Her concept and having the game balanced around her is broken.
Example: Super High Damage, with High Mobility compared to McCree (High Damage, Low Mobility) Junkrat (High Damage, Medium Mobility) Pharah (High Damage, Medium Mobility) Soldier (High Damage, Low Mobility) Zenyatta (High Damage, No Mobility) Winston (Low Damage, Medium Mobility)
What other character has high damage and high mobility? Well D.va does, but she just recently got her damage nerfed (rightfully so).
Tracers core concept is broken, just look at how her “counters” rarely impact her. McCree has to hit a Flashbang (long cooldown), and a headshot to deal with her. Brigette has to use all of her damaging abilities to deal with her, and Mei has to get a lucky headshot to deal with her.
Here’s why balancing the game around a super mobile high damage hero is bad though. Immobile heroes like Rein, Zenyatta, Ana, McCree, will always be more impacted by buffs to Tracer’s counters than Tracer herself. Who had issues with Sombra? Not Tracer, Supports and Tanks did. Who can Mei freeze easier? Low Mobility Heroes, or Tracer? Who can Brigette deal with more easily in a 1v1? Low Mobility heroes NOT Tracer.
TL:DR Tracer is a broken concept and needs either a rework or a big nerf, and the game should not be balanced around her.
The thing is, to get value out of tracers potential high damage, and mobility, it requires both mechanical skill and game sense, which average players lack, hencewhy you dont see her picked much in those ranks. Only high ranks like GM, where they use her a lot simply because they know how to. The yhave the game sense and mechanical skill to get the best value out of her.
Which is why she is a broken concept. In higher levels of play she is way to powerful, and adding counters to deal with her make the game harder for low mobility heroes
Disagree, she does have 3 blinks and a recall if she gets in a rough position. Killing her without her recalling is very difficult, and requires lots of skill/luck
Where do people get the idea that the game is balanced around her?
They just assume that cuz “poster girl”
But in no text is it confirmed that the developers use tracer as a baseline to balance all heroes and it makes no sense to balance a game around one hero. People should really stop making these empty claims just because the game makes changes they don’t agree on.
PS, yes I do agree tracer is strong, I’m just saying that people thinking the game is balanced around her is stupid.
How is she broken if she has a high skill ceiling?
Not really. Shes super strong yeah, and probably one of the best DPS at that rank, but shes not unstoppable. She is killable. Just watch a tracer specialist stream. Like Dafran. I was watching his stream earlier, and he was playing tracer. He tried flanking but Moiras heals and Junkrat made it really hard for him (considering he didnt have a dive comp) so he switched to Widow and popped the heck off.
A lot of people ignore Tracers, in your ranks, and most ranks. It really isnt that hard to deal with them. Especially Tracers in Plat/Gold.
Junkrat buffed, DF added to the game, Brigette added to the game, Moira added to the game, Mei Buffed, Hanzo Rework (adding mobility to a non mobile hero), Widow Mobility Buffed, Ana Nerfed, Zen Nerfed, not to mention this quote from Jeff Kaplan “So Tracer’s balance – beyond the obvious tuning knobs that we have – is greatly affected by the balance of other heroes as well as the “perception” of how good she is at any one time.”
Tracer’s balance is heavily affected by other heroes balance and her perspectives from the player’s skill on her but that doesn’t mean she’s the hero to be balanced around. She’s a high skill, high reward, of course she will dominate in the right hands. But she requires 100+ hours in order to master her. As you’re putting 100+ on her, eventually you’ll start to play around with her counters because of having so much experience on her. Player should be rewarded when they have the skill to play her effectively.
Heroes getting stronger as you get better with them is how it should be for every hero. What is broken is sym who gets weaker as you get better.
Tracer isn’t broken. Hey design is fine. The reward for being good at her is fine. She is imbalanced at the highest levels (a level you don’t play at mind you) but at those levels players should be better equipped to deal with her. She also just got nerfed. But for the overwhelming majority if players tracer is fine. A nuisance but just that. Just because tracer is strong in the top 1% doesn’t mean you can use that as an excuse for why you are being stomped by plat tracers.
Tracer is broken with the high skill ceiling because she lacks counterplay. A good Widow can be countered and forced to swap. When does a good Tracer think “I’ve been countered I need to swap”
I’m very aware of my rank thank you. This post in not about my rank, or how Tracer “stomps” me in my games. It’s about how she is imbalanced around the top tiers of play, which is what the game should be balanced upon
There is no such thing as making a good widow switch. At the highest levels of play you either counter widow with widow or you lose. This is being proven in owl and pros will tell you this as well.
The reason she is now stronger than ever is thanks to the dive meta, seriously why people missed that at all? Winstin and D.Va are complete oppressive in this meta and they extremely synergiesand turn on with Tracer and Genji, I am not saying these guys need nerfs, I’m saying what has ever happened since the tank meta nerfs pretty much.
So you’re saying when teams run 3-4 tanks with shields the Widow doesn’t switch? Or when she gets dived upon heavily all game and makes no impact she doesn’t swap?