Sniper Grandma - A Quick Look at Ana's Resurgence
It looks like Ana's finally making her way back in the meta, but what are the factors that caused her sudden rise in popularity?
Ever since the death of the beyblade meta (where Ana and Reaper were key players), Ana has quickly become irrelevant. Not only did Nano Boost lose its movement speed buff, the entire meta shifting towards dive-centered compositions rendered her almost useless in most situations. Even after the dive meta started dying down a bit, she was still outclassed by a reworked Mercy and the addition of Moira and Brigitte did her no favors. So why is she suddenly one of the most picked healers come Season 12?
Slight Tweaks
Recently, Ana's received a couple of slight tweaks that helped put her in a better spot than before. First of all, her Biotic Rifle was changed to have an ammo count of 14 instead of 10. This gives her more chances to heal before having to reload, and it makes missed shots slightly more forgiving in that you now have four more extra darts (that hopefully connect).
Along with that, her darts now also pierce through allies with full HP. At first, it was a divisive change that caused the community to be unsure of whether or not to call it a nerf or a buff. On one hand, it's a welcome QOL change that lets her play a little more aggressively and follow her team around without having to worry about her shots being blocked by tanks or just allies in general. On the other hand, it removed her ability to "pre-heal", which lets her healing effect kick in right before her target actually starts receiving damage. One case where this pre-healing mechanic would be useful is when she's about to nano an engaging Genji. After activating her ult, she can quickly shoot Genji, resulting in around 50 HP worth of healing assuming that he immediately takes damage after dashing in.
Personally, I'd say that these were both positive changes and they were a step in the right direction towards making her a more viable pick overall. If you ask me, pre-healing can also be seen as a waste of ammo, especially considering her already limited shots. Losing that didn't really hurt her healing output too much, if at all.
Now let's move on to her ultimate, which was buffed a few months after her Biotic Rifle was tweaked.
Nano Boost
For the longest time (after the movement speed boost was removed from it), Nano Boost has been one of the weaker support ults in the game. It was mostly just used offensively, and Ana players usually saved it solely to combo with someone like Genji or Reinhardt. In one of the recent patches, it was buffed to have a longer range and also instantly heal 300 HP, suddenly making it more than just a temporary buff that may or may not even end up being useful. With her improved Nano Boost, she can now go for clutch heals that can easily turn the tides of a teamfight. Even before this buff, she already had burst healing (and anti-heal) in the form of her nade. Now, her entire kit pretty much lets her make all kinds of clutch plays.
OTHER SUPPORT HEROES
At the same time her Nano Boost was buffed, every support hero also received a few balance changes. Of all the changes in that patch, Mercy's nerf may be one of the main reasons for Ana's sudden resurgence. Her healing per second was reduced from 60 to 50. While it may seem small, it makes it harder for her targets to stay alive if they're playing carelessly or being focused on. To put it into perspective, she can no longer outheal Winston's damage, making it easier for him to finish off low HP enemies even with a Mercy pocketing them.
Conclusion
Even with her buffs, it still takes a lot of mechanical skill to effectively play Ana, which is why her pick rate drops as the ranks go down. The complete opposite could be said for Mercy, who for the longest time has been a "must pick" regardless of what rank you're in. Now, she's in line with the rest, and Ana finally gets to shine after months of obscurity in the ladder.
In general, all of the support heroes are in a good place right now, which is something that hasn't happened in a long while. As of writing this, every healer is still perfectly viable, depending on the team comps they're picked in and against. Only time will tell if Blizzard will roll out another patch that'll change this. For now, let's just enjoy the newfound diversity in support picks brought by these recent changes.
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