Macie Jay is a respected name in the Rainbow Six Siege community, famed for devising creative strategies, making high-IQ plays, and uploading videos of aces – killing the whole enemy team solo, for anyone who doesn’t know. Now he’s suggesting some nerfs to shields in the game, and they’re pretty far-ranging.
Point one is to remove the ability to lean with a shield entirely, point two is slow down the speed of aiming down sights with shields, and point three is to make shield melees a down rather than an instant kill. Macie’s overall intent with these changes is to sharpen shields’ role as support players whose job is to push defenders out of position, and who can still be a direct threat in close-quarters, but will otherwise struggle to win solo gunfights at medium and long range.
You can check out Macie’s reasoning in full on Reddit, where his comments have gone down pretty well with the community, though not without some dissent. BlitzMain argues shields “lose far more fights than they win” due to various nerfs and bugs, though DewDewcaca counters that win rates don’t necessarily speak to whether shields are effective in their intended role, and that shields have had an equal number of buffs.
Almost everyone else seems to agree with Macie’s suggestions, including our resident Siege expert Jordan, who supports them fulsomely enough to use the ‘100’ emoji. In his view: “shields are way too viable in a gun fight”.
Siege’s latest season has been live for a little over a week now. Here are all the Operation Wind Bastion details, and some Kaid and Nomad tips to help you get up to speed with the new operators. Are you a shield main? What do you reckon about Macie Jay’s suggestions?