Actually, Ana was playable in season 1 (3months) of competitive. She hadn’t been out for very long at this point so i think people were still learning her, but she still got played abit.
Season 2 (3 months) was beyblade - a meta built around Ana’s speed boost on nano.
Season 3 (3months) was triple tank - a meta built around the insane healing output of Ana.
Season 4 (3 months) still had Ana as the most picked support, I think the meta was beginning to change to Dive, but triple tank was still going strong.
Season 5 (3 months) was Dive - Ana started dropping out of favour, but she still saw alot of play. Lucio, Zen, and Mercy were stronger in Dive that Ana though.
Season 6 (2 months) - was Moth
Season 7 (2 months) - was Moth
Season 8 (2 months) - was Dive
Season 9 (2 months) - was Dive
Season 10 (2 months) - was Grav-dragon
season 11 (2 months) - was Grav-dragon
Season 12 (2 months) - Ana was the most picked support
Season 13 (2 months) - Ana was the most picked support
Season 14 (2 months) - GOATS - Ana is still a very relevant pick in GOATS
Season 15 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Season 16 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Season 17 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Season 18 (2 months) - Double barrier, Moira and Lucio are the meta supports
Season 19 (2 months) - Double barrier, Moira/Bap and Lucio are the meta supports
Season 20 (2 months) - Bap/Ana and Lucio are the meta picks
Season 21 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Season 22 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Season 23 (2 months) - Ana is the most picked support
Ana has been a dominant pick on ladder for abit over 2 years, and a top pick for just under 2.5 years.
You could 100% say that for the majority of the games life, she has been a dominant pick.
The problem is not Anas pickrate… the problem is that Brig got nearly the same pickrate like Ana (and that only in GM) in a Meta that favored her and got completly destroyed after 4 weeks, while Ana is a S-Tier pick for over a year by now.
Trust me… if you play Tank Ana is not fun to play against… her sleep and nade are waaaaay to strong against you and dont require any skill to hit you because of your massiv hitbox.
There’s always going to be six heroes better than others, it’d just be healthier if those heroes were the high-skill cap ones. You shouldn’t be able to climb several ranks just because you onetricked a low-skill high-impact hero.
I didn’t say that. I’ve always said that low-skill heroes are fine, it’s just that the higher up you go, the harder it should be to get those low-skill heroes to get the same amount of value as a higher-skill hero. This way it incentivises people to actually get better at the game instead of getting boosted to high ranks just because they onetricked the easy meta hero. Inversely, skill doesn’t provide an excuse for a hero to be exceedingly good. Just look at Widow, a high skill hero that is extremely oppressive in skilled hands.
Moira GOATS was the first GOATS comp, Ana GOATS beat Moira GOATS, Zen GOATS beat Ana GOATS. Zen GOATS worked best in mirror GOATS comps, where Ana GOATs worked best against non-GOATs or Moira GOATs.
So yes Ana was a good pick in GOATS and this was reflected in pick rates.
By and large I don’t really think Pickrate should have as much weight as it does on Dev’s decisions. That said a "Must pick Hero’ is never a great way to run a game. Especially with the fact only one person can pick her… what is the other support supposed to play?
Zen goats beats Moira goats more than Ana goats does.
Moira goats beats nonGoats more than Ana goats does.
We have evidence of both from World cup and OWL. Ana goats was a flash in the pan around the time of the WC, with all the notable teams that used it switching off, and Moira goats was more or less reserved for screwing over attempts to counter with DPS heavy comps in the opening of some rounds, mostly on KotH.
Her pickrates mirrored that of DPS. It wasn’t goats. Like, you really think you can easily get 6 people to not play DPS?
And that says all you need to know. Notice how Brig, one of the defining features of goats, isn’t even top 3? Ladder really doesn’t play goats all that much, and if you’re going to fight goats without mirroring, you’re going to need Ana’s range.
You have to add up all the DPS. Use of any one of them almost always means it’s not goats, which then means you probably need Ana to glue the trash comp together. Sombra is an exception, but Sombra is rare on ladder to begin with.
These points don’t justify one character ruling the roost. All characters should be more or less equally viable otherwise there are design problems at hand. Will they ever be equal? No. OTOH, we don’t just sit back and ignore the fact of the matter either that shows a constant go-to problem.
None of that changes the point of the post - Ana has been a dominant pick on ladder for 27 months ( a bit over 2 years) that doesn’t include season 14 (where pickrates show GOATS being fairly dominant in high ladder).
And 29 months (just under 2.5 years) of being a top pick, when you include season 14.
That is the majority of the games lifespan - which was the original claim that the post I replied to was denying.
Are you sure it has nothing to do with the fact that burst heal on nano means that sometimes Ana player will use it to save her tank which was the intended goal of this buff as stated by the devs instead of saving it for blade everytime?
Imo what many people don’t understand is that the main “skill” argument for ana comes in from the fact that you can mess up your healing and abilities resulting in hindering your own teammates. No other support can actually mess up their healing to an extent that it hinders their teammates except maybe bap if he is trying to heal someone at a much longer range. Like yes Zen is harder to play but his team abilities aren’t that hard to apply. Meaning you can place the orbs and then just care about surviving and doing damage, none of this is hindering any of your allies. You can miss a tonne of shots with Zen but none of them will affect your teammates in any way
Your free to disagree
I play zen and bap and I can say Ana is alil harder than both rn. Zen struggles at survival is not a skill or something that makes zen harder. He is just bad. Bap has it so much easier than ana in terms of healing and his gun is just as difficult as soldier which I personally dont find hard. Bap has the cooldown management skill going on for him but even then ana also has that imo.
I can see why people think she’s fun, she’s a shooting focused healer in an FPS. And while I’d like to see actual evidence of it, if she really is the most popular healer then sure, she should be on top so long as she isnt dominating.
Though I still think people severely overestimate how hard it is to land those shots with forgiving hitboxes, especially when you focus on healing tanks, which is literally what most people choose Ana for.
it’s not gonna stop unless it’s mercy at the top, trust me. Alot of them disguise this motive this by supporting Zen and bap when they never even have played them even once