Rainbow Six Siege Mid-Season Update Nerfs And Buffs These Operators On Test Server

Ubisoft has revealed the patch notes for Rainbow Six Siege's 4.2 mid-season reinforcements update, which goes live at some point today (Thursday, January 11) on the game's PC technical test server. The biggest changes are nerfs for Ela, Ash, and Twitch--with small buffs for Capitao and Lesion--and an overall reduction in operators' concussion effects.

Ubisoft says it feels Ela is overpowered at present, and to help combat this, it is reducing the capacity of her SMG from 50 bullets to 40. The company says it will "consider other ways of nerfing this weapon if this [change] is not enough." Ela will also be weakened by a nerf to concussion effects in general; concussed enemies will no longer be halted from sprinting, and while affected players will still experience reduced movement speed and camera rotation, these effects will last just four seconds rather than the previous seven. Ubisoft specifically states Ela and Zofia will be affected by the change, but there's no mention of operators that utilize flashbang-type devices, such as Blitz.

Meanwhile Ash's R4-C assault rifle has seen a slight reduction in damage, Bandit will now receive one fewer barbed wire, and Twitch's shock drone will only contain five electricity bolts, rather than the previous 15. These operators were too strong, Ubisoft argues, so these changes are an attempt to bring the characters in line with the rest of the roster. With regards to Twitch in particular, the company stated: "The Shock Drone is the most 'stealthy' drone in the game. It makes nearly no noise when moving, and is only really detectable when it fires. Reducing the number of charges will make players stop to think about what they feel is worth shooting, and what is not.

"The other reasoning behind the change is what we refer to as 'gadget economy.' Given that she currently has 30 total charges available, this could lead to all Defender cameras and most gadgets being destroyed. This is simply too much. Being able to destroy 10 gadgets means that players will have to make a conscious decision on which Defender gadgets to leave up or destroy, instead of killing all Defender cameras, all the Defender gadgets, and having few shots to spare for an unsuspecting operator. In line with this, it is important to note that the average number of gadgets destroyed by one Shock Drone in a single round is 1.4 (this includes cameras). This ties into the previous point regarding the Shock Drone being spotted when it shoots."

In terms of buffs, Capitao's assault rifle is getting a slight damage increase, and Lesion's mines will now take 30 seconds to replenish, rather than 35 as before. Elsewhere, there are slight changes to the UI when a teammate is attempting to destroy the Defuser on Bomb, as well as a tweak to the look of the caster camera. A number of bugs have also been fixed; take a look at the full patch notes at the bottom of this article, via Ubisoft.

Bear in mind that these changes have so far only been announced for Siege's TTS. Ubisoft says it will review player feedback from this update before deploying it to the live game. The mid-season patch is highly anticipated, and especially so on PS4 and Xbox One, where the update will also contain a fix for Jager's infamous shield head bug. Ubisoft has not provided an estimate for when we can expect the patch to drop on live servers.

The latest season of Rainbow Six Siege DLC, Operation White Noise, launched in December, with a third year of DLC coming over the course of 2018. Lots more content will arrive throughout the year, including new characters, maps, co-op events, and more. You can already buy the Year 3 season pass--it's available now for $30 / £25 / AU $45. Purchasers can expect a bunch of VIP benefits such as extra credits, customization options, and shop discounts, as well as access to the new operators as soon as they launch. If you grab the pass before March 5, you'll also get a special Damascus Steel weapon skin, and if you owned the Year 2 pass, you'll receive an extra 600 credits. For more on the Tom Clancy game, check out our in-depth look at Rainbow Six Siege's astonishing comeback.

Rainbow Six Siege Update 4.2 Patch Notes

Ela’s SMG will have a reduced magazine size

• We have decided to lower the magazine size of her SMG from 50 to 40 bullets.

Ela overpowers her competition. Players select her almost every round, and for a good reason. All of the data we have on her (such as win ratio, K/D ratio, and Kills per round) shows that she needs to be nerfed. We have found this to be primarily because of her SMG and to a lesser extent her concussion mines.

The recoil of her SMG was already nerfed slightly with Y2S3.2, but this did not have the impact that we hoped.

For now, we’re trying to balance her while keeping her SMG’s uniqueness, which lets her fight several opponents at a time better than other defenders. We will consider other ways of nerfing this weapon if this is not enough.

In addition to the reduced magazine size, we will be reducing the overall strength of concussion effects across the board.

Reduction in concussion effects

• With Y2S4.2 patch, concussion effects will no longer disable sprinting. It will still reduce movement speed and camera rotation speed, but affected targets will recuperate much faster (4 sec, instead of 7 sec). The effect on sight and hearing will still last a total of 7 sec.

This change will affect both Ela and Zofia. We believe this will most heavily impact Ela, as Zofia also has impact grenades to rely on for increased effectiveness.

Compared to other gadgets of this nature, the concussion effect is superior in almost every way: it greatly affects movement speed, massively slows down rotation speed, and also reduces a player’s ability to hear and see.

Ash's R4-C nerf

• We reduced the damage of the R4-C to 39 (from 41).

Ash is still a pick that is too attractive when compared to other attackers. We’ve compared her most popular weapon (R4-C) to other assault rifles stats and given the R4-C’s very high rate of fire (860), its damage is a bit too high.

Capitao's Para-308 buff

• We increased the Para-308's raw damage is to 48 (from 43). We also slightly reduced the intensity of the random components of its recoil.

Capitao right now is not attractive enough. His gadget suffers from a few issues that will need long-term solutions, but in the meantime, it’s clear that his main assault rifle is too weak.

Twitch's Shock Drone Ammo

• We reduced the max ammo for each Shock Drone to 5 (from 15).

Twitch right now is too strong. There are several possible reasons, one of them being that her drones have the potential to deny an unreasonable amount of electronics from defenders. We feel that this change will force players to start making choices about when to shoot or to save their ammo, and which Defender gadgets to destroy.

Bandit's barbed wire

• Bandit will now have two barbed wire (down from 3).

Even if Ela has eclipsed Bandit’s pick rate, players still pick him too often. Reducing the number of barbed wires he has should bring him more in line with other Defenders.

Lesion's Gu Mine refill timer

• We lowered Lesion's Gu Mine refill timer to 30 sec (from 35).

Lesion is in an OK place right now, but could use a slight buff. By reducing the refill timer, it will encourage his specific playstyle of staying alive as long as possible to increase the strength of his defensive gadget.

Other Improvements

Temporal Filtering

The T-AA has been fully implemented. As part of this, the Resolution Scaling and Sharpness Factor slide bars are in the Options menu. With render scaling, you will be able to customize the ratio between render resolution and display resolution, which will allow you to maintain your target framerate. More details about Temporal Filtering and Anti-Aliasing can be found here.

Bomb UI Changes

We changed the player markers for players that are interacting with the Defuser. When a teammate is interacting with the Defuser, a new animation icon appears on the player. If your teammate is in the process of disabling the Defuser, you will also notice a new animated icon on that player. The new animated icon should make it easier to identify which teammate is currently interacting with the Defuser.

Additionally, once the teammate plants the Defuser, the progress of the Defuser replaces the round timer.

These are the first steps we are taking towards improving the Bomb game mode, and we will have more information about our next steps at the Six Invitational!

Caster Camera Improvements

We will be making some adjustments to the Caster Camera. These adjustments will improve the viewer experience for those watching the spectator camera, but also provide them with more information in a more digestible format.

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• FIXED – Shield exploit that involves Deployable Shields being held in front of an Operator.
• FIXED – Attack Operators can appear as a 2D texture when approaching broken walls while holding the hostage.
• FIXED – Certain operator weapons produce extremely bright smoke and can obscure the view of the players.
• FIXED – Zofia dies after using Withstand when a match has a Handicap of 75 or less Damage.

Terrorist Hunt

• FIXED – Bombers do not always spawn during a Terrorist Hunt Classic on Tower map.
• FIXED – Last three enemies of a wave will get stuck behind the reversed table in 2F Meeting room.

Spectator Camera

• FIXED – Switching to Dokkaebi on support mode during her gadget animation will show her gadget screen empty.

Dokkaebi

• FIXED – Dokkaebi loses functionality, and a broken animation is present if Dokkaebi gets into DBNO state while hacking the camera system.
• FIXED – No warning appears when Dokkaebi is out of Logic Bomb uses and tries to activate it.
• FIXED – When in ADS, you do not need to hold the appropriate key to use Logic Bomb.

Echo

• FIXED – Yokai is stuck and has framed camera rotation rate on uneven terrain/debris.
• FIXED – The drones including Yokai have issues smoothly turning when navigating on certain destructible surfaces.
• FIXED – The Yokai drone loses signal in multiple places on Tower.
• FIXED – Echo drone can stick to the canister under Mira’s Black Mirror.

Zofia

• FIXED – Zofia's LMG-E should have 150 bullets instead of 151.
• FIXED – Users can extend the bleed out timer by spamming Withstand.

Ying

• FIXED – Ying's Candela will not go through the Ramps of 3F Watchtower of Oregon.

Chalet

• FIXED – Players can prone between objects at 1F Trophy Room and be pushed inside the wall or outside at EXT Campfire Wood.
• FIXED – Nitro cells do not inflict damage if detonated on the plants from 1F Great Room.
• FIXED – Defenders in Prone stance in one corner of 1F Dining Room are not contesting the objective.

Bank

• FIXED – Bullets pass through the desk located at CCTV room.

Clubhouse

• FIXED – Player can be stuck inside a wall if they use the vault prompt on beer cases.

Consulate

• FIXED – Castle’s double door Armor Panels do not cover the entire frame.

Tower

• FIXED – Player can vault in a specific location to get on a window frame.
• FIXED – There are lights on the side of the tower, which can block an Attacker's rappel trajectory.

Kanal

• FIXED – Due to a missing texture, players can exploit an area using drones and kill enemies.

Coastline

• FIXED – Attackers can plant the Defuser from outside the objective at Ext Main Entrance.

Theme Park

• FIXED – Attackers can place a drone inside the barricaded window of EXT Sweet Shops.
• FIXED – Vault prompt is missing on the rooftop of the building.

User Experience

• FIXED – Too much smoke appears when shooting with some weapons.
• FIXED – Installing the latest graphics driver for AMD will cause a crash when explosives are triggered.
• FIXED – Concussion and Sonic Burst effect applies to replays if applied after the start of replay.