What’s up guys, Rogue-9 here and first off, I want to thank all of you for your patience
because this video has been on my plate for longer than I would have liked it to be.
But the time has finally come for me to analyse and evaluate the new guns added to Rainbow
Six Siege with Operation Para Bellum!
As always, a link to my online stat sheet is in the description down below for those
of you who want to analyse the numbers for yourselves and with that, let’s start things
off by taking a closer look at Alibi’s primary weapon loadout!
Comparing the primary loadouts for both of the new defenders is of course kind of challenging
since one of their new guns is the ACS12 full-auto shotgun and the other either an SMG or LMG.
But I still want to approach this analysis so as to answer the question: What is the
best loadout to choose for each of the new ops under which circumstances.
So when it comes to Alibi, let’s start things off simple by examining her Berretta Mx4 Storm SMG.
The basic stats for this gun are a relatively high fire rate of 950 RPM, a capacity of 30+1
bullets, a very controllable recoil and of course a full 50 Mobility points (whatever
that means; #WhatEvenIsMobility).
And by the way, I did run a test to double check the actual in-game fire rate and you
will be happy to hear that it is accurate.
In terms of attachments, the Mx4 has access to the three unmagnified sights, the laser,
both the vertical & angled grip and five different barrel attachments, including the extended
barrel and who knows, maybe it’s finally not pointless anymore?!
I guess we’ll have to find that out.
The Mx4 has a baseline hip-fire spread that is nice and tight and if hipfiring is something
you do, it may be worth considering the laser sight, since that will give you even better performance.
That being said, hip-firing is usually a really bad idea in Siege so at the end of the day,
the choice is yours.
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In terms of picking which grip to run I would put forward the following considerations.
The baseline aim down sight time for the Mx4 is the same as almost all other SMGs in the
game, around 300ms which is quite decent but considering how controllable the gun is (even
without any attachments) I would argue that the vertical grip (which helps control recoil)
is almost redundant.
I have tried both grips and would argue that the aim down sight time advantage of the angled
grip is more useful for this weapon than the recoil control provided by the vertical grip.
For a detailed breakdown of the benefits of both grips, see my video from a little while
ago, link in the endcard.
And last but not least, in terms of muzzle attachment choice for recoil control, I have
also covered this topic in a past video, so I will not go into too much detail.
Let me just say that according to my in-game tests, the Muzzle Brake is the most suitable
for pretty much any weapon but it also comes down to personal choice a little, since all
of the different adapters will also affect other factors, such as horizontal sway or
how much the muzzle flash interferes with your target acquisition.
The only open question here is whether or not the Extended Barrel is finally worth using
and for that, we need to examine the gun’s damage drop-off profile.
For those of you who are somewhat familiar with the damage drop-offs in Rainbow Six Siege,
there is a really simple way to sum up the drop-off for the Mx4 and that is that it is
exactly the same as that of Valkyrie’s MPX.
Bassline damage is of course 26 points per shot and as with all SMGs, it drops off between
18 and 28m until it hits a minimum of 19 points.
That means 4 upper body shots to take down a 3 speed operator at close range, up to 17m,
going up to 5 shots at 27m or lower and 6 shots anywhere above 28m.
That’s not great and the only redeeming factor here is the high fire rate of 950 RPM.
This gives the Mx4 a damage output of 412 DPS which is pretty close to the 407 DPS average
for SMGs and exactly the same as that of Frost’s 9mm C1 and very similar to Ela’s Scorpion
which does 414 DPS.
So it’s not great, it’s not terrible; it’s ok and as long as you are aware of
the fact that you may need to land up to 7 body shots to down a 1 speed operator you
should be able to do quite well with the Mx4.
And now let me finally get to the extended barrel.
As you will know from my past tests, the Extended Barrel increases the minimum damage a gun
does after drop-off.
The beginning and endpoints of the drop-off curve are not affected and specifically for
the Mx4, this gives us a damage of 23 points against 3 speed operators at 28m or more,
instead of the 19 points you get without this attachment.
Does this make it worth using?
Well, the answer from me is still an emphatic: “No!”
“No way!”
“Nu uh.”
“Fohgetaboutid”.
Yes, the Extended Barrel can save you one shot to down or kill an opponent against all
three armour types at longer ranges but first of all, 6 instead of 7 shots or 5 instead
of 6 is not that much of a benefit and even more importantly: we all know by now that
the average distance for kills in Rainbow Six is consistently below 10m and with the
Extended Barrel on the Mx4, you won’t see any advantage until at least 20m distance.
Nope, my conclusion remains: Extended Barrel?
Pointless, don’t do it.
In terms of the time to down or kill (TTK) the Mx4 is just below the average for SMGs
when going up against 3 speeds and 1 speeds but just above average for 2 speeds.
Again, decent.
Not amazing, not terrible but decent.
And now over to the other option for Alibi, the first fully automatic shotgun in the game, the ACS12.
It has a massive capacity of 30+1 shots , does 27 points of baseline damage for each of the
8 pellets, has a fire rate of 300 RPM (yes, I double checked) and of course, most importantly:
it has a mobility rating of #FloggingADeadHorse #OldJokesAreBestJokes.
The recoil, as you might expect is off the chart.
And I literally mean: off the chart… the second impact is so high up on the recoil
chart that it is not even displayed.
In terms of attachments, you once again have a choice of grips, vertical to take your recoil
from crazy to kind of manageable or angled to give you that super-fast ADS.
I would say in this case, that ADS time is probably not quite as important and recoil
kind of is, so my choice will be the vertical grip but hey, if you’re feeling adventurous,
you can give the angled grip a spin and see what you think of it.
Apart from this, you can pick any of the three non-magnified optics, depending on your personal
taste and of course there is the laser for a 25% tighter hip-fire spread.
I have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the laser in a separate video as well and
the short version of all of my tests and reasoning around that video is that yes, there are risks
around using a laser but the improvement to hip-fire spread can be very useful, especially for shotguns.
So for the sake of being able to actually use the ACS in combat, I would say that it
may well be worth attaching.
And now to start off our analysis of this weapon, let’s first look at the raw damage drop-off stats.
27 damage times 8 may sound decent but if you think back to my pre-Para Bellum video
comparing all of the shotguns, you will remember that previously the lowest damage per pellet
was 30 on Caveira’s SPAS-15.
To make matters worse for the ACS, damage starts to drop off after only 2m distance
to target and continues to drop all the way to 17m and onwards where the damage is 12 points per pellet.
So I think it’s already safe to conclude here that the large mag and full-auto fire
capability of the ACS are balanced out with sub-par damage.
But we have to also consider the gun’s pellet spread when judging the damage potential.
In this sense, the ACS is a bit weird.
The hip fire spread while standing still is really good, basically the same as the best
primary shotguns, the SG-CQB and the M870.
When it comes to the ADS spread or the hip-fire spread while jogging though, the ACS is quite
poor, pretty much as bad as that of the SASG-12 or the FO-12.
So the ACS has relatively good stationary hip fire but does that help at all?
I really struggle to see how, since the most common engagements will either be while aiming
down sights or while moving or maybe even both.
Now let’s combine some of the stats we know to calculate some quantifiable results that
will let us evaluate the ACS compared to other shotguns in a more practical way.
If we multiply the damage per pellet at each distance with the fire rate and an estimate
of how many pellets will land on target at each distance (based on the spread), we end
up with an adjusted damage per second figure.
This can be calculated for each of the three spread types we measured earlier, ADS – stationary,
hip-fire – stationary and hip-fire moving.
And ok, to be fair and as you can see, calculating the stats for three different types of spread
is kind of overkill.
The differences are not that significant and only occur between around 4m and 16m because
up close, all 8 pellets will hit and above 16m you will usually land just one pellet in all three cases.
Nevertheless, what’s done is done and the important takeaway here is that the ACS’
DPS of 1080 point is pretty good and puts it above most other shotguns in the game but
this advantage evaporates pretty quickly and by 5m or maybe 6m distance, the guns is pretty mediocre.
As is to be expected, the potential one-hit-kill distance of the gun (assuming perfect centre
mass aim) is just that little bit lower than most of the other shotguns but that’s not
really an issue, given the fire rate and magazine size.
The ADS time of the ACS is very comparable to most other guns at around 300ms but with
the angled grip, you can get it as low as 174ms, which is blazing fast and very helpful
if you can manage the recoil without the vertical grip.
Reload time for the ACS is essentially the same as that of the SASG and compared to other
mag fed shotguns, it is straight up the worst in the game right now but what could we really
expect with 30 round mags.
From a balance perspective, the less often you need to reload, the longer the reload
should theoretically be.
So what does all of this mean?
Well the ACS12 is definitely a unique weapon with characteristics that, at first glance,
might suggest that it is far more powerful than all of the other shotguns.
But when all of the different stats are factored in, we can see that it is simply a decent
shotgun in terms of its combat capabilities.
It’s not the best choice but definitely capable as long as you get as close as possible
to your target and hold on to that trigger as long as it takes for your opponent to understand
that you really want them to sit out the rest of the round.
At the end of the day though, the fact still remains that shotguns as a whole are an inferior
weapon class in Rainbow Six and for good reason.
In many cases, bringing a shotgun is not about taking on your opponents but instead, it is
about the breaching capabilities that this weapon class brings with it.
This is most important for defenders reshaping the map in the pre-round phase but to a degree
can also be true for attackers.
Is the ACS a good tool for reshaping the map?
Well, I think we all know by now that it is hands down the best in the game by far!
Deleting entire walls, ceilings or floors in seconds can be awesome fun.
But is this necessary for any given defensive setup?
Sadly, I don’t think it is, so as awesome the ACS is as a tool of destruction, your
team is probably better off with a different operator bringing a shotgun and Alibi sticking
to Mx4 as a much more versatile combat weapon.
One thing I will say though, if there is any particular type of operator you would want
with a shotgun, it’s probably a 3 speed since they are more capable at quickly rounding
a corner or closing the distance to their target, compare to the slower OPS.
At the end of the day, if you want to bring the ACS12 for its incredible meme-factor,
I would say that you may as well equip it on Alibi.
So there you have it, all of the details on the capabilities of the ACS and Mx4 and how
to best set these guns up and use them in practice.
As mentioned at the beginning, if you want to peruse these stats at your own leisure,
you know where to find the link!
Over to you, what do you think of these two guns?
Do you ever run the ACS and do you manage to have any decent success with it?
Let me know in the comments section below!
One last, comment before I leave you for today, if you have enjoyed my YouTube streams in
the past, you may wish to follow my still relatively new Twitch channel.
I will be doing most of my streaming over there from now on and once again, link in the description.
And with that, many thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video and I will see you in the next episode!