I’d say she even Ruined it more than Brigitte, because Ana is the Reason Brigitte even Existed.
When Overwatch 1 came out, there was 2 Off Healers, Mercy and a Joke. Then along came Ana who could Out Heal ALL of them at Range, was Hit-Scan so her Stupid Damage was more Reliable than Zenyatta, plus she has STILL got the Best Utility in the Entire Game, that only got Better over time.
Ana being so Damn OP Caused Power Creep in its Entirety. New Heroes had to Match HER DPS, HER HEALING, HER UTILITY! But she’s still the only Hero with Anti-Heal on-Demand and they Devs Refuse to Nerf Her PROPERLY because they know how deep in Crap they are because of her.
They made a New Hero to Counter her. The only other Hero like that was, surprise surprise, Brigitte and all of Dive.
Is there even an Easy Solution to this? If they Gut Healing, Damage is OP, if they Gut Both then Damage Mitigation Rules Supreme. If they Nuke the Entire Game, it’ll be the same Problem, but now Matches take an Hour.
the term “ruined” is a bit relative for a hero who has existed since 2016, the year of ow1’s debut . I think the term you’re looking for is “Ana has set high standards for support and tank behavior.”, which in my opinion is the real problem. Before Ana, the Overwatch team had imagined the coexistence of non-healer support heroes and tanks of optional choice, but in reality Ana 1.0 (I mean her REAL biotic grenade, few remember her 1.0 version) made it clear right away how the level of healing could be made rather decisive as an element that must always be had by the team, and not optional as was originally thought. it was Ana 1.0 that defined the first quad tank meta, before then there were much wilder metas focused on Bastion and reapers, sometimes without actually needing healers and tanks. Ana had then become a “necessary evil” since the tanks were constantly threatening Goats, and Brigitte had only amplified the need to have her on the team.
on the one hand I think that Ana has forever changed the need to give tanks and supports (now healers) a job to do… but on the other hand I think that if she had never arrived we would have had an extremely wild overwatch on the ideas to follow , like the original symmetra and d.va from 2016 (highly awkward in balancing).
today, however, we are mature enough to say that it is time to give Ana a block. now you have defined the direction to follow, it no longer makes sense to make it the block on the tanking abuse that was in ow1’s double pick. it’s time to give her a new balance instead of being afraid of the limits she has placed on tanks, who unfortunately in 5v5 fight quite a bit in their counterpick.
I don’t regret having a hero like Ana… but it’s definitely time to give a new approach to healing creep before it degenerates further with the arrival of new supports in the future. and I’m pretty sure they will work on a new exception between tanks and other classes (like for sleep today).
Brigitte existed because of dive heroes, the community craved a paladin style support, the forums was littered with asking for a support who can defend against dive
And yes I asked for a paladin style hero
Brigitte wasn’t created to counter Ana. She was created to give Supports something to use in the face of Dive. Brig and Ana actually work very well together because Brig makes a fantastic body guard for Ana.
Everything else you said was pretty spot on. Ana’s antinade is the biggest reason the rest of the supports are the way they are.
When we look back, I think Ana was a terrible hero and to broken for its time. She was to weak at first, but after the buffs, she was always present. People to this day still think that Brig enabled goats and not Ana, who could sustain those 3 tanks with her massive healing output, while Brig was mainly played to counter the rein and protect/sustain the Ana.
None of the support heroes to this day that came out were as impactful as Ana. People can argue if launch Brig or launch Bap was more OP, but in the long run, Ana lead to heal and power creep.
That’s also because she didn’t have the Regen Passive, so not only did she have to Divide her Anti-Heal between 2 Tanks, but she also had to Heal herself.
That’s 25%-33% Uptime on a Single Player, using the most Basic of Math I pulled out of Thin Air.
Gut NON ULT spike damage & healing, then make sure everyone has fast-charging bursty ults like they used to in 2016-17. So the base TTK would get a lot slower, but fights couldn’t last forever because of ults leveling the playing field.
To keep damage ults from becoming “I win” buttons, supports in specific should get all their big kill denial moved into defensive ults on par with trance/sound barrier.
Ana was used just as much as Brigitte in GOATS, Ana just needed a Bodyguard. Plus Brigitte was made because Ana-Induced Power-Creep let her Exist in the First Place.
She might not be as OP as Brigitte was, but she was an Hell of a lot more Impactful.
What? Ana was almost never used in or against goats. The initial version of Goats was exclusively made up of heroes who were able to do something about Anti Nade.
Rein could block it or shield long enough for it to fade.
Zarya could block or cleanse it with bubble.
DVa could eat it or DM long enough for it to fade.
Moira could self cleanse it with Fade.
Lucio could amp Speed to make any follow up on anti incredibly difficult or drop the beat.
Brigitte could block it, shield long enough to live through it, and Bash/Whip anyone who tried to follow up on it.
It got a bit worse vs Anti when Zen got added in Moira’s place, but still… good luck to any Ana players trying to land anything vs Goats.
Its funny how much better the game is when you get a full match where neither team picks Ana. Not getting purpled every 5 seconds and slept every 10 makes the game way better -who would have thought… besides the entire playerbase for years now.
. I think the term you’re looking for is “Ana has set high standards for support and tank behavior.”, which in my opinion is the real problem. Before Ana, the Overwatch team had imagined the coexistence of non-healer support heroes and tanks of optional choice, but in reality Ana 1.0 (I mean her REAL biotic grenade, few remember her 1.0 version) made it clear right away how the level of healing could be made rather decisive as an element that must always be had by the team, and not optional as was originally thought. it was Ana 1.0 that defined the first quad tank meta, before then there were much wilder metas focused on Bastion and reapers, sometimes without actually needing healers and tanks. Ana had then become a “necessary evil” since the tanks were constantly threatening Goats, and Brigitte had only amplified the need to have her on the team.