Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is a challenging and massively competitive online experience, where a player’s choice of Operator is essential to success in the competitive game mode. Rainbow Six Siege is a realistic first-person shooter that roots itself in character-specific abilities and weapons. This allows Rainbow Six Siege to have a wide variety of different characters for an array of varying play styles and game plans to lead to competitive success. However, this breadth of operators also creates very large gaps between the “good” operators and the “bad” operators.

For a new or veteran player to find success in the brutally competitive online landscape of Rainbow Six Siege a good choice in operator can be the deciding factor between winning and losing matches. This guide will help both beginners and returning players to choose a powerful operator to find success in the Attacking and Defending game modes.

Best Defensive Operators in Rainbow Six Siege

A powerful offensive play style in Rainbow Six Siege will only be effective during games in which you are the attacking team. An offensive gameplay philosophy will make a player a liability on defense. With this concept in mind, the first step in improving a player’s defense is in their choice of operator. As stated before, Rainbow Six Siege provides the player with a large cast of operators but choosing a definitive main operator will allow players to refine and sharpen their understanding of that particular play style. The following characters are solid choices for a successful defensive round:

  • Rook: Rook is a character whose game plan is relatively simple and inviting for new players struggling with the complexity of Rainbow Six Siege. To put it simply, Rook’s success is not directly connected to a player’s skill, but to the application of his powerful armor gadget. Even if a player dies early in a round, utilizing his armor gadget benefits the entire team and might be enough to seal a win over the invading team. Given the application of his gadget Rook can make a huge impact upon the course of a match. Rook thrives on sticking close to the objective of a map and utilizing the combination of his MP5 equipped with an ACOG scope to keep enemies away from their objective. A smart Rook player can be the most important foundation for a successful defense. Doc: Doc is another solid defensive operator to pick up and find success with during competitive play. His gadget, three healing Stem shots, makes Doc a real asset to a defensive team. If used correctly Doc’s stem shots can negate any damage done to a teammate and make an enemy’s offensive efforts useless. Doc’s Stem shots can also be used to provide even more health to a friendly operator if they have taken no damage. So instead of healing a teammate Doc can give them an extra chunk of health to give them the edge in an intense firefight. A struggling Siege player can make a major difference in a match by playing Doc and using his abilities to their maximum.

Best Offensive Operators for Rainbow Six Siege

Defense is an important aspect of Siege but strong offensive play can settle and dishearten an enemy team at a rapid pace. Even if a player struggles with the breakneck speed of an attacking round these operators can be instrumental in sealing a win in a competitive match. These operators can useful for beginning or returning players to improve their attacking play:

  • Sledge: Sledge is an all-around strong operator during an attacking round. As his name implies his gadget is a powerful sledgehammer that allows him to break through “soft walls” these include wooden walls, barriers, etc. Alongside this wall breaking, Sledge can break barbed wire barricades and the powerful eagle eye gadget, all prominent in the current meta of Rainbow Six Siege. At first, this ability may not seem very powerful in comparison to other operators. In practice though, Sledge’s gadget is an oppressive ability that allows his teammates to find trick methods of entry to take out defensive operators. Coupled with his powerful selection of weapons, Sledge is an all-around powerful operator who provides an extremely useful gadget for attacking play. Thatcher: Thatcher is a counter to a majority of the most powerful defensive operators in the game. His gadget is his EMP grenade, which allows him to disable any electronic gadget in its blast radius. This gadget is key to taking down some of the most frustrating defensive operators in the game. The ability to essentially shut down any built up defense is extremely powerful and can be a real ace up any attacking team’s sleeve. Combined with Thatcher’s powerful loadout of weapons there are few attacking operators that can stand to be as useful as Thatcher. Picking up and mastering Thatcher is an almost guaranteed win for you and your attacking teammates.

Operator Mastery in Rainbow Six Siege is Essential

All the mentioned operators are good characters to learn and are each powerful in their own way, but character choice is not enough to win matches in Rainbow Six Siege. In order for the operators to earn a player wins they need to be played and practiced enough times to learn their play styles, their weaknesses, and how to dominate with their individual kits. Picking these characters is the foundation for building a good competitive player, but without practice, they are just operators. To truly win in competitive Rainbow Six Siege a player must spend the time to learn their preferred operator, and when mastered, these operators are sure to lead you on the path to victory.

A player’s choice in their operator is important for success. The above-mentioned operators are some of the best choices in order to be a useful part of either your Defending or Attacking team. With some practice, the operators listed will lead you to some satisfying wins in competitive Rainbow Six Siege. 

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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is available on PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4.