Ana guide – 2017 – Overwatch

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Ana abilities and strategy tips

First things first, let’s have a look at all of Ana’s fundamental skills.

Biotic Rifle [LMB] – This weapon injects health into any friendly target it’s fired at, or damage into bad guy targets. Easy enough really, and you don’t have to worry about switching between modes as it’s all automatically taken care of. Note that you get no bonus healing effects for landing a headshot, so just go for the fattest part of the body to ensure your shot lands. That’s the most important thing.

Sleep Dart [LSHIFT] – A tap of the left shift button will fire a dart at an enemy, immobilising them temporarily. Note that the effect only lasts for five seconds, so make sure you know what your next move is going to be if you want to survive! Sleep Dart is great for stopping Ultimates in their tracks, but do keep in mind that anything that blocks projectiles will block this shot too – think of the various shields and abilities in the game that can do this.

Biotic Grenade [E] – This projectile device will both heal allies and damage enemies within a small radius from its landing point. Once the grenade has detonated, team members gain more benefit from all healing sources, while enemy targets cannot be healed for the duration.

Nano Boost [Q] – Want to turbocharge a friend? Apply Nano Boost to them and they’ll both take less damage, and dish out more of their own pain. If you coordinate with a teammate’s own Ultimate, they’ll be able to throw out an astonishing amount of damage – and likely live long enough to see it all play out as well! If you’ve got an Ana on your team, you’ll know if you’ve been boosted by the blue glow that appears around your HUD. Boosted enemies will appear with a red enrange glow. You probably want to run away from them…

Ana’s been out for long enough now that there’s a wealth of knowledge to be tapped into. Here are some very valuable tips that should help you get off to a very strong start indeed with this character.

• You will find it much easier to land your Sleep Darts against Ultimates that require the Hero in question to be somewhat vulnerable. Think of characters like McCree, Pharah and Reaper here – they should be your priority immoblisation targets if they’re getting ready to let rip.
• There are more refined methods of dealing with a stubborn turret or portal, but do keep in mind that your Biotic Grenade will do a certain amount of damage to items that have been built on the battleground by the enemy team.
• Although you should certainly throw some damage into the mix, there’s a reason your friendly targets have a hitbox that’s around 50% bigger than enemy targets. Don’t forget that you are first and foremost there to heal your team!
• If you’re becoming frustrated by a deadly enemy assassin who has their own pocket Mercy available to them, use the grenade to interrupt any healing against that target.
• Ana is best played on a well coordinated team, so bring a headset and make sure you work with your allies. Sleeping targets wake up once damaged, so be sure your team knows who you’re disabling so that they can focus their attention elsewhere, then return to the napping enemy.
• If you’re ambushed, it’s crucial that you land your Sleep Dart so that you can flee to safety quickly. Because of the lengthy cooldown on this ability, it’s vital that it lands first time. Consider dropping a Biotic Grenade nearby to keep you in the fight while you wait to fire off your dart.
• Should you see purple crosses on your screen, you’ve been tapped by an enemy Ana’s Biotic Grenade and will not benefit from any healing sent your way. You should fight much more conservatively until this effect wears off.
• The nature of Lucio’s aura healing means that he should be a prime target for Biotic Grenade in a firefight.
• Nano Boost is, predictable enough, most effective when applied to offense-orientated characters who can take out a huge number of targets during their Ultimate use. Think of characters like Genji, Soldier: 76 and Reaper in particular.
• Even though you’ve Nano-Boosted a hero, don’t forget to heal them when they’re taking damage!
• Try and save your Sleep Dart for enemies who are rushing to engage, or assassins looking to take you out. It’s important you save it for the correct moment as its cooldown is exceptionally long.
• You should focus 90% of your efforts on healing, with the remaining 10% on finishing off enemies or tagging vulnerable targets.

Ana counters and match-ups

Here’s a quick snapshot of who Ana is strong against in Overwatch, and who can really ruin her day.

Ana obviously excels at shutting down enemy healers and giving her own team a chance to mop up a whole lot of victims. She’s good at dealing with Roadhog as well though, and putting a stop to his powerful self-healing.

Anyone who can get up close and personal is a big threat to Ana, however. Along with the three highlighted above, you should also watch out for characters like D.Va, Reaper and Widowmaker.

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Unit Lost’s Ana video guide

We’re big fans of the Unit Lost series of video guides for Overwatch’s heroes. If you want a closer look at how you should be playing this character, make sure you watch the whole thing – there’s some great advice all throughout:

Ana map tips and tactics

Here are a few tips for playing Ana on each kind of map in Overwatch. We’d love to hear about your own map-specific tips in the comments!

Ana: Assault tips (Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries)

You need to be extremely nimble playing Ana on these sorts of maps, staying back to avoid being the target of the enemy’s attention, while of course being near enough to rapidly switch healing priorities. Good Ana plays requires a lot of team coordination in general, and never more so than on these kind of maps which require big pushes.

Ana’s Ultimate (along with her healing shutdown) is obviously her main strength on Assault maps. You should coordinate with a team mate so they can maximise their own offensive Ult and clear out the control point, or just obliterate a greedy enemy team’s approach to holding a choke. The same advice works from a defensive perspective as well, of course.

Ana: Control tips (Ilios, Lijiang Tower, Nepal, Oasis)

Again, you’ll need to be quick on your feet when holding or attacking the objective with Ana. It’s vital that you’re staying near your key allies and topping them up constantly, but it’s also about keeping a fine balance between hanging back and getting stuck in.

Often on Control, you’ll have nimble enemies like Tracer or Genji begin harassing you, so it’s important that you’re not completely alone.

Ana: Escort tips (Dorado, Route 66, Watchpoint: Gibraltar)

We recommend staying a little further out of the fight while your team pushes the Payload. Find vantage points, or simply stand back and keep healing your allies. When a large fight breaks out it’s important that you close the gap a little so you can lob your Biotic grenade with decent accuracy or use your Ultimate to put your team at an advantage.

Ana: Hybrid tips (Hollywood, Eichenwalde, King’s Row, Numbani)

When it comes to Hybrid maps, you have to take into account your immobility and base your play around that. Your primary aim should be to heal teammates while staying a little further back from the action and saving abilities like Sleep Dart for when you really need them.

Ana Skins, Victory Poses, Emotes and Voice Lines

Here’s a quick look at all of the items you can unlock for Ana via Loot Boxes.