The 5 Worst Defensive Operators for Rainbow Six: Siege Year 5

These are our picks for the worst defenders in Rainbow Six: Siege, as Ubisoft’s tactical first-person shooter heads into its fifth year.

While Rainbow Six: Siege is generally very well balanced and dominated by powerful operators, it stands to reason that a few are going to fall to the bottom of the pecking order.

It has been confirmed that this year will see 6 new operators, alongside a host of other new content for fans to dive into.

The first Season of Year 5 has been confirmed as being Operation Void Edge, and will see defender Oryx and attacker Iana added. The pair’s abilities were completely revealed on February 15 and 16, at the Siege Invitational Event.

While impossible to predict the impact Iana and Oryx will have, Ubisoft are generally good at only adding balanced operators.

We recently published our list of the five best defenders in Rainbow Six: Siege. In contrast to that list, these are the ones you’ll want to steer clear of. It should go without saying, but this list is subjective, and we’re sure that you’ll disagree.

With that being said, enjoy our list of the five worst defenders in Rainbow Six: Siege, as we head into Year 5. Note that the list is in no particular order.

Castle

Representing the FBI SWAT, Castle has been in Rainbow Six since it first launched in late 2015. The problem with Castle isn’t necessarily related to his weapons or characteristics. The UMP is a fairly good SMG, and his two-speed, two-armor means he can be fairly versatile.

His equipment though, is pretty useless, and can be incredibly frustrating when a teammate just throws them up arbitrarily. The Armor Panels are designed to keep out and slow enemy offensives, but they are just way too easy to bypass.

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Attackers like Ash and Zofia can dispose of them in no problem with their breaching rounds, as can any attacker blessed with frag grenades or breaching charges. Not only this, Castle(s) are notorious for trapping their own teammates as they try and flank or move around the objective.

Not only are they pretty bad at stopping the enemy team, but can actually be detrimental to the defending side. He needs a re-work or a buff, quick time.

Clash

If there was an award for the most frustrating defender to come up against, Clash would win in a split-second. Her bizarre taser-wielding riot shield is just plain annoying. However, it’s also pretty useless.

Despite slowing opponents, they can still rely on a melee to displace the shield and get some shots off. She’s also pretty poor at anything other than anchoring, as her one-speed, three-armor demonstrates.

While she can have occasional uses at blocking doorways and frustrating opponents, Ubisoft should have just left her out the game when they fixed the bug that plagued her. The first riot-shield operator to be added on defense, we’re also hoping she’ll be the last.

Warden

The best thing about Warden is character design. The idea of a Secret Service agent roaming the map in a suave suit is pretty cool, but that’s where the good points end.

His Glance Smart Glasses are genuinely, completely, literally useless. They’re designed to reduce the impact of stun grenades and smoke grenades, which is a fine idea in principle. However, stuns and smokes are barely used by attacking teams.

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Not only that, the ability of his glasses to nullify these projectiles needs to be activated before it actually works. Hence, if you miss the grenade indicator, you’ll be stunned regardless – at least until you activate their abilities.

It seems like Warden was added as a counter to Ying and Glaz – a bizarre choice given their relatively low pick rates.

Finally, to top it all off, he’s armed with the MPX SMG as his primary weapon. While not terrible, it is far from good enough to drag this operator out of the mud.

Frost

Frost isn’t necessarily as bad as some of the other members of this list. On paper, a bear-trap that instantly injures any who stray too close is awesome; essentially a boosted version of Kapkan’s Entry Denial Devices.

However, in practice, they’re pretty mediocre. She only gets three of them (as opposed to Kapkan’s five), and they’re a lot easier to spot. In short, players know when they enter a room or hop a deployable shield to check the ground for a Frost mat. It’s hardly rocket science to get rid of one either – a few bullets from any weapon will be sufficient to wipe them from existence.

On a similarly mediocre level are Frost’s weapons. Her 9mm C1 assault rifle is pretty weak, and has a fire rate similar to that of an ageing lawnmower.

It’s not compensated for in the equipment she gets either, as using deployable shields or barbed wire to obfuscate her traps is a pretty tired trick, and one that won’t fool a competent Siege player. While we accept her mats are very hard to balance, she could at least be blessed with some stronger firepower.

Tachanka

We round off our list with the most obvious choice. Anyone who has played any amount of Siege knows the lore of Tachanka. Regularly meme-d as a deity beyond human comprehension, he’s just really terrible.

Despite multiple buffs to try and make him a viable option, he remains at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to picking defenders. His weapon options are pretty poor, with only the 9x19VSN SMG being a competitive choice.

However, his bizarre ability to become one with a light-machine gun turret is abysmal. Not only does the gun itself recoil unholy amounts, but he’s a literal sitting duck when it comes to using it. If anyone challenges him at an angle that’s not head-on, Tachanka is one dead deity.

His standing as the widely accepted worst operator in the game has been cemented by the lack of love he’s received from Ubisoft, who have seemed apathetic to his plight. However, Year 5 has brought with it news of a major rework to the Spetsnaz operator. My word, does he need one.

That rounds off our list of the worst defensive operators going into Year 5 of Rainbow Six: Siege! Do you agree with our list? What would you change? Let us know on Twitter @Dexerto!