The second season, and a second, huge update are coming to Rainbow Six Siege season pass holders on Wednesday. Operation Dust Line will be adding the usual new operators and a brand new map, but it’s also introducing a lot of balancing changes as well. As far as operators go, we’re getting two Navy SEALs: Valkyrie and Blackbeard. Valkyrie’s special is a handful of sticky cameras that she can strategically place during the planning stage of defense. I can also imagine players might want to save one to toss into newly-breached holes to assess an incoming attack. Blackbeard, as the new offensive operator, will come with a rifle-mounted shield that protects him from the neck up; this makes him the ideal operator to stack behind Montagne as you assault an objective. He’ll also be very dangerous hanging upside down, peaking through windows.
The new map is called “Border,” and looks to be a fairly open, medium-sized, and vertical map – this will make for some fast-paced and aggressive matches for sure. A bunch of balancing changes have been made as well, and some of your favorite characters may have been affected for better or for worse. Thermite will no longer carry frag grenades, for example, but Buck will. Tachanka’s machine gun now mounts much quicker (and in more locations), and IQ can now see the full outline of electronics within range. It will be an intense season, and it all begins on May 11 for season pass holders. Everyone else can expect the free update May 18.