Rainbow Six Siege is testing a nerf to shield operators, louder Maverick torch

Ubisoft is currently trialling some tweaks to shield operators in Rainbow Six Siege.

Amongst Rainbow Six Siege's most divisive operators are those who carry a shield as part of their role. Blitz, Montagne and Clash all rely on their shield to either attack objectives or defend them.

Setting aside glitches and exploits, many see shield operators as game-breaking to the Siege meta. Though it's hard to imagine Ubisoft agreeing with that sentiment, the developer is nonetheless exploring the idea of reducing their effectiveness.

On the game's test server, Ubisoft rolled out a new build that brings a simple, but significant nerf to shield operators. The update increases the hipfire cone for shield operators, making it harder to hit targets while protected from behind a shield.

This applies to all operators who have a shield equipped, and the penalty is the same for all of them. Another seemingly minor change sure to have major rectifications is a nerf to melee attack damage when a shield is equipped. Melee attacks with shields will now only knock out enemies, instead of killing them outright.

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The new build also brings a couple of balance tweaks to Jackal, Maverick, Glaz, Echo, and Nokk. Maverick's torch sound is finally being made louder, and Jackal's pings should be less annoying for defenders.

See all the balance changes below:

Echo

• Reduced Yokai Sonic Burst disorientating effect base duration to seven seconds (down from ten).

Glaz

• Reduced time it takes to trigger the vision penalty when moving or rotating, lowering the overall vision penalty when moving.
• Movement time before complete vision is lost is now six seconds (up from 2.5).
• The speed at which the vision penalty is applied when rotating has also been slowed down.

Jackal

• Reduced the number of pings from a scan to four (down from five).
• Tracking: now 20 seconds ping every four seconds + ping duration (initial ping + four pings).
• Tracking time reduced by five seconds. This means that instead of five pings (+initial ping) over 25s, it is four pings (+initial ping) over 20s.

Maverick

• Modified breaching torch sound SFX.
• Breaching torch sounds will now be easier to hear when Maverick is making a hole close to you.

Nokk

• Increased Nokk's ability duration to 12 seconds and increased the refill timer to 12 seconds.
• With the longer duration, and cooldown, you’ll be able to better leverage her ability.