Gaming
esports
How Will Ana Affect Heroes of the Storm?
Overwatch's sniping healer is coming to Heroes of the Storm as a support. What might that mean for the metagame?
The cat is out of the bag. As announced last Friday during an HGC stream, Heroes of the Storm’s two newest heroes will both be coming from the Overwatch universe. Sniper/healer hybrid Ana and slightly addled demoman Junkrat are slated to hit the Nexus in the coming months along with a new Battlefield, Volskaya Foundry.
New place, same kit
Despite the shift from first-person shooter to MOBA, Ana herself has retained the vast majority of her kit while adding in a few new things as well. Her Q ability Healing Dart is a long-range skillshot heal with a very low cooldown. While this should surprise literally nobody, it is slightly different than her Overwatch counterpart. Whereas in Overwatch her shots can be intercepted by allies and enemies alike, Healing Dart will always hit the first allied Hero in its range. No more strategic body blocks.
Ana’s W, Biotic Grenade, should also be a familiar sight to Overwatch fans. Lobbing a grenade after a short delay, it will do minor damage to enemies and provide allies with a solid amount of healing. What should also be familiar to Overwatch fans is that the initial hit from Biotic Grenade is only the beginning. Enemies hit will be cut off from healing of all types, meaning Sonya and Malthael will be just as susceptible to it as heroes relying on heals from a dedicated support.
Ana's grenade excels at aiding and killing sustain
© Blizzard Entertainment
In the same fashion, allies hit will get a healing boost for a few seconds — something that works just as well in tandem with self-healers as it does against them.
The last basic ability in Ana’s kit, Sleep Dart, takes her sidearm from Overwatch and puts it directly into Heroes. Enemies hit by the dart skillshot will be put to sleep for three seconds. Just as in Overwatch, however, damage done to a sleeping opponent will wake them instantly. The only exception to this is tick damage: Lunara’s lingering poison, Gul’dan’s Corruption, and even Xul’s Poison Nova will continue to deal damage as an opponent sleeps.
It also synergizes with Ana herself. In what may be the biggest change to her kit, Ana’s trait, Shrike, adds poison damage to her basic attack that stacks per hit. There is initial damage so she won’t be able to whale away on her opponents while they sleep, but the change is a bit of a departure from her three-hit shot in Overwatch. It’s also one that has been featured prominently in her talent tree, so for those looking to maximize Shrike's affect have plenty to work with.
Nano Boost makes its targeted hero a terror
© Blizzard Entertainment
Ultimate impact
As has been the case with most of Overwatch’s Nexus crossovers, one of Ana’s Ultimates is familiar and the other is not. Her first, Nano Boost, works similarly to its namesake. When used on an ally it gives them mana, 30% spell power, and some significant cooldown reduction. While it doesn’t give the survivability of its Overwatch counterpart, Nano Boost allows almost any hero to do what it does better: tanks can be more disruptive, ability-based assassins can dole out more damage, and even secondary healers can get some great benefit out of it. (Read: Boostio is real.)
Ana’s second Ultimate is the one that wasn’t expected — and it’s a doozy. Dropping into a sniper’s stance and rendering herself immobile, Ana shoots eight global-range sniper shots that both heal allies and harm enemies. Unlike her Healing Dart, these shots can be blocked by enemies and structures, but her ability to fall back and low health and provide support from literally across the map is a valuable one.
Now that Ana has been detailed, it's time to take a look at what she'll be able to do for her team. While this list is by no means exhaustive, below are some of the situations in which Ana can expect to shine — or struggle.
The Overwatch effect
As Overwatch heroes have consistently started to flow into the Nexus, one thing that’s become clear is that their synergies still hold up. For instance, Zarya’s Graviton Surge still goes great with AoE threats like Tracer’s Pulse Bomb, D.Va’s Self-Destruct, and even Genji’s Dragonblade.
Throwing Ana in the mix only serves to strengthen that point: her abilities work together with her Overwatch counterparts as much as they ever have. Biotic Grenade can provide excellent complement to Lucío’s healing, and gives him an excellent opportunity to take the role of a secondary healer that can get more into the fight while Ana plunks away with Healing Darts from afar. Nano Boost will turn Zarya into a Plasma Grenade-chucking menace with shields for days, and make Genji’s Dragonblade nearly as powerful as it is in Overwatch itself.
Ana will still struggle to heal Tracer, though. Enemy or ally alike, hitting skillshots on such a nimble target will take work — just like in their original game.
Sustain queen
As briefly mentioned above, Ana is great when it comes to sustain. Self-healing heroes such as The Butcher, Malthael, and Sonya will get tons of value out of Biotic Grenade when Ana is on their team. But in exactly the same vein, if the Biotic Grenade isn’t friendly it will completely decimate heroes that rely on healing. While competitive viability at a high level won’t be proven one way or the other for some time, if and when Ana finds herself on the HGC stage it’s easy to imagine her being used either as a complement — or as a direct hindrance — to sustain-based team compositions.
Sleep Dart: great when it hits
© Blizzard Entertainment
Elderly mobility
While Ana certainly has a lot of strengths, her one glaring weakness from Overwatch still lingers: a complete lack of mobility. In many ways this is mitigated by her long range; a hero that can’t be caught doesn’t have to run, after all. But in a game like Heroes, there’s always a way to be caught.
A team that leaves Ana alone in the back may end up regretting it, especially against dive compositions. A Brushstalking Dehaka or an Illidan on The Hunt can ruin Ana’s day, and while she does have her Sleep Dart to ward off single attackers, it’s not a sure bet by any means. If it doesn’t hit, there’s very little chance Ana will be getting out alive.
Pickoff party
Sleep Dart may be useful as a way to escape aggressive attackers, but as has been seen in Overwatch it can serve an even greater purpose. While Sleep as a type of crowd control has a major weakness in its ability to be canceled, it makes up for it in its length: three seconds of immobility is more than enough time to set up an inescapable death combo or completely pull a threat out of a 5v5 teamfight.
An Ana that’s able to consistently combo out of Sleep Dart, or into it as part of a chained stun, will be able to swing teamfights strongly in her team’s favor. Pairing her with clean stuns like Muradin’s Storm Bolt or Tyrande’s Lunar Flare should help maximize Ana’s chances to put an enemy permanently out of commission.
All Overwatch everything in this new content drop
© Blizzard Entertainment
Join the Assault on Volskaya Foundry
As Ana makes her way into the PTR today (if this piqued your interest, it’s time to go check her out!) time will tell where her effectiveness lies. But she won’t be the last Overwatch hero to change things up: with Junkrat close on her heels, it may be possible attrition and AoE compositions that allow him to chunk away enemy team’s health with his bombs will rise to the surface.
For now, watch out for Ana as she denies enemy healing and boosts her own — and be wary if there's a Lt. Morales on her team. Nano Boost and Stim Drone together make for a whirlwind of death, no matter who it gets placed on.
For more Heroes of the Storm features, follow @redbullesports on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
