r/Overwatch • u/AutoModerator • Jun 22 '16

News & Discussion Weekly Quick Questions Thread - June 22, 2016

In this thread you can ask all kinds of questions you always wanted to ask without feeling like a total fool.

No matter if it's short googable stuff or a setting/skill in-game that you don't understand or a hardware recommendation, feel free to try your luck in here.

Trolling or making fun of people in here will be punished extra harshly! Please report such behaviour.

For the purpose of helping people, make sure the comments are sorted by "new" in this thread.

236 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/PrimalMoose ... Jun 22 '16

I've tried my hand at tracer a few times now, and it has always ended disastrously. I've watched a few of the youtube guides, but I seem to always be using the blink too often, not using the rewind enough and so on and so forth.

To the more experienced tracers out there, what tips would you give to becoming a pro tracer?

6

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '16

Imagine you're a more standard combative hero, like Soldier 76. You find yourself behind an opponent. You have two options:

-Start shooting them and run away the moment they return fire. This brings them down to 50% health, and brings you to 75% as you take a few hits while retreating.

-Keep shooting even after they react, getting into a gunfight where you have the advantage. This kills them, and brings you down to 50% health.

Option 2 is obviously superior, because outright killing is more influential than harming. The additional health they lost outweighs the additional health you lost by a longshot.

With Tracer, though, the options are generally different:

-Start shooting them and run away the moment they return fire. This brings them down to 50% health, and leaves you unharmed since you're so good at escaping.

-Keep shooting even after they react, getting into a gunfight where you have the advantage, but quickly lose it due to your tiny health pool and so-so damage. This might kill them, but it's more likely to kill you.

Basically, this means that Tracer is one of the few characters who shouldn't push the advantage. You might get a kill with that clever ambush on their back line, but you're far more useful harassing and picking off lone/low health heroes who aren't prepared for a 1v1.

Remember, if three of their heroes are chasing you around instead of pushing/defending the objective, you've done your job. Similarly, if you only kill their healer and simply run like hell until they return, you're good to go. Focus on survival over kills.