Ana: Tips, Maps, Counters, Abilities, and Ultimate

Key Takeaways

• Ana’s best maps allow her to stay safe in the backline due to map geometry, such as when defending on Paraiso Point A or Shambali Monastery Point C.
• Ana’s worst maps feature many convenient flanking angles, which allow enemy players to safely harass her in the backline.
• Ana counters Roadhog and Junker Queen due to her ability to negate their self-healing. With her Sleep Dart, Ana can also theoretically counter many different heroes’ abilities. Ana is also a good pick against Pharah due to her ability to consistently harass Pharah while she’s in the skybox.
• Ana is countered by dive heroes that can force her into unfavorable engagements, such as Winston, D.Va, Genji, and Sombra. Ana is at her strongest when she is not under pressure and can use her highly impactful abilities in an offensive manner. Use the Z League app to find skilled teammates who will help you fend off flankers as Ana.

Quick Tips

• Ana has 200 health, with no armor or shields.
• The easiest way to play Ana is to pump healing into your tank; however, Ana gets the most value when she can reliably land shots on allied heroes with smaller hitboxes as well.
• Due to her lack of movement abilities, Ana requires impeccable game sense to position properly. If she lacks proper positioning, she’s far more easily targeted and killed.
• Ana also relies on effective cooldown management to make up for her lack of movement abilities. For example, using Sleep Dart without thinking makes it much safer for an enemy player to dive into the backline and try to take you down.

Abilities Explained

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Biotic Rifle (Primary Fire)

Biotic Rifle is a unique weapon that can both damage enemies and heal allies depending on where Ana aims. The weapon heals, and damages, for 75 damage.

A major part of becoming a better Ana player is knowing which hero to target with Biotic Rifle and when. Determining whether to play defensively or offensively, and knowing which hero to focus healing or damage on, can allow Ana to assist with crucial damage without leaving her team out to try. At the same time, playing offense when she’s needed on defense, or vice versa, is a sure path to lackluster leaderboard stats and angry teammates.

Sleep Dart

Sleep Dart is a small projectile that puts any single enemy to sleep for up to five seconds. The ability can interrupt most abilities in the game, even ultimates. Sleep Dart has a 14 second cooldown.

Ana players need to be able to reliably hit Sleep Dart to get maximum value from her kit. Once your aim is good enough to reliably land the ability, the next step is knowing when to use it and when to save it. For example, a skilled Ana player would know if Reaper is likely to have Death Blossom available, then save Sleep Dart for when he uses it. Landing a crucial Sleep Dart can turn the tide of a teamfight, and by extension, the entire match.

Biotic Grenade

Biotic Grenade is a grenade weapon with a fairly tight radius of four meters. Enemies within this explosion radius gain an anti-heal debuff for 3.5 seconds, and allies gain a 50% heal buff for the same duration. Biotic Grenade passes through full health allies when thrown.

Like Sleep Dart, Biotic Grenade can easily turn the tide of a teamfight, either through increased healing—for example, saving your tank from burst damage—or through denying healing to one or multiple enemy players, especially the tank. Understanding when to use Biotic Grenade for maximum value is the sign of an experienced Ana player.

Nano Boost (Ultimate)

Nano Boost provides an instant buff to a single ally. This ally receives 250 burst healing, and takes 50% less damage and does 50% more damage for eight seconds.

Nano Boost can be used to set up plays, especially when combined with other ultimates like Genji’s. The damage reduction gives the targeted ally the ability to be far more aggressive, and the damage boost allows them to finish off enemies more quickly as well. Nano Boost can also be used defensively due to its instant healing to save an ally that would otherwise die. The affected ally can then immediately become aggressive and turn the tide of a teamfight that was otherwise nearly lost.