I think buffing Ana is done in one of two ways (quality of life change, or direct ability buffs). Not both.
QoL change(s): Remove reloading for Ana completely and give her infinite bullets like Hanzo, or allow her shoot through barriers to hit people with heals.
Direct Buffs: Ana is a highly technical hero that rewards great mechanical play. I agree with you that reducing cooldown on sleep dart is a fantastic idea. At least 2 seconds is minimum. That or perhaps increase her grenade range again. Make it easier to purple-lize the enemy team and secure team fights.
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Why not both? Both help with her survivability without being OP. 8~10 seconds of cooldown for Sleep Dart is still a decent amount of time before the next Sleep Dart. And self-healing is something she desperately needs, since if she wants to get any amount of self-healing, she has to give up a valuable ability.
I don’t think reload will ever be removed for her, though I could be wrong, but I believe they will increase the size of her clip or make her reload faster before that.
I also don’t think they will allow her healing/damage darts through barriers, since I don’t how feasible this is for the dev team. I’m not a programmer, so I probably should refrain from talking about this subject, though. But I don’t see it happening, because how would the game discern between healing darts vs damage darts? Unless Ana had to switch between modes - which would be a kind of nerf in my opinion (debatable, of course!)
Then again, I’m no programmer, so perhaps they could make darts which passed through barriers and then hit enemies do no damage, but I’m a layman!
I really like the piercing barrier dart for healing though.
But I’m legitimately curious as to why not both reduce sleep dart and give her some form a discreet self-healing xD Could you provide some insight? 
lmao removing her reloading would remove her micro management almost entirely and would make her an almost no skill hero and the sleep dart is pretty well balanced right now when it comes to the cooldown
There’s no way she can be a no skill hero, bro. Ana still needs to have good aim to be consistent - pretty sure you know that.
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Because Ana was so good before Moira was added right? Oh wait, she wasn’t. Its not like Moira getting nerfed will suddenly fix what made Ana bad.
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aiming with her is really the easiest part of her kit as long as she doesnt get denied by d.va or other barriers i mean the hitboxes for allies are so extremely forgiving
I think it’s really cool if you have an easy time aiming as Ana - I do too, but I had to practice a lot! I’m not really good at aiming, I had to become somewhat reliable at it, that’s why I say there’s no way Ana can become a no skill hero.
thats why i said “almost no skill hero” and also removing her reloading wouldnt fix any of the problems ana is facing right now
No. You wouldn’t. Short of nerfing Moira to being even more unviable than Ana, you won’t change anything by nerfing her.
The focus needs to be on making Ana reliable because there’s where she falls short. Ana’s heals are blocked by just about anything and everything from the enemy team to their obstacles to your own team. It’s a terrible design for the close quarters maps we have. Ana’s a sniper but she has to be 5 feet away or she’ll just get mowed down like anybody else, it’s terrible.
That, and the fact that her ult is one of the only support ults that can get absolutely NO value out of it. She needs the Symm treatment in that regards and she needs a secondary ult.
I don’t think they would ever remove her reload anyways, tbf.
I think it is very easy to code something that says “ignore barrier.” I mean, they coded it with Moira stuff, didn’t they? I am sure they can code it into projectiles.
I honestly don’t see the big need for passive self healing for Ana. I feel like the other healers that have that passive have less defenses than Ana does. Let me explain:
When you self heal as Ana, you typically do so while also healing your friends, or when you’re also attacking an enemy. It is rare that you will just throw the grenade at your own feet and that’s it. You will typically get attacked and use a nade to not only help yourself, but to also punish your attacker. With Ana, you produce offense through defense. Moira does a similar job but a lot better. She can also finish off targets that over extend by catching up to them.
I think reducing sleep dart cooldown and/or making the dart ever slow slightly bigger would do wonders for Ana. I think that might be all she needs. Hood sleep dart is sometimes all you need to win a fight. Making it slightly easier to land can push Ana into the meta again.
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Moira is so OP she has a lowest pickrate of any of the healers by the pros. Including Ana.
Moira being able to heal through enemy barriers is a bug (if I remember correctly)
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I’m sorry, but I call BS.
I looked at your stats and compared them to my very mediocre Ana stats and I beat you in every category (including aim and sleep dart by quite a bit) and I think Ana is friggin’ hard to play.
Yeah, but they still have to code it not to damage enemies after passing barriers and they didn’t do that with Moira, did they? xDDD haha
Agree with you there, but sometimes you are forced to give up on an excellent and clutch ability - the nade, that is. Also, heroes that have less defenses than Ana have mobility going on for them - Mercy, Lúcio, Moira. Zenyatta, who has no mobility, has a form of self-healing in energy barriers, so why not Ana? Zeny too produces a lot of offense. Even more than Ana.
I really like your points, though. And I think both our opinions would be great for Ana.
What I’d like to know is if you feel like Ana would be OP with both sleep dart cd reduction and a form of self-healing. Remember that the form of self-healing I proposed is based on her healing friendlies and it would be discreet over time.
I think Moira lacks a more useful ult.
Be careful, those could be deceiving xD
Seriously. I have lots of game with 50% accuracy as McCree that I produce no impact and some games with 30% that I absolutely destroy! XD
Ressource meter or not it is too much
I think you have a good idea, but I am wondering if it is “OP.” That’s my only concern.
Ana excels when she’s got big dudes around protecting her. She made the tank meta viable because of how easy it was for her to heal everyone. She could literally just spam into the group of tanks and would have hit someone. It was hard to miss.
If we gave her the ability to produce self heals from healing others, it would have to be very appropriately tuned. Too much % healing will make Ana feel invincible in a 6v6, and too little would feel unnoticeable-- especially in non-tankheavy setups, if that makes any sense?
I think if you really, really wanted her to have a self heal, then maybe a new skill would be cool where she sits down and “patches herself up.” LIke a channeled ability, but it requires her to first sit (maybe 1sec to perform this?) and then channel it in place, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. I think that would be fair.
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Yeah, I feel you. You’re absolutely right, perhaps a channeled ability would be the way to actually go.
But perhaps if it was a self-healing like Brigitte, it would be viable 
Since she wouldn’t be able to outheal the damage. Yeah, I think both ways are great, but your way might be more balanced.
I think that your point about healing tanks being too easy for her is a good one and that’s why I think a channeled ability would be more balanced.
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