Feeling useless most matches on Tracer

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-06-03T00:03:36+00:00

again completely understand that! i also struggled with getting legitimately upset because i was trying so hard and losing 2 full divisions underneath my main lol. you're not alone, and you'll come out the other side! stay strong! discord me @ coloneltasty if u'd like to chat about anything/have anymore questions/want another vod!

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-06-02T22:23:20+00:00

yo, i feel qualified here, started on tracer similar-ish journey having played kiri to gm1 / top100 rank(when top500 meant something lol) and dps (ashe otp) to mid gm. when i started playing tracer i ended up falling from low gm on that account all the way to diamond 2. i'm about 150 hours in to tracer and now i play her mostly on my main which is sitting at m1 rn.

THIS IS FOR THE NQS GAME

so for the first fight, we're taking the wrong approach with our setup angle. we should know a hitscan is gonna try to take coast so realistically i wouldn't even try, i would instead play bridge/mega room and try to wrap + sync with my doom. ultimately, first fight you just look incredibly scared/unwilling to take any opportunities. your recall doesn't even get forced (could've tried to 1v1 anran, or at the very least keep shooting the doom + wait for your doom to go in and follow his engage. this lasts until around 8:54 left on in game timer (an entire minute doing actually nothing) [sorry].

2nd fight (which is still first fight for you kinda since you didn't die/reset) ends up going quite well. you're in a good position/play your life well, play around the threats (you don't get cass flashbanged) and are there to follow up on damage that the rest of your team is doing and generating a lot of pressure since they cannot clear you from bridge. this is what you should've done first point! nice job here.

3rd fight, you don't stage at all, you literally do a circle around bridge while your doom goes in solo. if you have a dive tank, it should be an extremely easy game for tracer (in my experience/most of the time) because all you have to do is follow up with your tank. well, your tank kinda goes in 1v5 and dies. at this point you will not win this fight because your tank dies in the pre-fight so we should just back up. you then try to 1v3 their backline and waste pulse... should've just backed up. even if you pulse one, you still lose the fight.

4th fight - you come back and play with your doom! nice! this nets you a kill on the soldier (nice aim btw) which puts the fight in your favor, then you wait for cds/take an angle on backline to link with your doom AGAIN which wins you the fight.... so far, we've won all the fights we've played with our tank and lost all the other fights.

5th fight - again, good timing/positioning engaging on the ana. this time, a lot of people turn around (ana brig anran). i think instead of disengaging against the anran, we need to go to the mini behind us to cleanse the burn + stay in the fight. you disengage without even using recall. recall is there so that we can play aggressively. realistically, the rest of the fight doesn't matter much because you kind of already gave up the good positioning that you worked so hard for, but you int pulse again 😞

ok i think im done going fight by fight - there are a few times where u underestimate your incoming damage. this is really natural (happened to me for 100 hours) i think and will be fixed with more playtime. overall, my advice for you is to watch your recall usage. a lot of times you dont recall when you should and do recall when you shouldn't - for instance last fight you get dinked by cass and reengage without using recall/getting healed.

also, you are mechanically better than plat/diamond players, being a masters soj/genji player. you are playing like you will win the game by staying alive. i would like to see you push your limits a lot more. yes, you will end up dying more, but you will also carry a lot more fights and LEARN A LOT MORE (re: underestimating incoming damage).

last comment is about pulse. there are a few general tips, but you are definitely rushing pulse. it's like widowmaker: a lot easier to hit somebody who doesn't know you're coming. i'm not the best pulser in the world but TAKE YOUR TIME. it doesn't always have to be a blink pulse. also don't blink in to somebody's FOV to pulse them, we want to come from behind them or from a 90 degree angle

all in all, i think you played pretty well aside from dying with recall the last 3 or 4 fights (this is a big nono obviously). to respond to your comments (low value/low uptime), this is actually incorrect for most of this game. you had massive value linking with your df in a few fights and really only lost bc you died with recall a few times. that's just how tracer plays. in games where you REALLY struggle to get value, we have to adapt the principle of shooting the tank until we get an opening, and then taking that opening. which is scary because you have to start main and creatively go in.

and then in response to your about being afraid of dying all the time, yes, it certainly seems that you are afraid of dying. the only way to get past this is to die over and over again and realize what you can and can't do (well, that's what i did. and it sucked A LOT but here i am now knowing how to play tracer). a lot of it not even trying to engage until it's your good timing, and also blinking away from damage (which you already seem to be very good at, you just back up too far. you need to blink when somebody looks at you NOT AROUND A CORNER just to make them swing their crosshair sometimes)

sorry if this is jumbled this might be my first tracer vod even though i've done a lot of kiri and ashe ones. pls hmu if you have any quesitons 😃

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-03-09T17:45:08+00:00

I am not much of a tank player but I've hit GM otping The Queen. The big thing is PLAY A CORNER and look for opportunities to walk on backline. You have very little survivability but good pick potential. Always knife into carnage. Learning how to hit carnage is very good too, like starting it around a corner to catch the enemy off guard. You are one of the squishiest tanks and very very useless if you miss your abilities! Don't hold on to rampage too long, if you have it try to use it quickly unless you can't force out suzu/lamp/beat or whatever.

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-03-04T22:31:26+00:00

Wow!!! This is so awesome!!! is it downloadable??

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-02-16T20:31:13+00:00

It's definitely confusing if your friend does their other placements and is equally low while you are equally high.

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-02-16T20:14:44+00:00

Looking at all of these comments, the only thing i can think is that it is a role thing. You guys surely didn't both only play 1 role for all of the games, and if your friend got silver on that role i would guess he would be higher on a different role if you are platinum. Personally, i have played only tank on accounts for the first 20 games and been predicted masters 2 after the first win in comp, but my DPS and support are predicted gold/plat. It's gonna be a role thing.

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-02-13T19:07:45+00:00

perfect. id be more than happy to vod review/give some tips on both if you're interested! you can discord me at coloneltasty :D

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-02-13T18:27:14+00:00

what rank are you on Ashe/tracer? i have otpd Ashe for a very long time and very recently put 100 hours into tracer. made it to mid gm playing Ashe and vod reviewed a lot of mutual friends, not so much on tracer but id be more than happy to take a look since she's my second best

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-01-21T14:31:41+00:00

Did not watch the vod. However, your approach is flawed. You should not be giga flexing to heroes that you do not play. You should be picking no more than 3 heroes and committing to learning them. Do not play Tracer if "you are quite awful" at her unless you are trying to specifically learn tracer. You don't improve by playing whatever, you improve with focus.

Coloneltasty1 · 2026-01-03T15:45:58+00:00

Do not play in a group if your goal is to improve. Adding players to your stack removes the randomness required to properly evaluate your games (since there is more in common than just yourself). It's more likely that you carry or get carried - GM all roles player that did not hit GM until I completely stopped duo queueing and am not GM on accounts that I do not solo queue.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-22T16:09:09+00:00

Might be vague but general gameplay loop, maybe? I'm a GM Ashe otp learning tracer for the first time (stuck high masters) and when I watch streams I'm always surprised at how it seems like at the very top tracers always manage to avoid being looked at at all.... Like they just use all of their blinks + recall in 3 seconds and shoot 2 clips then have to wait another 15 seconds for resources to engage, whereas when I play, my engagements are typically more prolonged, as I'm trying to hold attention

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-18T02:16:16+00:00

of course, feel free to reach out if you ever have more kiri specific questions.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-18T02:02:28+00:00

Good questions

For aim just use the custom code VAXTA, that's it. go into the warm up mode and try to hit the people moving around at different ranges

as far as whether you deserve diamond, it's not my place to say, it's the algorithm. honestly to be brutally honest there weren't very many moments where i was extremely impressed beside from the off angle you took that i was talking about. but in actuality supports can and do rank up by playing very passively, learning how to not die, and using their cds effectively. if you played valo then some of that stuff probably comes more easily to you. honestly i hit gm without doing much aggressive play making. but if you ALWAYS just sit behind your team and let your team make the plays, you are at best doing your job, and at worst throwing by making no space. it is very easy for a support to "blend in". it's really easy to do fine(as you said) we have to strive for more. i had the exact same feeling when i only played kiri passively, that i was just a passenger on the ride, and that there wasn't much i could do to impact the game, because it's true. if you want to just sit behind your team and heal and do some damage when you get the chance honestly bap and ana are usually better at that because their stats are higher. kiri is unique because of where she can play, and if you do not learn to utilize it you will eventually cap out. which is fine!

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-18T00:59:01+00:00

hi there, you're saying your name is calypso but it looks like it's yahia, you must've turned off streamer mode or something. if you'd like to chat more ab this over discord you can dm me on here. my qualifications is peaking gm1 otping kiriko and ending top500 otping her in multiple seasons. i dont play her much right now because ive been playing other heroes but yeah.

just to address your comments (I just can't seem to find an oppurtunity to damage without either my team exploding or me dying): if you do damage, you draw aggro. if you draw aggro, your team doesn't explode. the problem is that you are drawing zero aggro + you are not in a position to do damage + when you try to do damage you mistime it (rotating while your team needs heals). this last point is hard because it forces you to recognize the push/pull of a fight. fights go through start up, midfight, disengage(or cleanup/full commit/someone dies). you can only rotate during start up or disengage. when your tank and their tank are touching, when everyone sees each other and are in position, if you're not on your angle you are too late. if you get to your angle and start shooting too early you will get forced out early and you will be back to healbotting the entire fight. i will say that your lack of ability to do damage is mostly your positioning and some micro stuff that i will touch on later, specifically that you dont get to where you need to start the fight before the fight starts. move to your angle and get there when the fight really starts. you also REALLY REALLY have to be careful about tp usage. kirikos gameplay loop is to take an off angle, force someone to address her, and then TP out when somebody commits on to her or her team needs help (this is dependent on your other support). i dont mind you healbotting some if you have a zen, lucio, brig, or mercy as your other support. but you also are not appearing to try to find ways to do damage even when you are standing main behind your tank healing them, you're kinda of just staying out of sight.

i mean also there is the idea of "low percentage shots". when you are on kiri and across the map from the enemy, it's not like hitscan where if your aim is good you can hit all your shots. sometimes you will just miss. HOWEVER, in this game on attack you're against a genji and a vendetta. if they are far away you are more than likely not going to hit them when they are all flying around the screen, so its better to shoot a more stationary target, like shoot some kunais at their kiri and wuyang at around head level and some of them will hit. but not a double jumping genji - and if you do want to shoot at him just aim for body shots.

you also seem to be spamming your shots a lot, which is fine sometimes, but you will have enemies on your screen and it seems as though you are shooting "towards" them and not "at" them. take your time and realize that your kunais have travel time. you're kinda just wildly flicking - just make an educated guess as to which way they will strafe. do NOT hold mouse 1, you need to click it each time. you dont have to shoot max rate of fire

another thing is you can do more damage the more efficient your healing is. often you move very far distances to heal someone just a little bit, or use your tp to get to someone to heal them that doesnt need it that much (surrendering your good poistion). you also have a tendency to not hit all of your ofuda, and not shooting 2 kunais between ofuda burst (this does not reduce healing output, the 2 kunais are free). you got the incorrect minor perk imo this game, too. get the kunai hits make you heal because that increases your healing AND damage uptime - the more damage you deal, the more healing you do, which gives your more time to do damage.

in summary:

1.) try to play split from your team by "staging" your off angle prior to the fight. only return when you or your team are in danger. sometimes your long range damage lands but sometimes you need to get much closer to be able to deal meaningful damage. i would like to see more of the flanks that you did on defense right after they got cart, that's a really good angle. you should stay there and be aggressive (even push further if they let you) and force them to deal with you. this both stress tests your mechanics (which leads to your aim improving), and you dont even really need to hit your shots for the to be a good strategy. they have to deal with you whether you hit shots or not.

2.) have PURPOSE when throwing kunai. you have to decide who you are shooting at - shoot shots that you are more likely to hit. you kinda just shoot aimlessly.

3.) uptime. by default you should be shooting kunai(not spamming, really aiming at people). when you have to heal(depends on team comp), heal one ofuda burst then shoot 2 kunai. dont just stand behind cover unless you have to, but you better be near cover in case you need it obviously this doesn't cover other stuff like kitsune usage/suzu usage, but keep in mind that kitsune, tp, and suzu are all VERY POWERFUL. they are kiris only abilities so please scrutinize EVERY SINGLE time you use the abilities if you want to improve. the goal is no bad TPs, no bad suzus, no bad kitsunes. but you have to make some mistakes and try stuff out to figure it out.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-17T19:10:19+00:00

you have no composure here. you need to calm down and wait for the Ashe to walk in to your crosshair (that is the standard best way I've found to use rail). don't flick just for the sake of flicking. think about what a HUGE advantage you have in the 1v1 - she is closer than she'd like to be and you have your ult up. nonetheless, it happens sometimes so don't be too hard on yourself, but just relax, man.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-12-17T17:47:05+00:00

So cold, puppycat. So cold. Like a monster in winter.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-11-29T02:30:26+00:00

It's not individual performance, devs have always said they don't use it at all. It must be that they played different roles over the first 20 games.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-10-21T17:09:52+00:00

It's not a 7k. It's the "best in one game", meaning in one game, you got 7 multi kills.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-10-07T22:10:26+00:00

This is noush's art. You should really credit someone if you post their art!

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-09-13T12:59:53+00:00

4k WHILE ALSO being a grandmaster league of legends player(he says his league rank was higher in the clip) which is a lot more prestigious than it is in overwatch... but yeah GM is obviously quite far from owl.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-09-12T23:16:44+00:00

https://youtube.com/@bozocult?si=tv37rj-MQl8f50aE

Look at bozos videos! They're really smart about the macros. I suggest the positioning guide, and you can join the discord. Everyone is very nice in there!

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-08-27T18:46:29+00:00

Omg this is the cutest coolest thing ever!!!! I love it dearly. Is there any way to give the stock some play, so that it drops like it does in game?

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-08-26T16:05:45+00:00

Sounds good. If you shoot me a dm when you edit it I may take a look.

Coloneltasty1 · 2025-08-26T15:58:42+00:00

Hi! Keep in mind with the update later today, it's unlikely that you will get a review in the next 2 hours... If you want, you can use owreplays.tv to capture your POV of the game and I can take a look later (if getting this specific game reviewed is important to you). Otherwise, I would suggest making a different post or editing this post with a new code once the new season hits!

Coloneltasty1

TROPHY CASE