Ubisoft, the developer of the first-person shooter game Rainbow Six Siege, released the latest developer notes showing tons of new changes applied to operators. But these changes might not make it to the live build, depending on the feedback from players. These operator buffs and nerfs are mainly targeted towards the competitive audience, and some of them are huge that will affect pro players in the Six Invitational. We will be looking into the defensive operators receiving nerfs this time.
Echo
Pre-nerfed Echo was the most banned operator in R6 Siege, along with Mira. His gadget, Yokai Drones, used to be invisible and had unlimited concussions that would disorient players and deny them to plant. After the nerf, Echo seems to be under-picked due to the fact his Yokai Drones are visible.
To improve his play rate, the developer reduced the jump cooldown from three seconds to two. While this doesn’t really make him stronger, it does help quite a bit, especially during plant denial. The Yokai Drone used to take two seconds to stick to the ceiling after coming from the floor. Now, that duration has been reduced to 0.5 seconds to deny plants quicker. Each Yokai drone had a 20-second cooldown between every two shots but the update reduced it to 16 seconds.
Ela
When Ela came out during Operation Blood Orchid, she was the best defensive operator along with Jager. Her pick rate blew through the roof because her gun had no recoil while having high damage, high fire rate, huge magazine, and three-speed operator. Ela got nerfed after that, making her gun more challenging to use. In this update, the developer nerfed her once more by removing the passive ability that gives her an extra Grizmot mine while in a DBNO state. Along with the removal of her passive ability, she has also lost her resistance to concussion mines similar to Zofia.
Lesion
Lesion is a pretty balanced operator with a good gun and good gadget that allows him to gather intel. He received a small nerf earlier where his GU mines would only be invisible for both teams when out of direct line of sight, which didn’t really change much. However, the addition of the 1.5X scope made him weirdly stronger. So, the developer decided to remove the 1.5X scope to balance his pick rate, and is actually a pretty decent idea. Playing Lesion using sound cues from his GU Mines makes him really interesting to use.
In Ranked and Casual games, Lesion’s pick rate was rather high considering the fact he is easy to learn. All you have to do is to shoot and his less recoil makes him the perfect operator for running around the map.
Melusi
Melusi is another strong operator because of her gadget, the Banshee. Melusi carries three Banshees and each can slow down enemies in a wide radius, making it very difficult for attackers to get in the site. Destroying the Banshee requires players to move closer to knife it, which then makes them vulnerable. But they can also use utilities like Ash's and Zofia's charges. The trade is the difficulty in pairing with defensive utilities like Jager ADS, and Wamai Discs.
As an answer, the developer removed the Angled Grip from her gun to nerf her, however, the dev team would eventually rework the Banshee or reduce the amount she can have to bring balance.
Mira
Mira is one of the most banned operators in Ranked and Competitive games due to her Black Mirrors, which can only be destroyed by shooting the canister, easier said than done. The developer previously gave her a 1.5X weapon sight making her gun even more powerful. So, they decided to remove it in the new patch to reduce the ban rate. For those who don't know, Mira is quite difficult to counter when you play in an uncoordinated stack.
To read more about the designer's notes here.
