So for some reason the main preoccupation these days is Ana? People suddenly go to rent on the character “she’s op”, “nerf nade”, “no she’s fine”, “reduce damage on nade”, etc.
What happened? Did everyone suddenly wake up thinking this was our next battle: to nerf Ana?
You’ve been away for awhile now. Tanks have been complaining about Ana for years. Tanks were complaining harder in OW2 that tanking sucks since they cant’ mitigate the CC spam with another tank. They have to take it.
Ana was for some reason not nerfed going into OW2 for all of her powerful CC spam. Compared to literally every other single Legitimately, she is the de facto CC spammer left in the game after we nerfed sombra, cass, brig, and mei.
People have been arguing about her for years. This isn’t new.
People have been complaining about Ana for the majority of seven years. They’ve been complaining about her nonstop ever since OW2 came out with no changes to her potential to hard-counter a solo tank in a game where every tank is a solo tank.
Instead they just keep making tanks more and more broken so that they can survive being constantly slept and naded (because at this point there are very few games without ana) and it still isn’t enough to save tank from being a miserable, dying role.
It’s basically the community moving on to hate the next thing on the menu. If ana gets nerfed then we will move onto the next popular thing to hate and a bunch of bronzes will start making topics like “ThiS ChArAcTeR hAs RuInEd ThE gAmE SiNcE 2016” after watching one of their fav streamer complain about it.
She was designed in a world where 6v6 existed with two tanks, meaning Anti was usually way less oppressive when it was spread out across two tanks. But now as the sole tank, Anti pretty much just lives on you every 12 seconds unless you have a support that can counter the counter, such as Kiriko.
Aside from die hard Ana mains, this is mostly un-fun for everyone it effects.
It sucks for the Tank player, they have to go out of their way to choose a character that Bio-Grenade has the least impact on. It sucks as Support feeling like you HAVE to choose Ana, because Bio-Grenade is just too powerful. It sucks as the secondary Support player, because it also feels like you are throwing if you don’t pick a Hero that can counter Ana, such as Kiriko.
So, when all is said and done, you wind up having 3-6 people “Counting both teams” playing hero’s they likely don’t even want to play because of a single regular 12 second ability.
This isn’t even counting the fact that Sleep Dart exists, which can technically shut down an ultimate from across the map. This just makes her all the more valuable, with just her regular abilities.
Kinda, but I’ve been saying it would be a problem in 5v5 for 4 years.
Now just happens to have an excess of Support players, and Mauga/Hog that is only kept in check by AntiNade.
It’s been due for a change for years, but conditions weren’t quite right yet for it.
Ana has been the daily special for at least 5 years. 
for some reason? this reason was balanced the game around hardcounterplay. instead nerf ana on ow2 release… they created kiriko suzu to counterplay nade. xd
literally
i got slept, naded, hooked and earthshattered in the course of 2 seconds a single time and ive hated her ever since
Ana has pretty much always been a solid pick in almost every meta. She might not be the best support to play but she always had good value and the "top support players " almost always liked her. With enough skill Ana is always good. For what ever reason Ana has basically always avoided the major nerfs or reworks that hit every other support hero these days.
Sleep dart remained in the game even when nearly every other form of CC was removed. Anti nade basically remains the only form of anti heal in the game as JQ ult is kind or risky to use on a group, and is well an ult.
Other than that she’s a long range sniper able to do good dmg or healing without having to pick her ammo type. Fast projectiles or hitscan, her choice. Add to all that with OW2 and the support passive her inability to heal herself without wasting a nade was basically removed as well.
Sure she lacks mobility, though even that isn’t as bad as it used to be with hero’s like Lifeweaver and such being able to help teammates more than ever.
If you really want to freak about balance changes think of Brigitte. She got nerfed for about 2 years straight because of 50hp of shield. They nerfed almost every thing but her SB, and then the SB years later.
Well, given our extremely poor list of support choices in OW1 the strongest picks were literally Ana and Baptiste. Baptise completely replaced Moira. There is very little reason to run Mercy when Ana or Baptiste exist.
Mercy competes more for the same kind of space as a Lucio, Zen, and Brigitte. These are usually been the niche heroes to run for their utility. Lucio is the rush hero. Brigitte is the bunker and general anti-dive hero. Zenyatta fell a bit out of favor since he ahs to compete so much with the other three (Mercy, Lucio, Brig).
Ana has usually been the perfect support. Potential high impact. The better you get with aim, the more impact you have. Fun to play. There are weaknesses to abuse and you see amny floundering Ana players. High usable in almost any meta composition for ladder.
It wouldn’t be until Kiriko where we finally had a support that could rival Ana’s incredibly strong generalist approach and be usable on like every team well without much efficiency loss.
Illari/Bap still suffer enough weaknesses you do not use them in dive at all.
But, she was and nearly always has been? There was barely any Meta without Ana and i can literally think of none she wasnt a solid pick in.
“Generalist” is a bit of an understatement, especially in Ana’s case. More like “Jack of all trades, master of all”.
Ana’s weaknesses are a lack of mobility… and that’s about it. She has good damage, high HPS, great dueling potential, the longest CC in the game, excellent range, one of the most impactful and versatile support cooldowns in the game, and a good ultimate.
Unless your team composition has very specific utility needs, there’s basically no reason not to pick Ana.
You must be new or you took a huge siesta.
Ana and specifically nade and it’s utility has been complained about for years.
Ana is very frequently slotted out for better specialists. She is very much not a master of all.
And if you read the entire post I quite clearly said she was always a strong pick and a favorite of top players? Not really sure why you quote me like that.
There were meta’s where she wasn’t the best, but given we had two supports on every team she was at least a solid second pick in most of them. About the only time she really wasn’t that useful was the height of Dive meta’s due to her lack of mobility. Only the top ana players could land their shots enough to not die all the time.
Fiest it was switch to a sniper to counter Ana, then switch to an off Tank to counter Ana, now it’s pick Kiriko to counter Ana. Ana is never the problem though.
Right now Ana is the only character keeping Mauga from rolling over everyone. 