Rainbow Six Siege Lesion: Y4S1 update, what he can do and how to use him

Much like Smoke, Lesion has the ability to cripple the enemy with poison. As one of the more interesting defensive DLC operators in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, he can be used to make enemies stop for a short time, leaving them vulnerable. A recent change has been made to Lesion's Gu Mines, so this guide will inform you of how best to use the ability, as well as the arsenal that Lesion has to offer.

Lesion operator guide

Lesion's poisonous barbs are nigh-on invisible to the naked eye, but he has the uncanny ability to remember exactly where he put the barbs. Along with our main Rainbow Six Siege guide hub, this guide will teach you how best to use his ability to get the jump on an already distracted enemy operative.

Lesion's stats

Armour: 2
Speed: 2

Lesion's Weapon loadouts

Lesion has access to a silenced shotgun with a decent fire rate at the cost of some overall damage, and the T-5 SMG which sports a fairly decent fire rate and a relatively good recoil pattern. His only handgun is the Q-929 which packs a bit of a punch and is stable.

Lesion's gadgets

His selection of gadgets include the deployable shield and the impact grenade. As a bit of a mix of ambush and roaming, they can utilise either gadget effectively, though having a deployable shield herd the enemy onto one of Lesion's toxic mines is a viable strategy.

Lesion's skill

Lesion has access to the GU - toxic mines that are invisible once deployed. He can also make more of them as the round progresses, meaning that you can have a grand total of seven in one round. This is vital and the later one is triggered, the more impact it has on the round's outcome since the enemy will be distracted into removing the barb rather than push the objective. Once deployed, Lesion players will be able to keep track of when they've either been destroyed or triggered, meaning they can ambush any nearby foes.

Perhaps the best way to use his skill is to use it as recon for incoming enemies, while camping somewhere safe. If you're somewhat close and you see the icon turn off, that means that the enemy is likely still roughly in that position so you can aim at that point before peeking around the corner for an easy kill. So while it now only does four damage per tick, rather than eight, it's still very useful.

Montagne has a particularly hard time against Lesion as if they've been identified and they're affected by a barbed mine, Lesion players can put more pressure on them by charging towards them, giving them little room to breathe and remove the barb. They're faced with the choice of either killing the Lesion player while taking poison damage or removing the barb to prevent more unnecessary damage coming from the poison.

Should I pick Lesion?

Lesion can be a pain to deal with thanks to his replenishing supply of toxic mines. While his overall damage output isn't exactly high, the mines require the enemy player to pull out the needles before succumbing to damage. This plays a small animation, which leaves the enemy vulnerable to an ambush from Lesion. Since only that player can see when a mine is triggered or destroyed, it's key that you tell your team whenever that is.

If you know there is a Lesion player on the enemy team, you should always proceed with caution. One trick that you can use to counter the GU mines is to scout ahead using the drones, stopping it in front of the mine. Since the mines are semi-transparent, you can plonk the drone facing the mine, then walk up to it and shoot it out of the ground.

His ability is hard to counter, especially since it replenishes often. If there's another operator you'd like to learn about, head on over to our main Rainbow Six: Siege operators guide for links to each individual operator. There's also an overview on the more universally useful operators and which ones beginners should consider learning.