Hello! I’m a tank main who hasn’t really bothered to properly learn any DPS character out of fear of my team getting mad at me if I suck. I really like high mobility characters and weapons that don’t require pin-point accuracy like Widowmaker or McCree, so Tracer’s playstyle seems pretty fun to me.
I’d really appreciate it if anyone would have some tips for this newbie. I know about how her kit and everything works, I feel like I’m mostly gonna struggle with the kind of flanker playstyle and knowing when to do what, considering I’m used to being the one to make space and initiate a push.
(also I know Tracer probably isn’t in the best spot right now, but please don’t come at me with the ‘go learn any other hero’)
Thanks in advance <3
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Tracer is a pretty complex hero. I would recommend watching youtube guides first then coming here or reddit for niche areas and other particular questions you have.
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Youtube is your friend to be honest.
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Well, Tracer may not need pin-point accuracy, but she is extremely close.
- Learn to Fire -> 180 Blink through your target.
- Know that you are extremely fragile, and with the excess of spam damage and Tracer’s vast cast of heroes who can one-shot her, do not be afraid of using Recall.
- Have an exit strategy.
- Tracer works best when tanks are making space . You can be a lone wolf assassin type Tracer, but that typically takes way more skill.
- Be prepared to ask yourself why you are putting in 10x the effort when you could play an easier DPS with better results. Play tracer because you love Tracer.
- Watching Kabajii/Dafran is nice, but they have unearthly high hit accuracy, and thus can afford to make those seemingly risky plays. You will develop your own style.
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One thing I rememeber from watching one of the guides was that Tracer doesn’t have to kill a lot. She still will get a lot of kills but the player should concentrate on making a chaos in the enemy backline.
Oh, and another thing - save the recall for an emergency.
Fair enough, I’m probably gonna try to find some guides/tips online later.
Thanks for the tips! I can imagine she’s somewhat like Hammond in a way that she motly annoys the backline and tries to draw attention to herself while still being able to escape?
Indeed, and that’s another reason she needs tanks to make space. Without it, the entire team just turns to you and focus fires.
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Learn how to blink and 180 at the same time.
Learn how to melee then blink to take advantage of the lingering hitbox.
Learn how to pulse then blink for easy sticks (same process as the melee).
Try to do damage from 3-5 meters away as it’s much easier to track than being point blank, you also don’t need to aim right at the head to one-clip, a bit lower is better.
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I’d recommend you watch Kabaji. Best Tracer in the world.
But the most important thing is learning how to do animation cancelling and managing your blinks.
One tip with tracking is if you can track with your eyes, then you can train your hands to do the same. And also, sometimes you should blink from the side, because if the enemy is AD spamming he will basically run a straight line from the side.
And be very careful if youre below 120 health.
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You forgot the most important Kabaji rule - always sticky the Brig.
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Shoot > blink > melee is a deadly combo that is rather easy to do. Just hold your melee button while pressing blink and you basically melee them instantly. Just make sure you’re at the right blink distance.
Bind your pulse bomb to M2 or other easy to hit buttons. Being able to turn and throw the bomb quickly is a must for Tracers and it makes it easier to hit with.
Don’t engage into a group of enemies when you try to pick of a player without having recall or having it up very soon. Recall is a must to survive and escape.
Save your blinks. Don’t use all 3 at once unless you are trying to finish of a straggler far off. If you do this always have recall up.
Find your right sensitivity. Being able to 1-clip as Tracer is a must if you want to survive quickly enough to escape. It’s not always easy when people strafe around. Generally any sensitivity can work but it’s important you have one where you can consistently dump at least 70% of your bullets with 1 clip.
Spam “need healing” a lot when you are far away. Tracer is a small target and can easily be lost to your healers in the middle of combat. 1 hit from Ana might be enough to basically allow you to 1v2 enemies. So don’t be afraid to spam it. Just don’t be obnoxious with it.
Blinking 180 as mentioned already is very important to know. You can easily shoot a clip on them, then quickly blink behind them, reload, then blink back while they’re frantically looking for you and unload another clip.
Know where health packs are, even the small ones. Tracer is fast and can blink to health packs faster than a healer might turn to you.
These are all I can think of right now.
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Best piece of advice I can give is to watch streamers who are good at tracer. Kragie, dafran, kabaji. What you should be paying attention to is when they do something that makes you ask “wait, why?”
If you’re watching them and you feel like you’d have the urge to engage on someone, and they don’t, try and figure out why, and apply it to your own games. It will help your decision making. Just make sure to separate out things they do because they know they have mechanics, vs things they do because they know it’s safe. Like… if they triple blink across the map and oneclip a pharah out of the air, maybe ignore that.
Another thing I can recommend is patience. You don’t have to shoot at someone as soon as you see them. If ana doesn’t know you’re there, and she’s moving around a lot and you’re right behind her… just wait for her to stop moving and scope in. Free kill. Would have lost it if you came around the corner shooting right away.
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Until it’s Tracer vs Tracer, you will have an easier time. Watch out for Moira she can turn you into swiss cheese and will not take her more than 30% of efforts to do so. Same with Mcree if you get caught out 
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For the blink>melee you don’t have to hold the button down. You melee before the blink and it still deals the damage at the end of the blink if you do it right.
Make sure you try to save your blinks before a fight, for one you want as many resorces as possible, second they are very loud and will let the enemy team know where you are. It’s often better to just crouch spam up to an Ana and shoot her in the side of the head.
Recall is your most importaint cooldown, you can be really aggressive but once you use recall play it safe and wait for it to come back.
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Well, even if you play Tracer in a way where she doesn’t get many kills, you have to be capable of doing it, and do it if the opposing team lets its guard down.
Otherwise they will just ignore you.
The value you get as a Tracer is the constant threat, even if you don’t get many kills. The enemy must stay constantly vigilant and know that they get punished heftily for ignoring or underestimating you.
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Usually you could make a big difference with Tracer by positioning, timing, and decision making. Mechanical skills come with practices, but right off the bat you can use your game sense to be effective as her, and form good habbits from the get go.
Cool down management is a must, unless you really need to commit to that one important kill, always think about how you gonna escape, and you may need to wait a few seconds for cool down to come back up, or about to come back up before you engage/give away your position.
Flankers work best when no more than 1 person afford to notice them. So either play with your team, or lurk and wait till their attention are at someone else. Position your self from the odd angles, high ground, behind corners that won’t allow too many enemies to spam you at once (basically make it hard for them to shoot you.) Pick the right target to kill first, like an out of position enemy, a lone healer, or their weak link, or maybe someone that your team already focus fire, focus Brig, Mcccree to take them out first (McCree is very prone to take 1v1 against Tracer and thus always out of position) Hanzo is one of the biggest threat that sometime you may not even want to 1v1 him (he can easily get to high ground to escape as well)
Adjust your style accordingly to enemies. Are they playing tightly as a unit? Unless your mechanical skill is good enough to even 1 clip someone in the middle of their team, you will have to be patient and just annoy them enough to have 2, 3 occupied with you (while you won’t commit and only try to stay alive.) The more resources you take away from them, the better for your team (communicate with your team to make a push while you draw attentions away.) Oh and don’t shoot till you are close enough.
Counter-flanker is also important as well. Does their Doomfist/Tracer kill your backline faster than you kill theirs? You may want to stay back to kill their flankers first, then you go for their backline. Doesn’t matter if you can kill their healer if your healers are also dead (attacking 2nd point/defending 1st point/spawn distance disadvantage.)
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Not a Tracer player myself but I’m gona apply my knowledge of the game in general. Learn some “clishe” moves. For example Sinatra from SF Shock had once shown you can learn the exact angle you have to flick while blinking sideways to still aim in the same spot. Learn stuff like this and 180 while blinking and over time you’ll learn to improvise.
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Literally don’t play tracer. Absolutely trash hero unless you mained her since season 1, and even then you won’t have as much impact as you would on other heroes
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Do not play Tracer is the best advice anyone can give you.