Ana unfair 80 dmg nerf + QOL changes

General Discussion
1

Refine Ana’s kit

Ana during tank meta and when her nanoboost was strong was where we saw her pick-rate being up. A lot of the adjustments she has gotten over time were fair balance and called for, but there was one that was unfair. Her rifle damage nerf from 80. She deserves 80 damage back and some major fixes of QOL changes which would be huge improvements to her gameplay.

This is an alt account, but on my main I have extensive hours and experience on Ana, and I truly do believe 80 damage is balanced, fair, and needed for the type of playstyle Ana is. In the thread I will discuss dev patch notes talking about 60, 70, and 80 damage. I will list QOL changes, some community mass misconception about Ana w/ the category system, and I will list the disadvantages of 80 damage that makes it fair and balanced.

You add these QOL, bug fixes, & 80 dmg to her rifle damage. She will overall be smoother gameplay, and extremely less clunky.

Feedback is appreciated. I’ve made numerous threads on the old forum about Ana since im passionate about it, and almost for a year now I’ve been making these threads asking. It is so hard to get noticed by developers when there heavy amount of threads daily while the devs are busy.

Listed Tabs w/ Feedback [CLICK THEM!] :smiley:

NEEDED QOL changes, Bug fixes, and revert damage to 80.

[Buff] revert rifle damage back to 80. She needs it.
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[#1 - QOL] increase nanoboost range, too short for a sniper.
UPDATE: she just got an increase to her range. Glad this suggestion was addressed. Much appreciated.
“Range increased from 30 to 40 meters”
Overwatch 2 - Patch Notes
[#2 - QOL] nade goes through full HP targets. For team body blocking. The discussion going on now for the dilemma of this QOL is that it could potentially remove pre-nading targets in scenarios that could be useful. This is a QOL change I would like to test out first.
[#3 - QOL] Ana’s rifle needs to 1 shot fences & miscellaneous. Not 3 shot. A cool thing for Widow & Ana to do is make it so 1 bullet can take out multiple fences at once for an aesthetic feel to a sniper.
[#4 - QOL] improve support player voice-lines for players without mics. Ex: If I am an Ana player I should not be punished for the teammates stupidity not in line of sight or teammates standing in enemy shields. If I dont have a mic, but use the “come to me for healing” there should be clear UI warnings for the teammate saying they are not in LOS for heals.
[#5 - QOL] reload time changed from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds. Unsure. Its coming up in the discussion, some want that faster reload, some including myself do not. The idea is that it gets in the way of healing.
[#6 - QOL] reduce some of these tank heal hitboxes to scale. Feels like someone is holding my hand as if a skill sniper couldn’t hit some of these tanks.
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[Bug / Broken] Fix armor vs Ana’s rifle damage. Act as dmg taken off per shot like everyone else, not taken dmg off per ticks. An embarrassment for a sniper & very broken.

Disadvantages of Ana that make 80 damage balanced
  • Other supports, main healers have easier forms of sustain and damage. In certain scenarios they have near the same value for less the skill which is not balanced for Ana.
  • no mobility
  • DOT dmg, not instant.
  • a line revealing the enemy her exact positioning when scoped
  • heavy indicator / sound your being shot by Ana warning the enemy
  • has a small cool-down after the 1st quick scope shot. It’s easy to miss, but Ana & Widow have a unique difference in how their scope works / damage works. Possibly for balance reasons that Ana does not outshine Widow, but Ana would still be useful with damage.
  • low damage cap, no headshots
  • not instant hitscan. Time to scope in or predict projectile bullet. Bad for peeking corners
  • low rate of fire
  • no self regen or self heals
  • high cool-down utility also prioritized for big team use. Relys on dmg for sustain.
  • concerns herself w/ 11 targets, ammo consumption worry.
  • enemy healers can counter-play Ana’s rifle damage making every 200hp more shots to kill ruining the 3 shot mechanic. Even at 80 damage.
  • Any form of regen, self-heal, brief stop, and slight form of a small regen will cost Ana more shots to waste on the enemy. 70 damage is too easily countered.
  • Tracer, Doomfist, Genji are roles that can one shot Ana. All have high mobility, and all the utility they need to survive against Ana w/ 80 damage. Roles that do damage, and roles that heal all have easier time killing these roles with less skill involved as well. Genji can be dealt with, but scenarios like Doomfist or Tracer are unbalanced where other roles have more value with less skill involved in the 1v1 scenario.

Developer patch notes about 60 dmg, and 70 dmg.

60 damage nerf developer patch note

Overwatch 2 - Patch Notes

Ana

Biotic Rifle
Damage decreased from 80 to 60

Developer Comments: Ana’s kit has several strong components, which makes her difficult to replace. Reducing her damage output will make her less threatening on attack and reduce her dueling capabilities.

Ana’s kit. . . Ok, so if her utility is strong, and its during a time like tank meta and when her nanoboost is strong then that is when you make changes to her utility, not nerf her rifle damage. (which developers did slowly shift her utility over time and had some fair balance changes to her. The damage nerf was more to mass community complaints off pickrate “rant over reason”) If she is difficult to replace by other supports, consider making changes during that time when tank meta had roadhog, maybe make her nade burst healing not apply to Roadhog heal can? Those are types of changes that help.

Ana is not difficult to replace by other roles and each had their own use. It is the idea that Ana is the only high-skill ceiling role in support that could be utilized by pro players. Support category is just lacking, where damage roles have plenty of high-skill ceiling roles that SEEM like they are hard to replace, but that is due to the design of high skill = high reward. Where as other roles that are easier shouldn’t be so valuable as the ranks go up.

70 damage developer patch note

Overwatch 2 - Patch Notes

Ana

Biotic Rifle
Damage increased from 60 to 70
Developer Comments: Ana has been outshined by other support heroes lately. Boosting her damage will help her defend herself and make her more threatening to the enemy team.

Probably cause the damage was never meant to be taken away in the first place. That the nerf was due to heavy community complaints over pick-rate rather than some logic understanding that her rifle damage has a lot of drawbacks to make it fair. Ana was not dominating every rank cause of her rifle damage.

If Ana was outplaying other healer roles, then it was due to her utility at the time of tank meta & when her nanoboost was valuable. Not her rifle damage. Her rifle damage is used for sustain in a 1v1 scenario, and to at times pick off targets. It was due to mass misconception categorizing Ana’s role for a main healer ONLY over some logic to understanding the entire kit of Ana & her purpose that includes damage use.

Community "healer not a dps" mass misconception about Ana's role.

These are some of the mass misconception comments I have read back then and still to this day exists.

“shes a healer not a dps”

This is a cliche that spreads around too much. Not understanding that category system means nothing. A role is defined by what the hero has in their kit and how their playstyle is. Ana is a hybrid sniper w/ utility. Main healer is a part of her role, but damage is very important to her sustain & use alongside main healing & utility use. It takes skill to utilize Ana as a whole playstyle. She is not ONLY main healer, and this is not a valid reason to say she does not deserve damage and should conform to a category.

When Ana had the 60 damage nerf, and the nade damage nerf her sustain was butchered and she couldn’t even survive much in 1v1 scenarios. On top of this I have read nonsense widespread complaints on top of this wanting Ana’s sustain to be butchered even more. 70 damage is also counter-played too easily, but 80 damage was where she fit well, and even for the enemy it was fair. Just involved some counter-play strategy in the same way you outplay other high-skill ceiling roles if the player is good.

Ana’s rifle damage was nerfed due to community mass misconception conforming Ana to a category system. Complaints about pickrate wanting Ana to be an easy kill that does not fight back like the basic healer idea. It was an unfair and unjust nerf.

80 damage was fair, and she deserves it back.

61 Likes
2

You CNR? This is reminiscent of one of his posts.

80 Damage would be nice, those QoL changes sound awesome, but what I really want for her is some kind of passive self sustain and an increase in fire rate (maybe unscoped only) to increase her healing potential.

Oh, and fix all her animation bugs.

12 Likes
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Yes that would be me.

PSO-1 is a russian sniper scope I think looks cool lol. Trying to get a gold gun for Ana on this alt.

As for a passive, I would really love to see some of these QOL changes & 80 dmg come into play testing 1st. After that and we see how her gameplay is, then I would start to consider if a passive is necessary or not.

IMO Ana’s passive is not self-heals or mobility, but playing at a distance having range be her advantage. Stuff just gets in the way of this passive and needs to be addressed. Ana is a different role.

4

This.
This.
This.

Not just ana, but ALL healers.
Even something simple like players seeing a green directional line (opposite of the red damage line) would be great to encourage positioning regarding your healers.

28 Likes
5

yeah for sure,

2 scenarios that require team communication from Ana is when the teammate pushes out of LOS, and when your teammates stand in enemy shields. The support player shouldn’t be punished for it if they have good positioning, but the teammate is just standing in enemy shields or out of LOS pushing too far.

glad you like the idea

3 Likes
6

Pretty sure that’s just the game in general. Everything takes 3 bullets to break, whereas melee breaks them instantly. Some heroes just shoot a lot faster than snipers so you don’t notice it.

I’m just bringing this up because it’s a lot more complicated to fix than it sounds.

7

I wouldn’t know too much about coding in a video game, but in terms of gameplay trying to kill fences fast before a match starts or as an aesthetic it kinda sucks a lot.

It feels like crap that Doomfist can just punch through all the fences, but a role like a sniper can just shoot a line to kill a lot of fences in one with a high caliber bullet.

8

80, or even 75, damage would give the Tracer Mains fits. :joy:

not that i’m against it >.>

10 Likes
9

Well i agree with everything. I wouldn’t mind the 70 dmg but since the new wave of supports puts out small bursts effortlessly, i don’t see a reason why she shouldn’t have easier combos, since she lacks survivability in the first place.
Also a tad faster reload time would be QOL change

10

I mained tracer S3 I think for 50 hours, and I have never had a problem against enemy Ana’s. Many Tracer players suck, and thats where the complaints may rise, but for the most part a good tracer in a 1v1 scenario against Ana has huge advantages. Even against 80.

I even have seen a lot of tracers wasting recall after the 1st Ana shot w/ 70 damage wasting recall too soon.

If Ana would have a faster reload, I would like to see her mag reverted to 10 bullets. One of the reasons she wastes bullets a lot is due to 70 damage being too easily countered by enemy heals… therefore you waste shots, have less for healing.

Better damage = more bullets for healing saved.

2 Likes
11

Oh, same, until I discovered how much fun Ana was to actually play, but I remember all the posts whining about “why can a support 2 shot me” and “Ana’s damage is OP - supports should support, not kill”.

1 Like
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Yeah it sucks man.

When people complain over just trying to find a strategy to counter.
(which there is against Ana w/ 80 damage against Tracer.)

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Doesn’t change much for tracer, except if you do crazy aggresive plays.

The point of faster reload is to be consistent on healing, many times people are dying cause of that, they’re getting the stream consistently they go aggressive pointing on that and get cucked while you can’t heal em.

14

but wouldn’t that just be a small skill of ammo management? reloading when people do not need heals?

Like if a guy dies, wouldn’t it be your fault not paying attention to your ammo count though? To me I really love the idea of a sniper w/ heals that could kill off reloading at the wrong time.

Although I do agree other roles that heal have huge advantages of ease when it comes to heal… but at the same time, just cause 1 hero has it easy doesn’t mean Ana should as well.

15

Don’t underestimate the forum whining. Why change how you play when you can rage post enough to possibly see a nerf?

It’s not just the healing though, it’s the down time in general. Pumping your team full of heals when you get dove by two ppl (assuming you sleep one here) - too bad about that nice long reload you got there. (Maybe I could abide the reload time if her damage was back to 80 - big maybe - but as of right now? Nah.)

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Yeah, I do agree. Often times people have an anti-fun experience, people complain, over understanding what its like for the player to enjoy that character.

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I read the thread title and instantly expected CNR. Nice to see you’re still kickin’.

I for myself wish that Ana could throw her grenade through full hp allies the most. Happened so often that I press E and right at that time a teammate decideds to walk through me from behind and his hitbox blocks the nade before I could react…

The rest sounds really nice as well though.

3 Likes
18

the issue is that they constantly need heals, the only way to cope with this is to announce your reloading on voice chat so they don’t push or anything

19

Oh I am numb / pain inside lol,

this takes a lot of energy mentally to take the frustration, being sad, and unfairness about 80 damage not being there for your favorite hero, and no matter how much you try on the forums developers don’t notice you.

Yeah I put it in the thread QOL change. These are the types of HUGE major QOL changes that would HEAVILY help Ana and improve gameplay to be heavily less clunky.

The idea that other supports have easier things like not aiming to heal, and healing through shields, while Ana has many worries to deal with devs dont consider sometimes.

thx :slight_smile:

1 Like
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If you’ve watched Ana streams (ML7 for example, since he does it a lot) even announcing your reload doesn’t stop your team. Chances are, your team isn’t actually listening to calls like that for whatever reason.