25. Use the Muzzle Brake and a Laser on the Q-929
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=171
The Q-929 handgun is Lesion’s only choice for his secondary weapon. It’s quite a handy gun and inflicts heavy damage per shot. It also has a pretty decent magazine capacity. But what I like most about it is its iron sights. Its iron sights aren’t terrible unlike the iron sights in many handguns in the game. And all those attributes I mentioned makes this handgun a very viable secondary weapon for Lesion when it comes to finishing off his enemies.
But since you’d mostly be running Lesion with the T-5 SMG, it would be quite rare for you to use the Q-929 handgun for strafing at your enemies. Especially since the T-5 SMG has a good magazine capacity. And because you would only be using the Q-929 handgun on rare occasions, and those times would mostly be when you’re already engaging enemies, it’s better to just equip it with the recoil benefit providing muzzle brake and tighten its hip fire with the laser.
24. Stop Rushes
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=245
Lesion is one of the best anti-rush operators, not only because he can slow down an enemy with his gu mine, but also because the gu mine’s loud sound when detonated acts like an early warning device for defenders. A gu mine going off just a few seconds after the start of the round will tell the defenders that the attackers, or at least an attacker is rushing, and that can make the defenders ready for what’s coming.
Another thing that makes Lesion so strong when it comes to countering rushes is that most of the time, attackers will have a shield operator when rushing, be it Montagne, Blitz, or Osa. And Lesion is really great at countering shield operators, especially Blitz and Montagne. That’s because when they step into a gu mine, they would have no choice but to get into cover and remove it, otherwise their health points will keep bleeding out. This essentially breaks their momentum, and in many cases leaves them vulnerable to defender fire.
23. Leave Gu Mines on Default Plant Sites
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=293
The default or standard plant sites in Siege basically means the strongest spots for planting the defuser. And because they are the strongest site for planting the defuser, they are predictable and common. That is why it’ll be great for you to leave at least one or two gu mines on the spots that are commonly used by attackers for planting the defuser. That way, the defender team will know when the attackers are already initiating an attempt to plant.
It will also cause great delay on the defuser plant, and this might end up being the deciding factor when there’s only a few seconds left in the round and the remaining attacker attempts to plant but gets poisoned by a gu mine instead. When a defuser carrier get poisoned by Lesion’s gu mine, he or she cannot plant the defuser until they’ve removed the gu mine. So, the delay that gu mines can cause for defuser planting is substantial.
22. Use Him Against Aggressive Enemies
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=530
When you’ve lost one or two rounds and you’ve noticed that the enemy team is highly aggressive, it would be a really good time to pick Lesion. Lesion may not have the heavy firepower that other defenders possess, and his guns may not be equipped with scopes that can provide him with high zoom levels. But he is a very effective operator, especially against rushes and overly aggressive enemies.
That’s because when an aggressive enemy steps on a gu mine, he effectively becomes slowed because he won’t be allowed to sprint until he removes the gu mine. With that, the momentum of the aggressive enemies can be broken, because they’ll be literally forced to slow down. The gu mines also provide a great amount of intel to the defenders due to the very distinct sound that they make when they’re triggered.
21. You Can Repick Your Gu Mines
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=822
This is a small detail that may have been overlooked by some, especially by new players. Yes, you can retrieve your gu mines even after they’ve been deployed. This allows Lesion to reposition his gu mines as he sees fit, because enemies may not choose the spot where he originally deployed his gu mines as their path of attack.
This gives Lesion more flexibility when it comes to defending the objective area because the gu mines being able to be retrieved allows for Lesion to not waste even a single one of them. This is why I wouldn’t recommend hoarding the gu mines and only deploying them once you’ve gotten an idea of where the enemies are. When you’re playing Lesion, it’s always a good idea to keep deploying a gu mine as soon as one is available to your inventory because you’ll never know when an attacker will step on them.
20. Know the Gu Mine’s Trajectory
The gu mine’s throwing profile or trajectory when they’re thrown is very similar to that of the impact grenades. So, it’s not really that curvy even when you throw it at a high angle. Knowing this will help you deploy your gu mines more effectively, especially if you’re planning to deploy them through head holes. If you’re going to deploy them through head holes and you want them to reach a pretty fair distance, you would want to back up and put some distance between you and the wall.
With that said, unlike the nitro cell or Smoke’s gas grenades, Lesion’s gu mines aren’t sticky, so even when they hit a wall or a roof, they would still fall to the ground, and in most cases, as long as they land on a flat surface, they would still function. And since their effective radius is one meter. The enemies don’t really need to directly step on them for them to be triggered. That means you can put gu mines on tables and other flat surfaces too.
19. Use the Red Dot on His T-5 SMG
https://youtu.be/QOOmbtf7nHQ?t=23
The T-5 SMG is a really powerful gun despite its low damage and lack of scope that provides higher zoom levels. What makes it powerful is its above average rate of fire which can make quick work of enemies especially with proper crosshair placement. And for the T-5 SMG, the sight that I would recommend is the red dot sight. Be it the A or B variant. The red dot is just simply the best sight for most guns because its clear and simple reticle allows for more pinpoint shooting. It’s also much easier to score headshots with the red dot because there’s not much obstruction on the screen.
18. Don’t Sleep on the SIX12 SD Shotgun
A lot of players out there don’t really like shotguns, myself included. But if you’re one of those people that actually excel at using shotguns, then you should really give Lesion’s SIX12 SD a try. His role as an area securer makes shotguns very viable for him, especially if you take into account that his special gadget, the Gu Mines, slow enemies down. The Gu Mines also compromises the location of enemies that step on them because of its loud sound when detonated.
And a slowed attacker whose position has been compromised is a prime target for a defender with a shotgun. Especially with a shotgun that is as powerful as Lesion’s SIX12 SD. The SIX12 SD can take down an opponent with one hit at its optimal distance. It can also help Lesion rework the map more in order to favor defenders like create more foot holes, head holes, as well as rotation holes.
17. Lesion is a Nightmare for Osa
Lesion is one of the best counters for Osa because he can counter her with two things. His impact grenades and his gu mines. Lesion is a already great counter for shield operators, but even more so with Osa. If Osa has her Clear Shield at the ready and she’s been poisoned, if there are no other covers, she will have to put down and deploy her clear shield in order to remove the gu mine from relative safety.
However, deploying the clear shield on the ground makes it vulnerable to explosives. A lot of players, especially new ones, do not know this, but as long as Osa is holding the clear shield, it won’t be broken by explosives, but once it’s deployed, it will widen, and therefore, it will become more fragile. And an Osa removing the gu mine behind her clear shield is a perfect prey for Lesion who has impact grenades that can instantly destroy a deployed clear shield.
16. Use the Vertical Grip for the T-5 SMG
While the T-5 SMG isn’t really known for its strong recoil, it can be quite rough to control without the addition of an attachment that provides recoil control benefits. And that is why for Lesion’s T-5 SMG, I recommend the vertical grip. You wouldn’t really be needing the aim-down-sights speed bonus that the angled grip provides anyway, because Lesion’s main role involves anchoring the objective spot. That means that most of the time, when he’s going to shoot at enemies, it’ll be when he’s already expecting them.
Having the vertical grip being the attachment that controls the recoil of your T-5 SMG frees you from having to choose another recoil control benefit providing attachment for its barrel. With this, you can either go for the suppressor which will greatly dampen the weapon’s gunshot sound, hide its muzzle flash, and remove its directional threat indicator. Or, you can opt for the extended barrel, which will greatly lessen the weapon’s range damage drop-off.
15. Put a Gu Mine on the Dropped Defuser
If you or your teammates killed the attacker who was carrying the defuser, it is always a good idea for the Lesion player to put one gu mine on the defuser. That will make sure that even if an attacker manages to retrieve the defuser, he or she will get poisoned by the defuser first and will be unable to sprint. That means they will be delayed when it comes to planting the defuser, or they will be vulnerable while they’re removing the gu mine. Either way, it will be beneficial to the defending team.
14. Use the Impact Grenades as a Diversion
https://youtu.be/QOOmbtf7nHQ?t=437
If the Lesion player selects the impact grenade as his secondary gadget, he will start off with two of them. Now, if there are others in the defending team that can create rotation holes, better let them do it instead of you using one of your impact grenades for that purpose. In that ideal scenario, you will have two impact grenades and you can use them aggressively.
Just like in the video above, the player used the first impact explosion as a diversion and then he used the remaining impact grenade to flank the attacker who’s still looking at the direction of the first impact grenade’s explosion. This is a really good tactic when you’re playing Lesion aggressively and you’re roaming.
13. Play Lesion with Thorn
Lesion has a really strong combo with Thorn and it’s always great to play them together. As you probably know by now, once an enemy triggers a gu mine, they will be prevented from sprinting, and that’s almost synonymous to being slowed. And slowed opponents are like spiders caught in a web for Thorn’s razorbloom shells.
For example, you can put one of your gu mines on an entryway, and Thorn can put one of her razorbloom shells on the side of the entryway. Once an enemy passes through the entryway, he would get poisoned by the gu mine and his presence will trigger the razorbloom shell counter. Unable to sprint, it would be unlikely for that attacker to escape the explosion radius of the razorbloom shell which is pretty wide.
12. Use the Suppressor for the T-5 SMG
Lesion’s T-5 SMG is a rapid firing submachine gun, and despite its fast rate of fire, its recoil is actually very manageable, especially when you’ve already got a vertical grip on it. Its recoil pattern mostly only goes on a straight vertical path, so as long as you’re good at holding down the vertical kick of weapons, then you’d be good to go even without additional recoil control benefits from a barrel attachment.
That is why I used to run the extended barrel with the T-5 SMG when I’m playing Lesion. For this new season, however, I’ve switched it to the suppressor. Of course, that is because they’ve removed the damage penalty from using a suppressor, so the only drawback of using it now is that it doesn’t have any recoil control benefits. But its benefit outweighs that tiny drawback for the T-5 SMG, because with the suppressor, your shots will be silent and there wouldn’t be a directional threat indicator that will give away your position
11. Do Not Deploy Gu Mines Near Breaching Areas
Now it can be tempting to deploy gu mines early near breaching areas so that if the attackers are successful in breaching the area, they will be slowed down by the gu mines if they start to push. At least that’s the idea. However, breach areas are always heavily contested spots because smart attackers would always try to breach them.
And to enable them from breaching said area, they would usually throw frag grenades to disable the gadgets that are preventing them from breaching. Now, if you’ve deployed your gu mines near there, then they’ll be destroyed along with the anti-breach gadgets of your teammate. Worse is if Thatcher isn’t banned, then his EMP grenades will surely take out the gu mines that are near the breach area.
10. Use Lesion Against Sens
https://youtu.be/QOOmbtf7nHQ
Lesion is one of the best counters for Sens’ R.O.U. projector systems especially when the Lesion player is smart enough to have reserved his two impact grenades for the sole purpose of countering Sens. Sens’ special gadget, the R.O.U. projector systems are basically a wall of light that is generated by tiny projector systems that’s been rolled out by Sens’ special gadget. You can’t shoot those light emitting projectors, but impact grenades will destroy them.
As you can see from the video above, a large part of the wall of light that Sens’ special gadget provides was gone after it got hit by Lesion’s impact grenades. If Lesion has two impact grenades in his pocket, he’ll be able to do that again in case Sens’ rolls out another R.O.U. projector system. Lesion can also throw gu mines behind the Sens’ curtain of lights and that will poison the enemies behind the cover of the lights and stop them from sprinting.
9. Don’t Sleep on the Bulletproof Camera
Now when I’m playing Lesion, nine times out of then, I would run with the impact grenade because it provides lesion with more versatility. However, when your team already has an abundance of utilities that can create rotation holes, foot holes, and head holes, but not enough for surveillance, I would recommend you to go for the bulletproof camera as Lesion’s secondary gadget.
The bulletproof camera is actually very underrated because operators that have it on their arsenal can only carry one. But it’s very pesky for the attackers because unless they use one of their utilities to destroy it, they will have to go near it and hit it with a melee attack to destroy it. Plus, it can now shoot EMP blasts, which is really great for disabling attacker drones. So, it’s not only useful for intel gathering. It’s also useful for intel denial.
8. He Gets Stronger as the Round Goes On
It’s quite appropriate that this tip is at no. 8, because Lesion can deploy a total of eight gu mines in a round. However, he doesn’t start with all eight of them in his pocket. The moment he spawns in the map, he gets one, and even when he hasn’t deployed a gu mine, its timer will keep running and every thirty seconds, a new gu mine will be added to his inventory.
That means that the longer he stays alive, the stronger he gets, because he’ll be able to deploy more of his gu mines. So, his full potential is really only reached during the later stages of the round. So, for you as the Lesion player, it’s in your best interest to stay alive for as long as possible. That means exercising discipline and avoiding peeking at enemies from long range, especially because you don’t have the gun or scope for fragging enemies effectively at long range anyway.
7. Avoid Placing Gu Mines on Open Areas
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=759
While the gu mines have a cloaking mechanism that enables them to mimic the surface where they’ve been deployed and that makes them quite hard to notice, players with keen observation abilities can still notice their faint outline. And smart attackers would watch out for gu mines around the objective spot, especially on the flanks if they’ve detected that there’s a lesion on the defender team.
And that is why you should avoid deploying the gu mines on open areas, even directly above the stairs, because attackers could end up noticing them and they can just shoot them. My advice is, on tight entryways like in the clip above, put the gu mine on the side of the doorway. That way, there’s less chance for the attackers to notice it, and it will still detonate because it has an effective radius of one meter.
6. Use Lesion Against Shield Operators
https://youtu.be/QOOmbtf7nHQ?t=499
If you lose one or two rounds because the enemies have a really good Blitz or Montagne on their side, then picking Lesion should be your next move. That’s because Lesion is the best counter for Blitz and Montagne. When an attacker detonates a gu mine, he or she will be prevented from sprinting until the gu mine has been removed. So, if that happens to Blitz, his momentum and speed will be taken away from him.
As for Montagne, even though he’s not a sprinter, once he detonates a gu mine, he would have to stop his advance to pull out the gu mine from his body. The process of removing the gu mine can leave him vulnerable to defender fire because his body wouldn’t be fully covered by his shield anymore. And if he’s rushing with his teammates to do a defuser plant, then their momentum will definitely be broken.
5. Use the Intel from the Gu Mines
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=835
The clip on the video above is a perfect example of how big of an impact the intel from the gu mines make when determining enemy locations. At first, they were expecting the remaining enemy to come from the dirt tunnel, but it turns out that he rotated and chose to attack on the generator area instead. The enemy may have been able to pull off a sneaky rotate like that but the problem for him is that his position has been compromised by Lesion’s gu mines.
And because of the sound from the gu mine’s detonation, the player instantly knew where the remaining enemy was and proceeded on strafing him even through the wall. This is why Lesion is such a well-rounded operator. He can gather intel for the whole defending team even without having to go into observation tool view which could just leave him vulnerable.
4. Remember Where You Deployed Them
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=669
Back in the day, Lesion players were able to see their gu mines no matter where they were on the map. But nowadays, Lesion can only see them when they’re on his line of sight and only up to ten meters. It was a pretty big nerf for Lesion but an understandable one, because being able to see all your gu mines across the map was a pretty OP ability when it comes to intel gathering. Don’t get me wrong though, it may have been a big nerf but it doesn’t mean that Lesion sucks now when it comes to intel gathering.
Lesion’s Gu Mines are still great for intel gathering because of the very distinct sound that they make when they’re detonated. And that sound is pretty loud. That is why it’s best to remember where you’ve deployed them so that when one is triggered, you’ll be able to advise your teammates on that particular enemy’s location or you can engage that enemy yourself.
3. Lesion is Always a Viable Operator
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=458
The best thing about Lesion is that he is always a viable defender to have, no matter what the map is or no matter where the objective area is, Lesion would never be a bad defender and no one will ask you why you picked Lesion. That’s how well rounded and useful he is. That’s why when I’m having a hard time deciding which operator to pick for defense, one of my go-to operators is Lesion. He’s just very easy to use and also brings a lot to the table.
He has two speed and two health rating, so even that tells you that he’s a very balanced operator. He doesn’t only gather intel with his gu mines, he also damages and slows down enemies with them. He’s also great at reworking the map with his impact grenades, and even more so when the player opts to use the SIX12 SD shotgun for his primary.
2. Run with the Impact Grenades
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=192
In one of the tips above, I said that you shouldn’t sleep on the bulletproof camera, and it's true for certain situations. For the most part, the impact grenades are the best secondary gadget for Lesion. That is because they can make him a lot more versatile and helpful to the team, especially because he would mostly be anchoring. With the impact grenades, he can make rotation holes or destroy unreinforced hatches when need be.
When I’m playing defenders like Lesion that have impact grenades on their arsenal, I try to keep one impact grenade in my pocket as much as possible. And that’s what I advise you to do as well. That is because you’ll never know when you’ll need it for suddenly flanking enemies, or for escaping them. The impact grenades are also great for damaging or finishing off low hp enemies that are hiding in corners. And of course, it’s a great counter to Osa’s shield.
1. Keep it Simple with the T-5 SMG
https://youtu.be/sug7KNxChEk?t=123
Getting one shot kills from the SIX12 SD shotgun is really impressive for the highlight reels when you’re recording your gameplay. But let’s face it, most of us aren’t really great with shotguns, and even those that are, admit that using fully automatic weapons like the submachine guns and assault rifles is much easier. That is of course because of the range and rate of fire limit of shotguns, which makes them a challenge to use.
That is why even though it's normal when it comes to Lesion, I recommend you to stick with his T-5 SMG when it comes to choosing his primary weapon. The T-5 SMG is far from a bad gun. Its damage sure leaves something to be desired, but it has good magazine capacity, above average rate of fire, and its recoil is quite easy to control as long as you follow one of my tips above and equip a vertical grip.
Attention operator, please be advised. There is a new directive from Six. Read up on these related articles, and prepare for deployment:
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