Thanks for the update! I do have a small concern however. Even though 4 more extra shots is nice, Ana’s main problems IMO are her low survivability, no mobility for a sniper, and no self-sustain. Compared to Mercy or Moira, who have amazing sustain and mobility with consistent healing on top of it.
However I really don’t know how this will play out so I’ll wait and see. Once again, thanks for the update!
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.
Can we give Ana a ghillie suit – a passive that simply lets her be invisible to enemies past a certain distance. Of course abilities like Widow Sight, Opportunist, Sonic Arrow and some such work as normal.
Firstly this would allow Ana to be a different kind of sniper than Widowmaker in her sniper’s nest. Secondly it’ll allow her to play at range – which at the moment she cannot. Lastly it turns her relationship with dive into a cat 'n mouse game – leaving her that much less susceptible to that meta overall.
Also, it does NOTHING to give her extra mobility – which is perfectly in keeping with her play style restrictions.
Thanks everyone.
I say 30 to 40 meters is fair. That’s a large local area of where you can be seen and you pretty much have to be outside the area of contention for the passive to apply — most likely outside the ability of anyone to peel for you too.
This is precisely the point where this ability should kick in and where it shouldn’t — the practical maxim past where anyone could peel for you. At that point you’re on your own and the cat ‘n mouse game begins.
Considering the restrictions they gave us on buffing her I thought this idea as an example of something suitable. It changes for example her relationship to dive but doesn’t Overbuff her either.
Something like this is what I mean. It doesn’t have to be this but something that allows the hero to be put back in play and function just as well as any other support. That’s what we Ana mains want.