New Rainbow Six Siege defender Noor is an anti-shield menace

Ubisoft is showing no signs of slowing down Rainbow Six Siege updates, as it today unveiled in full the Year 11 Season 3 content update. Dubbed Operation Split Fire, the update not only carries a new operator that is a big headache for shield-wielding attackers but also adds an exclusive division for the game's best players, map updates, and more.

The new operator, Noor, lands on the defender side, and his gadget is all about denying areas to attackers. The Horus Lance Launcher hits the surface before spitting out fire from its back end, or even both ends if it pierces a destructible surface. However, the biggest draw of this launcher is its usability against the shields that some attackers carry.

Once the shield operator is hit by one, they only have a second before the gadget starts cooking them, so removing it becomes a priority. Doing so also makes the shield drop for a few seconds, giving Noor, or a nearby ally, the perfect opportunity to take the distracted player down.

I managed to get some hands-on time with the new operator early thanks to Ubisoft, while also playing against him for a few matches. During the play session, Noor turned out to be excellent at area denial even when the opponents didn't have a shield to push with. With five projectiles available for use in the Lance launcher, he can hold down a newly blown-up wall with his flamethrower gadget for quite a while.

Seeing shield operators scatter when they realize what's coming their way is also a new experience. Hitting one doesn't mean an easy kill though, as they can still take the burn and shuffle back to cover. Don't forget that shields usually have backup behind them (if it's a competent team), so it's easy to get killed if you push with Noor even after perfectly hitting a Lance shot.

I also got to experience the dread of being a shield operator opposing Noor. Getting hit with a Lance is a terrifying affair, especially when bullets are also coming your way. Unless I could shuffle back to cover fast enough, the gadget would cook my operator. If I stopped to eject it, I was surely getting shot during that brief pause.

Ubisoft also revealed a new Legend Division playlist that is dedicated to giving a space for the most skilled players to dive into. This solo queue experience has strict requirements, including being the highest-ranking player, having a positive reputation, and completing security requirements. On PC, those playlist-exclusive requirements include Secure Boot, Windows Memory Integrity (HVCI), and TPM 2.0 being enabled.

On top of all that, Ubisoft will also be overhauling ranked play, adding a 3vs3 playlist for a limited time, making targeted map updates to Villa, and giving modernizations to several other maps. Don't forget about the large number of balance tweaks and bug fixes too. A complete changelog should be available shortly.

Rainbow Six Siege Year 11 Season 3: Operation Split Fire is launching on September 1. Ahead of that, the update will be available via the official test servers starting on August 17 for anyone who wants to give Ubisoft a hand with ironing out major issues.