Attackers should typically be very mobile, but they should also have a decent amount of armor to protect against attacks from Defenders. You can’t always have the best of both worlds, but looking for a middle-of-the-road rating with speed and armor is always important. Still, at the end of the day, it’s the Unique Gadget that will really set the great Operators apart from the average ones.
Fuze has a Unique Gadget called the APM-6 Matryoshka. When placed on a surface that can be breached, it will punch a hole through, and then fire Cluster Charges into the room. If you have a group of Defenders who are bunched up near the objective (and you normally will), this is a great way to kill one or two of them without having to expose you or your team to their attacks. Now, Fuze is a little slower than we’d like as an Attacker, but his armor is as good as you can get, and his Unique Gadget more than makes up for the loss in mobility. Players will be able to fire the APM-6 Matryoshka twice during each round that they are attacking.
We thought about choosing Ash here, but we opted to go with Thermite because his Brimstone BC-3 will breach through reinforced walls. This means that even if the enemy manages to fully secure the objective room, you can blast your way inside. He’s also sporting good speed and armor, which means that he’s an all-around great option for anybody on the attacking team. You can also load Thermite out with a Frag Grenade (extremely lethal in Rainbow 6 Siege), or additional (standard) Breach Charges. This will turn him into the ultimate breaching machine, which is exactly what you need when you’re facing an enemy that has fortified a small area.
When it comes to choosing the best Defender, speed isn’t really a big problem, so going with someone that is heavy on the armor can be the difference between victory and defeat. Just like we noted with the Attackers, however, it’s more about having the best Unique Gadget than great armor. For that reason, we’ve picked two Defenders that we think every team should have, regardless of the game mode.
Rook was a no-brainer as one of the best Operators in Rainbow 6 Siege. He has the heavy armor that we like in a Defender, and his Unique Gadget is the R1N “Rhino” Armor. This can be deployed at the start of a round, allowing all of your teammates to pick it up and increase their overall armor rating. In a game where you are more than likely going to die to gun fire, having a little extra padding can be the difference between winning and losing those battles. Rook also has the MP5 as one of his primary weapons, which is one of the best options in the entire game for the snug environments that you’ll find yourself in. It also doesn’t hurt that Rook just looks like a bad ass.
There are a lot of really good Defenders, so it wasn’t easy to choose Pulse as our final favorite. Well, as the second best Operator when it comes to Defenders. Still, the HB-5 Cardiac Sensor is an amazing Unique Gadget, allowing him to see heartbeats through walls so long as the target is within range. No amount of reinforced doors, traps, or anything else can make up for knowing which direction the enemy is going to be coming from, which is what puts Pulse at the top of the Defender pile. Unfortunately, his armor rating is a complete garbage, but if your team has Rook, you should be able to overcome this obstacle. After all, you have to have a balance for such a powerful Unique Gadget.