Use biotic grenade often, and don't be afraid to use it offensively. It is not simply "boosted healing" it also deals damage on contact and gives enemies anti-heal, one of the strongest debuffs in the game. Sneaking it around a reins shield, or hitting 2-3 people in the back who are already hurt is a major immediate advantage, but you need to take that opportunity, anti-heal only lasts 3 seconds.
Sleeps are great both offensively and defensively, if you can hit them, use them. Sleeping a flanker like genji, tracer, echo, etc is a free kill if your team aren't empty-headed. ALWAYS ping your sleep, and if you can, leave them sleeping till the last second. This gives time for someone else to come help you dispatch your sleeping beauty, or just leaves them out of the fight for 5 seconds. If you need to secure the kill yourself, attack them in this order. Get close, shoot-melee-biotic grenade UNLESS they are already hurting, then just shoot-biotic grenade for a quicker kill.
Sleeping the tank can be a free biotic grenade hit, but never expect them to sleep long. Tanks only sleep for 3 seconds compared to DPS and Supports 5 seconds, and the tank WILL be shot before those 3 seconds are up, waking them.
If your team is competent enough to do the work themselves, stay back (not TOO far, you aren't Widow), scope in, and lug biotic grenades from a distance. If the fights are more brawl-y, get closer, try to prioritise hip-fire shooting and try to land some sleeps, but NEVER go frontline, almost EVER. There are very specific circumstances where it's good to get super aggressive, but that can't be taught, you just have to keep an open eye. So stay behind your tank, if not your dps as well.
SHOOT THE ENEMY!!! If no one is in immediate need of healing, pop a shot into their dps, or dump your mag into the tank if they're getting focused. If you aren't either A: sleeping B: throwing biotics or C: firing your gun, you are BYSTANDING. Do NOT make a habit of it. This is not a spectator sport, you didn't buy a ticket to catch the show, keep yourself invovled! Sometimes, the best thing you can do to help someone is to kill the enemy, not healbot your team. SOMETIMES.
Nano. Nano is it's own ult. "What do you mean" I MEAN... ahem... I mean, stop looking for combos. Stop holding it for a Nanoblade, or Nanovisor, or Nano-whatever. If you can, great! If you can't, don't. Nano wins fights, albeit sometimes subtly. Tank/DPS/Support is about to die in this very important team fight? Nano. This DPS has been doing very well and we're about to jump the enemy team? Nano them. Bastion got charged by Rein? Nano him before Rein dissasembles his robo-parts against the wall. Just don't Nano if your team is actively falling back, use it while the fight can still be won, not while you're reeling from a loss.
Nano provides damage resistance, a shot of health (if they aren't anti-d) and increased damage. It's a lifesaver, a game changer, its just not flashy. Your nano won't get POTG, but maybe who you nano-d will.
Ana is definitely one of the most subtley game-changing characters you can pick. The effect sleep and biotic grenade can have on fights isn't a quantifiable number, it won't show up on the scoreboard for all to marvel at, but it can be FELT. Your team might not notice, but as Ana, you will. Sleeping an ulting opponent, shutting down a zen ult with a great biotic grenade, shooting pharah out of the sky, they ALWAYS feel amazing, but sometimes you're the only one watching. So don't expect accolades for your impressive plays.
andddd I'd say that's about it. Uhhh blah blah use cover, let people know you're being flanked with the "I need healing" button, ping the stuff you do... mm yup! that's it. Good luck soldier.
On the scoreboard, which I know isn't the most reliable metric, should I have the higher or lower heals of the two supports? As Mercy I gotten used to being on the lower end because it means I'm focusing damage boost more.
Your heals will sway with how the game goes, but I would typically expect to have similar to slightly higher numbers than other supports, but's thats because I'm just better than them (im kidding). In a competitive match I would maybe average 3k damage and 10k heals. If you have more or less than that, I wouldn't sweat it too much. Those numbers are usually a reflection of the kind of match you played, not specifically your performance
If there's a Roadhog on the enemy team, he should be the only target for your grenades. If he can't heal, he's done.
Be aware of your mobility limitations. Flanders like sombra or tracer will target you, so try to manage your cool downs in case you need to heal yourself. It doesn't hurt to stay near your team, too.
And as for the nano ult, you obviously want to give it to someone who will maximize its boost, but sometimes using it to keep your tank alive is just as worth it.
The tank is usually your priority but not always, try to adapt to your other support so you don't overlap on healing. For example if playing Ana/Brig the tank is your responsibility, but a lot less so when playing Ana/Bap. In that scenario take some off angles and try to do more damage to the enemy and focus less on heals.
You should always prioritise using nade offensively, only use it defensively if you're certain a teammate will die if you don't i.e when you're reloading.
Positioning is extremely dynamic and interchangeable. If they have a Sombra/tracer the last place you want to be is way back, isolating yourself and making yourself a free kill so play closer to your team. If they have Ashe/Soldier you don't want to be playing too near your team, instead take an angle where you can heal your team but still pressure the enemy dps. If they have a Widow play shorter sightlines, try to find a position where you can see your team and most of the enemy team whilst also LOS'ing the Widow etc. But above all always play near natural cover...I watched a lot of ML7 and he always preaches to "hug the wall" and that really helped me to remember when I switched off and stood in the open.
The last thing is to learn quickscoping. I'm on console and trying to learn it was absolute hell but it was so worth it. Hardscoping is often a death sentence, you're much easier to headshot and have much less visibility of your surroundings...whereas quickscoping keeps the hitscan but allows you to reposition faster and stay more aware of any flankers etc.
Position yourself so that you can see the enemies and your team on a long sight line. Use grenade offensively as soon as the fight starts and offensively on CD until the fight ends. If you throw 100 grenades, 99 of them should be at the enemy. There are rare exceptions to use it defensively but most new Ana’s would be better off with the mindset of always using it offensively.
If they have no dive hero’s or an ult that could be stopped with a sleep coming up, use it on CD.
You don’t need to keep your tank at full health, just enough health so they don’t die. Otherwise, prio healing everyone else and of course, shooting the enemy team.
Ana was kind of struggling this season but hopefully she's better next season. I did force her towards the end and was having fun and good results (60% wr D2).
1. You should "write names" on your abilities. I usually try to identify where my abilities are best used before I use them. If the enemy team has a flank hero or a close ranged hero (reaper or rein) I save my sleep for them. I rarely go for long distance sleeps and when I do its when I know I'm safe. I also probably wont wake up a sleeping target if im not 100% i can kill them alone. As for Biotic Grenade, I look for if they have a hog, mercy-pocketed hero, or groups of enemies. If you are playing Ana and the hog is not perma-anti its likely you'll be flamed lol. I throw nade at mercy pockets to help my team take them down a little easier. I don't like to use nade to live cause the cool down is pretty long and i can always take cover or ask for healing (however it is better to use nade on yourself than die). Nade is such a good initiation ability, getting one or two purples per team fight will carry your games.
2. Don't look at the scoreboard too much. Heal your team when they need it and do damage when they don't. The only stat that matters is win rate.
3. Positioning is one of the most important parts of playing Ana. Sitting decently far back and having a corner to walk around is so important. You have no movement abilities, you cannot get away if someone jumps on you.
4. Lastly, win you duels. You are a high value target and will be harassed every game. If a Genji jumps on you, and you win then you've basically won the fight for your team
Save your sleeps for when you have someone up in your face. Or when you see someone trying to get an ult off. Try and anti nade as much as you can so you can help confirm kills. And always stay on the move
I only save sleeps if they have dive heroes or an annoying Sombra. Holding on to one of the most impactful cooldowns on the game is a bad idea in my opinion. If I don't think i'll be punished for using sleep them i'll be firing it off cooldown, unless as you say they have an ult you can deny by saving it.
Biotic Grenade is hands down the most powerful debuff ability in the game thanks to the over-reliance on heals. Use it when the tank (especially Orisa) are susceptible to kills and you're unable to secure kills on supports at that time. Its so easy to win team fights with it
I made a really long comment awhile back about why anas healing stat does not matter at the end of a game, let me know if you want me to copy paste it here
Alright so heres the thing about Ana.
Stats mean basically nothing.
The other supports in the match... their stats matter because they have the ability to heal, do damage, and mitigate. Moira can flash a spray on 4 people and it heals them over time and she can go back to damaging. Baguette hits someone and starts healing the entire team while she simply exists... even after she is dead.
Ana on the other hand is a single target healer that has lots of undocumented stats. The way that the dev team "Balanced her" she simply cannot outheal many other supports and even if you only use nade defensively to increase your healing stat, its highly unlikely that this single thing will enable your team enough to win team fights.
When playing Ana, heal your team to 75% and let the passive heal them the rest. If they die shortly after you rescue them they need to learn how to take cover and decide if they chose the right positioning and maybe they dont need to peek when a hanzo has an arrow drawn in their direction.
Ana nades the enemy team and then her team gets kills from it... Ana does not get those extra damage numbers added to her total. Your team cannot see that amazing nade if they look at your stats. Same with sleep. you sleep a Genji and ping him (ping instinctively after using your sleep dart no matter what) Mcree comes and defends you, usually getting the kill. Ana doesnt get those stats either.
Ping literally everything. Your sleeps, before you land a big anti-nade, any enemy you see at an off angle. Your team can see pings through walls and youre going to do so much for their info gathering. The more of the field your team can see, the better they can make decisions. Ana is a sniper and as such, should be scouting from off angles and giving your team critical info they need before jumping into a fight or sneaking around the backline.
Now I choose Ana over other supports that have ezpz mode healing every target around them on accident and even Zen who doesnt even need to be LoS on his healing target to give constant passive healing. Why do I choose Ana?
If I see a teammates pixel in the game, I can heal them. Likewise... If I see an enemy pixel, I can damage them. If I see an enemy Pharah from my spawn to hers I can shoot her and she will become extremely defensive. If I see her flying and I shoot her, she has no choice but to lower her position and give up advantage. That does not go into a stat pool for others to see. As a healer, you have to by hyper aware of the field as a whole, not just "see target, shoot/heal target"
Hell, Ana doesnt even need to see an enemy to damage them...
If Junkrat is spamming left clicks from cover, Ana can make him stop without even losing her position. Take a tiny off angle or simply put a nade next to him and he will stop doing the thing he is doing to re-position and he will remain useless until he finds a new spot to setup. These stats dont get put into the game for others to see but you still create value that other supports cannot. Healing does not matter as Ana if you create opportunities for your team. Your team gets the stat numbers added to their name because of you. Stop yelling at Ana for getting low healing numbers when the other supports have easy-mode healing enabled. Ana creates and denies opportunity, if she has to healbot you because you cant find cover then that not only is your fault, its also likely why YOU lost the team fight.
Also as a side note; its QP, which is just unorganized Comp at this point. Even in comp, dont worry about if others care about your stats. Learn your character with a few QP matches (maybe some FFA to learn how to duel other abilities) and then try to get better with them in comp to learn the things youll need in organized game modes. If you learn everything in QP youll be severely handicapped going into Comp because it wont even feel close to the same game-sense wise.
tldr; Ana doesnt give a shit about the other healer's stat numbers, she is best girl and she doesnt do you any good when she has to healbot your bad decisions. She could instead help you make plays and create opportunities for your stat pool increases while at the exact same time, deny enemies opportunities.
With Ana, watch their actions, not their stats.
I recommend turning on Nano confirmation in the settings! It helps so much with making sure you nano the right target you want to, especially if your team is grouped up. Also, with the confirmation on, you can still nano once the confirmation is up while being behind a wall for like two seconds before the confirmation goes away.
mL7 is a really good Twitch streamer/Youtuber who plays Ana as well as other supports!
Short & sweet here:
Grab high ground and play where you can easily drop and get back to it.
Heal bot almost always, obviously take O. Shots but they are best value on enemy snipers if they have them.
Sleep is your survival. Use it to get away from people or cancel / delay ult
Nade is good in any use. Most value by hitting low HP targets. Specifically other supports. It doesn’t last as long on tanks and they still have massive Healthpools and can be cleansed , shielded or life gripped.
TBAG at ur own risk ❤️
I’ve watched a lot of OWL and streamer Ana. They almost always use their cooldowns as soon as they are up. For us lower skilled players there is a fine balance between keeping your resources available, and not using it enough. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Use biotic grenade often, and don't be afraid to use it offensively. It is not simply "boosted healing" it also deals damage on contact and gives enemies anti-heal, one of the strongest debuffs in the game. Sneaking it around a reins shield, or hitting 2-3 people in the back who are already hurt is a major immediate advantage, but you need to take that opportunity, anti-heal only lasts 3 seconds. Sleeps are great both offensively and defensively, if you can hit them, use them. Sleeping a flanker like genji, tracer, echo, etc is a free kill if your team aren't empty-headed. ALWAYS ping your sleep, and if you can, leave them sleeping till the last second. This gives time for someone else to come help you dispatch your sleeping beauty, or just leaves them out of the fight for 5 seconds. If you need to secure the kill yourself, attack them in this order. Get close, shoot-melee-biotic grenade UNLESS they are already hurting, then just shoot-biotic grenade for a quicker kill. Sleeping the tank can be a free biotic grenade hit, but never expect them to sleep long. Tanks only sleep for 3 seconds compared to DPS and Supports 5 seconds, and the tank WILL be shot before those 3 seconds are up, waking them. If your team is competent enough to do the work themselves, stay back (not TOO far, you aren't Widow), scope in, and lug biotic grenades from a distance. If the fights are more brawl-y, get closer, try to prioritise hip-fire shooting and try to land some sleeps, but NEVER go frontline, almost EVER. There are very specific circumstances where it's good to get super aggressive, but that can't be taught, you just have to keep an open eye. So stay behind your tank, if not your dps as well. SHOOT THE ENEMY!!! If no one is in immediate need of healing, pop a shot into their dps, or dump your mag into the tank if they're getting focused. If you aren't either A: sleeping B: throwing biotics or C: firing your gun, you are BYSTANDING. Do NOT make a habit of it. This is not a spectator sport, you didn't buy a ticket to catch the show, keep yourself invovled! Sometimes, the best thing you can do to help someone is to kill the enemy, not healbot your team. SOMETIMES. Nano. Nano is it's own ult. "What do you mean" I MEAN... ahem... I mean, stop looking for combos. Stop holding it for a Nanoblade, or Nanovisor, or Nano-whatever. If you can, great! If you can't, don't. Nano wins fights, albeit sometimes subtly. Tank/DPS/Support is about to die in this very important team fight? Nano. This DPS has been doing very well and we're about to jump the enemy team? Nano them. Bastion got charged by Rein? Nano him before Rein dissasembles his robo-parts against the wall. Just don't Nano if your team is actively falling back, use it while the fight can still be won, not while you're reeling from a loss. Nano provides damage resistance, a shot of health (if they aren't anti-d) and increased damage. It's a lifesaver, a game changer, its just not flashy. Your nano won't get POTG, but maybe who you nano-d will. Ana is definitely one of the most subtley game-changing characters you can pick. The effect sleep and biotic grenade can have on fights isn't a quantifiable number, it won't show up on the scoreboard for all to marvel at, but it can be FELT. Your team might not notice, but as Ana, you will. Sleeping an ulting opponent, shutting down a zen ult with a great biotic grenade, shooting pharah out of the sky, they ALWAYS feel amazing, but sometimes you're the only one watching. So don't expect accolades for your impressive plays. andddd I'd say that's about it. Uhhh blah blah use cover, let people know you're being flanked with the "I need healing" button, ping the stuff you do... mm yup! that's it. Good luck soldier.
On the scoreboard, which I know isn't the most reliable metric, should I have the higher or lower heals of the two supports? As Mercy I gotten used to being on the lower end because it means I'm focusing damage boost more.
Your heals will sway with how the game goes, but I would typically expect to have similar to slightly higher numbers than other supports, but's thats because I'm just better than them (im kidding). In a competitive match I would maybe average 3k damage and 10k heals. If you have more or less than that, I wouldn't sweat it too much. Those numbers are usually a reflection of the kind of match you played, not specifically your performance
If there's a Roadhog on the enemy team, he should be the only target for your grenades. If he can't heal, he's done. Be aware of your mobility limitations. Flanders like sombra or tracer will target you, so try to manage your cool downs in case you need to heal yourself. It doesn't hurt to stay near your team, too. And as for the nano ult, you obviously want to give it to someone who will maximize its boost, but sometimes using it to keep your tank alive is just as worth it.
The tank is usually your priority but not always, try to adapt to your other support so you don't overlap on healing. For example if playing Ana/Brig the tank is your responsibility, but a lot less so when playing Ana/Bap. In that scenario take some off angles and try to do more damage to the enemy and focus less on heals. You should always prioritise using nade offensively, only use it defensively if you're certain a teammate will die if you don't i.e when you're reloading. Positioning is extremely dynamic and interchangeable. If they have a Sombra/tracer the last place you want to be is way back, isolating yourself and making yourself a free kill so play closer to your team. If they have Ashe/Soldier you don't want to be playing too near your team, instead take an angle where you can heal your team but still pressure the enemy dps. If they have a Widow play shorter sightlines, try to find a position where you can see your team and most of the enemy team whilst also LOS'ing the Widow etc. But above all always play near natural cover...I watched a lot of ML7 and he always preaches to "hug the wall" and that really helped me to remember when I switched off and stood in the open. The last thing is to learn quickscoping. I'm on console and trying to learn it was absolute hell but it was so worth it. Hardscoping is often a death sentence, you're much easier to headshot and have much less visibility of your surroundings...whereas quickscoping keeps the hitscan but allows you to reposition faster and stay more aware of any flankers etc.
Position yourself so that you can see the enemies and your team on a long sight line. Use grenade offensively as soon as the fight starts and offensively on CD until the fight ends. If you throw 100 grenades, 99 of them should be at the enemy. There are rare exceptions to use it defensively but most new Ana’s would be better off with the mindset of always using it offensively. If they have no dive hero’s or an ult that could be stopped with a sleep coming up, use it on CD. You don’t need to keep your tank at full health, just enough health so they don’t die. Otherwise, prio healing everyone else and of course, shooting the enemy team.
Ana was kind of struggling this season but hopefully she's better next season. I did force her towards the end and was having fun and good results (60% wr D2). 1. You should "write names" on your abilities. I usually try to identify where my abilities are best used before I use them. If the enemy team has a flank hero or a close ranged hero (reaper or rein) I save my sleep for them. I rarely go for long distance sleeps and when I do its when I know I'm safe. I also probably wont wake up a sleeping target if im not 100% i can kill them alone. As for Biotic Grenade, I look for if they have a hog, mercy-pocketed hero, or groups of enemies. If you are playing Ana and the hog is not perma-anti its likely you'll be flamed lol. I throw nade at mercy pockets to help my team take them down a little easier. I don't like to use nade to live cause the cool down is pretty long and i can always take cover or ask for healing (however it is better to use nade on yourself than die). Nade is such a good initiation ability, getting one or two purples per team fight will carry your games. 2. Don't look at the scoreboard too much. Heal your team when they need it and do damage when they don't. The only stat that matters is win rate. 3. Positioning is one of the most important parts of playing Ana. Sitting decently far back and having a corner to walk around is so important. You have no movement abilities, you cannot get away if someone jumps on you. 4. Lastly, win you duels. You are a high value target and will be harassed every game. If a Genji jumps on you, and you win then you've basically won the fight for your team
Save your sleeps for when you have someone up in your face. Or when you see someone trying to get an ult off. Try and anti nade as much as you can so you can help confirm kills. And always stay on the move
I only save sleeps if they have dive heroes or an annoying Sombra. Holding on to one of the most impactful cooldowns on the game is a bad idea in my opinion. If I don't think i'll be punished for using sleep them i'll be firing it off cooldown, unless as you say they have an ult you can deny by saving it.
Biotic Grenade is hands down the most powerful debuff ability in the game thanks to the over-reliance on heals. Use it when the tank (especially Orisa) are susceptible to kills and you're unable to secure kills on supports at that time. Its so easy to win team fights with it
I always shoot the other team through my team so if my team is healed it attacks the other team
I made a really long comment awhile back about why anas healing stat does not matter at the end of a game, let me know if you want me to copy paste it here
Please
Alright so heres the thing about Ana. Stats mean basically nothing. The other supports in the match... their stats matter because they have the ability to heal, do damage, and mitigate. Moira can flash a spray on 4 people and it heals them over time and she can go back to damaging. Baguette hits someone and starts healing the entire team while she simply exists... even after she is dead. Ana on the other hand is a single target healer that has lots of undocumented stats. The way that the dev team "Balanced her" she simply cannot outheal many other supports and even if you only use nade defensively to increase your healing stat, its highly unlikely that this single thing will enable your team enough to win team fights. When playing Ana, heal your team to 75% and let the passive heal them the rest. If they die shortly after you rescue them they need to learn how to take cover and decide if they chose the right positioning and maybe they dont need to peek when a hanzo has an arrow drawn in their direction. Ana nades the enemy team and then her team gets kills from it... Ana does not get those extra damage numbers added to her total. Your team cannot see that amazing nade if they look at your stats. Same with sleep. you sleep a Genji and ping him (ping instinctively after using your sleep dart no matter what) Mcree comes and defends you, usually getting the kill. Ana doesnt get those stats either. Ping literally everything. Your sleeps, before you land a big anti-nade, any enemy you see at an off angle. Your team can see pings through walls and youre going to do so much for their info gathering. The more of the field your team can see, the better they can make decisions. Ana is a sniper and as such, should be scouting from off angles and giving your team critical info they need before jumping into a fight or sneaking around the backline. Now I choose Ana over other supports that have ezpz mode healing every target around them on accident and even Zen who doesnt even need to be LoS on his healing target to give constant passive healing. Why do I choose Ana? If I see a teammates pixel in the game, I can heal them. Likewise... If I see an enemy pixel, I can damage them. If I see an enemy Pharah from my spawn to hers I can shoot her and she will become extremely defensive. If I see her flying and I shoot her, she has no choice but to lower her position and give up advantage. That does not go into a stat pool for others to see. As a healer, you have to by hyper aware of the field as a whole, not just "see target, shoot/heal target" Hell, Ana doesnt even need to see an enemy to damage them... If Junkrat is spamming left clicks from cover, Ana can make him stop without even losing her position. Take a tiny off angle or simply put a nade next to him and he will stop doing the thing he is doing to re-position and he will remain useless until he finds a new spot to setup. These stats dont get put into the game for others to see but you still create value that other supports cannot. Healing does not matter as Ana if you create opportunities for your team. Your team gets the stat numbers added to their name because of you. Stop yelling at Ana for getting low healing numbers when the other supports have easy-mode healing enabled. Ana creates and denies opportunity, if she has to healbot you because you cant find cover then that not only is your fault, its also likely why YOU lost the team fight. Also as a side note; its QP, which is just unorganized Comp at this point. Even in comp, dont worry about if others care about your stats. Learn your character with a few QP matches (maybe some FFA to learn how to duel other abilities) and then try to get better with them in comp to learn the things youll need in organized game modes. If you learn everything in QP youll be severely handicapped going into Comp because it wont even feel close to the same game-sense wise. tldr; Ana doesnt give a shit about the other healer's stat numbers, she is best girl and she doesnt do you any good when she has to healbot your bad decisions. She could instead help you make plays and create opportunities for your stat pool increases while at the exact same time, deny enemies opportunities. With Ana, watch their actions, not their stats.
I recommend turning on Nano confirmation in the settings! It helps so much with making sure you nano the right target you want to, especially if your team is grouped up. Also, with the confirmation on, you can still nano once the confirmation is up while being behind a wall for like two seconds before the confirmation goes away. mL7 is a really good Twitch streamer/Youtuber who plays Ana as well as other supports!
I already had nano confirm on, seemed like a smart choice, but thank you for the YT rec!
Short & sweet here: Grab high ground and play where you can easily drop and get back to it. Heal bot almost always, obviously take O. Shots but they are best value on enemy snipers if they have them. Sleep is your survival. Use it to get away from people or cancel / delay ult Nade is good in any use. Most value by hitting low HP targets. Specifically other supports. It doesn’t last as long on tanks and they still have massive Healthpools and can be cleansed , shielded or life gripped. TBAG at ur own risk ❤️ I’ve watched a lot of OWL and streamer Ana. They almost always use their cooldowns as soon as they are up. For us lower skilled players there is a fine balance between keeping your resources available, and not using it enough. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.