Heroes of the Storm’s Tracer is getting nerfed

News
By published

Blizzard acknowledges she can be an “absolute terror”

Tracer introduced some interesting new dynamics when she joined the Heroes of the Storm roster last month. Chris wrote that “a MOBA character that can run backwards while shooting feels like a paradigm shift”, but that’s not the only thing that’s interesting about the Overwatch crossover. Among other things, she’s also immensely powerful – and Blizzard realises this, because she’s about to get a significant downgrade.

In a forthcoming balance update, Blizzard will decrease Tracer’s health bar and the rate at which it regenerates, in addition to some ability cooldown tweaks. Fans should rest assured that she’s also getting some buffs as well – albeit slight, and mostly to compensate for the nerfs to her special abilities – but the patch is mostly designed to make her less of a bulldozer.

“As we’re sure many of you have noticed, Tracer is performing just a little too well on all fronts,” Blizzard wrote in its announcement. “While we are excited to bring her to the Nexus, we understand that in the right hands, she can be an absolute terror to the enemy team. We’re lowering her Health, Basic Attack damage, and increasing Recall’s cooldown to make her less universally powerful. 

“We’re going to be giving back some of that Basic Attack damage on her Level 16 Talent tier to further separate Sleight of Hand from the other options, which should help the choice between more Pulse Bomb charges vs. stronger Basic Attacks feel like a more meaningful decision.”

The balance update rolls out on May 4. For more on how Tracer works in the field, here’s Chris Thursten’s analysis. 

Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.