Ela nerfed again in the Rainbow Six Siege 'Mid-Season Reinforcements' update

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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.

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.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.