New Designer’s Notes detail changes to Rainbow Six Siege in Y5S4

Operation Neon Dawn, the fourth season of Rainbow Six Siege‘s fifth year, could end up being meta-shifting.

Ubisoft is aware of the Utility Meta (also known as the 20 Second Meta) and is taking action, according to the Designer’s Notes released today.

Key changes to Jager, Echo, and Hibana were already discussed in yesterday’s reveal panel before the EU November Mini-Major grand final between Team Empire and BDS. What wasn’t discussed, though, were changes to Ash along with multiple other key parts of the Utility Meta.

Ash will lose her stun grenades and gain a claymore. She’ll also get an extra breaching round, putting her explosive count at three. To help deal with what Ubisoft is calling “catchers” in the notes, Twitch will get Ash’s stun grenades.

Dokkaebi will get frag grenades to help deal with the Utility Meta, but Zero will lose his frag grenades since most people thought he was just too well-rounded.

Valkyrie and Wamai will lose their deployable shields. This is a change that Ubisoft says is directly targeted at professional play. In addition, Wamai will lose one of his MAG-NETs, putting the total amount of projectiles he can deny at four instead of five.

The sped-up reinforcement time is unmentioned in the notes.

Rainbow Six Siege is a hard game to watch, even for a dedicated fan—and the Utility Meta didn’t make it any easier. It’s a time-consuming affair with only 20 seconds of real action to work with over around five minutes when all the phases of operator selection are added to the process. A significant change to the Utility Meta was desperately needed and it looks like Ubisoft is delivering without sacrificing casual play along the way.

An exact release date for this Rainbow Six Siege update hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s expected to hit the live servers in early December.