༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ A rant for Tracer

General Discussion
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This isn’t a rant asking for Tracer nerfs, so if you’re here for that, the door is that way. :point_right: :door:

I’m making this post because, in the future, I don’t want to see titles like “The State of Tracer” because the developers gave her massive unnecessary nerfs, which is where we’re headed because of the developers lack of understanding on how to balance her.

Tracer is supposed to be a “glass cannon” flanker. If you don’t know what that means, “glass cannon” is exactly how it sounds. You have a ton of power, but you can easily be destroyed.

When everyone received their HP buffs just a few seasons ago, Tracer’s identity as a glass cannon flanker basically just went “poof” because a ton of break points changed, and the character who’s supposed to be known for her high-risk, high-reward gameplay would no longer be a thing because her risk factor became more or less nonexistent. So now instead of Tracer being a “glass canon,” she’s just a canon, and she still is this way.

Anyway, skip forward a bit, and just recently, the developers nerfed Tracer’s recall by 1 second. These kinds of nerfs may not seem like such a big deal, but they’re actually a huge problem, and they’re only going to lead to the developers completely destroying Tracer’s identity because they don’t understand what she is supposed to be and how to balance her.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. Tracer should not have 175 HP, and it should be reverted back down to 150. For compensation, I’d like them to put it into either her damage or her mobility, kind of like what TQQ did in the content creator mode.

Players are only going to keep yapping about her strength, and the developers are going to keep fiddling with her cooldowns to try and compensate for her having (175) but it’s never going to work, and they’re only going to just end up making her unplayable in the end.

Let’s just get it out of the way now (preferably in the MSP) and revert her HP back down to where it was (150), and then compensate her appropriately for everyone else’s increased HP. If you’re a Tracer player, I’m sure you agree with this sentiment.

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Absolutely fair ngl. Tracer is broken but they wont address the issue (her hp)

Squishier tracer with slightly better falloff or slightly tighter spreadwould be great

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So, as the “Tracer guy” on here, I’m gonna tell you that you have the right idea but don’t understand the ramifications behind it that makes it the wrong idea.

This is impossible to balance. Tracer absolutely can not have more mobility. Shorten the cooldown on Blink and she’ll never die. Not even the devs are dumb enough to shorten the cooldown on Recall.

If you give Tracer actual lethality, you create the same issue the Sombra rework did. Do you know how frustrating it would be to have a Tracer skip into your backline and just…kill someone? Tracer CAN’T do that right now. She doesn’t have the damage for it. She can’t kill through even moderate healing and has always been more of a pest than anything. Allow her to kill on the condition that she can be easily one shot makes her an assassin. Only Tracer isn’t Sombra, and it’s completely uncounterable. Glass cannon Tracer would be map dependent and ridiculously broken. You’d have an inverse Widow situation where short sightlines just make Tracer impossible to deal with. Blink in, kill, Recall out. What are you gonna do about it? NOTHING.

Either iteration of Tracer is extremely unhealthy for the game. Nerfing her S9 HP to redistribute power would at the very least make her unhealthy. It could end up much worse than that though, and make her oppressive. Worst of all: map dependent.

While I appreciate you understanding “Hey, the problem isn’t really Tracer being op, it’s that she was compensated for the S9 changes in a bad way,” I have to point out that no compensation is healthy. 175 HP Tracer is better than more mobile Tracer. It’s DEFINITELY better than lethal Tracer.

In conclusion, the solution is for the devs to admit defeat and revert the entire game to late S8. Full stop, that’s the only way to stop complaints about Tracer.

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Honestly? Nah. It was an awful experience. Qrow was correct. They need to give her additional damage if they use this approach. That extra mobility is negligible if Tracer herself is useless.

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Cheers! Never thought I’d hear you say that.

Although I think you may have mixed up my points. Tracer can only get more damage if her hitbox changes are reverted. That’s just compensation so she doesn’t require two entire more seconds to kill than before. I absolutely do not want Tracer to be more lethal. She’s not meant to be.

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Maybe we could revert tracer’s recall cooldown nerf, lower the cooldown on blink a bit, and give her 150HP? But it’s hard to say what will make tracer “balanced” really. She was OP even back in OW1 as well. But at least the other DPS heroes were still viable back then. It just seems like tracer is the only must pick hero now in OW2, at least in high ranks. I’m not sure what’s up with that.

  1. Is it balance?
  2. Is it from too much nerf to support’s damage to fight back?
  3. Is it from the additional 25HP?
  4. Is it from other DPS being over-nerfed?
  5. Is it due to the nature of 5v5 where if tracer is even slightly good, she immedietly becomes a must pick?
  6. Is it the maps with more flanking spots?

Is it a combination of one or more of the above? I have no clue

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I probably should not have phrased it that way, but I understand what you are putting down. I just meant that I personally feel she needs the damage over the mobility if they are using one of these compensation methods. I did not meant to imply that YOU wanted more damage under the circumstances of an HP revert.

It is because I always thought they could keep her damage as is, but this test showed me that your school of thought was correct. Especially in the context of a hitbox revert, obviously. Which is precisely what I would want.

I have to admit that the more days go by, the more I fear any Tracer related changes. Especially as I see what they are doing to other heroes. It’s just yikes. I can see why you do not want them touching her. :joy:

That being said, I also feel a season 8 revert is a lost cause at this point. Blizzard seems to really enjoy these massive projectiles. Except for Mei. No idea what their (frozen) beef with Mei is.

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Season 8 :joy:

150 HP with 2 or 2.5 second Blinks is MUCH more survivable than 175 HP Tracer. You think she’s survivable now? Lower Blink cooldown means you get blitzed Byakuya style with literally no counterplay.

Tracer isn’t a must pick, not really. She’s just VERY strong. I don’t think any DPS in the history of OW2 has ever been a must pick. Although I will say, I was new to the game when the super op Sojourn everyone has PTSD from was in the game. Maybe her. Aside from that…nah. You’ve always been able to pick whatever on DPS because the role is just fundamentally weaker.

As for the question of why she’s so strong…well, she’s designed to be. Tracer won’t ever be truly weak anymore. Every time she is, the game suffers and the devs know it. They keep her strong on purpose, and I feel like it’s obvious by now with her receiving no mention in recent patch notes.

Bit too broad of a question. Gonna have to narrow that one down.

No. Tracer has always been the best duelist. That’s been the case since launch of OW1.

Against specific heroes? Sometimes. Tracer’s bad maps are slightly less bad for her now. In her range? Nah. No one was consistently one shotting good Tracers Blinking around them. 25 HP sounds a lot worse on paper than it actually plays out. If you want proof, just watch high level S8 gameplay. One shots were never common, it’s just that people are really against the possibility being removed.

Ehhhh no. Tracer is not the only hero that’s practically always meta. And heroes that weren’t meta getting nerfed doesn’t really make Tracer stronger. Because well, in comparison, Tracer vs Sym or Junk was always a huge gap.

No, but Tracer is much better in 5v5. That is true.

Tracer doesn’t really flank enough for that to affect her much, believe it or not. That’s something that would affect Genji more.

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Just revert to pre S9 and half the heroes including Tracer get fixed. 150hp doesn’t work when you have heroes like cass with watermelon sized bullets

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Not qrow wanting the entire game to revert around tracer instead of nerfing tracer

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Ah, I understand. Yeah, I’d prefer the damage too. But the mobility would feel much worse to face, trust me lol

I know the devs won’t ever nerf Tracer in a super meaningful way, so I’m not ridiculously scared of changes. But it is true that the devs like to play whack a mole with heroes. If they were ever to whack the mole that is Tracer, then it’d get bad

Oh, it definitely is. S9 makes it easier for them to balance because stats are relatively equalized. And of course there’s the ego factor. We all know Blizz won’t admit defeat.

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I explained why the entire game needs to revert. You can’t straight up nerf Tracer, because she’s the balance point. And if you rebalance her power, she becomes oppressive and unhealthy. Post-S9, this is Tracer’s healthiest possible state. S9 broke the game in a fundamental way and Tracer is NOT the only side effect. The only way to bring everything back in order is to revert. If you try to rebalance Tracer’s kit in the post-S9 game, you’re pouring gasoline on a dumpster fire to try to extinguish it. It’s stupid, to say the least.

You’re a Sym main, right? I’ve always treated Sym with respect. I’d appreciate if you did the same for Tracer.

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You dont demand respect. You demand literally the entire game to warp around Tracer.

And I am not giving you that

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I guess I should’ve said high pick rate. That has been the case for the past 3 months according to Overbuff for tracer. I usually don’t bother 1 month stats since only a month worth of data might make OTPs stand out more leading to skewed pick rate statistics. I think the minimum for determining general stats should be 3 months but that’s just me. (ofc if there’s a balance change, this makes longer data useless)

Before S9 change, I think S76 had absurdly high pick rate across all ranks (not sure about win rate).

But we’re talking about S9 and beyond, which gives more power to DPS and I don’t see how the role being weak = hero pick not mattering. I think it largely depends on enemy and/or your team composition and maps.

I think tracer is one of the most fun hero to watch at a higher level. Perhaps she’s not as exciting to watch compared to OW1 days, but the same is true for all DPS heroes. But ye I agree, that the game is good when tracer is good. Alhough that shouldn’t come at a cost of making tank or support less impactful though.

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Not around Tracer. Around how it literally always has been.

Sigh

Are you crutching on the big hitboxes? Is that what it is?

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Well, high ranks do tend to pick the meta. Tracer is the strongest, so she’s gonna be picked a lot.

But besides that, the devs have confirmed that Overbuff is only accurate in Silver-Plat range. Tracer’s pickrate on Overbuff doesn’t really line up with the experience of a lot of people in those ranks. I personally don’t see her very often. Of course, she’s my main, so not counting when I pick her :joy:

Even post-S9. DPS matter more now, but we don’t really…matter. Never have. The role being like this means that you don’t have to choose something to individually have the most impact. Take Tank, for example. Tank diff=loss. So the Tank has to play the counterswap game to avoid being made useless by the other Tank. The more important you are to the game, the more important it is to play optimal picks. DPS doesn’t matter as much, so the pressure isn’t anywhere near as high. That’s why you see the most niche OTPs on DPS.

It doesn’t. Tracer only keeps heroes in check, which is something she’s always done. She’s not artificially reducing any value that she didn’t before

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Nah, she can and will die if players hit their shots and focus her down.

Her hitbox is bigger, and the enemies she’s fighting have almost twice her HP. (If she were back to 150.) If players can’t hit two shots on her, then, as much as I hate to say it, that’s a 100% certified “skill issue.”

They’re never going to go back to pre-season 9, and if they nerf her HP back down to 150, she needs compensation buffs for the loss; otherwise, she’ll just be a worse version of Sombra.

Here’s the thing: no matter what you do, players will complain.

  1. Leave her HP at 175, and players will complain.

  2. Change her HP to 150, but buff her damage as compensation, and players will complain.

  3. Change her HP to 150 but buff her mobility, as compensation and players will complain.

At least with the last two, she’ll be back to what she was originally designed to be, which is a glass cannon where if you’re good enough, you can solo the whole lobby, but just one mistake while doing so and you’re as good as dead. :person_shrugging:

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Tracer should not be the balance point of the game. Sorry if thats somehow disrespecting her.

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No, she won’t. Trust me, dude. More Blinks means more jukes in fights and more options to escape them. Good Tracers will not die.

Yes, and I’ve gone over why neither option works. Her current state is the best possible.

That has never been Tracer’s identity…

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Unless you want this game to lose all Tank players and die, yes. She needs to be.

Why do you think the devs allow Tracer to be S tier at all times? She keeps Ana and Zen in check. She keeps Sombra in check. She keeps Widow in check. She keeps literally every problematic hero design in check, allowing them to exist without becoming overly oppressive. Nerf Tracer, and you have to chain reaction nerf almost everyone else to rebalance the game around not having a gatekeeper.

And again, why are you against a revert to S8? That’s not only a nerf to Tracer, it’s bringing back what the game is literally supposed to be.

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