On paper, Tracer is supposed to be a “high risk, high reward” glass cannon that has to zip into close quarters with the enemy team in order to properly tear them a new one.
In practice… Weeeeeell…
Tracer’s falloff range is far enough that she doesn’t have to take the risk of close quarters combat a lot of the time. And the health regen from recall (combined with a lithe hitbox and amazing dodging abilities from blink) gives Tracer a lot more staying power than her itty bitty 150hp health bar would initially suggest.
No wonder she’s been so dominant for so long…
In order to make Tracer an actual “high risk, high reward glass cannon,” I would suggest:
reverting pistol falloff range to its original value (10 meters, down from 12)
putting a limit on how much health Tracer can regain from recall
12m fallof on Tracer is fair because compared to release Tracer who had 10m range, nearly every hero in the game has been buffed:
Rein: +50 HP transferred to armor and +10 damage per swing
Dva: mostly unchanged, has burst combo with micro-missiles (which can 1 shot many heroes)
Roadhog: big buffs since release
Soldier: buffs to Visor, Helix lower CD, better spread
Cassidy: 25 more HP, lower CD on roll, better firerate (0.46 vs 0.50 of release recovery)
Hanzo: Storm Arrow is a far better ability than Scatter Arrow, he also gained “free” leap ability.
introduction of Moira (AoE healing)
introduction of Brig (AoE healing)
Mercy (5 HP less healed in return for Rez on a CD, overall better than release Mercy)
etc.
Tracer needs the 12m range, almost every hero has been powercrept since release anyway, I’m all up for nerfing the range by 2m if you also nerf 85% of heroes in the game to make it fair again.
Also Tracer should be meta because she is a top3 most skillful heroes in the game to play, arguably a top 1 also. It’s better to have Tracer be meta than something dumb like Pharah or Reaper who are already very strong heroes considering how easy they are to play.
Furthermore I think OP is a plat player for who 10 vs 12 m wouldn’t matter anyway, such balance changes don’t make you win/lose games until you are in a 4200+ lobby and 10m Tracer would just feel unfun and clunky to play.
I got a list 21 heroes long about that. All that power creep currently makes the game hell, specially for tanks whose TTK and excessive CC has made unbearable.
I think Tracer is most effective when too many people are ignoring her. Like, “Other people are better suited for dealing with her so I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. Hey, why are my supports always dead?”
Her biggest counter is people paying attention to her but nobody wants to because she’s hard to hit. I think she’s still really hard to get consistent value out of when that’s the case. I hope they don’t nerf her.
The reason for this is because stuns are a soft counter to mobility, but a hard counter to those who are immobile/low mobility. Brig was a big testament to that. She hurts much more to play against as someone who can’t move out of range reliably compared to someone who can.
With the removal of stuns, mobility must also be reeled in.
they may have to do those changes in overwatch 2 with reduced CC and 1 less tank. we have to wait and see what they’re plan is for mobility and reducing CC
or maybe they want a hyper mobile game thats more in line with the quake days but i think it will be a nightmare to play as support in a super hyper mobility game where there is less crowd control
The falloff should be reverted because both of her support counters have been nerfed since it was changed. Allowing her full damage beyond 10m means she can gain the full benefits of engaging without any drawbacks. Putting it at 10 means now she has risk for engagements, which is appropriate.
yes, 50 HP transferred to armor means he has more armor than before. It’s a game-changer vs Roadhog, Tracer and many other shotgun-based heroes.
Flashbang for example has 7m range +5m radius something like that iirc so technically Tracer vs McCree is not 0 risk, furthermore you rarely shoot at 12m range as Tracer to begin with because vs squishies you have too large spread at 12m, a typical engagement distance is still 9-10m, you use 12m mostly vs tanks like Roadhog. I think you should really try to understand the game, play the hero and especially try to escape Plat before posting hot takes.
A better change would just be reducing how far back she can Recall. That, or reduce Blink charge from 3 to 2 (what with 5v5, she’ll be the most horizontally mobile hero if she has three).
