Ana Guide for Overwatch Competitive

Ana is a new hero to the game and all though most people seem to be giving her some flack; once you learn the correct way to wield her she can become the pivotal hero that will win and carry you through competitive play.
 

Ana’s kit consists of

• A biotic rifle (primary): a long range sniper rifle with scope that can be used to heal allies or deal damage over time to enemies
• A healing grenade(primary ability):a grenade that will heal all allies in a small area or deal damage over time to all enemies in the same areas
• A sleep dart (secondary ability): a quick fire side arm that will put your target to sleep if it hits but any damage will wake them up
• Nano Boost (ultimate): a super powerful buff that provides an ally with increased speed and damage; whilst allowing them to take reduced damage for a period of time
  
  

Abilities

BIOTIC RIFLE

Ana's rifle shoots darts that can restore health to her allies or deal ongoing damage to her enemies. She can use the rifle's scope to zoom in on targets and make highly accurate shots.

SLEEP DART

Ana fires a dart from her sidearm, rendering an enemy unconsscious (through any damage will rouse them).

BIOTIC GRENADE

Ana tosses a biotic bomb that deals damage to enemies and heals allies in a small area of effect. Affected allies briefly receive increased healing from all sources, while enemies caught in the blast cannot be healed for a few moments.

NANO BOOST

After Ana one of her allies with a combat boost, they temporarily move faster, deak more damage, and make less damage from enemies attacks.

Why pick Ana over other healers?

Unlike other healers Ana has a certain versatility to her that the other healers lack. When you pick a healer like Mercy or Lucio you are signing on to be in the front line just healing everyone else - and owing to that dyeing a lot too – but when you take on you not only have the ability to heal your team from a distance away but are also able to provide damage with pinpoint accuracy to the enemy team whilst still keeping herself out of the line of fire.  She steps away from the idea of a “traditional” aura or ray healer by bringing her healing to her main source of damage she has the ability to deal damage or heal without even “descoping”. She also bring a whole new idea to the sniper class  instead of now being the “camping sniper” stealing everyone’s kills you are now also the teams primary healer. Due to the fact that she is a sniper she allows you to still play as if you were a sharp shooting McCree or Widowmaker whilst still bringing versatility to the team fight, she still has all the fun of a first person shooter while having the needed healing to win the game.
 

Pros:

• Very high healing output
• Has ability to disable healing on the enemy
• Can disables ultimate from long rage
• Very strong map control
• Strongest buff in the game
   

Cons:

• High skill cap
• Requires high levels of accuracy
• Without good positioning her abilities are useless
• Timing with her is everything
• High cool downs
• No escapes
   

So you’ve chosen Ana now what?

First things first STAY AWAY FROM FRONT LINES. You want to be far enough that you feel safe but still able to see where the fight is happening try to not have any objects in your line of site to insure you can constantly heal your enemy team . As cliché as this is: communication is key. You need to insure that the team understands what your intentions are; they need to understand what type of healing you are doing, if you are going to focus healing on the tank on top of the escort or if you are going to try keep Genji alive who is playing very aggressively behind their front line; they need to know who is going to receive your Nano boost to make sure that the team makes the most of it. Keep an eye on health bars and listen out to when your team mates need healing; when they realise they have an Ana on the team teammates tend to fall back in order to receive healing you need to keep track of this to make sure you can get them healed fast in order for them to get back into the fight. You also want to prioritise the heavy hitters with your healing as they will be able to make the most out of it heroes like bastion, Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Winston, Reaper and Roadhog will be able to make the most out of your constant healing.  When your team has recovered you should make use of the damage that is equipped to your kit. Listen out for audio ques for when an enemy is using an ultimate as this is the perfect time to use your sleep dart. The sleep dart in your kit has the ability to stop most of ultimate’s in their tracks; the only heroes who she can’t is Junkrat’s, Zhenyatta’s Mercy, Lucio, Widowmaker, tracer, Hanzo, Mei, d.va, Zarya and of course Ana. Your grenade has more uses then a Swiss army knife and it’s important to understand what and those uses are and when to use them:
 

1. The save a life: used mainly on tank who are very low health you should use the healing grenade on them in conjunction with your rifle to get them to full health as fast as possible.
2. The unfair advantage : when two close range champs are duelling it out a well-placed grenade will give your teammate the upper hand by not only providing them with healing but by also insuring the enemy either takes increased damage or is unable to heal
3. The get-away: Both through your negligence or the enemy coming to hunt you down you have taken quite a bit of damage and are about to be killed a quick healing grenade to give you one or two more hits and a well-placed sleeping dart will be just what you need to get out of the danger zone and reposition.
4. The saviour: when you can see a large burst of damage is about to hit a team mate a grenade will help them survive.
5. The grenade:  once again you have been caught out by one of their damage dealers but your health is still full the following combo can secure you the kill: sleep dart them followed immediately by a Primary attack then a grenade then a melee attack then a primary attack again and they should be dead or too health low to battle.
    

As Far as your ultimate ability, Nano boost, is concerned you need to be very selective on who you will use it on as it will do no good on a Mei or Torbjorn so ideally you want to pick someone with the highest damage potential but at the same time don’t use it on someone who wouldn’t need it to get a multi kill for example soldier 76 with his ultimate would be able to annihilate the enemy team in matter of seconds whereas McCree \’s ultimate would not gain any benefit. You also have to make sure that the team mate you intend to use it on, knows your plans as to insure that he uses your buff to the best ability. It is also about timing but note your ultimate can be used defensively and offensively.
 

• Defensively your ultimate should be used to hold a point when used correctly with your kit can hold a point 2 v 6 a Reinhardt’s high health and shield work very well in this situation by increasing his damage output your hammer can near one hit anyone and whilst having that increased protection you lose very little health.
• Offensively a Pharah or a soldier can use the ultimate to clear the enemy off your capture point when used in conjunction with their ultimates and sometimes even when they don’t use them.

 

So I can now play her but who should I play her alongside with?

With competitive play  it very much I s all about the composition of the team and in some cases it may be pointless to take Ana  so with the following champs is when you should choose

• Genji
• Soldier 76
• Reaper
• Bastion
• Mei
• All the tanks

And there you have it almost everything you need to climb to the top of competitive play as Ana. All you need now is the skill.