Ana is now available for everyone on PC to play, and like I said in my original assessment, she’s great. After playing her for a bit today on live servers, though, I do have a few issues.
Ana is a support sniper. She does the heals and the keels. My biggest issue with her doesn’t even really stem directly from her so much as it does the way the game currently functions.
She can’t get a Play of the Game to save her life, despite frequently saving everybody else’s life. Like other supports, her main skills aren’t really conducive to it, but she doesn’t even have an ace in the hole like Mercy’s mass-resurrection or Lucio’s ability to shove half a team off a cliff (and laugh and laugh and laugh) to make up for it. Ana is PotG repellent, even as her ult practically gifts them to offensively geared characters like McCree and Genji.
So that’s one thing. I also feel like Ana’s shooting could, well, feel better. I understand why she can’t get increased damage off headshots (she’d be crazy OP if that was part of her dynamic), but as it stands, shots ring kinda hollow. Better sound effects might help, as evidenced by how dang satisfying her grenade can be even when you toss it near your own feet for a self heal.
The third issue is both the biggest and the least Blizzard’s fault. I’ve seen quite a few people playing Ana in ways that range from Real Dumb to How Are You Playing Overwatch Right Now Because You Are Clearly Three Possums Fighting Over A Ball Of Garbage. Don’t pick a support if you’re not going to support! Plus, Ana’s terrible as a pure offensive character. You can pick up the occasional multi-kill with her grenade, but her weapons are built to do supplementary damage, not turn you into Widowmaker 2.0.
But I almost feel like the other two issues might help weed out the third. If people aren’t picking up sweet PoTGs and pulling off mad satisfying kills as Ana, they will be less likely to play her that way. That paves the way for her to become a less common pick — for folks who really get her to be the main ones who bring her into battle. I’ve found her to be most effective as a counter-healer, to be played in tandem with a Mercy or Lucio while fucking over the other team’s Mercy or Lucio. Harass them with fire if they’re not well defended, drop anti-heal grenades when they’re about to go for a big heal, sleep them right as your team’s going for a big push and so on. Ana’s not-so-secret secret is that she’s wicked good at making life hell for enemy healers.
She might not get Play of the Game for it, but good teams had better recognise. Plus, Ana wins Mum of the Game every single time, no matter what. Of that, at least, there is no doubt.
Comments
15 responses to “A Few Small Problems With Overwatch’s Ana”
Well that single-handedly made getting out of bed today worth it.
Sums up half the playerbase.
Trouble is, one of the biggest problems with Overwatch overall (as I see it) is how it encourages a certain set of people to chase POTG (combined with what POTG is likely to reward – ie kills) and as such only choose certain characters and/or play purely to get the POTG rather than to actually win the match – sure, some POTG are match defining but I’ve lost count of the number of POTG’s that had no bearing on the match outcome (which is not to say only the winning team should get POTG). Don’t get me wrong, I love getting POTG myself but don’t chase them. I feel embarrassed if I do get a “lame” POTG…
What I’d love to see is someone get play of the game for standing on the cap (and getting the cap) while the defending team is all off chasing kills miles from the point. Maybe certain people would start to “get it” then …
One of my best plays so far has been as a Tracer on one of those king-of-the-hill maps. I rushed up to hit the enemy team right outside their spawn area, and led 3 enemy players on a merry chase to the other side of the map while my team enjoyed the easiest 5v3 defense of their lives.
I mean, I didn’t kill those 3 players, but taking half the enemy team out of the game while your own team gets to dig in around the control point definitely won us the game. But how do you recognize something so esoteric in a POTG algorithm?
Watching a Reaver say he gets Plays… when the Reinhardt has a higer kill death ratio is a laugh.
Think Plays Should factor in players overall performance too… the MVP shouldnt be a one trick pony opportunity.
Also… since PotG is algorithm based, was the algorithm updated to include Ana. I think mass murder ultimates should rate lower unless the player gets a kill before/after it to show momentum.
my main issues are her lack of movement ability, she should be able to get higher up. Height would make her weapon choice more understandable and practical. maybe not as much as widowmaker but at least to a second storey. and that her ult makes certain characters godlike so they only thing to do is run away. its a nice idea but way too powerful.
The fact she’s even a sniper perplexes me honestly, her entire kit shows she’s not meant to be played at range like a Widow or Hanzo.
She’s absolutely much more of a mid-range brawler/support; And if you’re way back sniping with her, there’s no way you’re supporting your team properly.
Also, given just how powerful her sleep and ult are… There is no way she should have mobility like Widow/Genji/Hanzo.
yeah totally, when I was trying her I just felt she would be better with maybe a pulse or scout rifle type thing, with sorta of medium range. More shots to do the same amount of heals.
I feel all these “issues “are really silly and is a player issue rather than actual issues with the game itself.
The PotGs I’ve been seeing the last week or so have been fairly… underwhelming.
Saw a Tracer get one the other night in which she killed a SINGLE person who wasn’t even standing on an objective. Yet that same Tracer had gotten a triple kill on the point later on in the match.
Pretty confident there’s something up with their PotG value and weighting lately.
I’m considering writing a strongly worded letter to Blizzard complaining about all the POTGs that feature a Torb walking back from the spawn…
But those are some of the best ones I tell you!
Was it a “shutdown”? Those are understandable PoTG’s. A 100% solo kill on an opponent that is about to or has just used his ult.
Not that I recall… There’s usually a “Shutdown” subtitle for those PotGs I believe, so if I’d seen that it would’ve made a lot more sense.
I was watching Chipshajen (arguably the world’s best Mercy) on Twitch using Ana in the PTR and he was getting POTGs relatively easily. I guess that’s why he is a professional Overwatch player though.
I think she’d be a more interesting hero to play if her heal over time and damage over time were actually over a time that mattered and not a second or whatever it is now. It seems kind of pointless to have a damage over time character when the damage is so tiny. Imagine if it was a larger hit of damage over 10 seconds or whatever and it could only be negated by a heal from a support on your own team or a healthpack. She might actually work well as a nice support/disruption hero along those lines. At the moment it seems like there are better options for the jobs she does.