So… Ana grenade with Mauga

General Discussion
1

Look, I’m not a tank player at all by any means. I main support. Maybe this is a hot take, maybe it isn’t. I don’t post here often at all whatsoever, but I need to just know why Ana’s anti-nade is still a thing.

The “optimal” support meta will be: Ana & Kiriko. Why? I’ve started playing OW again to see how Mauga plays and how he works. The amount of cause and effect a simple press of a button to lob an overpowered anti-nade at Mauga is night and day.

He just… dude, he just FALLS over with one grenade if he’s out of place by even a fraction, OR, if you don’t have a Kiriko literally saving every suzu pot on him. Now, the same can be said for anyone else, or any other tank sure, but Mauga I feel has no actual way of shaking off the anti-nade. Does his charge do anything about it? Does his other ability with that “aura” thing do anything about it?

Maybe I’m viewing this wrong? I’m sure comments will tell me that I’m so wrong it isn’t even funny, but it takes no joy in seeing my tank go from 100% health, get hit with 1 single nade, and he just… drops. And I mean he just drops like a fly.

I’ve been “forced” to go Kiriko because of this more times than I ever have this current weekend, and it’s uncomfortable. I know Ana’s grenade is always a topic to discuss. I’ve been playing this game for a very, very long time. I’ve never actually liked it for what it does, personally.

It’s just now, you see it EVERYWHERE. Counters are fine and necessary, but due to my observations, this is just disgusting how the new tank can just get walloped by a single grenade without anything to do about it, unless you have a Kiriko always pocketing you.

Thoughts? Concerns?

Edit: I’m not saying Mauga is bad by any means. He’s a fun character. It’s just, yet again, this anti-nade stuff is getting old dude. Most of my matches this weekend were either mirror matches with supports, and/or Ana’s have multiplied ten-fold.

26 Likes
2

Blizzard doesn’t trash popular Heroes like Ana, only unpopular ones like Roadhog.

Because popular Hero = big money.

Blizzard always goes the way that profits them the most money-wise.

So they change stuff nobody asks for and hope it will work out.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

17 Likes
3

If Mauga does become meta, we’ll definitely see an uptick of Ana/Kiriko with him, but as it stands, he has a pretty clear-cut weakness in poke/spam damage, so I’m unsure where he’ll land meta-wise, especially since Sigma is still a very strong poke tank. Of course, since he’s new, you see a ton of him on both sides, so he’ll have an inflated pickrate for some time.

4

But won’t it be even more money if Mauga isn’t dumpstered?

5

Don’t know, can’t really tell.

Only thing I know is that Ana is a very popular Hero.

6

It’s just been kinda crazy how often I feel obligated to play Kiriko this weekend.

I know that you see Mauga everywhere because of the trial period, but it won’t change that he drops like a fly with one single grenade if you aren’t preemptive, or have a Kiriko pocket.

2 Likes
7

As a tank player I just hope this finally forces Blizzard to address Ana, she’s the worst aspect of 5v5 tanking and supporting, just a complete nuisance with a broken spine who makes her existence YOUR problem. Gtfo here, grandma. So sick of your face.

12 Likes
8

Mauga works well with dps/supports that can peel for him weirdly. So like Mei/Symmetra/ Lifeweaver/Ana/Kiriko.

9

Every time a new tank character is released, you immediately notice how inefficient they are in comparison to/up against Ana. Her nade literally requires you to not play any healing reliant tanks (i.e. anyone with out a shield or defense matrix) or you’ll just lose. That is unless you have a Kiriko. So every game its just Ana/Kiriko to stomp out non-shield tanks/self-healers and then you start to see the same switches every game.

I genuinely hope, that they delete cleanse and Anti from the game. If they don’t, every new release will be immediately snuffed out by anti, which then forces a Kiri into the game. It’s not fun, delete it.

5 Likes
10

That or make it like a stupid long cooldown, 25 seconds or smth, so Ana either turns her brain on for the first time in 6 years and gets ONE good impactful nade, or her team doesn’t get to benefit from nade that fight at all

The fact that the longest ranged, safest positioned support hero can mindlessly shut down the largest target on the field with only TWO abilities, nearly freaking cycling them back and forth, is the most garbage system in this video game.

5 Likes
11

Between him being available this weekend and the recent nerfs to Illari and LW, I went back to Ana and just started to learn how to play Kiriko. There’s really no reason to play anyone else now since they made a bunch of other supports not fun to play. Grenading him was the only way I could feel useful as a support this weekend.

12

Yup, the entire game is warped around whether or not someone picks Ana, as she can force a swap for about half of the tank roster.

6 Likes
13

Choosing picks like Ana to shutdown sustain and Kiriko to clear debuffs is the core of moba-likes. You build a comp to maximize your strengths and reduce your weaknesses. It seems like some people want every hero to be able to do everything and be successful in all comps and all maps. That’s ridiculous - that’s call of duty or halo.

1 Like
14

Ana is popular because she caters to the “pew pew sniperz 360 no scopez” crowd and has the most, single handed, broken, bloated kit, in all of Overwatch as it stands.

You can sit and move numbers around on her primary fire all day until you drop dead of exhaustion, but until you change how nade works against enemies, it makes 0 difference. You’re wasting time and resources. Fix nade, you fix Ana.

I just don’t understand how people cannot see the cooreleation between Kiriko/Ana the same way Brig/Tracer. You have one “popular” hero that runs everyone over, and instead of fixing them, you release a “counter” to them. So instead, it just becomes an even bigger snowballing problem. Is it because Kiriko released with OW2 and not the paid game so there’s just too many cooks and not enough stew?

Tracer/Brig and Ana/Kiriko are the same. No, there is no difference in the mindset behind them.

4 Likes
15

My last 3 matches, again, I was “forced” to play Kiriko. I’m a type of player that WILL switch when necessary. This weekend I’ve played Kiriko more than I’m comfortable with.

My very last match before I took a break, I was on the Mauga The. Entire. Match. as the enemy team had an Ana. I do not say this often at all whatsoever because I hate sounding egotistical, but if I didn’t switch to Kiriko and keep my healing consistent on him, alongside every single suzu except for like, one toss, we would have lost. Kiriko seems like a requirement with Mauga because of anti-nade. It’s ridiculous.

On the flip side, the synergy is oddly enjoyable, although. But, I don’t think it outweighs how Mauga just doesn’t have a counter, but instead a DIRECT “cause-and-effect” counter, as you’d just lose if you don’t have all the correct heroes at play, (this being at least a Kiriko that knows what they’re doing, and she NEEDS to prioritize Mauga with her suzus or he just falls over very very easily).

3 Likes
16

It reminds me of how OW1 Rein pretty much needed a Zarya off-tank to be playable.

Anyway, I agree with your post. I started playing comp again recently for the first time in years and I have heard way too many people asking for Kiriko swaps because the anti-nade is just so oppressive. It was no different with Mauga. It quickly became clear to me that that if he didn’t have a Kiri / Bap pocket he was going to fold like laundry.

While synergies are cool, it becomes way less fun when it feels like a synergy is a must-pick, and in Mauga’s case, I feel like Kiri is a must-pick.

They NEED to nerf anti-nade. And not by increasing its cooldown to something ridiculous like 20+ seconds. Just make it like a 50%-ish healing reduction. Save full anti-heal debuffs for ultimates imo.

I’ve never liked anti-nade either, but in OW1 it didn’t annoy me as much because tank duos meant that someone could just go dva or zarya to cleanse / eat the nades. And for most of my time in OW2, it didn’t really bother me because I spend most of my time in QP, so the nades don’t feel as oppressive (they usually miss lol). But in comp, you definitely feel it.

TL;DR - NERF GRANNY.

6 Likes
17

What are you on about??? It’s in blizzards control who is fun or not fun???.

18

I’ve thought up these Ana changes to address the last normal ability hard CC a non-tank has, and to address the potency of Anti-Nade (definitely should not effect a 30 hp/s normal ability and Zenyatta’s 300 hp/s ult the same, so -100% Anti needs reduced):

Ana

Biotic Rifle

  • Recovery reduced from 0.8 to 0.78 seconds (87.5 to 89.74 DPS/HPS)
  • Ammo reduced from 15 to 14

Sleep Dart

  • Ability removed

NEW! Debility Dart

  • Does 10 damage
  • Reduces damage dealt from the effected enemy by -40%
  • Reduces movement speed of effected enemy by -40%
  • Duration of 4 seconds
  • Cooldown of 11 seconds

Biotic Grenade

  • Anti-heal on enemies reduced from -100% to -50%
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Damage and healing increased from 60 to 75
  • Area of effect increased from 4 to 5 meters
  • Ally health threshold to pass through allies reduced from full health to greater than 80% health
2 Likes
19

Nade exists so supports have a chance to counter tanks, and people are supposed to swap heroes throughout the match. Mauga should swap as soon as Ana is in play, then pick something strong against the comp they now know about. It’s supposed to be a strategic back and forth.

I think people forget that swapping is a necessary, expected mechanic with its own layer of strategy. Is swapping worth losing ult charge? Maybe. That’s a built-in mechanic that’s part of the macro game. People can’t just refuse to engage with it and still complain about getting countered.

1 Like
20

Ana being popular is one thing, but it is somewhat interesting that she’s gotten very little shop skins in ow2.
I was honestly expecting more for knowing she was one of the most popular ones.

2 Likes