As a founding member of Overwatch, Ana Amari’s world class marksmanship became a defining factor in the defense of her home country of Egypt during the Omnic Crisis. Serving under Jack Morrison, Overwatch’s Strike Commander, Ana would attempt to balance active field duty with raising and training her daughter, Fareeha. As Fareeha grew, so did her will to join the world peace organization, which became a point of contention that strained their relationship. She returns to the fray in disguise, after being taken out by Talon operatives and assumed dead.
In game, Ana is a long range support whose sniper rifle serves as a healing apparatus for friends and a painful reality check for foes. She can control the field in ways no one else in that position can, and her unique kit makes her a great mix of defensive and offensive support.
Abilities
Ana is most effective from mid to long range, as she is capable of healing from a distance and damaging at a decent rate as well. She can boost healing effects and take enemies completely out of the fight.
Her primary weapon is the Biotic Rifle, an eight round omni-target sniper rifle which heals friendlies and harms enemies. It does slightly more damage than it does healing (80 vs 75) and, depending on how you fire the weapon, the projectiles have different meta properties. From the hip, Biotic Rifle shots are considered fast moving projectiles, and from down the scope, they’re considered hitscan. This is an important detail when considering hitboxes – the critical hitbox is larger and more forgiving for fast moving projectiles than hitscans. Both are equally deflectable for Genji, though.
The Biotic Grenade is a throwing weapon that heals for 100 HP across 4 meters upon detonation. Every friendly in the blast will also take double the healing for the next 5 seconds, while enemies nearby will not be healable for a short time. The area of effect is relatively small, so don’t expect to get the sort of splash effects that Junkrat enjoys. You have to be relatively on target with this grenade, but the duration is just long enough to fire off most of your Rifle shots, so get into the habit of using these interactions to your advantage.
Of everything Ana can do, the most impressive/controversial is her Sleep Dart. Firing a single projectile that travels at high speeds, it will actually put targets to sleep for a five and a half seconds. When the sleep condition is on an enemy, they can’t move, attack, or use abilities. Another added bonus, the audio cues will be lower pitched and distorted, which will hinder your ability to know where your biggest threats are. This is her flanker protection, but similar to Widowmaker’s Venom Mines, it has incredible offensive potential.
Her ultimate ability, Nano Boost, will buff out a single ally. with boosted damage, movement speed, and partial damage immunity, any member of your squad becomes a menace for eight seconds.
Tips
- It’s very important to stay out of the open with Ana, because she cannot counter snipe the game’s best snipers, and she is really no serious threat to the game’s big damage dealers.
- Long range healing is an option, but staying in Grenade range is far more effective so that you can always make the most out of the healing boosts.
- Throwing Biotic Grenades on allies near payloads is a great way to maximize the passive healing of the objective.
- Ana’s Sleep Dart is a great counter to channeling ults from heroes like 76, Roadhog, Reaper, or Genji. When you hear their audio cues, act fast to completely squelch them.
- On the flipside, Nano Boost works wonders on channeled ults, as the damage boost lasts just as long as any ult would. Dropping Ana in a group with other heroes like Pharah and Bastion would create some truly devastating scenarios. There’s no hero that can’t benefit from Nano Boost, but if you haven’t boosted a Reinhardt yet, I have to recommend it.
It’s worth noting that Ana’s Biotic Rifle received a nice buff earlier this week in a recent PC patch, which you can read about here. For all of your Overwatch needs, make sure to stop by the Overwatch Wiki on Gamepedia!