I just hate it in a design premise. Like, you play a rhythm minigame every time you reload for extra damage? Also there’s not really a way to play around it either, it’s just straight tracer deals more damage if you do something that’s almost completely unrelated to the rest of the game, how exactly is that an ok talent?
I’d be ok with it if it was just straight more damage, or even just after melee do blah blah or blah or something that actually interacts with the kit, this double tapping reload nonsense just feels like an awkward disconnect.
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I’m glad more people are noticing this and posting about it. The talent tier this is on is so poorly designed. Here’s a bunch of DPS talents, oh but here is clearly the BEST one, but you gotta be good at button mashing to make use of it. Sorry, but that’s not good design. Talent tiers shouldn’t have a clear winner like this, with runnerup talents only getting picked because people consciously choose to be lazy or just don’t understand how it works.
And people chomping at the bit to tell us to L2P, please spare us. L2P isn’t the point; it’s poor talent design.
9 Likes
I agree with the original post 100%. I made a post about this yesterday and got flamed by all the ‘get good’ people. I tried this talent once, and it really wasn’t that hard to maintain. However, I won’t be taking it in the future because of all the extra button mashing required. As a sufferer of Repetetive Strain Injury who loves video games, I am very careful to ration my button presses. It just sucks playing Tracer and having to choose the weaker talent, simply because I have a disability.
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It does suck for people who have various disabilities (not merely limited to carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive strain injury), but the game does need micro-intensive talents to separate player skill from the beginners, to mediocre, to great players. I wouldn’t even consider L&L “difficult” to maintain - it’s just very repetitive (and DPS wise, the superior talent on the tier).
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Thank you for your sensitivity Shapeshifter, it is rarely seen. Like you said, though, locked and loaded is the clear choice DPS wise. There is no reason to take anything else, except for laziness or disabilities. I thought the developers didn’t want to have clear choices for talent options. What if Locked and Loaded could give a 60% bonus to damage, but then the next reload would take twice as long and wouldn’t give a bonus? It would still be a great talent, it would still require high skill, but it would no longer be the clear choice.
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Sadly, I don’t know how they could raise hero or talent skillcaps without requiring more intensive micromanaging.
For example no serious Viking player generally clumps them up as 3 (they are best when split into multiple lanes to do multiple tasks) but someone with CTS (carpal tunnel syndrome) will crush their wrist(s) trying to micro 3 heroes at once.
Or heroes like Alarak that can gain talent bonuses from executing multiple auto attacks perfectly after a pull+silence combo. It simply can’t be pulled off by people with physical restraints or will hurt their arms after 20 minutes of playing.
Fast AA heroes like Valla are probably also unplayable at higher MMR if the player develops CTS or other physical restraints involving wrist and arm movement.
If I ever have the misfortune of getting one of those ills, I will probably just start playing Abathur or Azmodan sadly.
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this is literally the only talent in the game that is like this. it’s not like this is a widely seen feature of HotS. so we want to nip this problem in the bud right now and make sure it is removed and no other hero starts to get such nonsense added to their kit
I like it tbh. I’d love if the game had more talents and combos that required a bit more skill and a bit more from the player.
ps: I think the main problem is that the other talents are just straight up bad.
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It’s pretty fine though. Take the faster reload which feels good if you want to shut your brain off, the extra dmg if you want to pay attention to who your attacking, timing reload if you want to be rewarded for getting the timing down. It’s not like you have to play your hero at the top 1% of what it’s capable of to succeed. Play what feels good to you.
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It does objectively more damage because of that minigame mechanic. You lose the effect if you miss your button mash so you have to keep attention on it. That means you waste attention and APM which you could be doing on other things. Many people has this false image that unless they are superhuman they are doing something wrong. People should grow out of this mindset.
I am not saying you shouldn’t pick Locked & Loaded but you have to balance it with everything else. Even if you don’t notice it the talent does cost some of your actions and attention, things you could utilize elsewhere. Ultimately I doubt many players time Locked & Loaded at all times. They do it when they want more burst damage. The talent is good for this and should be thought as such.
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I don’t like that the talents on that tier can be objectively ranked. L+L is objectively best and sleight of hand is objectively worst. IMO, talent trees should be about player choice and playstyle, not player skill.
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I don’t think it is that demanding physically honestly rather it is demanding on your ping which is why I’m not able to pick it up all the time because after a certain ping range you can’t pull it off at all.
Although that said, they could stand to actually buff the other two talents to be more competitive, giving them some other effects. They just left it as is when the issue between the three choices are pretty much apparent.
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Yeah, ping definitely makes it hard, just like Fenix swap mechanic or even stutter stepping with some heroes.
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But they are.
Sleight of Hand is excellent if you’re changing attack targets often or dealing with Blind and indirectly increases the rate you charge your ultimate.
Focus Fire is ideal for 1v1 or soloing merc camps.
Locked and Loaded is the most damage but if you’re dealing with a lot of stuns/disables you can easily lose its value when you need it the most.
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I don’t think Sleight of Hand is objectively the worst, it’s the only one which is a net buff and always applies.
Focus Fire is IMO the most niche, good on paper but in effect it only works if you can stuck on a target long enough to always unload your clips. Like Vekkul commented it sounds like a PvE build.
Locked & Loaded can get you killed if you watch the reload bar during a critical moment.
All talents have their niche, although given how Tracer was pigeonholed before I can understand why many think L&L was the only viable talent.
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the idea of just pushing a button for extra damage isn’t that far off from other heroes that that get the same thing, but used 1,2,3,4 instead of D – unless you’re Gul’dan, then that damage boost is used from his D 
Esp given the lack of other additions for tracer’s kit (zomg no piano spec 
) adding one extra key can ‘feel’ better since the rest of her kit doesn’t really have much to really juggle.
So i can at least understand the intent/design, but I do think there are better outlets for it.
Tracers Attack speed is 8. Which means she fires 8 Bullets per Second. Her Magazine contains 20 Bullets distributed on both weapons. So she has actually only 10 Rounds per magazine.
So to unload a full magazine on one Enemy, you have to stick for 1.25 Seconds to your Target to get the Extra Damage. You have nearly always the time to benefit from the Extra Damage.
While this is true, what about the second clip? Or the third? You may also overextend by trying to land the last shot on your target. Plus unless it’s 1v1 you’ll inevitably be switching targets. Only PvE situations allow you to keep shooting almost indefinitely. Sleight of Hand’s reload buff also helps in pulse charges and the reduced idle time may also be a godsend now with the baseline lifesteal.
I mean you can try using Focus Fire in PvP but I feel at that point you may as well have Locked & Loaded because you get more consistent burst damage that way.
About Locked and Loaded:
They have lowered tracer’s skill ceiling already.
Since they did this “rework” to tracer, Locked and Loaded is the only thing which u need some skill to use as a tracer player.
Locked and Loaded should never be removed.
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Tracer is my highest ranking Hero with Level 26. I mostly picked Focus Fire for the already noted reasons. Even with the new Talent-Tree I still consider it a viable choice.
I can overextend to a certain degree using Recall for the retreat. I’m probably not surviving this risky Play Style in ranked matches but on my most played mode qm, it works pretty well.