Just don't call her Grandma to her face.
If you are new to Ana or to Overwatch then let us be the first to welcome you to this incredible community. We suggest that you start at the top of the guide and just work your way through. Question? Ask us!
The first post-launch Hero has arrived and she is a cool customer.
Ana wields a biotic rifle which can fire normally as well as scope. The crux of playing Ana is being able to make quick decisions. Should you be healing or dealing damage? Sleeping an enemy or boosting an ally? She average mobility, an awesome ultimate and is considered one of the most high difficulty Heroes to play.
Ana is an excellent support and should be thought of as an "amplifier" of your teams abilities and a "dampener" of the opponents'. She is a main healer.
When Ana respawns after death she says: "التكرار يعلم الشطار""ElTekrar Yealim ElShotar" which literally is "Repetition teaches the best"
|
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|
| Sleep Dart can win a fight outright. | Squishy. |
| Incredible ultimate ability. | Must position well to be successful. |
| Provides offense and defense. | Allies must in line of sight to get healed. |
| High Skill Ceiling. | Only average mobility. |
| Superb crowd control. | Inaccurate shooting results in no healing. |
Origin Story
One of the founding members of Overwatch, Ana uses her skills and expertise to defend her home and the people she cares for.
As the Omnic Crisis inflicted a heavy toll on Egypt, the country's depleted and undermanned security forces relied on elite snipers for support. Among them was Ana Amari, who was widely considered to be the world's best. Her superior marksmanship, decision-making, and instincts made her a natural selection to join the Overwatch strike team that would end the war.
Following the success of Overwatch's original mission, Ana served for many years as Strike Commander Morrison's second-in-command. Despite her responsibilities in leading the organization, Ana refused to step away from combat operations. She remained on active duty well into her fifties, until she was believed to have been killed during a hostage rescue mission by the Talon operative known as Widowmaker.
In truth, Ana survived that encounter, despite being gravely wounded and losing her right eye. During her recovery, she wrestled with the weight of a life spent in combat, and she chose to stay out of the world's growing conflicts. However, as time passed, she realized she could not sit on the sidelines while people threatened her city and the innocents around her.
Now, Ana has rejoined the fight to protect her country from the forces that would destabilize it, and most importantly, to keep her family and her closest allies safe.
Abilities
Biotic Rifle - Ana's rifle shoots both hitscan and projectiles, and both healing and damaging bullets. When Ana is not scoped, she shoots a fast projectile but it does have a travel time. When Ana is scoped her rifle becomes hitscan, instantly hitting targets when she pulls the trigger. The rifle also changes when shooting allies or enemies. Allies shot are healed for 75 health over about a second while enemies are damaged for 80 over about a second. These differences mean its easier to land your shots when scoped but you have to reduce mobility to do so.
Tip - Ana's rifle cannot headshot, go for body shots.
Sleep dart - After a short delay (about a second, it feels like forever), Ana fires a dart from her sidearm, if this dart hits an enemy, they will be put to sleep for 5.5 seconds, unable to perform any actions. The sleep is removed if the target takes damage. This ability can turn fights from a 6v6 to a 6v5 for 5.5 seconds. The best targets are those away from the fight as they are unlikely to be hit. This is also a great ability to cancel channeled abilities such as Roadhog's Whole Hog or McCree's Deadeye. It can be used to save your life if a sneaky Genji finds you.
Fancy Tip - Sleep Dart does stun enemies briefly even if they are under fire. This can be used to slow down the enemies damage if you are unable to find a good target.
Biotic Grenade - This bomb doubles allies healing received as well as negates all healing to enemies. This is also your only way to heal yourself. It can be a great way to keep your allies alive by doubling their healing received, or go on the offensive by negating all healing on enemies.
Nano Boost - A very powerful ultimate which empowers an ally. This empowered ally has 50% increased damage, 50% less damage taken, and 30% increased movement speed. This is best used on Reinhardt, Soldier: 76 with Tactical Visor, Genji with Dragonblade, or Roadhog with Whole Hog. The empowered ally is often get focused by the enemy team so it is recommended to heal them while they rampage through the enemy team.
Strategy
You're not a frontliner, find cover and keep your allies in sight. Ana is best when she has sightlines to all of her allies as well as sightlines to enemies that cannot shoot her back. This is a very specific and difficult spot to find, and will not always exist on a map. Prioritize keeping allies alive and deal some damage when possible.
Tip - Use Biotic Grenade near Zenyatta when he ults to stop his teammates from healing.
Ana is the "thinkers" support. Good decision making will be even more important than your aim. Ana has a ton of decisions to make. Should she be scoped? Should she be dealing damage or healing? Should she Nano Boost Junkrat? Some decisions are easier than others but it is no doubt that she has a lot of important decisions to make.
When Ana uses her ultimate she's telling the person she's buffing: "وريهم قوتك" "Wareehom Ew-wetak" which is "Show them your strength/power"
Matchups
You aren't a 1 v 1 Hero.
|
Hero |
Threat |
|---|---|
| Genji: He's built to kill you. Use your sleep dart to escape. |
8/10 |
| Roadhog: Chain Hook can put you in the middle of a fight. You don't want that. | 7/10 |
| Tracer: She can destroy you due to her exceptional mobility. | 9/10 |
| Widowmaker: She's also a sniper, but her specialty is killing. | 9/10 |
| Pharah: Her mobility makes her a great counter to your cover. | 7/10 |
| D.Va: Another tank that is mobile enough to cause you pain. | 7/10 |
Tips
This list of tips and tricks will help your Ana play. We'll continue to add to the list and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here.
When Ana kills someone she says "خلصنا على الهدف""Khalasna Ala ElHadaf" which is "Target neutralized"
Sleep Dart testing by GameJammin
Quick Guide by Cynical Nerds
5 Great Ana Tips by Terioth
An excellent guide by Force Gaming
Learn to melee
Tips and Advice from the guys at Great British Gaming
Terioth's Top 5 Ana Techniques.
Ana Gameplay Commentary
Chipshajen of EnvyUS takes Ana to another level of play
Guide to Ana's Ultimate
Skyline's Guide to Ana
Compilation of Ana Grenade Spots
Top 500 VOD Review
Learn To Position in Under 5 Minutes
Curryshot's Ana Tips
Sleep Dart Aiming Drill
22 Ana Nade Spots - One Per Map
Ana Combo To Kill Squishies
How to Duo with Reinhardt
How To Play Ana in the Dive Meta
How To Land More Sleeps As Ana
1. You can heal 75HP per second, but only if you land all of your shots.
2. Your shots have no falloff distance damage.
3. Scoped shots use Hitscan (they hit immediately)
4. Non-scoped shorts fire projectiles, but they have no arc.
5. You cannot get a headshot. Fire for the body of both allies and enemies.
6. Allies have bigger hitboxes than enemies.
7. Shields, D.Va's Defense Matrix and Barriers will block Sleep Dart.
8. If you damage a sleeping enemy, they will wake up. Communicate with your team.
9. Sleep Dart stops some enemy ultimates.
10. Lucio's ultimate will wake up Heroes that you sleep.
11. Use Sleep Dart as your escape mechanism. You don't have much else.
12. Biotic Grenade doubles healing to your team and negates enemy healing making it a must use ability.
13. Biotic Grenade disables Zenyatta's ultimate healing on allies affected, Soldier's Biotic Field, Mercy's Caduceus Staff and Zenyatta's Harmony Orb.
14. Soldier and Genji become unstoppable forces when Nano Boosted during their ultimates.
15. Torbjorn's turret does not benefit from Nano Boost, though the Dwarf does.
16. In most cases, "Heal first - Snipe second" is a good strategy.
17. Use your grenade to stop enemy pushes. They can't be healed, which should give your team a huge advantage.
18. Nano Boost is much more effective on some Heroes. Reinhardt, Pharah, Roadhog (when he ults) and Soldier: 76 are excellent choices as are Genji and Bastion with their ultimates active.
19. Tracer will get the drop on you. Sleep her and use the Combo in (20) to finish her off.
20. LMB - Sleep - LMB - Melee - Grenade is an incredible combo. Use it!
21. Use your grenade at your feet when you need healing. It boosts your ultimate charge.
22. If you reload while scoped, you will automatically go back into scoped mode. This can be good or bad.
23. Jumping while scoping gives you better mobility.
24. Meleeing after a reload cancels the reload animation. This goes for any action, Sleep and Grenade included.
25. Grenade is more effective offensively than defensively in most cases.
26. You are a slight counter to Pharah. Your scope is hitscan and has no damage falloff.
27. Scoped shots are instant, but they have a "bullet trail" that leads enemies to you. Use scoping wisely.
28. Nano-boost Reinhardt after he initiates a fight and not before.
29. You gain more ultimate boost from healing than from doing damage. Ana requires 1650 ultimate points to fully charge. You gain 1 per point healed and 1 per point damaged. Since your healing does more per shot than your damage it's more efficient to heal if you want to boost your ultimate charge.
30. Focus on winning the tank war. Your burst healing is excellent and your anti-heal can swing the fight.
31. Positioning is key and the best position is often closer to the battle than you would expect. Landing unscoped heals and using your grenade can turn the tide of a fight.
32. Use walls and obstructions to your advantage. You require line of sight to heal, but you also need to protect yourself from enemy flankers and snipers. Find the angles on each map and at each choke that work to your advantage.
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