Dear Bigg,

I'm struggling to deal with Tracer at the moment. She's tough to focus, and I can't always seem to encourage my team to draft against her. If we do, I feel we're weak in other areas. Have you any advice on pinning her down?

-Lupo41

Hey Lupo, Tracer's annoying, isn't she? Fortunately, shee has a few glaring weaknesses which you should keep in mind when fighting her. She is very susceptible to crowd control, as well as weak to anyone with high direct damage (point and click abilities) or high auto attack damage. The best crowd control to use against Tracer is similar to direct damage: point and click. Varian, Diablo and Blaze are your best bets for a Warrior to shut her down. These Warriors either have point and click abilities that stun or they have access to mitigation (such as Bunker). Diablo is a solid Warrior if you would like a little more dive, and Varian is great for peeling for you team. Blaze is always a solid choice for his sustain, crowd control and for buying time with Bunker.

As far as healers are concerned, Uther and Brightwing are solid choices due to their point and click crowd control, but lack some of the sustained healing that a Malfurion or Stukov have. Personally, I would take Malfurion versus Tracer simply because he can zone her target with his Entangling Roots. Just make sure to place the root underneath the player you wish to peel for. This will make it difficult for Tracer to melee and Pulse Bomb her chosen target. Malfurion also has Twilight Dream which is deadly to Tracer, as well as Ice Block at 13, allowing you to focus on saving allies while defending yourself.

FInally, and when it comes to damage, any auto attacker deals with Tracer fairly well, simply because of her tiny health pool. Right click a Tracer with a Zul'jin, Valla, Hanzo, Tychus, or even Jimmy will quickly chunk her health. Any auto attacker will put a short timer on how long Tracer can be effective. In the end, no matter your composition, positioning will make a huge difference in how easily Tracer can get to a target. If you are a prime Tracer target (typically someone who's high value or low health), make sure to posture close enough to the crowd control on your team, while also avoiding any clear paths which Tracer could use to reach you. If you are the point and click crowd control (or Blaze), make sure you are close enough to your team to peel if Tracer commits to a Pulse Bomb. I hope that helps!

Max "Bigg" Hoskin is ranked #23 Grandmaster in Heroes of the Storm. He spends all his free time playing the game, and produces our Mind of a Master series. Have a Heroes of the Storm question you'd like Bigg to answer? Drop us a line on Twitter, Facebook or the comments section of our Tier List and Bigg will make every effort to answer it!