Tracer has ruined this game since day 1. Dont even @ me with “bUt ShE iSnt ViaBlE rIgHt nOw”
Viability has nothing to do with if a hero is balanced or not.
Tracer has needed a nerf for a very long time and she still does. Its so bad now, that Brig (who was created to counter Tracer) is now countered BY Tracer.
So many people will cry about how hard it is to play Tracer and how she is balanced because she is 150HP, but it doesn’t matter. You are wrong.
Tracer. is. too. strong.
Not even Sombra is good at countering Tracer because Tracer can Blink and Recall out of Hack. Tracer can literally one clip a McCree outside the range of his Flashbang ability.
105 Likes
I vaguely agree. Tracer IS hard to play and IS balanced; however, it came at the cost of all sorts of weird nonsense. Often Tracer/Genji mains are like, “maybe cheese heroes such as Torbjorn or Symmetra should not be viable” and to that end, maybe Tracer shouldn’t if we have to bend the entire game to her will. Lul.
96 Likes
Its true. Everything revolves around Tracer
31 Likes
youre wrong, tracer is not a problem ,nor was she really in dive, it was Winston and dva made the comp strong, and tracer and genji just were along for the ride, the reason they got a bad stigma, is because people always look at what gets the final blow, or gets big plays rather than what makes the playstyle viable.
38 Likes
Brigitte was made to counter the entirety of dive, dive can be run without tracer.
Tracer isn’t even amongst the top viable dps presently let alone meta.
17 Likes
Tracer rewards high skill. She is a very well crafted character in my opinion.
If you suck with her you will be entirely useless to the team, whilst if you are very good with her you can carry.
This is great character design.
32 Likes
I’ve actually been wondering how different things would be of Tracer had stayed as a “proof of concept” and never actually released. Games often don’t use the concept characters/items because they can be hard to work around or the game’s design naturally changes. I get a feeling the game’s development was hindered in order to keep her in it.
Maybe she should have been a later addition hero with a better conceived kit or just kept in as a lore character. (lol, “lore”)
9 Likes
Y’know, this is an interesting idea outside of most of what you said.
See, tracer has been “OP” for a long time, because she’s sort of meant to be able to duel everyone and be the “You must be more skilled than this duelist character to win” character.
Tracer is the Ryu of Overwatch, and it sort of causes problems. Somewhere in the past it was admitted that Tracer was always more or less considered “balanced” and they try to balance the game by keeping everything close to her power level.
The problem, theoretically then, is what if tracer has always been too strong? That might explain a lot of the balancing issues. This is all just a theory, of course.
32 Likes
Ashe/mei (mccree with some help) can litteraly 1tab her outside of her effective range… 
Edit: fixed it
7 Likes
“any hero” rewards high skill. If you are skilled enough with a hero, you are going to do well. Being skilled on a hero is irrelevant here. This argument is under the assumption everyone is high skill because that is where you want the balance the game, for the high skill players.
Heck, even Mercy rewards “high skill”. You can tell the difference between a good and bad Mercy on your team. A good “insert any hero here” will always be more effective than a bad one.
You can’t balance heroes around people who are bad at the game. That would be dumb.
Ashe is a much better example of a balanced hero. She is very strong, but her abilities keep her balanced. Regardless of metas and if Ashe is viable or not, she doesn’t need any changes at the moment because she is very balanced in the current way Overwatch is set up. (mind you, the entirety of Overwatch needs a rework imo)
And this is exactly what I was talking about above. At the core, most heroes are still balanced around hero stacking and haven’t been really fixed outside of that.
If Tracer was the cornerstone, maybe its time to set a new cornerstone. Brigs repair pack was literally created to stop the burst damage from a Tracer so Brig can try to save other supports/200HP heroes on her team.
If you ask me, burst healing and burst damage are a problem in this game and need to be toned down a bit.
You can trace every bad balance choice back to Tracer.
No. He can’t. Mei and Ashe can though. You need to 2 shot a Tracer as McCree
20 Likes
Most heroes have a skill curve you are right, it’s good design as they all should have this.
Tracer in my opinion has one of the best curves in that her ceiling can be very high and floor very low.
Brigitte on the other hand…
Does not reward high skill. She does seem to reward low skill though. Any moron can select Bridgette and get value out of her simply by holding left click.
You will not notice a difference between a bad Brig or good Brig 99% of the time.
This is poor character design.
8 Likes
Brig is hands down the worst designed hero in Overwatch and she needs to be reworked into a full on healer or a full on off tank. There is no way around this.
Im not saying Tracer is a bad design, but what I am saying is that her reward is much too high for how forgiving her kit is.
Yes there is a skill level to Tracer, but she is so much better against every other hero that your skill level doesn’t have to be that high to be effective with her. (its not as bad as Brig, obviously. You still need decent tracking)
Look at Genji. Genji requires a lot of skill. He is actually much harder to play than Tracer. Hit kit is way more complex, but its hard to play Genji because a lot of other heroes are decent at fighting Genji.
Tracer is just so strong at fighting everyone. Tracer counters Brig now (because Brig is trash with all her nerfs. You can really only play Brig in Goats) Tracer is good against Ashe and McCree.
Heroes that are meant to be good against Tracer dont even stand a chance if you dont see the Tracer first.
To me, that is broken. Not bad hero design, just bad hero balance. I think Tracer is too strong.
Simple number tweaks would fix Tracer, not some crazy rework.
12 Likes
Show us on the doll where forum tracer touched you
18 Likes
Bold of you to assume Im a doll
2 Likes
Its just that Blizzard doesn’t seem to understand the concept of character classes, even though the game is based on them. If they wanted a counter to Tracer or Dive in general, you don’t do that with a support character. Support characters are meant to support their team, not be counter picks. Counter picking is primarily for the Damage Role.
I know people like to justify characters like Brig saying they are hybrid characters. No, they are poorly designed characters. You can’t have hybrid role characters, because they cannot be balanced. If a character can do everything well, why be anyone else? The only answer is to nerf those characters into the ground, but that’s not an answer, because then they aren’t viable.
Sombra is the perfect counter pick to Tracer and Genji, but her kit needs a little work. Her Ult annoys everyone and isn’t really fit to purpose for an anti-flanker hero. Her primary fire needs a damage buff too. That being said, a hacked Genji or Tracer is pretty much dead. Invis is great for getting the jump on them.
8 Likes
I agree. Brig is in a bad spot and Sombra should be better at dealing with flankers then she is right now. Youre lucky to land a Hack on Tracer atm because Blinks/Recall/Damage taken all interrupt Hack. If you try to Hack Tracer and she counters by doing damage, you have to Translocate and get out, or you are dead, reset and try again.
8 Likes
I’d say that being good as Tracer benefits you greatly, almost to the point you can laugh at blink seeing all the enemies trying to harm you and failing. Many current PTR games are like blast from the past - may the better Tracer win. Other characters looks like a background to that duel.
3 Likes
I disagree that Tracer is too strong. She’s historically been a throw pick for the bottom 86% of the playerbase, a subpar pick for the 10% above them, a strong pick for the 3% above them, and a very strong pick for the top 1%. That’s including dive, I might add, which was her most favorable meta. Her skill curve is pretty crazy, sure, but she doesn’t get to be almost as good as Widow until GM. She quite clearly has a combination of one of the highest skill floors (only a select few are higher, such as Doomfist), and probably the highest skill ceiling, with Widow and Genji following her.
Sometimes. I’ve recorded myself being hacked out of both, though. It’s pretty inconsistent, so sometimes I beat Hack, and other times it beats me.
Not to the same degree. Show me a good Brig, an average Brig, and a bad Brig, but don’t tell me ahead of time which is which; I wonder if I’ll even be able to tell the difference. Now show me a good Widow, an average Widow, and a bad Widow; I’ll be able to easily distinguish between them.
3 Likes
Tracer’s fine. We have nothing but underpowered or decent heroes in the game right now. Nobody needs nerfs.
4 Likes
She is a problem, but in a different way.
Heroes are and always were balanced around her and her 150hp pool. Because Blizzard are against one-shots, they couldn’t afford any hero deal 150 damage per hit. Pharah, Junk, McCree (headshot), Widow (bodyshot, tho she had 150 bodyshots at some point), Hog (unless you land a perfect shot on her), Brig’s combo (rip) and even Hanzo.
At the same time there are two heroes who can one-tap her with enough skill - Ashe and Mei. Apparently, these become fair skill-based fights. Because you could one-shot her. Hell, Brig’s combo was all about it - you get close -> you die. But as a side effect she could also wreck most other dps heroes, especially the ones without mobility.
Sure, Tracer has Recall, she should have a second chance. But she’s also supposed to be a flanker, not “pew-pew-pew in your face-rewind to her team”. So, many Tracer players make cheeky plays 1v3/4/5/6 without caring about flank routes (most of which lost their purpose because of that).
If she had slightly bigger hitbox, slightly longer blink cooldowns or if 150-ez-shots existed, she would have not been a problem. But because she exists, balance will always be a bit off.
7 Likes