Additively manufactured parts are often distorted because of spatially variable heating and cooling. Currently there is no practical way to select process variables based on scientific principles to alleviate distortion. Here we develop a roadmap to mitigate distortion during additive manufacturing using a strain parameter and a well-tested, three-dimensional, numerical heat transfer and fluid flow model. The computed results uncover the effects of both the key process variables such as power, scanning speed, and important non-dimensional parameters such as Marangoni and Fourier numbers and non-dimensional peak temperature on thermal strain. Recommendations are provided to mitigate distortion based on the results.