The Rainbow Six Siege patch 4.2, also known as the Operation White Noise Mid-Season Reinforcements, is now live on the technical test server. The update nerfs Ela, with reductions to her SMG magazine size from 50 rounds to 40 and also to the effects of her concussive mines, which will still reduce the movement speed of enemies caught in their impact zone but will no longer disable sprinting.
"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," Ubisoft wrote in the patch notes.
The SMG was nerfed slightly in a previous update, but it wasn't enough to achieve the desired effect. "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."
Concussive effects are being reduced across the board and so will affect Zofia as well as Ela, but Ela is the primary target as Zofia also has impact grenades she can chuck around. Concussive effects on sight and hearing will remain unchanged, but the impact on movement and camera speed will be reduced from seven to four seconds. "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," Ubisoft explained.
Ash's R4-C assault rifle has also been toned down a bit, from 41 damage to 39, while Capitao's Para-308 damage has been boosted from 43 to 48, and the intensity of its recoil has been lessened. Ubisoft said that Capitao will require more long-term solutions to make him a sufficiently attractive choice, but for now "it's clear that his main assault rifle is too weak."
Twitch, Bandit, and Lesion have also been tweaked, and changes have been made to temporal filtering, the bomb interface, and the caster camera, which should make life better (and more informative) for viewers. The full rundown of changes is up at rainbow6.ubisoft.com.
