Since notparadox recently did a video about her place in the meta I wanted to make a guide about her. She is definitely in a worse spot coming out of the medallion because it did help her escape dives. I was definitely able to use it to turn key teamfights. She also got hit with some nerfs recently. That being said her grenade works wonders against brightwing who is the new meta healer. Shes also not as difficult as people make her out to be. Dont be afriad to try her out in lower ranks because she does have alot of tools which benefit lower ranked players. Her winrate is also not that much lower in silver-plat than it is in diamond+. You do need to practice her alot in qm first though.
When to Draft: Theres a reason she’s sat at a high popularity for a long time. She’s a generalist. She can be picked into a wide variety of comps, she synergizes extremely well with every mage and alot of different bruisers, and she cannot be hard countered. Notparadox mentioned in his video that durable dive comps work well against her and this is definitely true. They reduce her effectiveness, but its not the same as picking poke into an uther or uther against a dive comp. She wont be useless. Since she has long range she can withstand a decent amount of dives. Not to mention that if she’s playing from her full range she can force the divers to over-extend. When playing from full range though she’s going to be missing more q’s and she wont be able to land e’s on squishy targets to initiate fights. Again she can definitely be countered but there’s a reason shes a safe early pick.
Abilities:
Q- Literally spam this. Ideally youre going to be landing double q hits on cooldown. Prioritize landing it on targets in the most danger. angle yourself so you can hit 2 targets. Mana costs for this are low so dont worry about.
W- There are 2 cases where this is okay to use not as an anti-heal: sustained out of combat healing and oh darn my friendo is about to die. Its got a 15 second cooldown. if you dont see a fight happening (or a kill chance) then its okay to use. Additionally if you have to use it to save someone obviously its better to save them than to let them die. In most other cases this should be reserved to throw on your team/enemy hero that they are targeting. This anti-heal is the main reason she is so good/annoying. especially in ranks (plat plus) that know how to blow up targets while its active.
E- Three main ways to use it effectively: peel, engage, interrupt. If you manage to land it on enemy assassin and your team isn’t completely incompetent they die. I love drafting ana into tass for this reason. That being said its also a great counter to channeled abilities like moshpit since you should always be out of range of etc.
Trait- contrary to Fan’s videos you dont actually use her aa that often. If you are in aa range youre in danger. The healing is great for when you get dove and need to survive long enough for your team to react, but you’ll still die very quickly if they do not. When i play ana i almost always stay at full q range which is out of her aa. Activate trait when you know youre safe. If enemies have divers like zeratul, valeera, or samuro its best to wait until you know where they are until you activate it. same goes for illy. If other ana players want to elaborate on this please do.
Build: Going to make this very clear from the start. Ana’s talent tree sucks. Most tiers have one talent with an 80% pickrate in diamond/masters. There are very few tiers that are debatable.
Level 1 Talents:
Slumber Shells- Yes this a must pick. You know how i said e is best as an engage? well now valla/tass are moving 25% slower when they wakeup. Thats slow enough for even your avg assassin player to be unable to miss. 2 second cooldown also huge, means you can be a little riskier with your shots bc its so dang rewarding to land good e’s.
Vampiric Rounds- Great talent if youre fan showing off to your viewers, otherwise just pick someone like kharazim who actually benefits from being able to safely aa. Its not a good talent you dont need the healing, no good players will let you stack.
Contact Healing: Wait shadowmere didn’t you say that grenade should be used as anti-heal? Yes yes I did please ignore this talent. You might be able to sort of justify it if enemies/ally have a samuro/vikings who would really really make the heal increase powerful. Its only got a 10% pickrate in masters though so its at the most very very very niche.
Level 4 Talents:
Overdose: literally only time i get trait value in combat. Gives you a bit of sustain. Big thing is the ability to pierce though which synergizes so very well with all the decent level 7 talents. Makes her disengages/peels much more reliable.
Debilitating Dart: A talent specifically designed to nullify dive heroes like butcher, zeratul, and illadin. That being said if youre able to land it on them they probably aren’t worth the effort. This talent has a 45% winrate in diamond/masters. Very few people are good enough to use this even among ana players.
Biotic Enhancements- 2 second cooldown, great now your grenade has a 14 second cooldown. 2 second cooldown on an engage ability is much better than a 2 second cooldown on an ability meant to be used for anti-heals. If you miss an e you can just walk away with your team and try again 12 seconds later. If you cannot kill the target with grenade your team is most likely dead before 14 seconds are finished. As i said before its an anti-heal ability the healing amplification is just a cherry on top for sustained healing. Dont take this.
Level 7 Talents:
Night Terrors: again best talent on this tier. If you use it as an engage your team has much less health to deal with. it also empowers your self-peel because you can move quickly even with trait up. Great talent.
Mind Numbing Agent: This is actually a great talent too. Its only worth picking if you get overdose at 4. Another reason that I love picking ana into tass. even if your team doesn’t dive on him when you land sleep dart he’ll be dealing 40% less damage. This also helps you survive dives. Night terrors is more reliable which is why its got a higher pickrate, but dont “sleep” on this talent. especially if enemies have mages you are confident you can land sleep darts on.
Antihealer: Alright time for grenade talents to shine! You keep saying grenade is anti heal so a talent to improve this aspect is obviously a must pick! right? right? wait why is it at the bottom… In diamond/masters it has the same pickrate as mind numbing agent but 10% less winrate. If your team is good .75 seconds wont be needed. if your team is bad .75 seconds wont help. Generally grenade is a single target focus so area increase pretty much just gives allies more healing. Not a great talent. Also if your team is bad and needs help damaging the target why not just get night terrors to help them do this?
Level 10:
Nanoboost- this is 1/3 of the reason to pick ana. You can justify snipe on some maps but its really not as useful as nano. Especially post 20 when nano will heal your carry. Its cooldown isn’t too long so dont be afraid to use it for mana depending on situation. I have hit johanna/tyrael/tanks with it to make sure that they can stay in the fight but this is mostly when enemies are on other side of map/dead and we’re pushing. Just make sure you have ability ready for major fights. Cannot really say when it should be used, but try to do it when enemies cannot just easily disengage. Use it on your mages, but some exceptions. Malthael, thrall, blaze, good hanzos, and genji are also decent targets.
Snipe- dont even know name, have already discussed this. It can be a fun talent but I dont advise taking it. Other ana players that swear by it can defend it. I would listen to them. Just remember that its pickrate is low so even if they defend it theyre not saying it should be taken most of the time.
Level 13: Not going to go into specifics. You take the talent that deals with enemy cc the most. Stuns hurt more than roots, but generally the removing roots/slows is easier/ruins enemies’ engages. Roots has a higher winrate but stuns are picked more often. Dont take speed talent unless enemies have no roots/slows or stuns… tell me the last time you saw that.
Level 16:
Active Reload- Go into try mode, practice landing this at different angles/ranges. This talent is a MUST. Ana’s sustained healing is fine, this gives her burst healing that she desperately needs. If anyone tells you to consider the other talents they are trolling. Again its fine to pick other talents if you think youre going to win. they can be fun to tryout and ana’s talent tiers suck. If its a close game and you dont pick this talent you shouldn’t be playing ana. Additionally if you pick this talent and cannot reliably land most active reload shots you shouldn’t be playing ana. especially if you can burst heal 2 targets with 4 shots of q, you should just win fight instantly.
Level 20:
Nanoinfusion: This is the default pick. Gives burst healing to carry and can keep them alive/ allow them to overextend a bit to deal damage.
Deadeye: actually a very strong upgrade to snipe. Worth considering if you took snipe
Armored Stance: I think this talent is very good if youre struggling to survive/getting dove alot. I take it every blue moon. Its winrate is very low for a level 20 but keep in mind its a desperation pick. you shouldn’t need the armor but if you do it might help you stay alive.
Dynamic Optics: I swear this is a winmore talent. i refuse to believe that its the highest winrate talent on this tier (70%) for any reason except that people like fan pick it when theyre dominating. That being said the range increase is large enough for you to aa from a safe distance. I wouldn’t recommend this talent, but I have to be fair and admit it might be stronger than I anticipated.