I'm fine with there being fragging operators, but I'd much prefer if they worked like Ying or Finka, where their gadget is an important part of their kit and arguably on the same level as everyone else, just different. Ash's breaching rounds are just a worse version of Zofia's lifeline. Lifeline detonates instantly and comes with another mode on top, but the balance is achieved through Ash being faster and having better guns. Ideally, I'd like siege to work in a way where operators are chosen for their gadgets and not seemingly arbitrary numbers on guns or the swoleness of their thighs. Just something really simple, like giving Ash a third shot for her launcher would in my eyes make the choice a lot better. Do you need more entry umph or do you need to breach a few more soft walls? That is a situational choice where as of now you choose based on how hot you are feeling in terms of aim vs how much do you want to be a team player. I'm all for operator overlap like you could probably pick up on in the cost complaining paragraph. I like how Thermite makes better holes in walls than Hibana, but she can open up two hatches and a peekhole and do it from a range. In my opinion, all overlapping gadgets should work like the dynamic between Hibana and Thermite. I also strongly believe that each operator gadgets should be roughly around the same power level and that 'bad gadget good gun' and 'good gadget bad gun' are both bad meta level concepts for an operator.
I won't go into detail, but some gadget designs like clash, jackal or lesion are just non-interactive for the opponent. I think that rook is fine, since even though the opponents having rook plates will influence my play, it isn't something that is directly happening to me. If you get lion scanned you have the choice of whether to move or not which is interesting gameplay, but if you do the grave mistake of walking around and get scanned by jackal you get no choice. Your position will be tracked no matter what you do and that isn't good game design. Lesion is a weird one because I don't think his gu mines are that great after the recent nerfs, but the way they work isn't very fun either. Either you bring an IQ and completely fuck over Echo and Lesion or you step on the mines. Them being invisible is baffling, since that means you as an attacker don't have an option. It's not like a Kapkan trap where you can choose to be slow and methodical checking for lasers and boxes. The effect is less severe sure, but that falls under balance rather than design. Having no way of avoiding something bad that is happening to you feels bad and siege is filled with gadgets that do that. There are good ones like how you can choose to not answer Dokkaebi or how you can move after shooting an Alibi prism and the ping isn't constant and lets you make choices.
Lastly from the list of gameplay gripe categories I'd like to talk about overly complex interactions. This includes things like what is destroyed and what is disabled by an emp or what exactly can destroy an evil eye. Finka boost is an example like using because it has so many side effects that in many ways they out-weigh the main effects. Like many of my points, this is an issue exclusive to new players but since everyone was once a new players I hope you can relate. Siege is full of things that either because of realism or because of gameplay have a lot of asterisks next to their description. For things like how Ash's breaching rounds deal 50 damage this is completely fine since that is a situation that can come up but for things like Finka's Adrenal surge the list is long and leads to situations where something works as intended but still looks like a bug. My friend just a week ago died of a smoke cloud really fast and was confused as to why that happened. There have been cases when randomly one of our stack didn't get the boost because someone was standing next to a mute jammer. I'll make a game of this. Without looking at other comments, list as many properties for the surge as you can. I'll use the wiki to see if anyone got them all.

Balance and communication

I and many of you by recent reddit content aren't satisfied with how the devs are handling the balance of the game. I'd like to remind you all at this point that I like most reddit analysts am not good at the game. I've bundled balance with communication, since I feel like Ubi's issue with balance isn't really a balance issue but a communications issue. Like in the case of the recent test server which seems to not sit well with the community. Personally, I think Ubi is doing the right thing by having a public test server and prototyping things there. I just hope they take the community critique as critique of the changes and not the system, since the alternative is the changes just appearing on the main servers one day without a warning. Personally, establishing a channel of communication between the players and the developers and actively using it would be the way to go. If Ubi want that the players voice their opinions and answer polls in twitter then so be it but I and I doubt many of you have any clue what this channel is. Screaming into the void and hoping that someone reads it isn't a sustainable communication strategy and if Ubi wants to see something more intelligent from us as a community than what's been going on with the recent test server changes they really ought to do something about that. As you may see, I'll gladly voice my opinion of the game publicly in the current void-screaming situation, but that is largely because I'm a petty person and just enjoy complaining and coming up with make-believe solutions that make me sound smarter than an average beaver.
As it comes to balance, I've previously stated that in my honest opinion, every gadget should be on the same line. I'm fine with giving slower ops better guns, since the gadget is the focus of the operator and stuff like speed and guns are secondary in the fantasy I think the game is trying to convey. As for individual operators/gadgets/guns I don't have the faintest of clues and don't think someone in my position should in the tone I've been maintaining so far express what is too strong and what is too weak. Personally I think that Dokkaebi could use a little love, her hacker thing is something that could be pushed further. I'd kinda want to see something like her being able to hack electronic gadgets if she sees them like kapkan traps, mozzie'd drones and maybe even evil eyes and yokais. Glaz's rifle could maybe reset a bit faster. Twitch should have less rate of fire in the f2 and more shock drones. The shock drone being able to jump would also make me happy. Gridlock trax could deploy a bit faster. Maverik should have a bit more fuel in the torch and the reloading mechanic needs to go. Warden glasses could be passive and activate automatically but just not see through smoke, that part feels tacked on. Frag grenades are the best secondary gadget on attack by far, I think they either should be pulled back a bit or everything else should be bumped closer. Breach charges on attack are in a weird place and need a tweak. I could list half-truths like this until the heat death of the universe but I doubt that is the way forward.

Conclusions

I know that none of my points are that backbreaking on their own, but the cumulative weigh is heavy. I've seen the game improve in multiple ways and I didn't even feel like I needed to talk about the community since I haven't gotten teamkilled and kicked by a stack for any reason recently, but I remember that wasn't always the case. Maybe I was playing a wrong operator or they just didn't like me but I remember getting killed by my teammates multiple times right after spawning. I didn't go into how things like some f keys are automatically bound and cannot be switched. I believe that f12 is bound to the same thing esc does and that was an issue for me since I bound my mouse macroes to f9-12.
Thank you for getting through that rambling rant. I salute you.

How to: Legendary Healer/CC Build Guide

HealeCrowd Control Build for Legendary

Hey Agents,
I'm going to be doing a few build posts covering some of the builds i use to clear Legendary content, as a short disclaimer please understand that this is all my personal preference and reasoning through experiences i've had in-game, builds can vary in many ways and especially in Legendary content will require adapting or changing slight aspects of a build throughout the run. I will do my best to break down my builds and explain the reasoning and details of each one.

Before I jump into this build, I highly recommend that you take a look at this image and read it, i wrote it up to help people returning to the game, but realized this can really help anyone at any point, its probably the easiest way to start getting higher quality gear so you can start putting together these Legendary builds faster.
https://i.imgur.com/4fdzVYy.jpg

Understanding the Difference between Legendary and normal content, Legendary content is quite different than normal content in a way that requires much more teamwork and dedicated builds that need to play by a certain role in order for the team to succeed as a group, very similar to MMO's, you have your DPS (damage per second), CC (crowd control), Healer, or Tank roles. I will only probably be sharing 3 of my builds (DPS/CC/Skill DPS) because i personally feel like all you really need for an efficient Legendary run is a structure of x1 healecc hybrid, x2 single target dps, x1 skill dps.
The first build i'd like to cover is the HealeCC build, you'll always have greater coordination and success running with people you know and can communicate with, playing with randoms can be a bit of a mixed bag, but if you make these builds i will be sharing, you should be able to fit into any role the team requires. some groups prefer a dedicated CC and a dedicated Healer, I personally feel its not needed, you can actually combine healing and CC into one build as i'll be breaking down below.
I've provided a short video to this post that shows the details of my build and skills used, i also a short clip of how to use the build, and a demo of the healing capabilities.

The Build:

4pc Hard Wired is great for skill builds, being able to refresh your other skill every 20 seconds by deploying a skill basically makes skill haste irrelevant, even further the hard wired backpack brings that time down to 10 seconds instead which is essential part of how this build functions.
i'd say the most important role in a Legendary run is the CC role, you are the heart of the team, you dictate when the DPS builds need to strike, you give them uptime by healing them and providing CC on enemies, if you die..there's a good chance the team will start to fall apart fast.
Tardigrade chest works very well in this hybrid build because more survivability you can provide to your team or DPS roles, the more uptime everyone has to melt enemies. though this piece of gear will give you 1 armor core stat, you can bump your skill tier back to 6 by using the technician specialization, and you get some extra armor which helps you and your team when they get your bonus armor from this chest.
so because Hard Wired needs 4 pieces of gear, and already 1 exotic and we also need the hard wired backpack, that leaves us with 1 brand to choose from and it has to be mask, gloves, holster, kneepads. there's 2 options, Golan or Alps. Golan gives 10% status for brand bonus, but gives you an armor core stat, Alps gives you 15% skill repair but gives you 1 skill tier core stat. I choose Alps because i tested both and ultimately you're trading 1 second more of blinding capability for healing, and Alps will be easier to farm for since Golan you'd have to find a perfect role to be able to recal for a skill tier over armor.
I choose Sweet Dreams for the exotic weapon because though you shouldn't really be killing anything and focusing on CC, you may get rushed by a red/purple enemy and at least you have a weapon that can insta-kill them with a melee hit. Baker's Dozen as secondary, despite not having a dmg oriented build, it still can hit upwards of 400k per shot, if your CC is so on point that you find yourself with time to spare, definitely consider using it to help pad on some dmg with the DPS users.
obviously recalibrate for status effect on every piece of gear since that will increase your status effect durations, i choose repair skills for mod slots and secondary attributes.
Last point to make is, during a run..you will eventually learn the different strongholds on legendary and know what to expect in each room, you will probably alter aspects of your build based on your team and stronghold. for instance blinder is great, but also consider riot foam, emp jammer pulse for warhounds and black tusk electronics, or even oxidizer to get those annoying healing stations hiding behind obstacles.

Using the Build:
im not sure what's going on in the demonstration video with the firing range, clearly its acting a bit weird, but enemies should be blinded for 20 seconds at least, and for some reason its blinding several targets and just acting weird, but essentially the demo on how to use the build itself is correct. you can see that orange Hard Wired icon refresh every 10 seconds, meaning if you put your hive down, it will refresh your other skill if its on cooldown. you can see how in this demonstration, you can basically have your healer hive always down, and just pick it up and drop it again when you need to reset your blinder cooldown, and by the time enemies are off blind, you are ready to blind them again all the while you have tardigrade and a healer hive making sure your DPS users are in the best shape to start melting enemies. I would highly suggest some practice, get used to the timing and understanding how the Hard Wired talent functions.

Summary:
This is a fun role to play, it requires a good understanding of your build, its function, and is a true staple in the success of a Legendary run, if you can provide both healing and CC for the team, you will be invaluable to your teammates. Definitely look to have this build in your loadouts. I aim to post two more builds, the single target DPS, and Skill DPS, please be patient and hope this helps, enjoy!

Demo Video: https://youtu.be/TQOn_iZVu_Q

2.5.0.7 Stable! Small CJE / APS update and new sounds

Raid Guide - Detailed and Corrected, w/strategy and a small build guide

(Scroll down to RAID GUIDE if you just want to see boss info/strategy) I’ve been seeing a lot of complaints about difficulty and a TON of misinformation about the raid and its mechanics. I also haven’t been seeing a lot of good info gathered in a single space, usually spread out across several threads. Last week my clan (Bananapants) worked with the clan Something Clever to take down the raid and it was a really fulfilling experience, so I was very surprised to see the negative reception to the raid. We are not pros with 500+ hours in the game running god tier items. We are all working adults with decent builds that we improved over the 16 hours it took us to clear the raid the first time. The raid is doable for much more than the 5% of the game’s population that has completed it thus far.
The goal of this guide is to provide as much detail into the mechanics and strategy as possible so that there is no misinformation within your raid group and so that everyone is on the same page. I also know that there are already video guides, but personally I prefer text guides as youtube guides tend to waste your time.

Thoughts on builds

First off, as for builds, I personally enjoy the personal discovery of it, so this is not coming from a “meta” perspective. I never did much research on what makes a good build and started out with a crit lmg build and tried new things until I figured out what worked the most. Unfortunately, what works the most seems to be just stacking as much damage as possible, which is rather boring, but that’s what works so that’s what I did.
My build was only decent, not great in any sense of the word, and I was still able to deal enough damage and take leading roles in the raid for the first 3 bosses. The 4th boss is such a hard dps check that our group was forced to stop and grind better gear before we could progress, so now my build is much better. Here is my current build (“To be replaced” means I recognize this isn’t good, but I haven’t found a better piece to fix it):

LMG Build

Item	Talents	Stats
Military M60 E4	Unhinged	32.9k dmg (~19k before all %dmg buffs)
Nemesis	Used for holster talent	N/A
Mask	Hard Hitting	33% Damage to Elites + 1 Yellow
Backpack	On The Ropes + Hard Hitting	13% Crit Chance + 2 Yellows
Chest	Destructive (To be replaced)	16.5% Crit Chance + 3% All Wep Dmg + 7.5% Crit Dmg + 1 Yellow
Gloves	Clutch	11% LMG Damage
Holster	Precise (To be replaced)	14.5% Crit Chance
Knees	Hard Hitting	7% Crit Chance
Gear Mods	3 Yellow + 2 Red	3% All Wep Dmg + 7.5% LMG Dmg
Scope	C79 (Enables Nemesis Holstered Talent)	5% Damage to Elites
Magazine	Non-disruptive Link	10% Crit Damage
Grip	Small Laser Pointer (Demolitionist mod)	7% Crit Chance
Barrel	Flash Hider 7.62	5% Crit Damage
Brand Sets	2 D&H, 1 Wyvern, 1 Petrov, 2 irrelevant	17% Crit Damage, 10% LMG Damage

Final Thoughts

I hope the full detail of this guide helps you and your group to finish it for the first time. The first time is the hardest, afterwards it gets much easier. It took our group 16 hours over 5 days to beat it. Our second run? 1h and 50 minutes in a single session. In my opinion, the most important points to a good run are these in order of priority:

Proper communication. Without designated communication roles during the first run, there will be mistakes and confusion. If you must, agree on leaders before hand to remove any sort of anxiety or indecision on taking charge of calls or assigning roles.
Keeping a cool head. Flaming and Blaming will directly affect point one and reduce communication. If someone is being toxic, don’t tolerate them, either get a new player or don’t run the raid. A flamer will make the raid tense and unfun for everyone.
Don’t give up. The raid gets much easier with practice. After you beat each boss the first time, when you go back to it, you’ll wonder why it gave you so much trouble in the first place. Muscle memory and familiarity with the quirks of each boss will really improve your ability in the raid.
A decent build. In a perfect world, we’d be able to include everyone that wanted to try the raid. Because the only requirement in this raid is DPS, it is a high requirement. Players with zero synergy in their talents or attributes will not be able to contribute much, and just one player weaker will make the raid much harder, especially on your first try. However, note that I say a ‘decent’ build. Not a great build, not a good build, just a decent build is needed to beat this raid (at least on PC, sorry consoles). I think the raid requirements are very overblown in the community at the moment and can be overcome with the first 3 points.
Make sure you are having fun. If it feels like a slog, or frustrating, and you are not having a moment of fun, it’s ok to accept you don’t like the raid, and to move onto things you do like. I enjoyed the raid from start to finish (although the struggle on boss 4 made me weary), but I am a masochist in gaming taking on any challenge I can. If you aren’t that kind of player, don’t feel bad about ‘missing out’ on the raid, and either take it slow or go back to what you know you like to play.

If you have any questions, or I need to make any corrections to this guide, please do not hesitate to let me know. I’ll keep this guide updated as much as needed, especially if they patch it like everyone is asking for.
Good luck out there Agents.

Rainbow Six: Siege Free Weekend Quickstart and Buyers Guide | November 2017

Introduction

Hello prospective buyers & new players; welcome /Rainbow6! This post will help guide you in the right direction during the start of your Siege experience by providing you with useful information, answering common questions, and directing you to other helpful resources. The post is broken into two sections : "New Player's Guide" and "Buyer's Guide". If you have any questions be sure to ask in the comments below as others likely have the same questions, thanks!
If you're a player returning to the game and want an overview of changes, check out this wiki post
Here is the official ubisoft site with information about the free weekend, including a FAQ and launch time section

New Player's Guide

• Getting Started

Access the various parts of the menu by clicking "play" or the Arrow on the main menu

Watch all three tutorials.

The tutorial videos provide a quick overview of the important details of the game and provide you with 200 renown (the currency that you will need to unlock things in the game) for each that you watch. They are short, well made, and explain the basics of the gameplay
Play through the first 5 or so situations.

Focus on learning the controls and paying attention to the map layouts- these are the same maps as multiplayer. Do not stress if you cannot complete all three stars on each situation the first time through, you can always come back to them. The difficulty for these situations also does not matter, but normal is suggested so you can get use to the controls. You may wish to do more than 5 of the situations, but you likely should not do any less
Buy your first operator.

Take a few minutes to read through each operator's description and select one that you are interested in. Consider picking up both an Attacker and a Defender if you have the renown for it. See the "Operators Great for New Players" section below if you are looking for some good operators for beginners.
Accept weekly challenges

These are found by first clicking the daily challenges tab then clicking "more challenges" under the daily challenge pop up. Focus on weekly challenges that involve basic actions that you can passively complete and don't require specific operators. After you complete the challenge, open the challenge window back up and click "complete". You must do this to receive credit.
Go to terrorist hunt and try out your operators

Most of the terrorist hunts modes use only an attacker. You can change your terrorist hunt settings by going to Settings> Matching making preferences> Turn off whatever modes you don't want under terrorist hunt
Buy attachments for your operators

Depending on how much renown you have, buy a sight (Holographic or ACOG), a grip (vertical grip), and a barrel attachment (Flash hider for tap firing, Compensator for full auto fire, or Muzzle brake for semi-automatic guns). Do not buy the laser attachment yet, and do not buy skins or other cosmetics. You also most likely will not need to buy anything for your pistol (unless you're already swimming in renown). For Attackers, avoid shotguns and LMGs, they have limited uses for pushing objectives. For Defenders, consider the SMG option first, but use a shotgun if you really like the play style.
Go into casual

You're likely going to not do very well - that's completely okay. Siege has a pretty steep learning curve to it, especially during the first few matches. During your early matches focus on learning maps, getting use to your guns, and understanding the flow of the game. Use your drones often, don't forget defender cameras, communicate well, learn from your deaths, and don't sweat misplays.

• Operators Great for New Players

Play through some situations first as they are easy ways to gain renown try out operators' abilities. For new players, set-and-forget abilities or abilities that are less complicated are usually better, as well as guns with lower recoil.
Attackers

Sledge
- What makes them good: His sledge hammer ability is probably the easiest to use among the attackers, he has average damage guns with low recoil, and he has frags. Sledge has long been a top pick for new players with good reason, he is perfect for less experienced players.
- Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, Vertical Grip, Flash Hider or Compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). SMG-11 sidearm, Fragmentation grenades
- Quick Tips: His ability makes a very distinct sound so be wary of defenders being alerted to your point of entrance. Take time to drone out a room before sledging into it. A lot of new players get into the habit of over using his ability which makes him easier to counter and eliminate.
Thatcher
- What makes them good: His ability is hard to mess up and very easy to understand while also nearly always being needed. Using it against reinforced walls that Bandit has electrified or Mute has jammed is pretty much all you need to do. Both his assault rifles are good.
- Loadout: L85A2 Assault Rifle: Scope of preference, Vertical Grip, Flash Hider or Compensator (depending on if you burst fire or full-auto fire). Breaching charges are more useful for newer players than his claymores, as claymores take more map knowledge to use effectively
- Quick Tips: Be very careful to not die before using the emp grenades to destroy Mute's Jammers/ Bandit's batteries and stick with either Hibana or Thermite so you can be sure to use your gadget in the right spot. Learning the trajectory and when it is safe to throw the EMP is key to mastering Thatcher.
Ash
- What makes them good: Her ability is very easy to use (just aim it at a destructible surface) , both of her guns are strong, and she is a max speed operator making her well rounded and good for new players
- Loadout: G36C Assault rifle- it's lower recoil is easier to manage for newer players, Compensator or flash hider, vertical grip, scope of preference. Flash Bangs or Breaching Charges is a situational pick, but flash bangs are generally more useful due to her already having breaching capabilities.
- Quick Tips: Do not use her ability on outside facing barricades, as just shooting the barricades with her assault rifle will destroy them and preserve her ability. Ash does not have a "noob-tube". While her ability does some damage to operators, it is not anywhere close to an AOE instant death machine like they are in other games. Avoid trying to kill operators with it.
New players should avoid attackers such as Montagne and Thermite due to the relatively low strength OR high difficulty in use.

Defenders

Rook
- What makes them good: His ability is the easiest to use among the Defenders as well as almost always being useful. His MP5 is low recoil and easy to use and he has max armor. Long considered the best Defender for new players.
- Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider, scope of preference. Deployable shield vs impact grenade is largely based on your team's composition. Pick the one the team lacks.
- Quick Tips: Start every round by placing the armor immediately, preferably not next to a wall or object. Take a step back after placing his armor before putting it on, as it allows more defenders to access it at once.
Mute
- What makes them good: His ability takes a little more finesse that other top picks for new players but overall he still is very easy to use while being a key defender. His SMG has low recoil.
- Loadout: MP5K submachine gun. Scope of choice with flash hider or compensator. Nitro cell for equipment
- Quick Tips: Learn which walls must be reinforced for the objective. Walls close to the objective and walls which face the outside of the building near the objective are usually the most important to jam. Jamming walls should take priority over stopping drones.
Doc
- What makes them good: Similar to Rook, but his ability is often a little less useful for newer players. He features a play style similar to Rook with similar guns.
- Loadout: MP5 submachine gun, vertical grip, flash hider or compensator, scope of preference. Barbed wire is generally considered to be better than deployable shields
- Quick Tips: Keep an eye on friendlies health at all times, and heal friendlies which are knocked down or have taken damage. His ability can overheal people to above 100 health as well, which can be useful. Keep in mind that his ability can be self applied at any time to heal himself and also when he is downed to revive himself
New players should avoid defenders such as Tachanka, Pulse, and Castle; their abilities require outstanding map knowledge to use effectively.

• Quick Tips

Avoided getting frustrated. Angry players make bad decisions. If you're mad, take a round to do a terrorist hunt mission
Stick with your team while learning the maps, especially if you're an attacker
Use your mic to communicate - be sure to use directions and locations (compass is at the bottom of the screen, as is what room you are currently in)
Learn all the operators names and abilities. Learn who has nitro cells and frag grenades. Here is a list of all the operators, their abilities, and important notes about them
Always use a headset/headphones- Operators are loud and easy to hear, knowing where they're coming from is important
The hostage is not invulnerable- the hostage will die if shot too many times or if explosives go off too close to (Be very careful with Fuze, grenades, nitros)
Do not reinforce between the two bombs on defense on the Bomb game mode- it actually makes it easier for attackers
Don't be afraid to ask people questions if you're confused. Casual is there to learn the game and most people will help.
Play with friends or a play group whenever possible. It helps with the frustration of dying and learning the game more quickly

Buyer's Guide

• Buyer's FAQ

How do seasons/operations work?

Siege introduces a new operation every few months (4 throughout 2017). The current season is Year 2 Season 3 : Blood Orchid. The next season is Year 2 Season 4: Operation white noise, set to debut on the technical test servers on November 20th. At the start of each season: a new map is introduced which is free for everyone immediately, ranks are reset (placement matches must be redone), and new operators are released. The operators are given to Year 2 pass holders on the day the operation launches for no additional cost. Non-pass holders will have to wait 1 week after the start of the season to be able to buy the Operators. New operators cost 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 to buy for those without the Year 2 Pass. White Noise will introduce a total of three new operators to Siege: two South Korean operators, and one Polish operator.

What is included in the Year two Pass?

Here's an image of what you will get in the Year 2 Pass

All 8 Year 2 Operators at no additional as they are launched (Mira, Jackal, Ela, Ying, and Lesion have already been released they will be available immediately upon buying the Year 2 Pass)

One week access to the new Operators as they are launched (Non-pass holders will half to wait 1 week from the start of a new season before they have to option to buy the Operators for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 credits)

600 R6 Credits

Carbon R6 Charm

8 new headgears (as they are added)

8 new uniforms (as they are added)

5% renown gain bonus (expires Feb. 2018)

10% Store discount (expires Feb. 2018)

2 extra slots to hold daily missions (expires Feb. 2018) Here's the year two roadmap

Is the Year 2 Pass mandatory for a full Siege experience?

No, you can go without the Year 2 Pass and the game will still be wholly playable. The Pass allows owners to obtain new Operators without needing to spend renown (the currency awarded for completing actions in the game, mainly finishing matches). Non-pass-holders will be able to use renown to unlock them.
Most importantly, not having this pass will still allow you to be competitive in Siege. Passes just save owners from having to save up renown to buy new Operators.

How do I buy the maps/do maps come in the Year 2 pass

Maps are completely free to owners of every edition of Siege at the same time. You do not need to pay money for any maps.

Does the Year 2 Pass include Year 1 Operators? (the 8 that came out in 2016 )

No, the Year 2 Pass only covers Year 2 (2017)

How can I get all the Operators from the Year One Pass now that it is not widely available?

The year one operators are now all bundled in the "Y1 - 8 operator bundle" (also known as the legacy ops bundle) for 2400 R6 credits. You can find it at the bottom of the Operators tab in the main menu. Alternatively, you can purchase each non-base operator individually for 25,000 Renown or 600 R6 Credits.

Can I play with my friends if they have the Year 2 pass and I do not?

Yes, the Year 2 Pass does not affect matchmaking or grouping in any way.

Does it matter where I buy the game from(Steam, Uplay)? (PC)

No. For PC, all purchasers through Steam/Uplay will still all play against each other. You must install and run Uplay no matter where you buy the game from on PC.

Can I buy the Year 2 pass (or other DLC) from Steam if I own the game through UPlay? (PC)

No. If you own the game through Uplay, you cannot buy any DLC from Steam. Steam will not provide you with a key for the DLC.

Does the Year 2 pass transfer with my Uplay account if i change from [platform] to [a different platform]

No. No purchases, unlocks, cosmetics, experience, clearance level, or rank will transfer. You will start from a clean slate.

How is Siege's Playerbase/ Is it dying?

No, Siege has a robust player population. Siege's playbase has drastically grown since its December 2015 launch, with record numbers of players playing every day. Ubisoft has repeatedly shown that they are committed to the long term growth and health of Siege (especially with the Operation Health announcement), and Siege has even been nominated for "Best Ongoing Game" at The Game Awards 2017

• Information about the Game Editions

Starter edition

A cheaper version of Siege aimed at people shorter on cash than time

FAQ specifically for the starter edition

Only Available on PC

Always consider buying the standard over the starter (the grind in the starter edition is seriously no joke)

Buying the starter edition will remove your progress on Operator unlocks from any free weekend as the free weekend uses the Standard Edition

Standard Edition

The normal base game. This is the edition that all free weekend players are using

Gold Edition (Year Two)

Product Description Image

Includes the Standard Edition + the Year 2 Pass.

The base game + the first 5 operators from 2017, plus the next 3 at no additional cost

Complete Edition

Product description image

Includes the Standard Edition + the Year 2 Pass. + All 8 of the Year One Operators (Buck, Frost, Valkyrie, Blackbeard, Caveira, Capitao, Hibana and Echo)

Do any of the editions come with all the base operators (the operators that launched with the game)?

No edition of the game comes with the base operators already unlocked

Which version of the game do you suggest?

Of the 16,000 people polled in the latest subreddit survey, 63% said that they would suggest the standard edition for new players, 22% suggested the complete edition

Useful Resources

Looking for some suggestions on content creators to watch? Check out this megapost on the topic

https://www.reddit.com/Rainbow6/comments/6viol3/hi_im_new_to_siege_and_was_looking_for_some/

Looking to get an over-view of the maps? check out R6maps:

https://www.r6maps.com

Want to watch some competitive Siege? Check out the Proleague youtube channel (Proleague finals are this weekend as well)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWKHac5bjhsUtSnMDFCT-7A

Looking for people to group up and play with or maybe just talk about Siege and ask questions? Come join the official /Rainbow6 discord server!

There are dedicated channels for helping new players (training-ground), serious Siege talk (serious game discussion), looking-for-group-channels for each region and platform, as well as channels to stay up to date on Siege news.

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Cogmind Beta 10 "Warlord Forever!"

Ambient Soundscape

New Endings

Drones and AI

RIF Expansion

Mechanics

Balance

QoL

Community

The Road to More

To those agents still wanting to protect DC and NYC but are struggling with TU8...

What if Pro Perk returns to BOCW?!?

Live Casino

Feedback and Recommendations for Apex game :)

I'm upset about the current state of siege.

Tech issues

Menus

Gameplay

Balance and communication

Conclusions

How to: Legendary Healer/CC Build Guide

2.5.0.7 Stable! Small CJE / APS update and new sounds

Raid Guide - Detailed and Corrected, w/strategy and a small build guide

Thoughts on builds

LMG Build

RAID GUIDE

Aggro

Boss 1: Boomer

Mechanics

Strategy

Boss 2: Weasel

Mechanics

Strategy

Boss 3: The Hounds

Mechanics

Strategy

Boss 4: DDP-52 Razorback

Mechanics

Strategy

Final Thoughts

Rainbow Six: Siege Free Weekend Quickstart and Buyers Guide | November 2017

Introduction

New Player's Guide

• Getting Started

• Operators Great for New Players

• Quick Tips

Buyer's Guide

• Buyer's FAQ

• Information about the Game Editions

Starter edition

Standard Edition

Gold Edition (Year Two)

Complete Edition

Useful Resources

Looking for people to group up and play with or maybe just talk about Siege and ask questions? Come join the official /Rainbow6 discord server!

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OUR TEEN HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ROUTINE #2 Mescia Twins - YouTube