Contrary to what everyone in ranked says, Lair is not a bad map. Nobody knows how to play it, and the current ‘default’ setups are unrefined, sporadic, and, most importantly, bad. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll not only be comfortable playing it, but jump at the opportunity.
Why Not Just Copy Proleague?
Before we get into the grit of the article, I want to address a question that I’m sure is popping up in at least one person’s mind, “Why don’t I just copy a setup I see in proleague?” In short, you absolutely could do that, but unless you only ever play ranked with your comp team, your proleague strat will likely crumble.
Proleague strats are unquestionably effective, and well thought out. But when it comes to trying to mimic them in ranked, problems arise. First, ranked and proleague are VERY different. On an individual basis, some top ranked players may have mechanics similar to pro-players, but in terms of communication, coordination, problem solving, and map awareness, 99% of ranked games are severely lacking in these elements. As such, strats for ranked need to focus more on limiting the ways the enemy can catch you and your teammates off guard, as opposed to maximizing map control and utility denial.
If you have a dedicated five stack, and you all watch proleague enough to learn their setups, by all means, feel free to run them. But this article is not for you.
If you’re like the 99% of people that don’t ONLY play ranked with 5 knowledgeable gamers that play siege enough to excel in good communication and team coordination, then read this article, share it, and lets get everyone on the same page of how to play lair so we can stop playing oregon and border every other game.
Master Office/R6 Room
Basic Idea
Although this bomb site is the most common one to go to first, I would not recommend going here first, if for no other reason than people have the most experience attacking it. But there are also 2 other strong sites to go on this map (especially in ranked), which we’ll get to later.
The most common attack you’ll see on this site is for the enemy to open the main breach of Master Office, and then push operational. This is overall a pretty poor attack, but simplistic and therefore, favorable for ranked players that are jamming out to music or watching their newest anime on their second monitor.
The easiest way to defend against this attack is to focus on holding the power positions (noted below), and work on keeping the main breach closed as long as possible. Just be sure you keep an eye on the backside in case someone tries crouch walking through there.
Keys to Winning the Round
- Play active in Mezzanine
- Mezzanine is the first power position for this site. It’s narrowness creates favorable fights for the defenders, and bottlenecks the enemy, especially if they can’t open the Master office breach. There are a number of ways to play active here. You can play aggressive on the operational wall, or reinforce both of those walls, and play aggressive on the operational double door, or you can play in the back of mezzanine. It’s obviously best to not die, but if you do, just make sure one of your teammates takes up holding this position.
- This is the single reason I think pushing operational side is a horrible idea in ranked.
- Play smart in Server
- Server is the second power position for this site. With the right holes and rotates opened up, this room can give the player here the ability to contest almost every way the enemy could get into site. Whether it’s gallery window, bathroom windows, R6 room, or Master office main breach, the player here can either directly contest the enemy, or help his teammates. I’d recommend playing an acog here just because it makes it easier to take fights against people pushing main breach, but it’s not strictly necessary.
- Stop the enemy from opening Master Office wall
- This can be done with either a good bandit player, or kaid and tubarao. Using kaid and Tubarao is far easier. Just throw a kaid claw at the bottom or top of the wall, and place a tub far enough away from the claw so the wall freezes but the claw doesn’t. It’s not a done deal if you keep this wall closed, but it’s like CCTV on clubhouse. Although keeping the wall closed means the attackers have to either walk through small doorways, hop in windows, or push up staircases, you can still lose the round but your odds of winning go WAY up.
Sample Setup
Siege is great because it allows players a lot of freedom when it comes to who and how they want to play. With that said, do not feel like you need to copy my sample setup exactly, and if you want to play around with this reinforcement or that bulletproof go for it. But this is a simple, safe setup that should give you an increased chance of winning the round.
Phase 1
Warden - Regardless of the enemy's ultimate push, warden should be playing close mezzanine. His glasses + shotgun/smg12 make him perfect to play this position as he can't get flashed off the shield, and it's a super close quarter fight as long as his wall stays closed.
Bandit - At the start, bandit needs to be on the master wall. Operational is currently the most likely way the enemy will push, so Bandit needs to be prepared as early as possible to trick this wall.
Echo - While Bandit and Warden are both positioned front site, Echo needs to make sure that nobody walks up main stairs or hops in bathroom windows.
Melusi - While Echo is watching main stairs and bathroom, Mel needs to be cognizant of the gallery window and six hallway.
Azami - At the start of the round, there isn't much for Azami to do. Her teammates should all be watching and taking care of the entrances into site, so the best thing she can do is be on cams to get a sense of how the enemy is going to push.
Phase 2 - Operational Push
Warden - If the enemy pushes operational side, they will likely clear Warden's shield or open up his wall. In which case, he needs to fall back and play in the back of mezzanine. He can play off of a shield, a bulletproof, or just hold a passive angle. Don't try and fight people in the back of operational with an smg12, especially when the enemy trying to funnel down a narrow hallway makes for SUPER easy kills.
Bandit - If the enemy is good and really wants to push master, they'll eventually get the main breach open. Once that happens, bandit can fall back to main stairs to make sure his teammates don't get shot in the back. He can also rotate below with a C4 in the event the enemy actually gets into site.
Echo - Once Bandit rotates to main stairs, Echo's primary responsibility is to make sure nobody walks in through the main breach and tries to plant. He will have Azami to help him with this, and those two should work together to stop the attackers from getting into master and into the default plant spot on the mezzanine wall.
Melusi - Even if the enemy is doing an operational/master take, someone still needs to make sure that nobody gets shot in the back. That responsibility is on Mel's shoulders. She can push closer to the master double door if her teammates start dying or if it's 100% certain nobody is pushing backside, but other than that, Mel will mostly be AFK in the corner in the R6 room.
Azami - Once the wall is opened Azami can use her remaining Kiba barricades to help stop the enemy from pushing in the breach or pushing down Mezzanine.
Phase 2 - R6 push
Warden - If the enemy is pushing R6, Warden needs to fall back and help hold bathroom and gallery to allow Echo and Melusi to focus on contesting players pushing storage and the six hallway.
Bandit - Because the backlines always need to be accounted for, regardless of how the enemy is pushing, Bandit will remain in Mezzanine for the entire round until it's known with 100% certainty there is no chance of someone crouch walking through operational or up main stairs.
Echo - In server, echo can contest the six hallway door walk in, as well as, play off of the contact of either Melusi or Azami. He also has the potential to drop hatch and play his echo cams late round, but this should only be done if someone is able to take up the position inside server.
Melusi - Finally getting some action if the enemy pushing R6 side, Mel will play in corner in R6 and, primarily play off of her traps, or the contact of Echo/Azami. She can also swing gallery window if need be, but only if she knows someone hopped in, and preferably in unison with Warden or Echo.
Azami - If the enemy is pushing R6 side, Azami just needs to fall back to the master double door and use her kiba barricades to give herself some additional cover. Given her positioning, she should be the first point of contact, and the one that Echo and Melusi swing off of. If Azami is taking a fight, the person she's fighting should 100% be able to be seen by either of her teammates, if not both of them.
Lab/Support
Basic Idea
This site is silently one of the worst sites on the map for. The reason being is it has a lot of different entry points (whether from stock, blue stairs, barrels, or garage) which translates to a lot of potential to be crouch walked in on. It also doesn’t help that most of the ceiling is destructible from above, with 2 hatches that can drop the enemy either directly into site, or very close to it.
However, despite these shortcomings, it is still the second most chosen bomb site to play. The reason for this is likely because, basement sites have historically been pretty good. It remains the second most played bomb site, even despite proleague reinforcing my initial statement on this site, because nobody actually knows how to attack it. I’m sure sooner or later people will figure out how to attack it, and when that happens, this will become the third or fourth picked site.
For now, as it is still the second most picked site on the map, we’ll be discussing this one next.
The most common way the enemy pushes this site is to force their way through warehouse, open up the missile wall, if they can, clear lockers, and hope everyone is dead by that point. One of the biggest perks to this site is the plethora of cover within the site itself, as well as the size of both bomb sites. This means that the biggest aid you can give your team to winning the round is staying alive and forcing the enemy to try and clear all possible positions when trying to push in.
Keys to Winning the Round
- Waste time and waste utility
- Power positions aren’t as strong for this site as they are for the last one because of the reasons I mentioned previously…the size, the number of entrances into the site, and the destructibility from above. But if you’re able to waste the enemies time and utility, it will make it MUCH harder for them as the clock ticks down.
- Stay alive
- It won’t matter one lick how much time or utility you waste throughout the round if you all die doing it. So if you get droned, move, if you can, but if there’s even the possibility you’re being held, just stay put. You staying alive is far better than risking your life with a 50/50 fight. Staying alive is critically important if they go above as well. You’ll just need to extend to the parts of the downstairs that aren’t destructible from above, like warehouse, parts of lockers, missile, exit and filtration. There will be too many entrances into the site for the enemy to hold all of them from above when they try to go for the execute.
- Set up crossfires
- You don’t really need to do more than just waste time, utility, and stay alive. But for continuity and clarity, I’ll also note that you should try to set up crossfires with your teammates. All the cover, and debris, and doors and entrances into site should allow you and your teammates to play off of one another effectively (especially in ranked. Especially if they only push warehouse).
Sample Setup
Phase 1
Jager - Positioned in lockers to start the round, Jager is the first line of defense against anyone pushing warehouse.
Bandit - In missile, Bandit can help support Jager by making sure nobody can push his hallway. He will also be able to bandit trick the missile wall if the enemy ends up pushing that side of the map.
Warden - Primarily in storage to make the enemy can't rush site through that door, with a shotgun and flash resistant glasses, he should be able to hold off anyone trying to pressure from that side of the map.
Kaid - Starting off in support, Kaid just needs to focus on making sure nobody is rushing filtration. He can also support Jager once a front side push is more defined.
Pulse - Between exit, support, and labs, pulse needs to try and gather as much information as possible and as early as possible. It's important for him to pick up on a vert take early so his teammates can make sure they're in positions to not get trapped in site. He also needs to make sure nobody crouch walks through filtration, especially if Kaid is supporting Jager and Bandit front side.
Phase 2 - Warehouse Push
Jager - If the enemy is persistent on pushing Warehouse, they will likely clear Jager out of lockers. Once that happens, Jager needs to fall back through the rotate in take cover in site. He should play primarily off of the contact of his teammates and trust that they will have him covered.
Bandit - The enemy will likely open the missile wall if they really want it open, in which case, Bandit can fall back and play in toxin, close to the missile door. From here, he could hold the lockers walk in, or swing missile off of Kaid/Warden's contact
Warden - To help support his teammates, Warden and push into toxin and play the headholes looking into lockers. Play these relatively passive though if using the smg12 and a shotgun, or even focus more on watching the missile door.
Kaid - Ideally using a TCSG, Kaid can play a lot of long angles into labs, lockers, or even to the missile door.
Pulse - There still needs to be some awareness for the backside, even if the enemy is pushing warehouse, especially if your teammates are succeeding in stopping their push. Watch for a crouch walk backside, and it would even be a good idea to barricade the filtration door
Phase 2 - Vert Push
Jager - If the enemy is doing a vert take, Jager will likely get pushed out of lockers sooner or later. Once this happens, he should push into warehouse. There are a few options of what he can do from here. First, he can wait until the enemy is starting to execute, and then he can try and push back in through lockers and assume the enemy isn't watching all eight entrances into site. He could also peek the filtration window from electrical if he gets a call from his teammates that someone is going there. Or Jager could go for a flank up yellow.
Bandit - Although missile is technically safe from above, if the enemy is doing vert, it's likely they'll end their push by either pushing through stock, dropping hatches, or funneling through filtration. Any of these scenarios leave Bandit helpless. In which case, it's best to join Jager in pushing into warehouse. If one goes for a flank, the other should join him. If they both would rather wait for the execute and then push back into site, then that's fine too as long as they do it together.
Warden - Not much for him to do other than dance around stock. There's a good amount of stock that is safe from above, but you just have to be careful of someone pushing the outside door.
Kaid - There's only two options for what to do if the enemy pushes above. You can either hide in exit, or push into filtration. Filtration is generally a better option, primarily because it allows the option to push up blue stairs, but hiding in exit can work as well. Again, the primary goal for everyone here is to stay alive. There are six total doorways into site, plus 2 additional rotates we make, even if all five players are alive, there are still some entrances that will be unaccounted for.
Pulse - Follow Kaid. I like to say, 'it's better for players to do the wrong move together, than for one of the players to do the right move alone'. You may not know in the moment if pushing into filtration, going for a flank, or hiding out in exit will be the best move, but either way, it's best to do it together, as opposed to end up split.
Bunks/Briefing
Basic Idea
I like this site a lot for ranked. It is very uncommonly played, and therefore, most teams won’t really know how to attack it. It also has a good amount of verticality to it which allows you to extend to the top floor to help hold it.
There are a few issues with the site however. The first is its size. The second is its cover. It essentially takes the strengths of the last bomb site, and flips them. Both bomb sites have limited cover and they’re both very small sites. This is why, a lot of effort has to be put into extending the site hold vertically.
You can set up the top floor similarly to how you’d set it up if you were playing Master Office and R6 room, but you don’t need to put as much focus on Mezz and Operational. Instead, you’ll want to focus much harder on gallery/server, R6 room, and Master Office. You can create a sorta triangle hold with these three positions and the ones who will actually be in site, will be able to help hold doorways through the floor if they have vert and aren’t getting pushed.
Ultimately, this can be a very good site to go to and allows for a lot of easy coordination as long as positioning is good. I’d even recommend going here first.
Keys to Winning the Round
- Hold above
- In all honesty, this site could be held with 5 players above if you wanted to. Not saying I recommend doing that, I think there are better ways to hold the site, but that should go to show you how important it is to hold above.
- Keep at least 1 set of eyes on site
- If you’re playing against a decent team, they will likely try to clear you out up top. That’s nothing to worry about and should be expected, but if that does happen, you need to make sure at least 1 person is watching to make sure nobody can crouch walk into site, especially if the enemy is able to open bunks wall.
- Know if and when you can give up top
- I know I just said how important it is to hold top floor, but if the enemy is good, you may not be able to hold top floor for the entire round. If a sufficient amount of utility, man power, or time has been wasted, then you are able to give up the top floor. Just know that site will be difficult to play. This is where I’d saying having a few C4’s in pocket can come in handy.
Sample Setup
Phase 1 - First Floor
Phase 1 - Top Floor
Kaid - It's important to remember that when placing his claws on the site walls, the claws have to be placed high up so that Tub can trick the walls effectively. Also, when playing in server, Kaid needs to remember that the players below have C4's as well and angles that can be opened to allow them to help hold off the attackers if they are pushing multiple positions at once.
Lesion - Out of the three players above, Lesion needs to be the most passive and swing off of the contact of the others. If Lesion is too antsy here, he could swing an angle with no potential for his teammates to refrag. There is also an angle that can be opened up to easily see the R6 hallway door or gallery door from in site below.
Valkyrie - Playing in possibly the most dangerous spot out of the three upstairs, valkyrie needs to be very aware of what angles she is exposed to, and where the enemy is pushing from. She should use at least 1 of her cams, if not 2, to help her know where she can and can't sit safely.
Tubarao - As long as the kaid claws are placed correctly on the wall, tricking either site wall should be fairly easy. If he sits by the rotate in site, Tub should be able to see either wall and throw his canister at the bottom of the wall. He also has a C4 to use to help out the players above, but it's still important for him to make sure he can't get caught off guard by someone crouch walking into site (especially if the enemy 'seems' like they're exclusively pushing above).
Azami - As the second player on site, Azami has the most responsibility to make sure the enemy can't easily walk into site without the rest of the team knowing. She should also hold onto a number of her kiba's until either a wall gets opened, of the enemy is trying to funnel through a door.
Phase 2 - If Vert is Lost
If top floor is completely lost, and there is more than 30 seconds left in the round, there won't be a strict, one player does this while the other one does this. The main idea is to drop, try to use the C4's to get as many kills as possible, and then push out of site and try and retake top floor when the enemy tries to drop into site and plant.
The best way to do this is wait as long as possible, ideally you know one or more people have already dropped into site, and then you push up main stairs and green stairs at the same time. You can leave one, maybe 2 people downstairs to make sure the enemy can't leave site, but retaking top floor is key.
Whoever controls top floor, controls the site.
Armory/Weapons
Basic Idea
Overall, I think this site is awful. Truly awful. Possibly one of the worst sites ever created. But it’s awfulness is what you have to take advantage of to make it viable. This is similar to basement in terms of size, but it’s similar to briefing/bunks in terms of cover. Small sites with minimal cover are okay if they can be held from above. Large sites with a lot of cover are good because it’s hard to clear everything. This is neither a site you can hold above, nor a site that you can force the enemy into wasting time clearing angles.
It’s for those reasons that I think this is the worst site on the map, and should only be gone to as a last resort or if you want to flex on the enemy. That said, because there is minimal coverage in the site, that means that there is also very limited places for the enemy to plant, as well as almost no way for the enemy to get into site without having to take a fight. When defending, you have to understand that playing aggressive is a must.
Apart from that, you have to, at bare minimum, maintain presence upstairs, as well as extend into medical. Medical is the only room that actually gives you cover, and from here, you can contest all 3 entrances into site. The caveat is that medical is small, and only a small section of it has cover. This is why you still have to play aggressive.
Keys to Winning the Round
- Play aggressive
- As mentioned before, playing passive here will allow the enemy to not only dictate the fights, but could also allow them to get into a position that you can’t see from either medical or the other site and then plant. If this happens, short of a hero play, it’s game over.
- Hold onto medical
- If the enemy pushes armory side, then Medical is the best way to contest them. And as long as above is held and you’re cognizant of the doors behind you, then you should be able to hold onto the site with the proper amount of aggression
- Play passive above
- Playing above gives you very little, but can give the enemy a lot, such as full vertical pressure over anyone playing in weapons, AND it gives them a hatch that allows then to drop into the one part of site that can’t be seen from armory. Top floor can also give the enemy the ability to do vert over anyone playing in medical. So the key is to not die up here. Make the enemy feel uncomfortable. Passive isn’t necessarily the right word, but you want to focus on staying alive rather than getting kills. Think of yourselves as tiny gnats buzzing around the attackers endlessly, making them swing wildly at nothing until they give up.
Sample Setup
Phase 1 - First Floor
Phase 1 - Second Floor
Azami - Locking down site, and creating her own cover. Positioned in the middle of site, Azami can contest either push. The biggest problem Azami could have is if the enemy opens the Armory to hallway wall, but she has freedom to use all of her kiba's to help her feel safe in site, and has the bomb to play behind as well, plus the corner where the downstairs hatch is.
Kaid - A trick with placing a claw for the armory wall, you can place one below to make it harder for the enemy to clear (assuming they don't realize it's below). Ultimately, Kaid will be in master and can only get out of he's prepper his castle barricade towards R6 room. If he does get out, or if the enemy doesn't push above, Kaid can rotate to the basement and toss a C4 up through the soft floor into site. He can find an angle to deny an armory plant, or even if the enemy drops weapons hatch and starts to plant there (but that's a harder throw to land).
Mute - Similarly to Kaid, Mute can drop to the basement and play C4 late round, but other than that, he should be positioned reception to weapons door to make sure the enemy doesn't feel comfortable just walking into site from range, or walking in through main lobby door.
Castle - His 4 castle barricades can be placed to section off half of the map. This makes it much simpler for the defenders to know where they could be pushed from. But it also means attackers have less to worry about too. Castle needs to be supporting Kaid, and lightly pressuring the enemy if they're pushing operational. The hatch in this room places the attackers into a very safe plant spot, to it's best if the defenders stop this hatch from being opened. But worst case, as mentioned before, Kaid or Mute can rotate below to throw a C4
Doc - Medical is one of the best ways to fight entry into either bomb site. It has strong angles against the armory door, as well as if the weapons to range wall gets opened, but it cannot see the weapons to range single door. Doc can also help contest anyone pushing reception area, or retake Mute's position if the enemy is doing a hard weapons take. There is also vert that Doc can make to watch the Master to outside wall and help Kaid if he's getting pushed heavily.
Have Fun!
Siege is an amazing game because there are so many different things you can do on any particular bomb site. There are weird angles you can open up and tricky C4’s you can throw. You can play more or less vertically, or you can play around with different ops. This article is meant to be your guide to Lair. It’s meant to make you unafraid of playing the map and to have at least a basic understanding of how to play each site.
The sample setups can be viewed as a jumping off point. Feel free to take the strats and change a reinforcement here, an operator there, or even come up with your own strats. The key, as with any game, is to have fun with it.