Anran’s burst potential was definitively nerfed. That’s not even really a conversation. The best burst combo was and still is 2 left click shots > dash > fan > melee > dance. That combo lost 8 damage this patch and now barely kills a 250 hp target, with no heals.
What she gained is the ability to stay in an engagement longer, and more damage for doing so. Now the optimal play is probably to ignore the max burst combo and just do left click > dash > fan > fan at which point you are probably taking damage, so you dance to heal, and then get off 1-2 more fans thanks to the heal before having to dash out.
I don’t think this prolonged engagement, which will take around 3.5-4 seconds to pull off at best, fixes much of her kill threat. Even if you still manage to land the fan > melee > dance animation cancel combo, she doesn’t do enough damage fast enough before she has to use her dance. Her dance takes 1.21 seconds from when you press the key to when you can use another action. That is a long time for your target to get healed/peeled for, so that the following 1-2 fans after dance won’t kill through the healing.
Also important to note, after unlocking major perk last season, you both had access to the more lethal burst combos AND the extra fans after using dance to heal.
I don’t think her damage was that bad last season. You just needed good decision making, cooldown usage, and combo mechanics. You still need all those things, but now you have a much harder time bursting someone down through healing if you land a perfect combo.
The latest patch is pushing her away from burst dive and towards slower, steady fights. But she needs to be withing 10m to execute this new playstyle, which is like playing Reaper without the lifesteal or dire trigger. Ultimately I think she is still better and gets more value from the opportunistic dive playstyle she had last season, but she is worse at that playstyle than now.
Additionally, her sustain got effectively nerfed past a certain point in the game, as the base kit sustain that got added is weaker than the old major perk, and the major perk for it adds so little extra value that you would never take it. Base kit sustain is great and I’m glad they added it, but it is weaker than her previous sustain after major perk.
This is just my initial thoughts on it. I am open to being wrong after more time to play and test the new limits of the hero. I know a lot of people think she is better than before.
TLDR: Burst damage nerfed, damage output over 4 seconds buffed. The additional damage coming after using dance for sustain means the kill threat remains mediocre in addition to losing access to one shot burst combos. Late game sustain nerfed in favor or weaker sustain in the base kit.
