Heroes of the Storm Ana

[Vlad 415]

This thread is for comments about our Ana build guide for Heroes of the Storm.

[KendricSwissh 66]

Hey guys, 

I'm glad to present to you the new Ana guide! Since the Hero is all new, I'll do further play testing over the next few days and adjust the guide accordingly. 

Feel free to share your own experiences in this thread! :)

[ArtVandelay 24]

She seems really weak to me.  Maybe if her ablilites were target based, but the straight line nature means you will miss a ton.  As an Uther main, even his W can miss an ally or two when they are moving.  Her skills are even more precise.  She is going to have serious issues against mobile assassins like Greymane and Genji.

[Guest Method]

After tweaking her build a few times i've been able to consistently get heals over 125k a match and late game counters her biggest weakness right now which is divers and not having enough range, follow this following build. Ultimately your aim and position is are the biggest keys as to whether or not you will succeed with this char but this build can help put you in a more advantageous position.

• Level 1 Piercing Darts - It's extremely key to get these stacks up as quick as possible as the 20 stacks gives you incredible healing range and piercing heals. The range on heals is so far that it puts any melee enemy and most enemy range that try to engage you into being out of position.
• Level 4 OverDose
• Level 7 Mind Numbing Agent but this whole tier can be adjusted based on comp accordingly
• Level 10 Eye of Horus
• Level 13 Speed Serum again though this tier can be adjust according to comp
• Level 16 Sharpshooter
• Level 20 Ballistic Advantage

[MurkyFelix 51]

Error in the description for Nano Boost ; it says it restores 0 mana.

Edited September 27, 2017 by MurkyFelix

[Valhalen 1,485]

8 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

She seems really weak to me.  Maybe if her ablilites were target based, but the straight line nature means you will miss a ton.  As an Uther main, even his W can miss an ally or two when they are moving.  Her skills are even more precise.  She is going to have serious issues against mobile assassins like Greymane and Genji.

I wouldn't say she is weak, by any means; she just has a very high learning curve and skill ceiling. If you're good with skillshots, you should perform great with her. Also, Healing Dart heals A LOT. I'd say she really shines in Dual Support compositions. Pair her with a AoE healer like Auriel or Stukov, lob that Biotic Grenade, and top your entire team.

Unrelated to this comment, does anyone know if damage-over-time breaks Sleep Dart?

[Guest LeChuck]

You have her synergizing with Arthas but I think he is quite possibly the worst hero to have on your team if you are Ana. He cancels out your sleeping darts with his frost aura. Pretty tough to lock a hero down when Arthas is just going to wake them right back up.

[Valhalen 1,485]

19 minutes ago, Guest LeChuck said:

You have her synergizing with Arthas but I think he is quite possibly the worst hero to have on your team if you are Ana. He cancels out your sleeping darts with his frost aura. Pretty tough to lock a hero down when Arthas is just going to wake them right back up.

That is true, but Ana should focus on using Sleep Dart on Heroes you want to isolate, not the ones the tank should be focusing. With enough communication, Arthas should be able stay away from sleeping targets.

[50m8r4 11]

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I wouldn't say she is weak, by any means; she just has a very high learning curve and skill ceiling. If you're good with skillshots, you should perform great with her. Also, Healing Dart heals A LOT. I'd say she really shines in Dual Support compositions. Pair her with a AoE healer like Auriel or Stukov, lob that Biotic Grenade, and top your entire team.

Unrelated to this comment, does anyone know if damage-over-time breaks Sleep Dart?

I played a lil of her in test mode in ptr, and I can say..  no, DoTs like shrike does not break it! :)

Edited September 27, 2017 by 50m8r4

[mctanaka 0]

Does anyone else get the feeling that Eye of Horus is "Awesome but impractical"? Or, at most, highly situational?

Of course, infinite range is always neat, but since Ana has no self-sustain or escapes, you will mostly use this skill from a protected position, as Abathur would, which means pretty far away from team fights. This means sacrificing supporting your team for the use of this ultimate, and I don't think it pays off. Also, it's VERY unnerving that once you activate it, there's no way to cancel it before depleting the 8 shots, so, even if you do see danger coming before hand (insert dramatic music), you will not be able to escape.

Besides, you will hardly have situations in which Ana and her teammates "sandwich" the enemy heroes, which means Eye of Horus will mainly be used for healing rather than dealing damage or even finishing off.

Of course it can also be used to kill stray enemy heroes, but after playing a few games, I feel its damage is just too low to accomplish this. And since Eye of Horus stops on any enemy wall, the stray hero almost always will have time to hide behind one, even after taking a few hits.

This could really shine if you have a Medivh scouting and revealing enemies for you, but, again, this means it is a highly situational skill.

Edited September 27, 2017 by mctanaka
I forgot to mention an importance hindrance for the skill, that is, that it can't be cancelled once you activate it.

[Guest tactless]

Been playing Ana nonstop and my takeaways are:

Level-1, Piercing Darts is my go-to talent, most of the time - I can reliably level the talent up (I struggle with grenade and stacks quests) and the benefits of leveling it completely change gameplay.

Eye of Horus is a great idea that isn't well executed in-game - unless you're feeling cheeky, Nano-boost is the best with a remarkably short cooldown and a solid pick for control-tanks or dps-mages. (and, see McTanaka's comment on Horus)

Healing Grenade untalented is for me almost exclusively a self-heal (alt-E style) or an offensive tool to drop onto a tank vs tank melee line.

----

Re: Level-1 - I might go Stacks/Ammo Box if we have really big tanks like Cho'gal, or go grenades if there's another support aoe healer on the team (eg, lucio). That said, the benefits of piercing darts is crazy powerful to me; sleep darts piercing means that you don't need to compromise your angle to get sleep darts off on key (non-tank) targets in team fights (and can double your quest completion rate to get the last 10 points), and healing darts piercing literally doubles your team-healing output. The range boost for both makes you actually function more like a sniper, staying farther back and (so long as they don't have crazy dive characters) far safer.

Re: Grenade - With such a small radius when the ability isn't talent-buffed, I don't want to waste it wiffing air, and with the 3 second time bonus I won't be able to get the multiple shots off I'd want to make it feel worth while (skill shots that I can, again, whiff, anyways). Sometimes if I want to heal others with it, i'll run myself up to a grouping and alt-cast it. Note that I somewhat favor the Grenade Group healing +30% power per ally healed for this reason, since it means if I can stand next to a friend when I heal myself I get more health back - effectively rewarding the support for staying with the team (something I'm doing anyways)

Edited September 28, 2017 by positiv2
Changed text colour for readability

[Guest method]

6 hours ago, mctanaka said:

Does anyone else get the feeling that Eye of Horus is "Awesome but impractical"? Or, at most, highly situational?

Of course, infinite range is always neat, but since Ana has no self-sustain or escapes, you will mostly use this skill from a protected position, as Abathur would, which means pretty far away from team fights. This means sacrificing supporting your team for the use of this ultimate, and I don't think it pays off. Also, it's VERY unnerving that once you activate it, there's no way to cancel it before depleting the 8 shots, so, even if you do see danger coming before hand (insert dramatic music), you will not be able to escape.

Besides, you will hardly have situations in which Ana and her teammates "sandwich" the enemy heroes, which means Eye of Horus will mainly be used for healing rather than dealing damage or even finishing off.

Of course it can also be used to kill stray enemy heroes, but after playing a few games, I feel its damage is just too low to accomplish this. And since Eye of Horus stops on any enemy wall, the stray hero almost always will have time to hide behind one, even after taking a few hits.

This could really shine if you have a Medivh scouting and revealing enemies for you, but, again, this means it is a highly situational skill.

I don't agree with that, the reload speed with eye of horus is much quicker and accurate then your normal heal, and once you get to level twenty and get splash heals/dmg you time your horus for A when the enemy team hard engages and B when you're out of position and need to heal someone who is solo laning and getting jumped. Also if you press for me it's three as I remapped my keys but I think it would be E  you get out of horus, you don't have to shoot all 8 shots.

[Erathis 53]

I've been playing with Eye of Horus a bit.  It's certainly not something you pop out in the middle of a team fight or while running away from a loss, it's very much a clean up tool in my experience.  After a hard fought battle with the enemy team running away you pick off the low health survivors while topping up your own team.  Any extra shots can be thrown at forts/keeps/towers.

The mechanics of the ability are also quite interesting.  It has a kind of "lock on" effect when shots hit even when they clearly shouldn't (it also seems to have a small amount of stickyness or aim assist going on).  It's not just a wider than visible hit box either because I've threaded shots between teammates before.  The handy dandy "scope" effect is pretty cool too, showing you who your shot will hit even if it's well outside your screen's vision.

Nano Boost is of course a much easier to use Ultimate but if you don't have a good target for that ability I don't really mind Eye of Horus as a back up Ultimate (if I could change anything it would be less shots but each shot being stronger).  Speaking of backups, I tend to find the Grenade build is a "backup" build for times when you can't safely auto attack enough for the Doses build.  The cooldown on Grenade is just too long for it to be my go to build even with taking the cooldown reduction talent on level 4.  That said, it's not a bad secondary build if the situation don't allow for you to safely auto attack.

[positiv2 955]

19 hours ago, MurkyFelix said:

Error in the description for Nano Boost ; it says it restores 0 mana.

Thanks! I passed this onto Damien.

[Valhalen 1,485]

On 27/09/2017 at 5:34 AM, Guest Method said:

After tweaking her build a few times i've been able to consistently get heals over 125k a match and late game counters her biggest weakness right now which is divers and not having enough range, follow this following build. Ultimately your aim and position is are the biggest keys as to whether or not you will succeed with this char but this build can help put you in a more advantageous position.

• Level 1 Piercing Darts - It's extremely key to get these stacks up as quick as possible as the 20 stacks gives you incredible healing range and piercing heals. The range on heals is so far that it puts any melee enemy and most enemy range that try to engage you into being out of position.
• Level 4 OverDose
• Level 7 Mind Numbing Agent but this whole tier can be adjusted based on comp accordingly
• Level 10 Eye of Horus
• Level 13 Speed Serum again though this tier can be adjust according to comp
• Level 16 Sharpshooter
• Level 20 Ballistic Advantage

Yeah, I think Piercing Darts is the best Level 1 talent, although Grenade Calibration is really good in dual healer comps. I run with this same build. It is really versatile.

I have a feeling that Blizzard will buff Ana a bit, though. She is underperforming due her lack of self-sustain and escape. Most divers can destroy her. She sits at the bottom of the Win Percent alongside Medivh, with low popularity. Sure, ok, it's been just few days since she was released, but still.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Valhalen

[mundofeliz 0]

The nature of this healer (skillshot based) makes her a very high risk high reward hero, but that high risk is SO DAMN HIGH. You have to focus so much on healing that you forget everything else about the game. Or you just play for fun and end up healing like 20k max in a 20 min game. 

I think a buff is needed.

Edit: I would't even care if they increased the time on the heal as long as they removed the skillshot thing, like, at least for the heals... TRACER LET ME HEAL YOU PLZ!!!!!1111

Edit 2: Ok the heal is good (around 40k) if you reaaaaaly practice your skillshots, but it's super situational, like, kelthuzad is easy to get stacks on but other heroes are hard obviously, you just have to see their patterns and focus the ones that stay still, It's actually good to practice agains AI because they move so weirdly sometimes, it's easier to get skillshots on actual ppl. that said, I think everyone should go for piercing darts, when you get enough stacks and decent with your shots it gives 100% more survivability because you can actually stay behind lines to heal and use your shots

Edited September 28, 2017 by mundofeliz

[mundofeliz 0]

19 hours ago, mctanaka said:

Does anyone else get the feeling that Eye of Horus is "Awesome but impractical"? Or, at most, highly situational?

Of course, infinite range is always neat, but since Ana has no self-sustain or escapes, you will mostly use this skill from a protected position, as Abathur would, which means pretty far away from team fights. This means sacrificing supporting your team for the use of this ultimate, and I don't think it pays off. Also, it's VERY unnerving that once you activate it, there's no way to cancel it before depleting the 8 shots, so, even if you do see danger coming before hand (insert dramatic music), you will not be able to escape.

Besides, you will hardly have situations in which Ana and her teammates "sandwich" the enemy heroes, which means Eye of Horus will mainly be used for healing rather than dealing damage or even finishing off.

Of course it can also be used to kill stray enemy heroes, but after playing a few games, I feel its damage is just too low to accomplish this. And since Eye of Horus stops on any enemy wall, the stray hero almost always will have time to hide behind one, even after taking a few hits.

This could really shine if you have a Medivh scouting and revealing enemies for you, but, again, this means it is a highly situational skill.

You can cancel it, there's like, 20 buttons to cancel, I cancel all the time. Maybe add a self heal for every shot? it would help her survivability and other ppl too. Especially when someone blocks all your shots xD

[KendricSwissh 66]

Hey guys! 

I did some further playtesting today and will apply a first update to the guide shortly! :) 

[Valhalen 1,485]

I've been playing around with a modified version of the Biotic Grenade Build posted here, and it is arguably her best build, in my opinion, allowing her to safely solo healing without many headaches. Grenade Calibration and Contact Healing are simply too good of talents, with an absurd synergy.

Also, after running tests with a friend, we've come to the conclusion that one of best Heroes in the game to be under the effects of Nano Boost is Malthael. Really, with this build, while using the aforementioned Biotic Grenade Build I've linked above, we have been literally carrying the team in every single team fight. The amount of sustain and damage is bonkers, especially at the late game Nano Infusion when comes becomes available. Just start the Team Fight, pop Nano Boost on him while he proceeds with Tormented Souls, wait for him to dive at the team, throw a Biotic Grenade and watch as everything melts and Malthael comes out unscathed. It's MADNESS. He simply CAN'T die.

[Plergoth 277]

One thing I've really enjoyed doing is using her heal to do the whole Chromie using Q on minions meme; along with many other abilities, it reveals the immediate area as it travels, even if it doesn't land on an ally and obviously can't hurt anything else. This is perfect for scouting frequently, checking camps and providing valuable long distance vision for your team for very low mana cost and synergies well with the sleeping dart quest at 1 as well. 

[Valhalen 1,485]

14 hours ago, Plergoth said:

One thing I've really enjoyed doing is using her heal to do the whole Chromie using Q on minions meme; along with many other abilities, it reveals the immediate area as it travels, even if it doesn't land on an ally and obviously can't hurt anything else. This is perfect for scouting frequently, checking camps and providing valuable long distance vision for your team for very low mana cost and synergies well with the sleeping dart quest at 1 as well. 

Wait, Healing Dart can reveal area? Because I am quite certain I tried to check bushes using it and it didn't work.

[Plergoth 277]

On 02/10/2017 at 12:05 PM, Valhalen said:

Wait, Healing Dart can reveal area? Because I am quite certain I tried to check bushes using it and it didn't work.

The window of time is very small but it definitely does grant vision if shot into bush and fog. 

[Valhalen 1,485]

47 minutes ago, Plergoth said:

The window of time is very small but it definitely does grant vision if shot into bush and fog. 

I tried this yesterday and it reveals the area indeed. Quite handy!

[onqun 0]

https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/ana#26.0!2322224

 

Guys what are you thinking about this build, Level 7,10,13 can be picked according to enemy composition. I wanted to increase the heal a lot. 

[positiv2 955]

On 27. 10. 2017 at 9:29 AM, onqun said:

https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/ana#26.0!2322224

 

Guys what are you thinking about this build, Level 7,10,13 can be picked according to enemy composition. I wanted to increase the heal a lot. 

If you were going for healing, why didn't you go for Air Strike at level 4? The reduced cooldown of Biotic Grenade provides a considerable amount of healing.