Ana is one of the classic Overwatch supports. Being dropped shortly after Overwatch 1's original release in July 2016, Ana was easily one of the best supports of the original game. Now in Overwatch 2, she still performs her role fantastically and rewards those who are skilled at aiming her abilities.
Ana's kit is rather difficult to use, but her utility can have absolutely devastating effects if used correctly. She is easily one of the most difficult supports in Overwatch 2, but will reward players for their expertise in her kit
Playstyle
Ana is primarily a hero that wants to play in the backline. With her trusty sniper rifle, Ana can heal her teammates from afar, keeping them topped up on health while staying far away from danger.
Ana's kit is suitable for players with good aim and precision, as her sniper, Biotic Grenade and Sleep Dart are small but highly potent skill shots.
Abilities
Biotic Rifle
- Long-range rifle that heals and damages allies.
- Hold down right click to zoom in.
Ana's Biotic Rifle is her main tool for healing her teammates. This is what players will use mostly while playing Ana. While it's healing is useful, it's also a useful damage tool if Ana needs to defend herself or take down a hero herself.
Sleep Dart
- Fires a dart that puts an enemy to sleep.
Sleep Dart is one of Ana's most important abilities. Being able to immobilize an enemy for several seconds allows Ana and her team to potentially capitalize on it and pick off an enemy. Enemies will not wake up until they take damage, so players should look to coordinate with their team to quickly burst down the sleeping target.
Biotic Grenade
- Throws a grenade that heals and increases healing on allies, while damaging and preventing healing on enemies.
Like Biotic Rifle, Biotic Grenade not only heals allies but also damages enemies. On top of this, it increases the effectiveness of healing on allies while also preventing enemies from being healed. Due to the strength of healing in Overwatch 2, a well-placed Biotic Grenade can easily turn the tide of a fight and result in a victory for Ana's team.
Ultimate: Nano Boost
- Increases an ally's damage, while reducing damage taken.
There isn't really much to say about Ana's ultimate, using this ability on an ally causes them to take less damage while dealing more. It also heals them back to full health which can be useful if a teammate is in a pinch and Ana doesn't have the resources to save them properly. That being said, Nano Boost is an incredibly powerful ultimate when paired with heroes like Genji or Reinhardt as their high damage compliments Nano Boosts' percent damage increase.
Tips And Tricks
To Scope or Not To Scope
- Ana's Biotic Rifle can be scoped in for more accuracy. However, it's important to note that while scoped in, Ana's shots will leave a trail that leads directly to her. This can be pretty dangerous as it tells dive heroes exactly where she's playing, and can easily result in her death. Players should identify when scoping in is actually useful versus keeping themselves more hidden to not attract any pesky divers.
Sleep Kill Combo
-
Ana has the potential to kill a 200-health hero when they are sleeping. Doing so requires precise timing and skill but performing it successfully means the hero has very little opportunity to escape. This can be done in these steps:
- Sleep Opponent
- Running up to the sleeping opponent
- Primary Fire
- Biotic Grenade
- Primary Fire
- Melee
Biotic Grenade Usage
- While Biotic Grenade can be used to increase healing on allies, it's often times better used to cancel enemy healing. Players should look to juggle between healing their team while also trying to anti-heal the enemy team. A good Biotic Grenade should not only hit allies, but it should also hit the enemy team if possible.
Combos
Genji
- Nano Blade is the combo of both Ana's Nano Boost and Genji's Dragonblade. These two abilities in combination can allow Genji to strike a 200-health hero with Dragonblade and follow it up with a Swift Strike for an easy elimination.
Roadhog
- Ana's Biotic Grenade works well with Roadhog's Take A Breather as it can increase the effectiveness of his heal. Nano Boost also works well with Roadhog's Ultimate Whole Hog, which deals high damage while knocking enemies back. With the bonus damage from Nano Boost, Roadhog is able to execute enemies faster before they are pushed outside of Whole Hog's effective range.
Zarya
- Zarya's ultimate Graviton Surge allows her to fire a black hole that essentially sucks in all nearby enemies. While this ability is fantastic, there's the potential that coordinated teams can mitigate and heal through it. This is where Ana's Biotic Grenade is absolutely necessary for securing these eliminations, as it prevents any form of healing from getting through.
Brigitte
- Brigitte can be paired pretty well with Ana as she acts as a mini frontline, her partial tankiness is assisted by Ana's healing capabilities. Ana's Biotic Grenade also helps Brigitte's inspire passive heal more and if needed Brigitte can throw Ana a Repair Pack if necessary.
Kiriko
- Combining Kiriko's Kitsune Rush with Ana's Nano Boost can easily turn one ally into a murder machine. Put together can easily allow a hero to mow down anything in its path. Ana's Biotic Grenade also perfectly compliments Kiriko's burst healing from her Healing Ofuda.
Most Tanks
- With the removal of one of the tank slots in Overwatch 2, all tanks have become much more powerful and bruiser-like. These make them ideal targets for Ana's Nano Boost, as they become tankier and are also able to pump out higher damage.
Advantages and Counters
Advantages
Roadhog
While working well with Roadhog, Ana is also able to absolutely demolish Roadhog. Ana can prevent Roadhog healing from his Take A Breather, which is his main way of tanking. An anti-healed Roadhog is as good as dead if he's caught out of position, as his large hitbox makes him an easy target to focus down quickly. Alongside this, Roadhog's size makes him more susceptible to Ana's Sleep Dart, which can be followed up with a Biotic Grenade and then eliminated shortly after.
Pharah
Ana's Biotic Rifle becomes a hit-scan weapon as long as she is aimed down her sights. This makes Pharah a vulnerable target to skilled Ana's that are able to take her down if she doesn't receive healing. Three shots from Ana's Biotic Rifle are more than enough to eliminate a Pharah out of the sky.
Pharah's ultimate ability Rocket Barrage also locks her in place as she fires down a barrage of missiles at her enemies. Players with fast reaction time may be able to swing around and sleep her quickly before she is able to deal too much damage to Ana's team.
Zenyatta
Zenyatta's ultimate ability Transcendence grants all nearby players a huge amount of healing per second. Ana's Biotic Grenade is able to cancel out this healing and allow for her team to push through Transcendence granted she gets a good grenade.
Orisa
Due to Orisa's large hitbox, Ana is able to land her sleep dart on her quite easily. Alongside this, Orisa's Fortify isn't able to negate critical damage from Ana (aka headshots) as Ana's Biotic Rifle cannot deal critical damage. Ana's Biotic Grenade is also able to counter Orisa's Javelin Spin, as a skilled Ana player can toss it at her feet, having the explosion of the grenade hit Orisa instead of the projectile itself.
Lucio
Ana is able to take down Lucio quite easily due to her Biotic Grenade cutting off his healing. Due to the rather large explosion radius, an Ana can throw it at his feet and force him to flee as he isn't able to sustain himself in a fight. Lucio also likes to fight at close ranges with his Sonic Amplifier, making it rather easy for Ana to land a sleep dart on him.
Counters
Kiriko
- Kiriko's Protection Suzu is one of the few abilities that can cancel out Ana's anti-healing from her Biotic Grenade. This essentially nullifies Ana's main usage of her Biotic Grenade. Alongside this, Protection Suzu can also be used to wake up allies that are slept from Ana's Sleep Dart.
Dive Heroes
-
Aside from Kiriko, Ana's other main counters are heroes that can dive on top of her. Ana lacks any form of mobility to herself, so she can be eliminated quite swiftly if jumped on by multiple enemies. These are the heroes players should look out for while playing Ana:
- Winston
- Hammond
- Genji
- Tracer
- Sombra
Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.