Tracer Tips: Don’t Blink or You’ll Miss Her!

Photo Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.

The poster girl for Overwatch brings to the table an incredible variety of abilities. While Tracer is undoubtedly a magnet for new players, especially with her making an appearance in the tutorials, her deceptively complex skill kit isn’t exactly beginner-friendly.

Tracer is one of those characters that seemingly offers a simple play style. In actuality there is so much more to be learned than simply using Blink to escape from danger or using Recall to heal or get out of a dodgy situation. Mastering Tracer’s unique and powerful yet tricky tool kit can drastically improve your ability to contribute effectively to your team’s success, so let’s begin.

• Think Smart, Blink Smart

Expect accidents to happen, but try to minimize their occurrence. Many of the maps have deadly cliffs, with no barriers to stop players who inadvertently take a tumble. A misjudged Blink could send you shooting over the edge to certain death, or almost as bad, could force you to burn through a Recall unnecessarily. Remember, it’s just as important knowing where you’re blinking, as it is knowing when to blink.

• Manage your Blink Charges.
  • Blink is an absolutely fantastic ability that really enables Tracer to, well, do Tracer things. Mismanaging Blink can, and often times will get Tracer killed. She has one of the lowest health pools in the game, and there are a ton of abilities that will sadly one shot her if they connect. Fortunately, if you learn to manage your Blink charges well, you can prevent many unnecessary deaths.
  • Use Blink when you first spawn to quickly cover ground and get back to the action fast.
  • If you’re heading into a team fight, make sure you have adequate charges so you can remain mobile through the duration (More on this in the Pulse Bomb section).
• Don’t hoard your Blinks.
  • Blink recharges faster than most other abilities in Overwatch. Being stingy with Blink will more than likely just get you killed. This being said, don’t be reckless by constantly having no charges or using them unnecessarily, as this will most likely get you killed as well. Mobility is key.
• Blink can be used to travel over open spaces.
  • While Tracer can’t blink up, she can blink forward, backward, and to the sides. This enables her to Blink over open spaces, such as from one platform to another, something many other characters just can’t do. This can be especially helpful when you need to get out of dodge, if you’re taking too much fire, you don’t have a Recall, or you’re low on Blink charges.
• Use Recall Creatively, and Effectively.

Perhaps one of the most important abilities in Tracer’s tool kit. Recall transports Tracer back to wherever she was 3 seconds ago, and also restores her health and ammunition levels to whatever she had at that time.

• When to use Recall, and Why.
  • Knowing when and when not to use Recall can dramatically improve your effectiveness at playing Tracer.
  • Quickly and safely recall out of situations that aren’t favorable.
  • Recall back onto the map if you get blown/knocked off of a cliff.
  • Heal mid-fight, free reload.

Don’t use recall if you’ve been running in circles, or not covering an appropriate amount of ground. Nobody enjoys hitting recall and moving 3 feet away. Unless your opponent is critically low, and this enables you to juke into a finishing blow, this probably won’t benefit you.

• Aim for the Head, Melee, and Harass.

Tracers weapon holds 40 rounds, and she can expend them incredibly fast, meaning more reloads, and less time shooting. Landing headshots with Tracer’s weapons can usually inflict enough damage to either kill your opponent outright, or harass them enough to grab their attention.

Melee attacks with Tracer work incredibly well, given the relatively short range of her pistols, and their small magazine size. Bursting through a full clip, landing some successful melee attacks can bring down, and infuriate your opponents, all the while you’re blinking around them.

Because of Tracer’s incredibly high mobility, she has excellent potential to harass the enemy team. Getting behind their lines and picking off players who were running back to the action from their spawn zone can force the team to hunt for your pesky self. Conversely, this forces them to dedicate less time to objectives.

• Pulse Bomb, Sticky, Sticky Goodness.

Tracer’s ultimate ability, Pulse Bomb is fantastically similar to the Plasma Grenade from the Halo series. While it is a relatively simple ability to use, there are some pretty neat tricks you can do with it.

One of the most satisfying ways to use Tracer’s Pulse Bomb is in conjunction with her Blink and Recall abilities. It can allow you to land some fantastic damage in a really short amount of time.

Knowing just when and where to use Pulse Bomb can allow Tracer to make some very lucrative and game changing plays. All of it can happen within the span of a few quick seconds. Furthermore, combining Pulse Bomb with Blink and Recall can land you some pretty sweet Play of the Game’s. Who doesn’t like those?

While this isn’t the end all, be all of Tracer tips and tricks, hopefully you learned a thing or two. Use the info provided here to better improve your Tracer games. Feel free to leave a comment below,  I’m David  from The Game Haus and as always, Good Luck, Have Fun!