Rainbow Six Y5S4.3 patch notes: Zofia & Ash nerfs, Echo buffs

Rainbow Six: Siege’s Y5S4.3 patch has dropped, and it changes quite a bit. Zofia and Ash have copped a nerf, much to the player base’s delight, and Echo has been buffed.

Rainbow Six hasn’t had the most balanced meta for a while. However, Ubisoft has been hard at work trying to refine it, and they’ve come up with the goods in Rainbow Six’s Y5S4.3 patch. 

Players will be pleased to know that their prayers have been answered. Zofia lost her maligned Withstand ability and received two other nerfs as a part of the balance changes.

But that’s not all. Ubisoft swung down the nerf axe on Ash as well while breathing some life back into Echo. Here’s everything you need to know, including a full list of patch notes which detail all the other changes, too.

Zofia loses Withstand after Rainbow Six player appeal

Zofia has been powerful and controversial in the latest meta, and it’s all thanks to her ‘Withstand’ ability. What made it so overpowered is that it let her revive herself from a ‘Dead But Not Out’ state. 

The ability played a major role in the EU League finals. A good example was when an injured Yuzus used it to turn the tide against two opponents and clutch a win for MNM Gaming.

Withstand is bullshit. https://t.co/6Qi32H96Q5

— Michael Stockley (@KiXSTArTV) January 16, 2021

It was an impressive play. However, it’s one of many examples that demonstrate how absurd the Withstand ability was. Fortunately, it has been removed in Rainbow Six’s Y5S4.3 patch, and it probably won’t be back anytime soon.

Zofia also received two other nerfs. She is no longer resistant to concussion effects, which is a big deal. The patch also slightly reduced the explosive damage range of her impact grenade.

Ash’s Breaching Round explosive damage range nerfed

It’s not all about Zofia, though. Other operators were due for a nerf, and one of them was Ash. Ubisoft decided to reduce Breaching Round’s explosive damage range from 3.5m to 2m.

It’s not a major nerf by any means. However, it will undoubtedly make her less effective to an extent. Ash players will need to be more calculated and precise, especially in vertical battles.

Echo is cool again with better cooldowns

Echo isn’t the strongest operator by any stretch of the imagination. However, the latest patch has been kind to him. It introduces three buffs that revolve around his cooldowns, and together, they help make him slightly more balanced.

The jump cooldown on the Yokai Drone has been reduced from three seconds to two seconds. It also detaches from inappropriate surfaces much faster. It used to take two seconds, but now it only takes half a second.

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The biggest change, though, is that the cooldown on Sonic Burst has been reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds. Hopefully, these changes will make him a more viable choice for players, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The aforementioned bits and pieces are arguably the biggest changes in the patch. However, there’s also plenty of others in the full patch notes.

Here’s a complete list, courtesy of Ubisoft.

Rainbow Six Y5S4.3 full patch notes:

Operator Balancing

Ash

• Reduced Breaching Round explosive damage range to 2m (from 3.5m)

Buck

• Increased shotgun’s total ammo to 30+1 (from 26)
• Added Hard Breach Charge (Removed Claymore)

Echo

• Reduced Yokai drone jump cooldown to 2s (from 3s)
• Reduced drone time failing to stick to the ceiling to 0.5s (from 2s)
• Reduced Sonic Burst cooldown to 16s (from 20s)

Ela

• Removed resistance to Concussion effects
• Removed the “extra” mine while in DBNO

Kali

• CSRX 300 base damage set to 122
• 100% damage until 25 meters and linearly falls to 80% (97.6) at 35 meters

Lesion

• Removed 1.5x scope from the T-5

Lion

• Added Claymore (Removed Hard Breach Charge)

Melusi

• Removed Angled Grip from the MP5

Mira

• Removed 1.5x scope from the Vector.45 ACP

Zofia

• Removed resistance to Concussion effects
• Removed Withstand
• Reduced impact grenade explosive damage range to 2m (was 3m)

Weapon & Gadget Balancing

Ballistic Shields

• Removed (set to 0) the camera penalization during the Guard Break animation

Hard Breach Charges

• Reduced deployment time to 2s (from 3s)
• Reduced activation time to 5s (from 6s)

Recoil

• Improved recoil for ARX, Spear 308, C8, Para, M1014, TCSG12

World Balancing

Pre-Reinforced Hatches

• Following experimentation on the TS, we’ve made the decision to set aside the idea of pre-reinforcing roof hatches.

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