Rainbow Six Siege: Most Banned Operators For Attack & Defence

Given how much Rainbow Six Siege relies on the unique nature of its operators, it’s no surprise that certain characters rise to the top of the meta quicker than others. Thankfully, Siege’s Unranked and Ranked modes come with an operator ban phase before each match, which allows each team to ban two operators each (one attacker and one defender), changing the course of the following match with each ban.

Just as certain operators rise to the top of the meta, certain operators also find themselves being banned more often than not. With that in mind, we’re taking a look at the stats of Rainbow Six Siege to discuss some of the most banned operators, along with some other bans that you might typically come across. These stats come from Ubisoft’s official data for Year 7 Season 2, so there might be some changes as Season 3 has introduced some large balancing changes.

While the option of no ban is valid, and is even one of the more popular options for attacking and defending, we won’t be covering it in depth here. Also, these stats relate to players ranked in Platinum or higher, so we’ll also cover some recommended bans you might run into in Gold and below.

 

Rainbow Six Siege’s Most Banned Operators

Siege Most Banned Attackers

1. Thatcher (85%)

Siege’s resident “screw your electronics” character, Thatcher is currently the most banned operator in Siege, and it’s not hard to see why. His EMP grenade disables all electronics in the immediate area for a limited time, which is great when trying to breach through an electrified wall or disable some Valkyrie or Maestro cameras that are covering your approach.

In fairness, this ban rate is going to change drastically as Y7S3 progresses, as Ubisoft have made EMP grenades an equippable item for multiple operators as a means of countering the strong electronic defence meta. Because of this, Thatcher’s gadget is no longer unique to him, which could see him fall down the meta somewhat until he gets reworked. His EMP grenades are stronger than the basic ones other operators are given, but he’s not the essential pick/ban he once was.

 

2. Jackal (56%)

Jackal is without a doubt one of the most powerful operators in Rainbow Six Siege, as his ability is designed to hard counter any roamers on the defensive team. Jackal can use his ability, the Eyenox Model III, to scan footprints of defenders, which will then cause the defender’s location to be pinged to the rest of the attacking team. The duration of those pings is relative to how recent the footprints were.

Jackal’s a great operator to play, especially if you’re queuing solo, as it allows you to share intel with the rest of your team without necessarily having to communicate with them. However, his strength at catching roamers off-guard and making them a target for the rest of the team means that he’s always on the chopping block when it comes to bans. If Jackal somehow escapes being banned, make sure to bring a Caveira on defence, as her Silent Step ability can counter Jackal’s Eyenox.

 

3. Finka (17%)

The attacking team’s healer, Finka was an absolute beast at one point. Her Adrenal Surge ability is designed to give players a small temporary overheal, or a 20 point regular heal, to all attacking players who are still alive. It can even be used to resurrect downed players, no matter where they are on the map. This huge healing range makes Finka a somewhat impactful player, though Siege’s one-shot headshot gameplay can make healing somewhat irrelevant sometimes.

The reason why Finka was so feared is because of her primary weapons. The Spear .308 assault rifle is widely regarded as one of the best assault rifles in the game, while the 6P41 Light Machine Gun is the main reason why Siege fell into a dominant LMG meta. With most LMGs receiving a recoil nerf in Y7S3, Finka isn’t quite so unstoppable as she once was, but banning her is still a good shout.

 

4. Montagne (11%)

Simplicity is a virtue in life, and Montagne is about as simple as it gets to play as. He comes equipped with a retractable shield, dubbed Le Roc, which can be used to provide full body frontal coverage to the player, making him invulnerable to bullets. From this protected position, Montagne can gather intel that can help the attacking team know where defenders are, which rooms are clear and more. He can also be used to provide cover on a bomb defusal plant, so defenders would do well to ban him where possible.

The other reason why he finds himself on the ban list is because defenders can sometimes struggle to eliminate Montagne. Doing so often requires communication, flanking and teamwork, though there are other methods if you’re trapped in a 1v1. Kapkan’s Entry Denial mines, Thorn’s Razorblooms and other traps of that nature can catch a Montagne player off-guard, while Oryx’s Dash can bowl Montagne over for an easy follow up kill. Of course, a well placed Nitro Cell will also kill Montagne players outright, so there’s plenty of options as a defender.

 

5. Osa (2%)

Osa is a pretty versatile attacking operator with a unique gadget and some solid weapons, so it’s no surprise she’s one of the most banned operators in high ranked play. Lower ranked players might not be able to get the right use out of her, but in top level play, she’s a force to be reckoned with, and that’s mostly thanks to her gadget: the Talon-8 Clear Shield.

The Talon-8 shield works in a similar way to the deployable shield that some defenders can equip in their loadout, only Osa’s has a bit more utility. Not only can Osa place her shields on the floor to provide cover to teammates, but she can place them on windows to protect attackers from being shot by defenders. Defenders can punch the shields to make them no longer transparent, though some explosives will remove them entirely.

With other tools like claymores or smoke grenades at her disposal, Osa is a brilliant character to keep in your back pocket, making her a solid ban pick too.

 

Additional High Level Attacker Bans

The stats for high level play also include Nomad and Maverick at a 2% ban rate, while Ace, Blackbeard, Flores, Hibana and Nokk are all at 1%. Maverick, Ace and Hibana are breaching characters so they can give defenders a hard time by opening new lines of sight. Ace and Hibana in particular can open walls from long range compared to Maverick, making them ideal ban candidates.

Flores is great at clearing defender utility with his RCE-Ratero Charge drones, though he can be countered by Mute, Mozzie and others. Nokk and Nomad excel at dealing with roaming defenders, with Nokk’s ability working similar to Caveira’s Silent Step, while Nomad’s Airjabs can leave flanking defenders vulnerable. Lastly, Blackbeard’s rifle shield can give players a small edge in 1v1 duels, making him a decent ban worthy target in high level play.

 

Lower Rank Attacker Bans

In Gold and below, there’s quite a few other characters that’ll get banned on a regular basis. Thatcher and Jackal are still pretty common bans, but Blitz and Ying are also seen quite a bit. Both characters utilise flashes as part of their kit, leaving a defending character vulnerable to being rushed and killed quickly. Blitz’s shield in particular can make him bothersome to deal with, so some lower-ranked players will simply ban him just so they don’t have to deal with him.

Another popular operator that’s banned in lower level play is Fuze. His Cluster Charge can be sent through barricaded doors and windows, reinforced walls and even through some floors. The charges themselves will then explode on the other side, flushing out defenders or destroying defender fortifications in a massive way. While Fuze can be countered by a Jager or via a dedicated roamer, he’s still quite impactful against teams unprepared for his onslaught. If you’re playing at a Silver or below level, particularly on console, Fuze is a solid choice for banning.

Siege Most Banned Defenders

1. Mira (59%)

Rainbow Six Siege’s most banned defensive operator, Mira’s core ability can completely alter a defence’s site set-up in a massive way. The Black Mirror is a one way window that can allow defenders to see through into the next room, while those one the other side can only see a black screen. These Black Mirror windows are often deployed next to or below walls that have been opened up, allowing the Mira to shoot attackers as they come within range.

The window itself can be dealt with in a number of ways. A Twitch drone can shoot the pressure canister underneath the window on the defender’s side, removing the glass section entirely and allowing both sides to shoot through, while breachers like Hibana, Ace and Thermite can remove the Black Mirror completely when breaching a wall. Maverick can also do the same thing, though his Breaching Torch works differently to other breaching abilities. Mira’s a powerful defender, so most attackers will ban her in order to reduce the options defenders have to work with when deciding how to defend a point.

 

2. Valkyrie (45%)

Given how important intel and communication is to the gameplay of Rainbow Six Siege, it makes sense that Valkyrie is one of the most banned defenders in the game. Her ability allows her to deploy Black Eye cameras, small devices that can stick to any surface. While they can no longer be deployed outside of the building defenders are in, they can be hidden in some quite devious places, and unless someone is actively using it, they can be quite hard to see.

The real beauty of Black Eye cameras comes in the mid to late stages of a round, as dead teammates can spectate the game through those cameras. If you’re communicating with those teammates through voice chat, you can coordinate your efforts to take out any attacking players using the intel the dead players provide. For that reason alone, Valkyrie is a heavily banned character. If you want to be a good team player, she’s a good character to pick, if you get the chance anyway.

 

3. Kaid (35%)

Electric defence has been a part of Siege’s make-up ever since the beginning, with OG character Bandit and his Shock Traps designed to prevent attackers from breaching through reinforced walls. Kaid feels like a power creep version of Bandit in a number of ways. Functionally, he does the same thing in that he can electrify walls, but the way his gadget works makes him trickier to deal with than Bandit.

Kaid’s Electroclaw is a throwable device that can stick to any surface. Once it sticks, it will electrify any eligible surfaces in a nearby area. The deployability and radius is what makes Kaid such a nightmare for attackers, as he can electrify walls from the floor below, which then protects the Electroclaw from most conventional anti-defender gadgets. It’s this versatility, along with his excellent weapon loadout, that makes Kaid such a popular ban pick.

 

4. Clash (13%)

Effectively surmised as “Montagne but on defence”, Clash comes equipped with a huge shield that protects her from head to toe. On top of that, the shield has an attack that allows Clash to electrocute enemies from a short-to-mid range. The electrocution doesn’t do much damage to the attacking player, but it does slow them down significantly and leave them open to shots from other defenders.

Clash can be a tricky character to deal with for attackers, which explains her high ban rate, but if there’s a Clash terrorising you on the other team, frag grenades can be a great way to flush her out. Kali is also a brilliant counter to Clash, as her sniper rifle can cause Clash to stumble if the shield is hit. It’s hard for the Kali player to follow up in time after that shot, due to the rifle’s slow rate of fire, but with team coordination, Clash will drop dead.

 

5. Kapkan (11%)

Who can? Kapkan. Rainbow Six Siege’s first trap defender, Kapkan is still as much of a viable pick now as he was back when the game first launched. His ability/gadget has remained the same throughout: an Entry Device Device which can be deployed on the frames of windows and doors that operates as a mine. If an attacking player walks through the laser of the mine, they’ll take a significant amount of damage.

Back in the day, triggering just one Kapkan mine would be a death sentence, but the damage has been reduced significantly so that heavily armoured attackers could theoretically tank two or even three of these devices. Fortunately, Kapkan has five of them, and yes, you can stick four of them on one door or window.

If anything, a Kapkan ban says more about the players who ban it than anything else. The whole character is designed to catch players unaware, or who rush in looking for frags as soon as the round starts. If an enemy team bans Kapkan, you can probably expect some kind of rush strat during the game, possibly involving an Amaru grappling through a window at 70mph.

 

Additional High Level Defender Bans

The official stats for Platinum and above sees Melusi at a 6% ban rate, Caveira and Alibi at a 2% ban rate, and Azami, Mute and Jager at a 1% ban rate. Melusi was once one of the more broken characters in Siege, with her Banshee devices slowing down any attackers caught in range. They’re even bulletproof until they’re triggered, meaning attackers either have to waste utility or leave themselves vulnerable to remove the Banshee device. It’s no surprise that she’s a pretty common ban.

With a 2% ban rate, Caveira gets banned because of her high status as a roamer, along with the fact that she can interrogate downed attackers and reveal the enemy team’s position. A well-planned attack can fall to pieces after just one Cav interrogation. Meanwhile, Alibi is a tricky defender for attackers to deal with. She can deploy holographic decoys that will ping an attacker’s location if they’re shot, which can be devastating in a game as intel heavy as Siege. If you’re a “shoot first, shoot again later” style of attacker, banning Alibi is a good option.

As for the 1%’ers, Azami’s Kiba Barriers can radically change the dynamic of a map, as these bulletproof walls can be used as cover, to block pathways or even as a way of reaching impossible spots to catch attackers unaware. If you want to learn said spots, look at content creators like Coconut Brah. Mute receives a lot of bans as his Signal Disruptor can disable attacking gadgets like drones or even breaching tools used by the likes of Thermite, Hibana, Ace and others. Finally, Jager’s ADS is used to disable gadgets like grenades and other attacking explosives. He’s always good to have on defence, which also makes him a decent ban pick.

 

Lower Rank Defender Bans

In Gold and below, a lot of the bans that have already been mentioned are still banned, which shows how powerful they can be across all tiers of play. Kapkan and Clash in particular are banned way more than Mira is, at least on console, while Kaid also gets banned on maps that have walls which can be breached from outside the building (Clubhouse and Outback in particular). However, there can be some differences that are worth keeping in mind.

Mozzie is a fairly popular ban for similar reasons as Mute, as his PEST devices can be used to steal drones from attackers, giving that intel to the other team. If you’re a Flores or a Twitch main, both of which use additional drones as their core ability, these two characters will likely be your main focus when it comes to bans.

Trap characters are also used quite a bit, like Frost, Lesion and Thorn. Each one of them have their own utility, with Frost and Thorn able to down or even outright kill attackers if their trap is successful, while Lesion’s GU Mines are more of an annoyance if anything. However, all of them have very audible sound cues that can provide intel to fellow defenders.

Rainbow Six Siege is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X | S, and Xbox One.

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