Ana buff idea: "cooking" the nade

Bendubz11-2740 · July 17, 2018, 1:41pm

The biggest problem Ana has currently is lack of reliable self-sustain or any mobility. You can’t straight up reduce the cooldown on Biotic Nade though because the anti-heal is too strong, and because Biotic Nade has healing as part of it, the Devs are understandably cautious about giving Ana any mobility in case it makes people like Gale and Jehong unstoppable on her.

But what if you could make Ana able to self-heal more often without reducing the cooldown on the anti-heal? Would that increase her Self-sustain potential enough without making her OP?

Here’s my suggestion:

Double tapping the Biotic Nade button makes Ana “cook” it in her hand
This removes the anti-heal effect from the nade, whilst the healing acts the same as usual, same healing output, same AoE.
By keeping the Nade in her hand, this prevents D.Va from DMing it, and Genji from Deflecting it
Cooldown if cooked = 6 seconds, standard cooldown remains at 10 seconds

Would that be a viable buff?

JamminOtter-1372 · July 17, 2018, 3:55pm

I don’t understand, does cooking the nade apply the healing effect to Ana without creating a projectile? Or did you mean something else?

Kajabuubuu-1836 · July 17, 2018, 3:59pm

This reminds me of a similar suggestion where she just drinks the contents of the nade and it’ll have a shorter cooldown.

Bendubz11-2740 · July 17, 2018, 4:12pm

You’re understanding it right. She’d basically hold onto it, the healing would act as standard with Ana at the epicentre, but no anti-heal would be applied to nearby enemies, and no projectile would be created.

nyfox12-1352 · July 17, 2018, 4:16pm

So essentially we are looking at roadhogs E ability but for ana. As an ana main i could dig this.

anon94615153 · July 17, 2018, 4:17pm

Just give her a grapple, and Ana lives happily ever after.

Skald-1493 · July 17, 2018, 5:34pm

The DEVs already stated that they’re not interested on improving her weaknesses — lack of mobility and poor self heal.

PTR Ana Question!

I think its worth talking a little about our balance philosophy here. People often will post things such as “why doesn’t Blizzard see that this hero has X as a weakness and that is what should be fixed.”

One aspect of our heroes that is very important is that they all have various strengths and weaknesses. This is a core aspect of what makes teamplay so important in Overwatch. If you have an Ana on your team, this gives you certain advantages such as being able to be healed from very long range, having a more offensive-favored ultimate, and having the ability to disable healing on enemies (which can be especially vital against heroes that really rely on healing such as Roadhog). That said, she also brings her own weaknesses that must be managed, such as low mobility and lower self-healing. A team may opt to run Brigitte or Lucio with Ana to help peel attackers off of her, for example.

When we want to buff a hero, sometimes it can be the right call reduce these weaknesses. For example, if a weakness is just too overbearing or a hero just has too many weaknesses compared to their strengths. But more often we would rather amplify a heroes strengths and make the hero just better at what they do, which leaves their weaknesses still around for enemies to exploit and for allies to try to manage.

I hope this helps explain how we look at balance issues and heroes in Overwatch in general.

We need to come up with viable buffs outside of the common demand and inside what the DEVs are willing to give Ana.

Skald-1493 · July 17, 2018, 5:43pm

I say make her sleep dart more efficacious — that is do what what it was actually intended to do.

As is it’s a more difficult a shot to make than even her basic shot. Considering that she has to be pinpoint accurate to fight high mobility heroes up close and personal that they should make the dart very easy to land against enemies “up close and personal.”

Further, to give her a chance to get away from a slept target. They should up the damage needed to break it from 1 to 30 hit points — exactly the same as Symmetra’s turrets that went from 1 hp to destroy to 30 hp’s. It’s only fair, right?