So now we can use Ana to support teams in corridors, shoot through our tanks to pick off a junkrat thats clearly visible, or save a teammate that got hooked and you want to go back? The pre healing was garbage anyways her new penetrating heal lets you be more liberal with positioning.
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Mm. Yea, potentially saving people was garbage. Ok then.
If you are good at positioning this would never be a problem for you.
The amount of times it would save people is drastically less than the amount of times that shooting someone that is already damaged through another player would save them.
Being able to take up more positions and being bad at positioning are not the same thing. Someone can be good at keeping themselves in a spot that protects them from high damage and still benefit from the ability to take up another position (that is also safe but obstructs view to other teammates) while also providing said player with more safety or keeping the enemy genji/winston from being able to keep track of where they are.
Only that in this case the single negative thing outweighs all upsides. The preheal would be somewhat between 25 and 50. And THAT makes a difference. Before Moira was released, Ana was the one hero to counter burst damage without using an Ultimate like Zen/Lucio.
Being unable to preheal makes Ana essentially useless against burst damage on squishies. And burst heal was one of the few scenarios she was being used for. With that gone, she is officially the worst healer in the game. Too unconsistent to pick her over a mercy, not enough burst-heal to pick her over moira.
That makes her utility the only reason why she is still picked occasionally. Anti-Nade to counter the Zenyatta ult which is prevalent in the meta. Tbh even a mercy boosting the Hanzo can make up for that, so again some1 else can take over that job. Sleep is hard to use and too easily ruined even by 1 point of damage. Ultimate is most commonly used in combination with other heroes ultimates like Genji’s dragonblade. That makes you rely on certain heroes even more AND you burn 2 ults immediately.
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I have about 100h on Ana, about 70 of that in comp. Had around 75% acc and shut down ults quite frequently. You still have less impact on the games unless you utilize every moment to hit sleep and nade. And even if you hit all the shots you’re far away from Moira and Mercy’s heal. Why make the effort when you’re being outperformed without them even moving a finger.
Bonus material to show what’s wrong with balancing rn:
Ana has overbearing weaknesses. Tons of them.
- No mobility
- No selfheal
- Useless if there are shields
- Can’t defend herself (Hard to hit abilities and M1, especially on flankers, given they are somewhat skilled)
Or other problems:
- No pre-heal anymore and therefor no answer to burst-damage on squishies
- She’s a sniper which can’t get to a sniper position
And here comes the funny point
Hanzo didn’t have too many weaknesses, but an unfun ability. People cried and he got buffed in so many ways in just a single patch.
When we Ana mains headed to the forum for wanting mobility or selfheal we were laughed at and told that it would remove her weakness and every hero needs them, according to Geoff Goodman. I understand that much. BUT! Why was Hanzo given a mobility ability ADDITIONALLY to all the other major buffs making him more viable and EVEN THOUGH it’s removing his defining weakness? This is Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
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Hanzos weakness is ehhh… none?
He has good mobillitiy, a juke/dodge abillity, ridiculous shield burst, at close range he is like hitscan at mid range still very precise and deadly, can shred everything that comes close, has scouting tool.
The argument that “Anas long range heal is so strong, buffing her would be wrong” is just stupid.
The moment Ana drops below 160hp she needs immediatley healing otherwise she is dead. (Genji combo +160damage)
There is nothing that outweighs the downsides of “long range healing”. I would even go so far that “long range healing” is her weakness, because she won’t get any proper buffs because of this.
Heck even a 15 Hp self heal over 4 seconds when hitting an enemy would be already a strong buff (compared to her current state)
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Ikr. That’s literally their only argument. There’s no advantage to that anymore since you’re being dived the moment you get away from your team.
Blizzard even said “mobility and selfsustain issues can be dealt with if you have a Lucio or Brigitte around to peel for you”. And how’s that gonna work? Be a sniper-range healer and still cuddle with your lucio giving up on the range advantage? Or have them stay with you leaving the other teammates?
They claimed that they’d rather amplify a heroes strength instead of dealing with their weaknesses. And then they buff Anas DAMAGE (SHE’S A HEAAAALER, BUFF HER SUPPORT ABILITIES. PLEASE!) instead of buffing her defining abilities - Bio Nade or Nanoboost. Then again they did the exact opposite for Hanzo. Removed his weakness. At this point I can’t understand why we can’t get any nice heal-related changes. The clip-size is irrelevant for me, as I had no trouble managing my ammo.
I havent played Ana since the change, but can you explain what is not working now? How does the overpenetrating darts work?
I you just read the change, it indeed seems like a buff
Just stay ranged with a lucio or Baguette, so they don’t do something for the team ![:wink:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=5" ":wink:")
Ana dies agains Genji or Tracer in around 6-8 second at max. Lucio or Baguette won’t be fast enough to peel or heal if you play long range heal.
The recent “buff” (shooting through mates) strengthens her cuddle play style and don’t adress the problem of being “long range healer”.
It’s a gimmick nothing more
They removed pre heal.
Yes pre healing is something you don’t do in pro environment, because your teammates are coordinated and know how to avoid unecessary damage, but at rank play pre heal is pretty good and can prevent a lot of burst.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call being a long range heal a problem. Being long range is nice, but only if:
A: you can defend yourself against attackers on short range (Hanzo)
B: you can get away (Widow, now Hanzo as well)
C: Have enough self-sustain till somebody helps you
As Ana you don’t have anything. You have the nade for a heal, which would be more useful elsewhere. And even that amount of HP you heal back isn’t enough because flankers will still get you. You have no way to deal with threats, unless you hit every shot (which is, as already said, hard on flankers that aren’t tanks) or some1 pockets you (which is hard because you’re longrange).
She’s a longrange healer that CAN’T stay far away because she’s too exposed to enemies who manage to get to her. Which isn’t hard as Winston, D.Va, Genji, Tracer, DF or any other high mobility hero.
As a person who rarely plays Ana but enjoys her and wants to learn her badly, yeah, it’s bad imo. I am used to shooting at my team regardless readying their health for oncoming enemies, but seeing it fly through them throws my balance off. My pattern. It’s hard to see what I am hitting at times too. At least with before this “buff” I can see if it smacked someone so I can fix them, now, if a teammate is in front of me and it flies through them to another person, I still can’t really tell if I got them. It’s like free throwing darts.
This is simply my opinion though. At first, I wanted this exact change, until I realized I don’t really like it? Maybe I need to give it time?
Just give her a self healing mechanism and return her healing shots the way they were. It’s not so hard…
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I’m gonna offer a controversial opinion.
I like this change.
Been playing a lot of Ana recently, and I’ve had plenty of cases where I made good use of this ability in crowded areas of when the team is clumped up.
Its handy to NOT have to worry too much about your shots being blocked.
Yeah, I know its a bit odd getting used to, but its pretty handy once you do.
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I think the change should combine pre-heal and shoot through allies at all times.
i.e. the shot stops if it hits a enemy barrier, enemy hero or wall but otherwise passes through all allies en-route (pre-)healing each target the shot pierces through for 75 HP.
It’d be a nice little buff combining both advantages without the need for an awkward toggle or other trade off.
That + some healing ‘cash back’ per landed healing shot and we’re back in business.
you know, my major issue with this is that i dont see myself or want to adapt to the playstyle of ‘shooting through full health mates’ to hit something on the other side, with deliberate and precise control. most of the time it works, sure, but if you ask me, this technique can never hope to be anything more tahn a dubious, flukey style of gameplay. this is not the playstyle worthy of a legendary sniper (albeit once the best there ever was).
you may argue that, tho her statistical accuracy goes down, you will indeed hit more shots that are important enough, i personally do not embrace the concept of aiming to hit something i will have mostly obscured vision of. i personally would rather have the more traditional obstacles and barriers (so to speak) of random chance/misfortune to befall me should i be unable to hit what i was CLEARLY aiming for… and not have my aim gameplay filtered through some wacky new mechanic
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I would really enjoy it if Ana had a healing mechanism of some sort. Your “cash back” from hitting targets would be nice.
I don’t find it fair all the other healers have it aside from Ana. Also, as a sniper, she can’t even get to high ground. Hanzo can climb and double jump now, Widow can hook shot, and Ana is literally left grounded. With no means of self healing for safety…Makes zero sense to me 
Such a shame.
Essentially if you have this situation:
You —> Full HP Ally —> Wounded Ally
…your shot now goes through the full HP Ally and hits the wounded ally.
The idea is if you have a bouncing DPS right in front of you and you shots would have been blocked by the team mate that didn’t need healing, you can now hit that Reinhardt or distant flanking ally in desperate need of healing (remember, there is a sizeable ‘margin of error’ hitbox to allied healing that you would have also had to work around).
What people (inc. myself to a degree) are upset about is a scenario like this:
You —> Clear Sky —> Pharah who has just boosted into the air out of cover
You know that target is just about to take a shed load of damage and, in the past, you could literally just hammer shots into that target without a second thought.
Previously, you would have both healed at target (if damaged) and also ‘pre-healed’ them.
Pre-healing is basically healing a target at full HP and, because Ana’s healing is ‘applied’ in a series of ‘ticks’, those additional ‘ticks’ of healing when you initially hit the target at full HP are ‘carried’ over if the target then takes damage within a very short duration after you healed them.
What happens now is you either heal the target or you ‘miss’ and the shot just passes through them. The problem with the latter is there is slightly longer (yet significant enough) window until your next shot is ready that your target could potentially take burst damage enough to kill them that otherwise may have resulted with you clutch-saving the target with a few HP remaining.
Granted, it is a borderline / niche case but people are trying to argue that you shouldn’t need to ‘choose’ between the two play-styles.
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i find that actually rather brilliant 
many have brought up and discussed a ‘self healing’ mechanic before but none have interested me much, most of the ideas being a ‘heal per amount healed on teammate’ type deal. feels blah and not interestring or innovative enough for me to feel its worht implementing…
tho this reversed idea for a self healing method feels like there might be a fair bit of room for ‘selfish’ or ‘not ideal group plays’, i think thers also a lot of room to shape it out too
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Basically - it is exactly that and it is dependant on the healing you apply.
i.e. you can’t just shoot already full HP allies to regain HP, you have to do it in the heat of combat.
If you are wounded and there are no allies in the area in need of healing, you’d still need to make the decision of whether you’d go to find a health pack or throw a biotic grenade at your feet.
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Ah thanks for the clarification. I wasnt really aware of the pre healing mechanic. I also thought you could heal multiple targets at once, with overpenetrating darts… which is not the case either…
So i do understand why ana needs a change. I thought/hoped that the darts were overpenetrating now, a bit like the Moiras ult, healing and damaging everything in its path… soo yea …
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No worries and yup - that’s what I’d like to see - the shot just travelling through all allies giving the benefit of pre-healing and full HP penetration + a small buff in the niche case of allies lining up that they are all healed for 75 HP.