A quick look at Wamai’s bag of tricks.
Wamai is a versatile, well rounded Defensive Operator. While at first glance he appears to be a bit of a Jager clone, the nuances of his gadget and the quality of his weapons set him apart from everybody’s favorite roamer.
The Mag-NET serves a similar role as Jager’s ADS, but with a different implementation: projectile destruction. Rather than simply being a reskin though, the MAG-Net exchanges the ADS’s tight, focused projectile destruction for a more wide ranging approach.
The MAG-Net is a recharging gadget similar to Lesion’s Gu mines that accumulates one charge every 40 seconds. It can be thrown to place, and sticks to almost any surface; walls, floors, and ceilings are all fair game. An enemy projectile (any thrown equipment or gadget, as well as many fired projectiles like Nomad’s Airjab) that enters the radius of operation is pulled to the gadget’s surface, where it detonates as normal.
Used correctly it is a less safe, but more versatile gadget than the ADS, and can be used to turn someone’s own gadget against them. This is especially useful for wide ranging gadgets like Capitao’s Asphyxiating Bolt, which need to be aimed carefully to avoid catching targets you may not desire to kill in their radius (like the Hostage).
Wamai’s mobility is fairly average, being two Speed, two Armor Operator.
His weapons are stellar for a defensive Operator, having access to the AUG A2 assault rifle (previously unique to IQ) and the MP5K, the higher damaging but ACOG-less variant of the MP5 used by Mute. Both weapons are excellent in the close quarters enjoyed by Defense Operators, with the AUG A2 likely to be much more powerful on Defense than it ever was in IQ’s hands.
His secondary weapons are likewise extremely powerful, packing the Keratos .357 enjoyed by Alibi and Maestro, which two shots all Operators in close range and fires with almost zero recoil. For a reliable sustained fire option, the P12 (available to all GSG9 Operators) is another solid choice.
To round him out, Wamai gets a Deployable Shield and Barbed Wire as equipment, limiting his mobility somewhat.
Overall Wamai is likely to become a new staple of Defense rounds, neither blowing anybody away nor falling into the realms of obscurity. While never going to replace Jager, his abilities complement Jager’s nicely, and he makes an excellent pick if you know the enemy team enjoys spamming projectiles with characters like Fuze and Zofia.
