Details of Ubisoft’s next season have been trickling in throughout the past few months, with the publisher giving Operation Grim Sky a full reveal during its Paris Major over the weekend. Introducing shielded defender Clash and the blowtorch wielding Maverick, the meta looks set to drop rush tactics in favour of strategy and angles.

Ex-Scotland Yard officer, Clash is the first defender to wield an indestructible shield, much like Montagne’s on attack. She forgoes the ability to melee while retaining a battery-operated shock attack that slows enemies and causes damage similar to Lesion’s Gu Mines. While she’s certainly meant to slow the enemy team’s rush, she cannot arbitrarily block doorways as one melee hit or Zofia’s concussion grenades temporarily knock her defences, allowing attackers to get a shot off.

Maverick is the game’s third hard breacher, utilising his blowtorch to cut holes “at an almost inaudible level” in comparison to the sizeable holes made by Thermite and Hibana. Instead, Maverick has a limited amount of fuel to his device that is best used to create sneaky angles, passageways for the Twitch drone or a trap with his claymore poking through, rather than something operators can pass through.

Of course, Maverick can blow up hatches, but only at the expense of a lot of his fuel. This comes hand in hand with changes to how the hatches work, now requiring 6 of Hibana’s X-KIAROS pellets to fully breach, otherwise holes similar to Maverick’s will be made for vertical angles. Other changes include weapon sight adjustments to combat misalignment, the introduction of an Idle Pick Operator for when someone is distracted or AFK, and the comprehensive Hereford Base rework taking players back to World War 2.

Operation Grim Sky lands on the Technical Test Server today, August 20th, exclusive to PC players. The live servers, including console, will gain access to the new season early in September providing tests go smoothly.

KitGuru Says: Ubisoft has wanted players to slow down and play methodically for quite some time, but the introduction of bigger maps has prompted better players to enter the building as quickly as possible rather than wasting time. It’s good to see another potential meta change to alleviate the pain of rushing, but it looks like Maverick is going to spur defenders to roam even more than before in order to counter him.

Become a Patron!