Off for practice, on for combat. I notice that without tracers i use more ammo. I have played without tracers for months and when i turn them back on i do notice my kills per run go up. Also i use them to scare people to turn. Mostly my aim is very good so i really don't see the need of turning them off because when i do fire my average hit % is so high that's its too late for the enemy.
I've tried both extensively. My analysis is conclusive. The 'sneaky' factor of having them off is vastly outweighed by the ability to use tracers to coerce a fleeing foe to break-turn, offering a nice high profile deflection shot with closure instead of a low-profile extreme range dead six shot...
Having tracers off is really only useful in two situations that I can think of...
1) You shoot at an enemy that is unaware of your presence and you usually miss with the first burst...If you usually hit these types of targets with the first squirt there's really not any point to having tracers off, he's going to realize you're there anyway when stuff starts falling off his plane...
2) You like to HO and want to 'sucker' the other guy into thinking you are not going to guns on the nose to nose merge...I find people who do this extremely irritating. You think you are about to have a fight then the next thing you know you get a face full of invisible HO.
