After weeks on the "Rainbow Six Siege" test server, Ubisoft has officially released patch Y4S4.3. While the patch brings great nerfs to overpowered operators like Maestro, Echo, and Jäger, some players were surprised to see one dominant defender dodge the hammer of the nerf: Lesion.

Lesion is a very versatile operator with no notable flaws. Stepping on his cloaked Gu mines will give away his position, damage him, and prevent him from sprinting until he removes the poison needle. He has a high pick and ban rate at high levels of play, suggesting that he is a frustrating operator to deal with. After years of no change, Ubi finally seems to agree. In the latest edition of the Designer's Notebook, Ubi shared its plans to address Lesion's dominance.

"As you can see from Defender's graphics, Lesion is currently overpicked and performing really well. He can often be very frustrating to play against, which is why he is also the subject of an operator ban. We are looking into tweaks to lessen his effectiveness and frustration."

People differ on the "right nerf" for Lesion. Some people want Gu mines to stop doing damage over time, others want to lose the ability to see mines through the walls of the lethion. Personally, I would like to see Gu mines not cloaked and reworked into a small profile that is easy to miss when well hidden. Any combination of these suggestions could work; Ubi did not say anything specific about Lesion's plans, so now it's a wait-and-see situation.

The mid-season designer notes also include an updated victory delta graph for each operator. This data represents only PC players at the Platinum skill level and above. Although a small percentage of the overall game population, this data adds context to Ubi's balancing decisions.

Notably, new operators Wamai and Kali both underperform in the "Underpicked, Too Weak" portion of the graph; Kali's win rate is particularly low due to her all-in focused ranged attacks and the visibility each shot leaves behind In the tight corners of Siege, a large scoped rifle inevitably means some degree of tunnel vision. Still, both strategies are new. As players discover more effective ways to use them, their perceptions may change.

New in today's Siege is that Echo's nerf may be less effective than expected. His Specter drone was hacked by Dokkaebi and dropped his phone like the others, and his drone has a little blue light that glows when not cloaked. That light can be seen in the GIF below.

It is clearly visible up close, but I am not sure if it is noticeable during combat. The light is not as bright as the camera or drone and is only visible for a short time until the drone is cloaked again. Also, the lights are only on the lower part of the specter, so they are completely hidden when the drone is traveling on the ground.

I don't think Echo Main has much to fear here. However, now that the Dokkaebi hack includes the specter, it could become a liability. If the Echo is not alive to pilot the drone and Dokkaebi hacks the phone, the attacker essentially gets a free cloaking camera that the defenders may overlook.

Ying received a semi-fix in this patch. Her candelas now roll more consistently, explode faster after stopping, and she can now see the outline of the candelas through the wall while rolling. Check it out below:

So far, I feel great about her changes. Candelas has always felt risky because you never know where you will end up. Now that its flash is more consistent and we can monitor how it goes through walls, we can better see if it is safe to push the enemy away. The faster explosion was also significant. Inns can now use flash immunity to push quickly with candelas.