Not just Ana, that ability counters almost everything in the game, it is insane.
Good thing is I don’t expect it to be easy to use to get good value, unlike Baptiste field which lasts like forever. And this hero will probably take most skill among supports, and maybe even most in game.
That’s true.
Which makes Moira obsolete in my mind.
She can basically heal as much as Moira, without the close range aspect and without a fuel meter than needs to be refilled.
The only advantage of picking Moira will be when playing brawl, where teammates stack on top of each other, because Moira’s healing goes through teammates (Kiriko is just a single target healer).
But to be honest, that only happens in high ranks and OWL.
For most ranks, people don’t stack on each other, which makes Kiriko’s healing better than Moira’s for the average Joe.
I love ana but this was needed, I’m will say even tho this is not a hard counter per say, it is the only counter to Ana, I wonder how they will address that going forward. Maybe rework another hero to have similar affects? We don’t want kiriko to be a must pick now…
For all those who still believe that ana is extremely op and strong and due to that require a huge counter or nerf I gently remind that ana had 0 (zero) play in JQ meta, whether you think that sleep+anti are op or not. And she is supposed to be extremely effecient in hands of OWL players. Now question yourself why it happened.
Yea but now the Ana counter is behind a paywall/playwall making the game P2W.
Because as we all know, people on ladder play identically to people in OWL. Oh wait.
Obviously they don’t. They are way more effective in teamwork and coordination and run actual strats. Doesn’t make my statement any less true because in this environment ana must in a theory be hundred times bigger threat than speedbot lucio or shieldbash bot brig.
It does though because you’re saying that she can’t possibly be OP because she isn’t used in the META used in OWL while glossing over the fact she was in LITERALLY every single match of the OW2 beta without fail.
Saying a hero doesn’t need changes because in an environment where the same 5 people play 6+ hours a day together coordinating strats while being the best of the best of the best don’t use them but that exact hero is massively over performing in the environment which every other player on the planet plays in is a completely ridiculous statement to make.
The exact same way how Reaper was next to useless in all of the BETA’s but some teams got value out of him by putting the entire teams resources into him and trying to use that to justify him being balanced.
Ana is being played primarily because she is the only fun and well designed support hero, a hero that is also challenging and gives people dopamine unlike 1 button healbots like mercy, moira or brig. And reaper is just an example of completely opposite thing. It is a non challenging low skillcap boring slow hero with a kit that was made without any creativity in mind. It isn’t weak on its own, it is a very niche hero who was designed for brawl comp in 6v6 format and he does not ned any buffs before a deep rework.
Kiriko doesnt seem so easy that everyone can just pick up to counter Ana (gotta get to tier 55 first brah)
Let be honest here, she seems very aim intense, so most likely she will end up being another tools for Ana and Zen players.
or…ana plays smart and just sleeps the fox girl and a team wont bother her and u kill their team efefcted by nade w/o issue.
or fact that she isnt only source of anti heal (and JQ is popular) OR the fact only source of cc (rein shatter + charge still negate fox girl, sigma (not sure that can even be negated as idk how it would palce in air)
yes, cleanse helps vs ana but it is in no way a hard counter.
a hard counter is ana vs hog.
a unit becomes a throw pick.
ana still extremely efefctive even if u have a cleanse.
and on top of that ana’s ult still makes her ally lethal/tanky.
I feel like if you use Kiriko’s cleanse ability to cleanse off an Ana nade and it’s not at an important moment or it’s affecting one person, you are genuinely throwing.
I mean since both cooldowns are equally as long it depends on who uses first, based on numbers alone it doesn’t feel like a hard counter to me
Kiriko’s cleanse only exists because Ana mains themselves have insisted that the solution to nade is counter-play. Nade has been a massive problem with the game for years and Ana herself has almost never been in a state where she’s a poor pick, leading the pickrates in every rank except the very top. Introducing a hero that might be effective against her is overdue, and even then I have doubts that Kiriko will be a hard counter.
My point is this. If you’re Ana and hit tab and see that other team doesn’t have Hog and they to do have Kiriko, you’re probably bringing more value playing a support OTHER than Ana. If your goal is to be a great support player AND to contribute to your team’s chances of winning, a switch makes A LOT of sense.
Now if you’re one of those people that all you can do is play Ana, ok, fine. You’ve completely ignored a 6 year legacy of core game design where switching was the differentiating mechanic. I’d argue that is seems impossible to know that Ana is your favorite hero for one, but the mechanical skill already required to play Ana well and the game sense you’ve acquired as a support player should carry over enough to mitigate the soft counter you otherwise were facing.
Or you could just be stubborn and be like NO ANA, NO PLAY. That’s fine to, but I don’t think you’d be on these forums if that were the case. Also I don’t want to be your teammate.
I’m very much what you would consider a flex player across all roles. That’s when I’m playing to win. Particularly when on Support as the only hero I rarely play is Mercy. All others are swapped to if the situation calls for it or I simply desire to play said hero.
Now, with that established, yeah it does make sense. Especially on paper. If the situation calls for it, then it really makes sense in practice. But you don’t just get a good sense of dealing with a hero by instantly swapping every time you see your “counter” on the field. That’s simply not a realistic and effective way to improve while playing overwatch.
Now, if you want to do that every time you see her, be my guest. Don’t expect everyone else to follow that ideal though. Because it’s really not as effective of a thought process to have. Especially in OW2.
Totally agree. As long you don’t tell anybody, I’ve lost multiple times as Sombra against a Doomfist team. 
No. The developers make decisions here… Not Ana mains.
Only if you agree not to tell anyone I’ve never lost a team fight against Zen, after hitting several opponents with anti. 
It’s a shame it took blizzard 6 years to realize that putting a second ultimate ability as an e ability might not be such a good idea. I basically scream at my flankers in my own mind to pressure the ana to use the nade on herself as opposed to our tanks.
I think the main problem is double shield has pervaded the game so badly even in the gutter brackets that it’s often just too easy for ana to sit back sip tea and use the e abilty offensively with almost no repercussions.
It shouldn’t just be pressure the ana or your team just gets W pressed with a 16 pound bowling ball on it.
Zen is going to be stupid broken in overwatch 2 if we aren’t careful. I actually think removing shields for the most part will be bad for the game. I just wanted blizzard to deal with the actual problem and that being skill creep has gotten so bad that double shield is basically mandatory if you don’t want to get globalled by a hit scan.
When Ana is sometimes the highest picked support in bronze since even 2 years ago you know there is a major skill creep problem.
Lmao, Ana will still find a way. Excluding GOATS, which even then I think she was briefly used in, Ana’s never not been busted as crap. I mean, Zarya can do the exact same thing as Kiriko with her bubbles, yet Ana still does fine against her.
And if Kiriko does start to completely shut Ana down, they’ll just give Ana about 6 buffs at once, and butcher Protection Suzu which, in itself, is just an AOE Zarya bubble with a tiny heal. Cause, let’s be real for a second, Zarya bubbles:
And Protection Suzu:
So if Zarya is still a 50/50 against Ana, Kiriko will likely be the same way.