The release of Overwatch 2 has seen a couple of new passives and playstyles for our beloved heroes come into play. The different roles have been altered according to specific aspects of their gameplay, and with the Support class, you’ll find that your heroes are going to be able to heal themselves passively. While this doesn’t influence heroes like Mercy or Lucio that much, it’s a massive buff for characters like Ana.
All Ana’s Abilities
These are all of Ana’s abilities available in Overwatch 2:
- Biotic Rifle (Primary and Secondary Fire)
- Primary fire is a projectile-based hipshot and does 75 healing when striking a friendly player and 70 damage to an enemy.
- Secondary fire is the ability to scope in, and it turns Ana’s shots into a hitscan with a larger hitbox area.
- Passive
- Role: Support. As a support class, Ana will automatically heal herself when not taking any damage.
- Biotic Grenade (E)
- Ana throws a projectile-based grenade that explodes when colliding with either terrain or another Hero, whether friend or foe. The grenade will do instantaneous healing to allies of 100HP as well as boost healing received from any other health source by 50% for 4 seconds. If the grenade hits an enemy, they will take 60 damage and be unable to receive healing for 4 seconds. Cooldown of 10 seconds once used.
- Sleep Dart (Left Shift)
- Ana’s only means of escape are a Sleep Dart. This dart, which can be deflected or absorbed by defensive abilities, will put the Hero hit by it to sleep for 5.5 seconds. The sleeping player will wake up immediately if struck by damage. The cooldown is 15 seconds.
- Nano Boost (Ultimate)
- Ana’s ultimate is a targeted boost of nano energy that emboldens her chosen ally. Nano boost instantly heals the selected target for 300 HP, boosts their damage output by 50%, and reduces incoming damage by 50% over eight seconds.
How to play as Ana
Ana is all about skill shots and managing your cooldowns as effectively as possible. With her minimal mobility and inability to take the high ground that other characters like Mercy or Baptiste can, Ana needs to be played carefully. Try and rotate your positions as often as possible with her to keep the enemy from locating you.
Ana’s healing relies on line of sight, which means you also have to be able to see your team, so playing corners and peeking to heal and then ducking back around cover as you reload and rotate is a strong strategy. Now you also heal; you can be more aggressive in your play-style, but remember that without mobility, you’ll be easy pickings.
Remember that your Biotic Grenade is your most powerful offensive ability and that using it as a way for your team to engage in fights is a great way to get value. Likewise, your Sleep Dart can be used as both an offensive and defensive ability, saving yourself from pesky flankers, or as a way to counter a Widowmaker scoped in and unaware of your presence.
Good teammates to play with, Ana
Brigitte can protect Ana from flankers and output a lot of healing and damage freely when Ana is set up. Reinhardt is an excellent tank for Ana as his shield can help her move. He have massive damage ouput as well once Nano Boost is applied to him. Genji and Ana have always been used in combination as Nano Blade is a vicious game-changing combination, and the flanker can also easily bounce back to aid his Ana. These are only some examples, but heroes who can take the focus off Ana and deal massive damage with her Ultimate are great choices.
All counters and who to counter with Ana
When you play with Ana, you’ll need to watch out for any and all flanker characters. Tracer and Genji can easily kill you if you’re left behind your team and have burned your cooldowns. Winston is also another hard counter to you as an Ana, and you’ll need to watch out for him as he dives. Flanking Moira and Lucio players also pose an issue if you’re caught unawares.
With Ana’s ability to anti-heal heroes, she’s a hard counter to players like Roadhog, who tend to get into the middle of a fight and rely on their self-healing to escape. Ana is also a sniper with hitscan when scoped in, which means that she can take out a lone Echo or Pharah from a distance. Her Biotic Grenade is excellent for soft-countering most healing abilities in the game too.
Ana is a difficult hero to master, and you’ll need to work on your cooldown management and positioning consistently if you’re looking to use her in games effectively. With her new ability to now passively regen her health outside of combat, there is a lot more to our favorite granny.
