Disclaimer - Everything contained herein is based off personal experience playing the hero and opinion.
Tracer is the most mobile hero currently in Heroes of the Storm. With her
Blink and
Recall she is capable of getting in and out of combat quickly. She is a completely different from other heroes in that she can shoot and move, making kiting heroes like
Muradin and
Dehaka very easy.
She has great sustain but minimal burst without talents relying on her melee and pulse bomb to do any kind of burst. She is also very effective at disrupting the back line as well, going in and either taking out a hero or causing support to focus attention elsewhere. She can also negate enemy status effects and some enemies ultimate and abilities with
Recall.
Blink(Q)
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Dash towards an area. Stores 3 charges.
Blink is Tracer's go to ability, which allows you to quickly dive enemies, escape or dodge abilities. Each charge has it's own cooldown.
Melee(W)
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Deal 557 (265 + 4% per level) damage to a nearby enemy, prioritizing Heroes. Gain 5% Pulse Bomb charge when damaging an enemy, and 10% against Heroes.
Melee is Tracer's short-ranged attack. It deals a substantial amount of damage and is quick way to charge your Heroic ability. This ability is used in conjunction with Blink. Blink to an enemy, melee, pulse, recall.
Recall(E)
Cooldown: 24 seconds
Return to the position you were at 3 seconds ago, refill your ammo, and remove all negative status effects from yourself.
Recall is Tracers signature ability. This ability removes all negative status effects and reloads Tracers ammo. This is Tracers go to escape ability. It can also be used to end enemy ultimate's, such as Triple Tap and Pyroblast.
Pulse Bomb(R)
Fire a short range bomb that attaches to enemy units if you hit them. The bomb explodes after 1.5 seconds dealing 1226 (444 + 5.5% per level) damage to them and 613 (222 + 5.5% per level) damage to other nearby enemies.This Ability is slowly charged over time by dealing damage to enemies with Basic Attacks and Melee.
Pulse Bomb is Tracer's Ultimate ability. It is used to deal significant amount damage to an enemy and can quickly kill squishier enemies if combined with melee and a couple of pop shots from your gun.
During the Early game, it recommended that you either roam or assist in lane clear.
Tracer is horrible at wave clear when alone. She auto-attacks (AA) one target at a time until level 13, so during the early game either roam between lanes and gank, or assist other's in clearing waves. Only time Tracer should be alone in a lane is if the hero has died and she is trying to soak. So, until 10, it's best to roam unless laning is necessary.
She is also great at getting the Dragon Knight(DK) and Garden Terror(GT) due to her ability to get away quickly. Using her to get the DK or GT is effective all through out the game, so don't be afraid to grab it if you know how to use it.
During Mid Game, you will likely be roaming with your team getting objectives and mercenary (MERC) camps. At this point you're going to want to stay near your tank or support. During team fights pay attention to the back line, and see if you can get a quick take-down and at the very least make a couple of them retreat. A tendency for players facing a Tracer, is to focus her once she's in the back line which can take some unwanted attention away from your tank for your support to get a quick heal or bubble. Once you're back there though don't stay too long as said before the enemy team will likely hard focus you; just get in melee a hero and get out, do not chase unless you can guarantee a kill and escape
Late game is pretty much the same as mid game, roaming with your team, getting objectives and MERC camps. The only difference now is that you can play a little more risky, with the
Total Recall talent at level 20. Now you can effectively dive into an enemy team and get out negating all damage, and status effects done to you.
-- Don't engage with out at least 2 to 3 charges of
Blink available.
-- Don't dive backline with out
Recall available.
-- You can Recall out of
Tracer's
Pulse Bomb,
Nova's
Triple Tap,
Kael'thas'
Pyroblast,
The Butcher's
Charge and
Lamb to the Slaughter and
Illidan's
The Hunt. For
Pulse Bomb, wait a few seconds after you've been stuck before
Recall, because if you
Recall immediately it may follow you.
Nova's
Triple Tap you must wait until the first shot has been fired, doesn't have to hit just needs to be fired. [Kael'Thas]]' Pryoblast, you must wait until it is pretty much directly on before you recall otherwise it will follow you.
The Butcher and
Illidan you can recall immediately.
-- You can also
Recall out of roots, poisons, and
Kael'thas' Living Bombs,
Zagara's
Hunter Killer
-- You can
Blink out of
Nazeebo's
Zombie Wall,
Leoric's
Entomb(?), and
Sonya's
Leap (Arreat Crater)
Blink will not go over walls or structures
Level 1 -
Slipstream
Slipstream is your go to talent at level 1. Increasing the amount of time recalled can be a great life saver, especially, combined with
Total Recall. Allowing you to go back 4 secs in time negating all status effects, to include poison, roots, bombs, some heroic's and many other abilities. The biggest bonus is the reduced cooldown, 4 seconds can mean the difference between life and death in Heroes of the Storm.
Alternatively,
Tracer Rounds can be effective if you're dealing with stealthies. This will inhibit their ability to go stealth after you've fired upon. Which will allow you to chase down that
Nova or
Zeratul.
Level 4 -
Parting Gift
Parting Gift is a every effective talent when diving the back line, as it will allow you to get extra damage on the enemy team while removing yourself from harms way. The strategy is to blink into the enemy backline, pulse bomb. melee, recall, with Parting Gift you can ensure that the enemy team is running from cover after taking a quick burst in damage. It may not be a enough to kill some heroes if they are full health but it should be enough to push them back a bit.
Is That a Health Pack?! and
Untouchable are also decent talents but either lose their effectiveness as the game progresses or are situational.
Is That a Health Pack?! will become less effective as forts are destroyed and wave clear becomes less important and
Untouchable is situtional, if you're team is consistently winning team fights and getting kills it's a great ability but one mistake on your part and it's gone.
Parting Gift will always do damage to a target as long as they are in range when you recall
Level 7 -
Spatial Echo
Spatial Echo is an amazing talent to have because it allows for great escapes from enemies. With Spatial Echo it is near impossible for enemy team to chase you down.
Bullet Time and
Jumper are great abilities as well.
Bullet Time will allow for easier chasing, combined this with
Tracer Rounds and no stealthy is getting away.
Jumper will allow you to jump deeper into the enemy, possibly behind them disrupting their coordination.
Personally, I believe all three talents are effective and can be interchanged depending on enemy team comp.
Level 10 -
Pulse Rounds
Pulse Rounds is the best talent for many different enemy team comps. With the increased range, you only have to be in AA attack range for it to stick to a target and the increase charge rate allows you to have you ULT more often.
Quantum Spike is a great talent if you are great at sticking people with
Pulse Bomb and is extremely effective against squishes such as Jania and
Kael'thas.
Sticky Bomb is wonderful if you have a team comp that complements AOE. Throw it on the ground near a
Zagara
Devouring Maw or on a target in
E.T.C.'s
Mosh Pit to slow down anyone trying to escape, plus deal a significant amount of damage to them as well.
Level 13 -
Bullet Spray
Bullet Spray is the go to talent here. This ability will you to melee multiple enemies in an area. It's great for wave clear as well as disrupting the enemy backline. With
Bullet Spray you can Blink to the back
Melee all the hero's, dealing a significant amount of burst and then recall out, putting pressure on the support or ranged assassins, while recalling back to safety
Ricochet and
Leeching Rounds are both situational.
Ricochet will effectively increase your sustain again enemies but sacrificing AOE burst on the backline but combine that with
Focus Fire or
Locked and Loaded it can put out a lot of damage while keeping you at a safe distance. It can also knock stealthies out of stealth if they are close enough.
Leeching Rounds is great for 1 v 1 but by level 16 you shouldn't be going anywhere alone and it only works on enemy Heroes.
Level 16 -
Sleight of Hand
Sleight of Hand is great because not only can you put a lot of sustain on the tank, after you've dived the back line and are waiting for your
Recall to pop, but it allows you quickly chase down targets or keep stealthies out of stealth with it's quick reload time.
Focus Fire combined with
Ricochet or
Leeching Rounds can be effective but the damage output from
Sleight of Hand is slightly better. Although, with
Focus Fire and
Ricochet the last bullet will deal damage to all targets, and
Focus Fire and
Leeching Rounds, the last bullet will heal for the 20% of the damage from the last bullet as well.
Locked and Loaded is a great talent as well IF you remember to reactivate reload while reloading, again combined with
Ricochet it can put out more damage then both
Sleight of Hand and
Focus Fire but requires more attention as it is not a pick and forget talent.
Level 20 -
Total Recall
Total Recall is a must have talent. This talent allows you to jump the backline take some damage, possibly even almost death and recall back to safety with full health, and negating negative status effects. This talent is what make
Tracer level 20 one of the deadliest Heroes around.
Personally, believe any other talent at level 20 isn't worth it compared to Total Recall.
Tracer can be a difficult character to master. Knowing when to
Recall and vaguely remembering where you were 4 seconds ago can be a pain but she is a great addition to the Nexus. With her ability to get around the battlefield she can quickly become an huge annoyance to the enemy team. Be prepared to get in and get out, and make sure the enemy team know you are not one to be trifled with. She has great poke and can easily kite slower heroes.
Hope you enjoyed the guide as this is my first and I welcome any feedback.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
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