For Rainbow Six Siege, a tactical FPS with well over 50 different operators heading into its’ eighth year of content, balancing updates are vital – perhaps even moreso than brand new content. However, just because they’re important, doesn’t mean they’re easy to identify; for example, you can easily identify a bug that needs fixing in an update, and that’s just as important. But, saying that, Rainbow Six Siege players are growing increasingly convinced that Splinter Cell alumni Zero is next on the chopping block; we disagree, and here’s why.
As highlighted by this Rainbow Six Siege fan on Reddit, Zero has access to one of the best assault rifle options in Ubisoft’s FPS: theSC3000K. Dealing decent damage while boasting a high fire rate and a large magazine size, this AR has benefitted hugely from the latest set of patch notes – which buffed the damage bonus from the Extended Barrel attachment by 15%.
In addition to this, Zero is also a three-speed Attacker. This makes him one of the more mobile Attackers in-game and a lethal operator in the right hands. One self-proclaimed Iana main on Reddit went as far as to say that Zero is “absolutely busted” on maps like Bank, right now.
So, given all that, why don’t we think Zero deserves the nerf so many Rainbow Six Siege players think he does? Well, it’s all about the stats.
The Rainbow Six Siege Y7S4.2 Designer’s Notes, which were released before the patch updating the Extended Barrel attachment, has Zero firmly in the “Underpicked, Too Weak” quadrant of its’ Attackers win delta graph – which essentially compares an operator’s win rate and their pick rate.
This graph proved that Rainbow Six Siege’s most popular Attacker doesn’t actually need a nerf, despite their exceptionally high pick rate in-game, and it’s also simple proof that Zero doesn’t need a nerf just yet.
As you can see for yourself below, Zero is 2% below the average when it comes to wins per Bomb Site and he has a pick rate of ~7%, which is a lot lower than the rough average of 15%.
We know this data was shared with us before the Extended Barrel update, as mentioned above, but we can’t help but imagine that this buff is just going to bring Zero up into the average – not into a position of needing a nerf. It’s also important to remember that this wasn’t a Zero-specific weapon buff, but one that applies to the attachment universally. So, he isn’t the only operator benefitting from increased damage, when equipping the Extended Barrel.
That being said, Zero could still be the next operator to get a nerf and you have to imagine that this would come in the form of either a speed decrease, the removal of his Gonne-6 hand cannon secondary weapon option, or some sort of technical change to his Argus Launcher unique gadget. This is easily one of the best recon gadgets in Rainbow Six Siege and, we think, made him a useful pick before the SC3000K buff.
However, only time will tell what Ubisoft decides to do with Zero. For now, though, he is a fantastic option if you want to climb the Rainbow Six Siege ranks and could be one of the best Rainbow Six Siege operators in one of the best competitive FPS games out there. We just hope that Ubisoft gives Zero time to breathe and find a proper place in the meta, rather than reacting to his sudden increase in viability.