Ubisoft has begin rolling out a new Rainbow Six Siege update. Unfortunately, this requires some scheduled downtime, with PC players suffering today, and console players being taken offline tomorrow.
Here’s the schedule for the maintenance taking place on PC, PS4, and Xbox One:
As for what Update 4.2 brings to the game, check out the patch note highlights below:
BALANCE CHANGES
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.
Game Designer notes: 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.
Game Designer notes: 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).
Game Designer notes: 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.
*We are aware of a visual issue with Suppressed damage not displaying properly in the Menu. The values in-game are true to the table above.
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.
Game Designer notes: 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.
*We are aware of a visual issue with Suppressed damage not displaying properly in the Menu. The values in-game are true to the table above.
Twitch’s Shock Drone Ammo
We reduced the max ammo for each Shock Drone to 5 (from 15).
Game Designer notes: 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).
Game Designer notes: 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).
Game Designer notes: 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.
Head here for the other improvements and bug fixes.
Are you looking forward to trying out the new Rainbow Six Siege changes and improvements? Let us know.
Source: Rainbow Six Siege (Twitter)
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